I'm looking for a really good burr grinder strictly for french press coffee. I've always used a blade grinder and decided I want to upgrade to something that will give me more even and consistent grinds. I've pretty much got it narrowed down to these three, the KitchenAid Proline, Rancilio Rocky, and Baratza Virtuoso. I'm primarily concerned with:

1: first and foremost, consistent coarse grind for french press (no dust)
2: Build quality (something that will last)
3: well thought out design (easy to use, clean, ect...)

I understand the Rocky is probably the highest quality of the three, but I read that it is better for medium to fine grinds, and may not even be as good as the other two for course grinding.

If you have any experience with any of these three for FP please share! Thanks

Rocky is over priced, the pro line is a good idea gone wrong [ I had two ]

Baratza Preciso

Ian, do you think the Preciso is worth the extra cash for French Press compared with the lower priced Baratza grinders?

yup

orphanespresso wrote:the best press grind we have seen in a long time from a modestly priced unit, showing an extreme lack of fines on the coarse end and through the range.

from Baratza Vario performance for single dosing vs. full hopper

cafeIKE wrote:Rocky is over priced, the pro line is a good idea gone wrong [ I had two ]

Baratza Preciso

What exactly was wrong with the pro line? Did they stop working?

Baratza for me too.

As for the Kitchenaid I tend to avoid coffee equipment that you see in homewares and department stores being sold alongside toasters and vacuum cleaners.

nwin wrote:What exactly was wrong with the pro line? Did they stop working?

I owned one of the more recent versions for several years & it never gave me any problems. It did a decent job in the press pot range but the grinder did have some design issues.

For the same money I'd recommend taking a look at the Breville BCG800XL Smart Grinder. Lists for $199 but you can buy them for $160 using a 20% off coupon offered by several retailers. I picked one up to use as a travel grinder back in March. I found it to be a surprisingly good brew grinder & an equally bad espresso grinder which is why I returned it within the 30 day exchange period. In the syphon/drip range I thought it was as good as if not better then the B. Vario I previously owned. It definitely had better build quality and offered lots of useful features not found on any other grinders in that price range. The lower burr height is set(calibrated) using a shim stack so you can adjust the grinding range finer or coarser by adding or removing shims. If you were only going to use it for press pot set it up on the coarse side & then fine tune using the grind selector knob. Breville offers a free shim kit but since the current version comes shimmed towards the espresso side you'd probably only have to remove an existing shim if you wanted to grind coarser then the external adjuster allowed.

John, so you thought the Breville's coarse grind was as consistent, or more consistent than the Baratza's? It does look like a very nice grinder with some interesting features.

Regarding the KitchenAid, I don't see why anyone would disregard just because its sold it department stores, but if it has major design flaws that's another story. I was primarily going to the Coffee Geek reviews, where the KA was ranked a little higher than the Virtuoso despite the fact that it was no good for espresso. That led me to believe it must be pretty darn good for FP and drip.

The Vario costs quite a bit more than I wanted to spend, but if the grind is REALLY that much better than the other mentioned options, I might splurge for it.

IMO if you are just looking for a brew grinder you are wasting your money buying the Vario over the Breville or Preciso. My suggestion would be to pick up the Breville for $160 from Bed, Bath & Beyond or one of their other retailers & try it out. Breville offers a 30 day return policy if you aren't happy & BB&B has a liberal return policy as do several other stores that sell the grinder.

nwin wrote:What exactly was wrong with the pro line? Did they stop working?

The burr quality, on the two units owned, is far below Macap, Mazzer, et al.
The grinder burr mounting system allows the burrs to wobble, resulting in inconsistent grind.
The slow rotating, vertical burr design is compromised by excessive grind retention.
At espresso settings, large clumps of stale coffee drop out at random.
At press and drip settings, excessive fines result in a muddy cup.
A major disappointment as I loved the retro design.