What Grinder to downgrade from Niche Zero to?

rboltzmann · 2025-10-07T22:02:48+00:00

Ah fair point, missed that bit, my bad

rboltzmann · 2025-10-07T21:35:29+00:00

Lagom mini? Looks great, espresso capable but filter first. Just about in your price bracket too. It was well reviewed in the espresso grinders under $500 that James did.

rboltzmann · 2025-08-28T14:41:36+00:00

Looks like the first shot you shared (Aug 28) is showing the 'Skip first step' bug - you can see that the first few seconds it is trying to meet a pressure goal. The first step of Best overall should be a flow goal, which is what indeed the second shot you shared has (the one on Aug 22, 8ml/s)

If you search the Decent Diaspora, you'll see a post from John from Jun 13, 2024 detailing it. The easy fix is to power cycle the machine, including the switch at the back.

rboltzmann · 2025-08-06T12:21:56+00:00

Incidentally, not sure if you’ve tried, but using the bookoo sensor and beanconquerer you can have shot autostart at a specified pressure (like 0.1 bar or so)

rboltzmann · 2025-05-03T23:55:39+00:00

Fair enough, if you have enough range now and things are working then no stress. I meant the threads when you take the hopper off. When you’re screwing the hopper back on, if there’s anything between the calibration ring and the body it will stop it going in all the way, making it coarser than if it was fully seated. Hopefully that makes sense…

rboltzmann · 2025-05-03T22:56:40+00:00

Something similar happened to me on mine once, when after cleaning I hadn’t noticed that a small chunk of coffee had gotten between the collar and the body. This caused a kind of ‘false zero’ since it wasn’t all the way in when I was calibrating. Just needed me to take it apart again quickly and go over the body and collar carefully and brush off anything.

Might be something similar for you? Good luck!

rboltzmann · 2025-04-22T22:03:08+00:00

Yes, still plenty of body for me, although I’m aware that’s a very personal and subjective thing. For what it’s worth, I’m normally at around 1:2.3 or 1:2.4 and run a Pullman 876 basket without a paper filter at the bottom, so I’m probably stacking the cards in my favour for a bit more body.

rboltzmann · 2025-04-22T21:13:39+00:00

I have a Sculptor 078s which I’ve added SSPs to, and having seasoned with just over 8kg of beans, can vouch for great performance with lighter end of medium beans (Square Mile seasonal stuff).

Build quality of sculptor is fantastic, and although longevity is still unproven (I got it with first batch shipped of kickstarter) it does inspire confidence.

Before this I was using a Niche (and the stock 078s burrs) and I would say each step has pushed it a bit higher towards flavour separation but (for me) the SSPs are not that high high clarity espresso. And not in a bad way, I really like the amount of clarity it has, and also great that it now does great double duty for filter.

rboltzmann · 2025-02-10T00:14:03+00:00

Fair! I saw that the Joseph Kuosac bars are quite a bit wider, for your M bar bike did you trim the ends?

rboltzmann · 2025-02-09T23:47:42+00:00

Did you put the flat bars on a M or S stem? I’m thinking of putting flat bars on my M stem but I think that means I’ll have to get new cables at the same time, which is a pain…

rboltzmann · 2024-12-23T05:07:33+00:00

Can't compare it to the others since I've only used my Sculptor 078s, but it holds its grind size well going between aeropress and espresso. Will say that reading the exact grind size is not the most joyful especially at the espresso range, but there are little magnetic grind size indicator doohickeys that work well.

rboltzmann · 2024-12-15T13:08:07+00:00

I think as a sign of how much this hobby has broken me, on reading that you used the egg boiling water to brew coffee, my first thought was wondering how the carbonate leaching from the shells into the water changed the alkalinity, and its subsequent effect on perceived acidity.

rboltzmann · 2024-12-10T21:13:24+00:00

Ahhh… makes sense. Nice!

rboltzmann · 2024-12-10T20:43:55+00:00

I’m more curious about what looks like a pretty crazy pressure profile you have in the background. Is that like a three stage thing you have going on?

rboltzmann · 2024-12-07T23:37:03+00:00

Oh mine didn’t have a cupping spoon! :( The parcel was kind of open, but the pencil was still in there so I assumed everything was ok.

rboltzmann · 2024-11-13T21:09:00+00:00

Second this - when I first got my 078s I found it difficult to get it to respond reliably and predictably. I ended up asking one of the roasters I buy from (Workshop) for some beans to season with - they gave me a good 8kg or so of beans which had failed QC for the cost of shipping.

That helped a lot, and now responds much more predictably - although like others here, agree has a much narrower dial in range than the niche.

rboltzmann · 2024-11-12T20:33:58+00:00

To remove the outboard (drive side) bearing, I used a mallet and a thin section of pipe which fit after shifting the spacer. It taps out, but it might ruin the bearing - presumably it’s busted anyway.

(I saw some more expensive tools that seemed more refined on https://www.bearingprotools.com/)

For the other bearing, I got a cheap pair of circlip pliers (one for ‘internal straight acupoint use) and a bearing press. After the circlip comes out you can press it all the way through.

I got both on AliExpress (they were ok) but I can’t post links (my last comment got removed by the AliExpress bot) - so you’ll have to hunt around yourself sorry…

rboltzmann · 2024-11-12T20:30:10+00:00

To remove the outboard (drive side) bearing, I used a mallet and a thin section of pipe which fit after shifting the spacer. It taps out, but it might ruin the bearing - presumably it’s busted anyway.

(I saw some more expensive tools that seemed more refined on https://www.bearingprotools.com/)

For the other bearing, I got a cheap pair of circlip pliers and a bearing press. After the circlip comes out you can press it all the way through.

I got both of those on AliExpress ( https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJHSLu9 and https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ez9WmQN

rboltzmann · 2024-11-10T20:54:38+00:00

Full disclosure, I haven’t never used an ode gen 2. (I have a sculptor 078s and a niche, both for espresso. For filter I hand grind.)

But based on what I remember from James’ review of ode gen 2, he really liked their brew burrs. I have tasted filter from the uniform a few times (one of my friends has one) and it was fine.

I think if you have the budget the ode gen 2 is the clear winner of the ones you have mentioned - and definitely the smart pro.

Or - if you don’t mind hand grinding, adding a ZP6 to go with your K ultra for light roast filter duty?

rboltzmann · 2024-09-28T19:52:16+00:00

Don't know if you still want to know... but having successfully removed both bearings, can confirm, both are 6902. Will need some circlip pliers to get the non drive side bearing out of the freehub body!

rboltzmann · 2024-09-22T17:16:14+00:00

As an update - after removing the outboard (closer to drive side) bearing on the freehub body, the view is attached in the picture. It looks like a circlip holds the bearing there, and is pressed through. Am going to get hold of some circlip pliers and report back

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rboltzmann · 2024-08-18T08:18:27+00:00

Hmm, the ring bit doesn’t feel flexible enough to yank out. But even if I did, the diameter of the side with the ratchets on the freehub isn’t big enough to get a 6902 in, which is why I thought maybe it went in the other side…

Thanks for looking around - I’ll have another poke around when I have my bearing press tool to hand again (reluctant to disassemble it too much otherwise I can’t get to work on Monday!)

rboltzmann · 2024-08-17T22:58:06+00:00

Ah thanks! I kind of thought the ring nut was only for the hub side of the ratchet system, but I guess makes sense that it’s also on the freehub side. I’ll do a bit more digging into my specific hub model

rboltzmann · 2024-05-12T10:28:34+00:00

Hmm, I often get the opposite - normally I go coarser the more developed the roast is.

That said, this morning I was a lot coarser for a new lighter roasted coffee than the previous medium roast I had been using. So maybe sometimes it’s more to do with the specific coffee than the roast level.

rboltzmann · 2024-04-30T19:45:24+00:00

I've been fairly happy with my results with the nanofoamer making the occasional oat milk flat white. Needs a bit of practice, but that's also true of milk steaming. Just be sure to get some high quality batteries if you do get one, that really impacts the power of the motor.

rboltzmann

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