Which one should i get? I am leaning toward the K10...or should i go for the robur? I've read through the Titan Project but still not sure...arghh haha


help


cheers

The Compak offers more bang for your buck. If money is not an issue (or the size of the grinder), how about the new doserless Robur?

Br,
Teme

Hey guys,

I turned up to work today to find that there was a Compak K10 WBC on the bench. This was kind of cool, as I love to play around with different grinders. One of my co-workers bought one to play around with it. Take this for what it's worth - one shift worth of experience.

Good points:
*Fast
*Grind quality seems pretty good
*Spike in the middle of the doser helps to prevent ground coffee buildup on centre of dosing mechanism (in comparison with mazzer)
*Apparently the doser lever can be switched to be left or right handed

Good and bad:

*The doser doesn't fling much coffee over the left-hand edge of the basket, but grounds pile up on the left-hand side of the basket.
*Good visibility into the doser, but the thing looks half-built with the doser lid off (the WBC prototype has a new lid setup).

Bad:
*Looks and feels a bit insubstantial; in particular, the transparent plastic looks like it would be prone to cracking. For example, some folk around here like to thwack their portafilter on top of the dosing chamber - it looks to me like that would shatter the Compak dosing chamber.
*Exit chute from burrs holds a fair bit of coffee. I had to make sure that I purged it before making each shot if it wasn't full of coffee that had been ground right before making the shot - if I didn't, my shots flowed faster.
*Portafilter fork is terrible; it is plastic, so you can't rap your PF against it to settle the coffee as you dose and it collects grounds in such a way that it smears them all over the bottom of your portafilter. (Again, the WBC prototype has a metal fork - hopefully this will be made available to retrofit).
*Grinds tray sits in the foot of the grinder, which extends out in front. Some coffee spills over the sides, although it is much wider than the tray in the domestic models. It just strikes me that grinders are a lot easier to keep clean if they have a separate tray - this is especially the case for me, as I have my knockbox cut into the table, so I can put my grinder directly over it.
*Spring in doser lever felt weaker than the mazzer spring.
*Grind size indicator is on doser lid. This is a tiny issue, but I thought I'd mention it seeing as a few others did the same thing that I did; namely to remove the doser lid to get a better look into the doser, then to wonder whether the collar needed to be turned the same way as a mazzer and have to fish out the doser lid to check.

Overall, I think that it delivers a lot for your money, but the exit chute issue is probably not trivial if you are using it at home. Doser-wise, the Compak is supposed to sweep cleaner, but the Roburs that I have used seemed to be on par with this K10. The K10 has a straighter drop than the Robur. I also remember the Robur doser being higher, which I find to make it easier/more pleasant to use.

Remember that to some extent, you can make a lot of useful modifications to many grinders. Pretty much anything will sweep cleaner if you're prepared to fit some electrical tape to the sweepers. Mazzers can have a deflector plate mounted on the screws for the built-in tamper so that they drop straight down (this is particularly good on the Kony/Robur/Royal because there is a bit more room between the PF fork and the doser). You can perform a gagillion modifications to make a stepped grinder stepless (eg. BNZ, Anfim). I can't really think of a feasible mod for fixing the K10 exit chute, but maybe some clever soul has already done it.

Hope that helps,

Luca

Teme wrote:how about the new doserless Robur?

Hey, now it starts to look interesting ... how do I now make room for it beneath that kitchen cupboard... sigh

Kim

With a saw

hey luca. thanks for the detailed review. greatly appreciated.

anyone get prices on the new electronic robur and kony?

The K10 they sent for WBC testing Vancouver was pretty similar though your comments about the fork being plastic is very confusing as I've only seen metal forks.

For the new model they've changed the doser lid so it doesn't wrap around the body of the grinder and just sits on top (so less confusing grind adjustment).

As for exit chute mod - I've been thinking about this for a bit. The problem with this grinder, and many others is that the ground coffee is pushed out of the burr chambers and is almost moving sideways so tends to build up on the right hand side of the chute. If you modded it so the inside of the chute on the right narrowed from front to back so there was no flat wall to coffee to build up against. I am probably not making sense and haven't got time to sketch out what I mean. Should be pretty easy to test, if I can find something to make the little block out of.

Compak are on the cusp of making some exceptional grinders, and I hope they keep listening to the barista community because I think they could produce something satisfying in the next couple of years.

King Seven wrote:As for exit chute mod ...

Maybe you should take a look at this:
http://www.home-barista.com/grinders/mazzer-robur-modification-port-exit-chute-t4679.html

Anfim

Hi All,

The plot thickens.

We just bought half a dozen new mazzers at work and there seem to have been some changes to the dosered Robur. First, there is now a blade above the conical burr set. Our speculation is that it is really there to chop up beans that might otherwise stick in the throat of the grinder, rather than to contribute to grind quality. Personally, I have never really seen beans stick in the throat of a Robur, but, then again, I don't use Roburs that much. I guess that maybe some really dark roasted and greasy maragogypes might get stuck and the extra blade might solve that problem. Second, and perhaps more importantly, when pulling the doser lever at the usual speed, the coffee drops straight down into the portafilter. If you pull relatively slowly, there is a small amount of left shoot. If you pull insanely quickly, the coffee seems to bounce against the inside wall of the dosing chute and a tiny bit actually shoots right!

Cheers,

Luca

Just in case someone googles up this thread, it would be worthwhile having a look at this related thread:

Compak K-10 grinder, availability, opinions?

Cheers,

Luca

JV wrote:Which one should i get? I am leaning toward the K10...or should i go for the robur? I've read through the Titan Project but still not sure...arghh haha


help

Hmmm . . . after reading through the Titan Grinder Project, I was thinking K10 or Cimbali Max Hybrid . . . and not the Robur.

Anfim....

malachi wrote:Anfim....

Would you care to elaborate? I've read reports on coffeed and CoffeeGeek extolling the wonderful no-fuss distribution of the Amfin, but not much else.

Dose consistency.
Minimized heat issues as compared to the Robur or especially the K10.
Great doser.
Minimal waste.

Of course... this is all from a commercial perspective - where the issues around heat and consistency of dose are huge (and where small amounts of waste multiplied hundreds or thousands of times each day equal real money).

malachi wrote:Great doser.

I know you were a fan of the doser on the Cimbali Junior -- how would you compare it against the Anfim's? In terms of clean-sweeping/waste, distribution, etc. I would've guessed that the stepped adjustment on the Anfim's would be a deal-breaker for you...

Rather than starting a new thread for a minor question, I thought I might as well bump a relevant thread from the grave...

I'm kind of curious to know if the extra grind speed of the Robur makes it less practical for home use than the K10 WBC. The K10 runs at 300rpm, and the 60Hz Robur runs at 500rpm, so there must be a fairly substantial difference, right? I find the K10 pretty damn fast, and it seems just right for reasonably consistent dosing. I'd probably want to look into a timer for the Robur if it really is almost twice as fast.

Side note: Espresso Parts' price on the 110V Robur just shot up to $3,053.75, almost 40% more than their previous price of $2,229.18. No price increases at other retailers yet, or on other Robur models at EP. I've e-mailed them to see if it's a mistake. Hopefully not a sign of things to come with the weaker US dollar...

I agree with Jon. The K10 runs around 6 seconds, and the Robur around 4 for a double. After the initial shock, its just real pleasant to have a fast grinder.

However, given the larger burr chambers and larger everything else, you will always waste more coffee with these grinders than with something smaller. This is more a symbolic annoyance than a real financial ding, I doubt it comes to 0.5% of my coffee budget.