Almico wrote:If it saves me five minutes a day not having to pre-weigh and single dose, that would be 30 hours a year. I'll take it.

I have no idea of your work flow method but I pull 4 doubles single dosing each one every morning, single dosing with a grinder that takes 4 times as long to grind a double as a Sette (Monolith). Total average time including 4 water back flushes ~8 minutes.

I think he means instead of pre-weighing or single dosing, plus WDT, it saves time. I don't know if it saves 5 minutes, but it definitely does save me time. Of course your Monolith is a different workflow, but here's mine.

On my vario:
Pop out basket, put on funnel, put on small scale slid into the Vario, hit the "11.5" button.
Check weight, hit the .5 button 1-2 more times to get to correct weight.
Pop basket into portafilter, stir for WDT N-S, E-W, then swirl. Remove funnel.
Level. Tamp.

On my Sette:
Put portafilter into holder. Hit 16.2g button.
Remove. Tamp.

Like I said I don't know if it all adds up to 5 minutes/day, but there is a significant workflow reduction for me.

Mike, I know you already have a lot of Sette test-time, but if you want to loan me your Monolith, I'm happy to do my own comparison

Compass Coffee wrote:I have no idea of your work flow method but I pull 4 doubles single dosing each one every morning, single dosing with a grinder that takes 4 times as long to grind a double as a Sette (Monolith). Total average time including 4 water back flushes ~8 minutes.

I do about 3-4 doubles a day at various intervals, not back to back. It takes me under 2 minutes for each. If I had to pre-weigh my doses and WDT it would certainly take longer. If it takes an extra minute per session, I'm still saving 4-5 minutes a day. Plus, I despise pre-weighing coffee beans. I also find it interesting that a $400 grinder can do this, and a $2500 one can't.

pcrussell50 wrote: The real magic of the Sette is not the automatic weighing, they had that down pretty well with the Vario-W and the Forte-W, which ground at a more reasonable speed. No, the real magic of the Sette is actually lost entirely on the -W version... That is the straight-though, near-zero retention design, that allows you to pre-weigh without any hassles, and get all of it back out the bottom. At the price point of the Sette, THAT feature is unheard of... Definitely NOT a design flaw.

-Peter

I believe that the real magic, if any, is that the burrset is likely very good,and everything else below that is just convenience.

AZRich wrote:I believe that the real magic, if any, is that the burrset is likely very good,and everything else below that is just convenience.

Many many many grinders out there besides the Sette have fabulous burr sets. Burr sets that themselves cost as much as an entire Sette. And even in the Sette's price range, the Vario burrs are at least as good (OK, so the Vario is $100 more, but I don't consider that a big difference). But the Vario despite having very low, and sometimes zero retention, is still not a zero retention design. The Sette is. Nothing else I know of that can cup near a titan for the price of a Sette, has a zero retention design. That is huge. Good burrs are everywhere, and even at lower price ranges... But zero retention designs are rare and expensive. Only one exists anywhere near the Sette's price, and that is the Sette.

Almico wrote:I do about 3-4 doubles a day at various intervals, not back to back. It takes me under 2 minutes for each. If I had to pre-weigh my doses and WDT it would certainly take longer. If it takes an extra minute per session, I'm still saving 4-5 minutes a day.

No offense Al, because you are clearly very happy with the few minutes a day your -W gives your four shots a day. But saving a couple minutes a day is not my most important objective, when it comes to espresso. And if the likes of Andy Schechter, who has advanced the world's knowledge of espresso more than a thousand of the rest of us, with the best equipment money can buy, feels the need to pre-weigh, WDT, and RDT, that is too much for me to ignore to save a couple of minutes. A couple extra minutes a day, in pursuit of excellence doesn't bother me. OTOH reports that are flowing in at about a five to one ratio about clunkiness and oversensitivity of the -W version, do bother me. I'll take the regular Sette, over the -W and probably won't look back.

Off topic, but for the curious, here's how legend, Andy Schechter does it:

-Peter

Lets get thread back on subject

Getting my 270W today...what's the consensus on best things to do initially? I have 2lbs of junk grocery store beans ("french" roast, so I assume they'll be pretty oily). Should I run that through it at a mid-coarse grind (minding the duty cycle), give it a quick clean, then good-to-go to start dialing it in for espresso?

That sounds like the common consensus running through this form.

conrad_vanl wrote:Lets get thread back on subject

Getting my 270W today...what's the consensus on best things to do initially? I have 2lbs of junk grocery store beans ("french" roast, so I assume they'll be pretty oily). Should I run that through it at a mid-coarse grind (minding the duty cycle), give it a quick clean, then good-to-go to start dialing it in for espresso?

I would avoid grinding the whole 2# in the same session. I tried that and the motor heated up and the auto shut down feature kicked in.

I was planning on following the duty-cycle advice, granted, as I say that, I see that is 2#/day max

Maybe I'll plan on grinding up a full pound today... following the duty cycle of 150g at a time with 60 second rest....then work on pulling a shot or two. Then repeat tomorrow. Would be interesting to see if there are any differences. Maybe I'll pull a shot towards the beginning as well (after running the first 150g through it).

It is not uncommon for people to use minute rice (not hard regular rice), to season the burrs on other grinders. I would guess it works faster. I ran a kilo of cheap store brand minute rice through the big 83mm Robur burrs on my HG1 and it made for a noticeable improvement in the way of greater speed and fewer cranks. It also makes a tasty hot breakfast cereal.

-Peter

So one thing that I did not expect on the Sette-W coming from a Vario-W is that you cannot blip the start button to have it pop out a few more grounds to get you up to weight if it underdoses. You can of course hold the start button for a timed dose but given the grinding speed this can be tricky. On my Vario-W I enjoyed this feature. Has anyone figured a good workaround?

How many of you broke in your grinder with old beans? I'll admit I did not and I don't really regret it either. First shot was decent and they're getting better.