Grinder options for multiple brew methods.

[Lovey]

Thanks John,
I don't have a good enough palate for an accurate 'side by side' test, but I've found the taste in the cup to be very good so far.

[WakeUp]

Yes, congrats and happy brewing Lovey.

[JohnA]

congrats on the purchase. How do you find the results in the cup vs the Eureka?

[Lovey]

G'day all, to add a bit of 'closure' to this thread, after hours of research, watching videos and asking questions, I decided on a Mahlkonig X54. I nearly went for the Fiorenzato/San Remo All ground, but the lack of a physical button to activate it put me off. I know, first world problems .
So far the X54 has been great. It's nearly (but not quite) as quiet as the Eureka Atom it replaced.
Speical thanks to WakeUp JohnA and yochiya for their help with my specific grinder questions, I really appreciate your time.
Steve

[level3ninja]

That's not to say you can't get an enjoyable brew from it, just trying to answer your question. It will all be tunable by your brewing to some degree. For pourover I'd expect it to work better with a longer draw down time (for lighter roasts at least). Something like a Clever Dripper would probably work better than straight percolation like a V60.

[WakeUp]

I don't doubt what you say is correct level3ninja - as I say, I'm not that familiar with filter coffee science. But also, I don't claim to have got the best yet out of the grinder. It may come to nothing, but I probably need to spend more time with it.

[level3ninja]

Just by eye and anecdotally by my experience, that PSD spread looks a bit wider than I'd expect for filter. Makes me think it's a traditional espresso burr that's grinding coarser than designed.

[WakeUp]

Well, I've finally had the chance to take out my favourite moka pot and my French press to experiment with the All Ground a bit. But before getting into that, I'm happy to be able to say that I am thrillled with the espresso grinding capability, which is excellent.
Moka first. I made a brew using my preferred method which is different to the generally accepted method of filling the basket with grinds and filling the chamber up to the safety valve - I actually weigh the coffee and measure the water, for consistency... you know! For this, I started with the setting in the centre of the Moka range on the collar. The coffee was good and drinkable, although not the best I've made in this pot. Definitely room for improvement and the amount of adjustment left on each side of the setting gave me the confidence to know that I would be able to get the grind just where I want it with a bit more fine tuning.
Not long after, I made my wife and daughter coffee with the plunger. Once again, I started in the centre, this time in the Filter range. I sampled the brew and it seemed just ok to me. The fam drank it but if it had been for me, I'd have tried to brew again. Although my beans are medium dark roast, there was more bitterness there than I expected, so I think there may have been too many fines in the grind. I checked the used coffee and the grinds seemed to be very consistently sized, but obviouslysome of the fines would possibly not be left behind to witness. So I ground again and photographed the results on 5mm grid paper (attached) - it looked generally even although there are some random, odd sizes in the mix. I'd like to hear your thoughts as to whether this is normal with filter specific grinders as filter coffee is the type I drink least and therefore have limited experience or knowledge compared to many of you. Once again however, there was still plenty of range left in the adjustment collar, so I'll experiment some more with this tomorrow. For that matter, I'll do do the same with the Moka pot.

[Lovey]

That's great news, thanks for the heads up.

[WakeUp]

Hi Lovey. My All Ground will be back with me in a few days after having the modification to improve grind fineness - give me few more days after that and I'll be able to comment on the grinder's ability to cover the range of espresso through to filter coffees. Cheers.

[Kjarsheim]

Good thinking really, a second grinder is a very good option IMHO, and having a third - even better, LMFAO...(this is my current scenario, #2 & #3 live in the garage) with a handful of hand grinders mainly for travel use.

[Lovey]

2 grinders minimum is the way, this website isn't called coffeeoccasionalists : p

LOL, quote of the century 🤣🤣🤣

[Lovey]

Thanks for your thoughts Tronn. The majority of my present coffee consumption is espresso (upwards of 80%), with the remainder being other styles (plunger/cold brew, etc). I often make 'back to back' espresso drinks, so I think that a single dosing grinder would get on my nerves very quickly and I would be looking for a hopper based grinder.

[Blues1143]

2 grinders minimum is the way, this website isn't called coffeeoccasionalists : p

[Lovey]

In relation to my Atom, I wouldn't say that I'm not wrapped with it. It does what I ask of it for espresso grinding and I think it does a good job of it.
The only reason I'm looking to change is that I'm looking to 'expand my coffee horizons' and I don't have the room to have multiple electric grinders taking up space on the bench, so I'm looking for a more 'all round' grinder.

To be fair, I think the Atom would do decent job of grinding for different brew methods, but the limiting factor is having to turn the adjustment knob many, many times to get into filter/plunger territory and not having a quick reference point to move back to in the espresso territory. Yes, the knob is numbered but I would have to remember how many times I turned the knob and the memory isn't that good any more (I hope that made sense).
I understand that there may be compromises at either end of the scale, but I can live with that for the convenience factor.