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98mm Ultra Grinder
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I think some people set it to reverse for a second after it ramps up or something, really clears everything out apparently
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Ah, I got the speed range from the Alternate Brewing site.
Yep, it is solid.... if it ever fails it will make a great boat anchor! Not sure about the other bits since production has ended.... but I can get a replacement servo for around $1,000 and if it ever needed burrs - $800
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sure takes up a fair chunk of bench real estate, but looks very solid.
Just one quick correction with your orignal post on the RPM range of the P100 which according to the user guide is 200 - 1700
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Yes, I think it was to facilitate RPM profiling.... but other than to set a grind speed for say 10 seconds and then maximum speed for a couple (to remove any remaining grounds) I can't see how (or why) you would use it.
As I heard on one review... it is a solution looking for a problem!
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I believe the servo was used to facilitate RPM profiling. Not that a servo is the only or even best way to do that in a grinder, but that's what was said if I'm remembering correctly.
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Lyrebird
It has a 2500 points per rotation Japanese encoder built in and is designed for robotic control and CNC applications (I have found the specs)
Also a 15 wire control cable between the servo and the controller (as well as the power cable) means it's a little more than a 3 phase induction motor!
A grinder using absolute positioning? Dunno why it would but....
Looks like a servo to me
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Looks like a three phase motor with a speed control, not actually a servo motor. Since the absolute position of the rotating burr is immaterial in a grinder there is no reason to use a servo motor.Originally posted by JavaB View Postbasically, a well engineered grinder head sitting atop a servo motor. The servo motor is an industrial unit rated at 2Kw… or around 2.5HP –massive in size.
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tompoland
It is definitely a function over form grinder.... and does what it says "on the box" extremely well. Just a pity the box is so damn big!
The WAF (wife approval factor) of this piece of kit is below zero but it is perfect if you can ignore that.
I forgot to mention that 18g of grinds are so fluffy they almost overtop the portafilter with dosing ring.... and there is no clumping either.
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Wow that is one serious piece of grinder kit! See what you mean about the super-brick! Makes all other bricks look like match boxes. Have to say I'm in awe of it.
Aptly named!
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98mm Ultra Grinder
….. or the grinder that might have been.
History
When previewed on HB, this grinder had lots of interest and many pre-ordered. Now it is effectively dead, so what happened?
The grinder was originally designed and manufactured by an engineer in China by the name of Zhang. Several innovative ideas were incorporated and it caught the eye of the Levercraft group who partnered with Zhang making a few minor modifications to their version. The grinder was well promoted on HB and orders flowed in. A few units made it out of captivity – both the Zhang original version as well as the Levercraft. Levercraft became concerned by the thrust the bottom burr carrier placed on the servo motor…. A concern Zhang didn’t share.
Before long sale of the grinder via Levercraft ceased and all pre order funds were returned. Was this caused by differences in engineering philosophy? Or was Covid the reason or a contributing factor? Or maybe something else.
It has become almost impossible to contact Zhang and get any answers re supply. One person who succeeded was told end of next year for delivery…. So effectively grinder production has ceased ☹
Review (there are so few out there!)
I recently purchased the Zhang version of the Ultra from a member here on CoffeeSnobs. I’ve long been intrigued by large burr coffee grinders and explored the supply of the Monolith Max… but delivery is way out. Similarly, I was interested in the P100 but as the Ultra became available….
It is a very solid unit weighing around 18 KG….. basically, a well engineered grinder head sitting atop a servo motor. The servo motor is an industrial unit rated at 2Kw… or around 2.5HP –massive in size. The Max has a 200 Watt motor (which is claimed to be 2000W due to gearing – but gearing increases Torque not HP!) and the P100 claims 1300 Watts – again thanks to gearing. The Ultra uses a direct drive to the burrs so what you see is what you get! Whereas a demo of the Niche Duo shows grinding of green beans to prove the power of the motor… this thing could grind the branches (but I’m not going to try)!
The servo motor is very, very quiet, even quiet when grinding beans.
The downside of using a servo motor of this size (other than the weight) is it uses an industrial motor and the connectors on the rear (2) are huge. The cables running to them are also relatively inflexible and large. The elephant in the room however is the power supply servo driver… it is massive. Many people don’t like a power brick on their counter well this is many times over that size. It also has a third cable running to a small control box where the grinder is switched on and speed is set.
Speed range of the Ultra is 100 – 2500 RPM. The Max has a range of 22-400 RPM and the P100 is 700-1500 RPM. The Ultra also has speed profiling… why?
Now to the “business end”
As mentioned above it uses 98mm flat burrs but these are blind burrs. The only other readily available grinder using blind burrs I’m aware of is the EG-1 and that has 80mm burrs. I’ve read that blind burrs have 30% more grinding surface compared to conventional burrs (and less places for retention). The burrs in the Ultra are SSP HU and there are others are available if you have deep pockets. Blind burrs cost around $A800. Ordinary 98mm burrs are around $A600 – so experimenting with 98mm burrs is very expensive!
The grinder is fast… at 600RPM it takes around 6 seconds for 18g
The grinder has minimal retention – a quick flick of the chute cover, pump of the bellows and this is zero.
The bellows are combined with a dosing cup – you can place the beans in the “cup”, start the grinder and when you press down on the bellows you can introduce the beans either slowly or all at once depending how far you press down on the bellows (rubber fingers at the bottom hold the beans and also prevent popcorning). A very effective solution. The only downside is it holds a maximum of around 20g – but as the grinder is designed for espresso (portafilter fork without any dosing cup etc) this isn’t a “biggie”.
Alignment is a doddle with no need to access the burrs or to mark them, reassemble the grinder, test, re open, shim - then rinse and repeat until you get it correct. Shims are used under the mounting points external to the grinder. If interested there is a good video on YouTube showing the procedure better than I can explain here.
Workflow with the grinder is good with virtually no errant grinds, retention is close to zero and now for the important bit… the taste of the espresso.
With a medium roasted Ethiopian blend body is good and the taste is excellent – clean and clear. The interesting thing is that even with significant dialling in errors the espresso is very good – with pours less than 18 seconds for 36g from 18g to over 40 seconds – there is no sourness or excessive bitterness. I suspect this is more the function of the SSP 98mm burrs as the same observation was made re the Max and I suspect it will be with the P100. Grind size is finer than I expected… probably due to the lack of fines from the HU. Higher speed may increase the quantity of fines (yet to be tested)
Many of the innovative ideas could/should be used in other grinders… and no doubt they will be…. just hope for a less industrial servo/driver and less total footprint… as it is, few spouses would be happy!
It could have been a great grinder – pity it is no more. It might be possible to purchase a used item.




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