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Upgrade: Smart Grinder Pro to Eureka Atom Specialty 65

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  • Upgrade: Smart Grinder Pro to Eureka Atom Specialty 65

    Hi CS'ers,

    Firstly thanks for such an informative and generally positive forum! I've done a lot of searching, reading and learning here and many of your posts have benefited me greatly.

    I'm coming up to a year into a COVID-lockdown inspired coffee journey at home, prior there was zero coffee at home. No point having coffee if it wasn't great.
    I was a cafe-only fiend, near every client I had a favorite cafe to get great coffee from no matter the town/city.

    A few days into lockdown last year I realised I was having massive caffeine withdrawal headaches and needed to do something, fast.
    After an hour or so of research, I dived into buying a Breville Dual Boiler and Smart Grinder Pro expecting to only use for a few months.

    After what was a very steep learning curve, I was loving life trying different beans, doing bean swaps with friends interstate from local roastaries, refining my workflow and skills and was generally pretty happy until I borrowed a friends Eureka Specialita for a couple of weeks.
    It quickly became evident I needed to upgrade the Smart Grinder Pro for a few reasons:

    Noise and speed - Could probably live with one or the other, but not slow (17+ sec) and loud together.
    Grind consistency - Fines that block some holes the basket most shots that don't wash out easily were annoying when grinding 18g for 40g out in 30 sec. Possibly fixed with a different basket?
    Clumping - it seems regardless of beans or grind setting it turns out some 4-5mm boulders with each grind. Even with grind distribution channeling was common.
    Cleaning - I might be borderline OCD, but cleaning the burrs and grind chamber properly seems almost impossible and there's a strange felt o-ring that lives under the bottom burr that already needed replacing and they're $20 each?! ?
    Retention - It seems to hold several grams of coffee that would fall out into the grind tray whenever it was moved.

    I'm not here bashing it, for the price it's given me some very good coffee and there's a lot I like about the design/ergonomics of the Smart Grinder Pro that other manufacturers could learn from, and but not so much about its ability to grind coffee:

    Use of magnets to retain the portafilter holder and grind tray is great and will be missed.
    The tinted hopper and the particularly the sealed lid.
    The screen interface, especially that it shows current grind setting for different types of coffee.

    I'd done countless hours of research and watched every youtube review considering many grinders: Eureka Specialita, Eureka XL (when available), Eureka Atom 65, Eureka Helios 65 (when/if available) Mazzer Super Jolly, DIP DKS-65 to finally come up with a decision:

    Yesterday, it was out with the old and in with the new, the Eureka Atom Specialty 65:

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    Setup in it's place with the 'blow up' installed to help manage grind retention - not sure how effective it will be with beans in the hopper:


    Click image for larger version  Name:	20210429_120607.jpg Views:	0 Size:	191.5 ** ID:	864829

    After a dozen or so shots last night and today, apart from being very well caffeinated, I'm seriously pleased with the choice of the Atom.

    It feels incredibly well built.
    It's very quiet, carrying on a conversation while grinding is no longer impossible.
    It's fairly fast, still dialing in and experimenting with the blow up but currently 9 seconds gives 18.6 grams - I've read it may get faster over time?
    Retention is easily managed with the 'blow up'.
    Grinds are fluffy and almost clump free.
    The grind path LED 'spotlight' is a really nice touch.
    Fines appear to be less of an issue, reduced amount getting stuck in the basket holes.
    There appears to be more crema produced from the same recipe/batch of beans with the Atom.

    Perhaps most importantly, the taste is unquestionably improved.

    Currently using a dosing ring on the stock breville basket which gets very full with 18g, but they form a nice easily distributed mound.
    I'll be looking into and ordering IMS/Pullman etc. baskets I think.

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    My latte art skills still leave a lot to be desired! ?

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    The Dual Boiler seems to be holding its own for now, I'm certain an upgrade to a prettier machine will be coming at some point in the future though.


    Click image for larger version  Name:	20210429_120708.jpg Views:	0 Size:	232.5 ** ID:	864827


    If you lasted this long, thanks for reading!

  • #2
    Awesome, enthusiastic post. Welcome down the rabbit hole.

    Comment


    • #3
      Congrats on the upgrade. I upgraded from a Smart Grinder Pro to an Atom as well a few months ago (Atom 75 in my case) and it's definitely a massive improvement.

      Take care with the Blow Up system, I remember reading a review that said using it actually pushes grounds into the bottom of the grinder over circuit boards etc. I usually just purge a few grams each morning, or when changing grind-size. Beyond that you shouldn't really need to, unless you're single dosing.

      Comment


      • RMX
        RMX commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks for the heads up, it makes sense that coffee could well end up being blown into places in the electronics or motor where I probably don't want it.
        I'll keep and eye out when I pull it apart in a couple of weeks.

    • #4
      I am looking at upgrading my coffee making gear, will be coming from an old Delonghi auto, so expecting a big improvement.
      Originally was just looking at the Eureka Mignon Specialita, But have widened my search to the Atom 60 & 65, as well as a couple of others.
      RMX, you say you tried your friends Specialita, and was impressed, but went for the Atom 65 instead. Could I ask why you decided to spend the extra , and do you think the extra cost was worth it ?

      Comment


      • Ironwoodbrad
        Ironwoodbrad commented
        Editing a comment
        I see the Mignon XL is for sale in Australia now, so that’s an extra machine in the mix.

    • #5

      There's little question I'd have been very happy with the Specialita, but there's a few reasons I went for the Atom 65:

      Materials/Build quality - The Specialita has a lot more plastic in its construction, and the plastic 'chrome' on the front of the Specialita feels cheap. The Atom certainly feels better built.

      Over engineering - Where it makes sense, I'm a big fan of overengineering. The Specialita is a aimed at home use and the Atom is closer to commercial being related to the Zenith/Olympus.

      Burr size (vs. price) - I was looking at the Mignon XL that's coming, but strangely it's going to be the same price as the Atom 65 sells for with slightly cheaper materials/build quality. That makes the Atom 65 seem like a bargain.

      I also value the shot counter and grinding path light, neither of which the Specialita/XL has.

      And lastly, I'm currently lusting pretty hard over the Eagle One Prima. The grinder Victoria Arduino have paired with the Prima that appears in almost every image is a re-badged Atom 65 and they look great together:


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      Worth it? I'm happy with my choice.
      The bigger burrs generate less heat that should make for better coffee. But could I blind taste test the difference? Unlikely at this point.
      The build quality and how it looks? I appreciate every time I use it.

      Comment


      • Ironwoodbrad
        Ironwoodbrad commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks for your thoughts. Low retention is high on my list, from the reviews that I have currently seen, the XL comes out on top of the Atom 65, mainly due to the lower retention rate, which is high on my checklist.
        So far it looks like my choice is coming down to the Mignons, either the Specialita or the XL. It seems the 55mm will do the job, but the 65mm might stave off the upgradisis for longer.

    • #6
      Just got my Oro XL few days ago. It’s amazing! 21g in 7 seconds! Prior, I was torn between Atom 75 & the 65 Oro XL. But with a lot of research, I went with the Oro XL. If you get the hang of it, dosing is perfect, no mess! Glad I waited quite a bit for it to be out. Can’t be happier!

      Comment

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