Grinder with most infinite adjustment for espresso?

[Satchmo]

I am wanting to make a decision soon on a new purchase and am looking at the Mazzer Mini, Mcap4 Stepless, and La Cimbali Junior grinder.
Sorry if I have missed this, but I have done a lot of reading and have not understood.
Which of these three will give the closest tweak in grind to adjust your espresso shots with out loosing out on other qualities or features. Also, I get the impression that the Mazzer ring is difficult to adjust compared to the MACAP and I should not consider the La Cimbali if I am going to go from espresso to a coarse grind for a drip machine which would probably not happen.

I read Dan's article and it was very good, but I am having a difficult time in choosing between these three and am looking for help. I suppose I just need someone to tell which they would buy. This, I am sure has been asked numerous times.

HELP!

Thanks,

Jon

[AndyS]

Also, I get the impression that the Mazzer ring is difficult to adjust compared to the MACAP and I should not consider the La Cimbali if I am going to go from espresso to a coarse grind for a drip machine which would probably not happen.

Which infinite adjustment is the most infinite? Hmm...an interesting question.

Yes, the Mazzer rings are a little hard to adjust, but they are still 'sufficiently infinite' for all the pro and amateur baristas that I've met!

[jesawdy]

Also, I get the impression that the Mazzer ring is difficult to adjust compared to the MACAP and I should not consider the La Cimbali if I am going to go from espresso to a coarse grind for a drip machine which would probably not happen.

Jon-

Your title "Grinder with most infinite adjustment for espresso?" suggests to me you want to know what grinder has the least burr thread pitch thereby increasing the usable espresso range. I don't know the answer but I suspect someone might.

As to ease of adjustment, the Mazzer is no problem. The adjustment collar has a "Start Here" sticker for the factory tested espresso setting and you can make adjustments to either side of that setting and use it as a reference. There are markings on the metal collar to help out and an indicator arrow on the grinder body. Making wide changes in grind settings for other brew methods is very easy. Turning the collar about 180 dgrees coarser puts you in French Press territory.

While I have not used the Macap, there is no "start here" sticker and pictures of the collar indicate it is somewhat hard to read. I know folks add their own stickers or paint dots on the collar etc. to help them to return to a particular setting. Like the Cimbali, the grind setting is changed via a worm screw, so wide changes require lots of thumbscrew turning.

The Cimbali has a numbered setting ring that shows through a view window in the front. For the most part, the usable espresso range is about 3 to 5 (or thereabouts). There are four detents or clicks between numbers when you turn the adjustment knob and you can stop between detents. French press is at about 19-20, and while not nearly as simple as adjusting the Mazzer collar, it can be done, and return again with the numbered indicator ring.

With any of these grinders, if I did a lot of other brew methods, I'd prefer to have a second grinder. Grinding for a press pot is best done when you can run the grinder empty so that you are adjusting back to espresso territory with the motor running and an empty hopper. While I never do this with a full hopper, I suspect the Mazzer would be best since the grind setting can be adjusted more quickly.

[narc]

Jon, have been using a MazzerMini for a few years and recently received a MACAP M5 (Thanks H-B.com & Vanelis) with the stepless grind adjustment. Both allow easy real fine changes in grind level. MACAP maybe a little easier with its wormdrive system. The Mazzer is pure manual allowing you to make larger changes quickly. MACAP would take many spins of the wormdrive knob to move from espresso to press or drip. I think you could remove the worm drive and just grab the ring a rotate. But without the lever/rod found on the Mazzer that may be difficult. I would pretty much consider them equal in grind quality. The MACAP requires one more step to take apart to clean. The MACAP doser level feels more fluid than the Mazzer.

[cafeIKE]

NEVER use the same grinder for espresso and drip unless you plan to run several, as in 10, 20, 30, grams of coffee to flush the old.
A Capresso / Maestro / ? make fine drip grinders.

The Mini is a two handed PITA to adjust.
The Macap M4, one handed while blindfolded.
Ditto the Junior.

That being said, spend the two extra Cs and get the Cimbali Max Hybrid.
The improvement in taste clarity is worth it. AND it needs less adjusting

[EricC]

The Versalab M3 Grinder has the most infinite adjustment for espresso due to the pitch of the thread on the adjusting funnel of the Versalab M3 Grinder.

See here : versalab-m3-grinder-t408.html

Mazzer's burr carrier thread pitch is 1.5 mm. M3's is 0.79 mm.

So the M3's adjustment range is "stretched out" compared with that of the Mazzer.

Regards
Eric

[zin1953]

NEVER use the same grinder for espresso and drip unless you plan to run several, as in 10, 20, 30, grams of coffee to flush the old.
A Capresso / Maestro / ? make fine drip grinders.

The Mini is a two handed PITA to adjust.
The Macap M4, one handed while blindfolded.
Ditto the Junior.

That being said, spend the two extra Cs and get the Cimbali Max Hybrid.
The improvement in taste clarity is worth it. AND it needs less adjusting

Agreed! On all counts!

[cannonfodder]

While the adjustment on the Cimbali line (at least the Jr, Jr hybrid and Max) have half rotation clicks, the adjustment is so small it is nothing to worry about. You could go between the positive clicks if you wanted, but a half rotation of the knob is only a hundredth or so of an inch in adjustment (read that somewhere so don't hold me to it as gospel). To go from espresso to French press takes a couple hundred knob turns. Not a grinder well suited for going from one extreme to the other. However, the adjustment is solid and there is an indexed adjustment ring so when you do go from one end to the other, returning to your espresso grind is easy and accurate. I usually only need one shot after the adjustment to fine tune it back to where it was. It is well suited to very small adjustments for tweaking your extraction.