Hi all,

Is it possible to modify a Mazzer Kony and make it doserless? Is there a kit from Mazzer to do this? Or?

Or, even better, is there a high end conical grinder that is doserless? I know the Elektra Nino is, but it requires 220, right? Is there a grinder that has conical burrs and is doserless for a home setting?

As always, thank you all in advance,

Steve

I believe there are Kony and Robur E (doserless) models. My two cents though is to be careful what you wish for.

another_jim wrote:I believe there are Kony and Robur E (doserless) models. My two cents though is to be careful what you wish for.

Thanks for the reply, I have no desire to buy the "E" electronic models, just a simple doserless, conical burr grinder.

Please explain what you mean by: "be careful what you wish for".

Thanks,

Steve

Jim prefers flapping about like a monkey with St. Vitus Dance to standing still like a village idiot.

I have a doserless and doser model. Neither is perfect. Both make great espresso. If forced to choose, I prefer the serenity of the doserless to the infernal noise of the doser.

It's relatively trivial to remove a doser and fashion a funnel or snout if one is at all handy.

You can also buy a doserless conversion kit from espressoparts.com to convert a standard Mazzer to doserless. Kind of pricey for a stainless steel funnel and the associated parts, but much cheaper than buying the electronic Kony or similar doserless electronic grinder.

http://www.espressoparts.com/MAZ_CHUTE

Patience, this is a little round about ...

I just spent some time at the "302" espresso course beta test, given at the Coffee Fest Chicago by Ellie Matuszek, formerly an Intelly Barista and USBC champ, now the training director for the SCAA (who are finally getting some major talent into their training programs). This is a very promising course that passes on the latest techniques in shot tuning, for instance, as found in Scott Rao's excellent book, to working baristas. The knock on both Scott's book and the gyrations us home baristas go through is that while they may work in a lab, at home, or for competition, they cannot work in a commercial setting. This course is going to prove that wrong

But to tune shots, you need to change dose and grind setting. The course featured the Mahlkoenig K30 WBC grinders. These grind 15 grams in roughly 3 seconds, or 5 grams per second. They are adjustable to the nearest 1/10th second ....

Obviously, they turned out to be somewhat useless for accurate dosing (the minimum 1/10th second adjustment = roughly 1/2 gram change). Therefore, the barista prepping the shot had to weigh doses and gradually zero in with time and grind setting changes to the new level the class was requesting after tasting the previous shot.

In short, 1/10th second timer based grinders with fast grind times are quite hard to tune in, requiring finicky grind and dose changes. Doing this once in the morning for each grinder's single coffee will work. But on the fly, for multiple coffees, timer grinders cannot replace weighing the dose. Therefore their advantage over doser grinders disappears except for Ian' contrast between button pushing versus thwacking.

It is time for a grinder where you can set the dose to the nearest 1/10th gram. That is the only certain method to let shops duplicate the best espresso making practices done in competition or homes. Until then, we are just arguing about which lame dosing method we hate least.

another_jim wrote:Until then, we are just arguing about which lame dosing method we hate least.

Amen

another_jim wrote: It is time for a grinder where you can set the dose to the nearest 1/10th gram.

I think it has been the time for a while, unfortunately, I will not hold my breath for seeing such a grinder in the near future. Although, if a K30 repeatedly grinds at a rate of 5 grams per second, then enhancing the timer to hundredths of a second could accomplish this tomorrow with ease. I just don't think any grinder can accurately do so based on the myriad of other factors (bean density, precise feeding, bean column weight, etc).

So a grinder with a portafilter lock-in device that will weigh the portafilter, then tare to zero and fill it, by weight, to 1/10g is that what is wanted? Since many of us are buying $1000-1600 grinders anyway should not be too hard a task for Mazzer or Malkhonig.
KDM

duke-one wrote:Since many of us are buying $1000-1600 grinders anyway should not be too hard a task for Mazzer or Malkhonig.

If every cafe owner was demanding this, it would have already happened. However, the "many of us [who] are buying $1000-$1600 grinders" is barely a drop in the bucket overall. Mazzer isn't going to invest the R&D money to sell a couple dozen grinders a year.