Stepomfret wrote:Rob, just out of interest if you have the time would it be possible for you to do the following;
1. Drop the burr set, clean it all out
2. Reassemble and grind your normal dose.
3. Enjoy your coffee
4. Shut off the hopper, purge the remaining beans
5. Empty out retained coffee grinds, weigh the contents and report back your findings. If possible, take a picture of the burr set prior to emptying the content.

I'm sure for those of us that are experiencing 1+g of retention we would be interested in seeing your findings. If indeed the channels on your burr set are clean this gives us something to go back to Baratza with.

I'm thinking that I'm going to add the shim when I get back home tomorrow as I'm currently running the sette at 2a. Maybe this will help in avoiding coffee grounds retention as you referred to in one of your earlier posts.

Many Thanks

Sounds like a plan, and I'll include a photo. My "channel" that encircles the burr holder usually has what looks like about 2-3 grams of coffee in it..that, mind you after 5 weeks of grinding about 30 grams daily. The burr is pretty clean, maybe less than a gram sticking to it, as I run a lot of less than 10 day old coffee through it.

I wonder if coffee that is still throwing a lot of co2 would be a factor...it certainly would be a cause of spraying grounds, static, and/or some retention due to the gaseous nature.
I never grind for espresso unless the coffee is at least 6 days post roast...NEVER. Well, hardly ever.

So maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but aren't the grounds filling in just some spaces? Like on my Vario, maybe a gram or so on 1st or 2nd dose, then its spot on every shot after that, 20in/20out, 18in/18out, 16in/16out, maybe off .1 here and there when I check. And when opening up its not like in the grind path, just filling in some spaces.

Monolith thread just had talk about this, similar issue as the Sette and someone mentioned what I did, that on the Monolith (similar design minus the large burr) the grinds were filling in spaces around the burr etc and that once compacted they just stayed there and fresh coffee flowed through. So maybe same principal with the Sette?

Rob, it looks like you're experiencing what we're experiencing which means the grinder holds at least 1 gram per dose. After I clean the burr carriage I usually have to top up my dose to get to what I had initially thrown into the grinder. The burr is usually pretty clean, but the holes used by the grinder to expel the grinds get completely sealed until you dose again. I don't know that it matters how long it's been before you cleaned the burrs because I think the retention we're talking about is pretty dynamic - as in it's consistently about the same since each dose pushes out the retained grinds.

Chris, the retained coffee is quite literally resting and plugging the holes that are used to expel the coffee. The coffee isn't filling in spaces that become filled in and no longer retain coffee after the initial fill. Imagine if the space used by the grinder to expel the grinds into your portafilter gets completely plugged with coffee. This is where the last few grams are resting in the Sette's burr carriage.

Spitz.me wrote: Chris, the retained coffee is quite literally resting and plugging the holes that are used to expel the coffee. The coffee isn't filling in spaces that become filled in and no longer retain coffee after the initial fill. Imagine if the space used by the grinder to expel the grinds into your portafilter gets completely plugged with coffee. This is where the last few grams are resting in the Sette's burr carriage.

Hmmm little disappointing to hear as I'm a single doser and thought people said the Sette was excellent for that, was thinking of getting one. Even just measured a shot with my Vario, 18.5 in/18.5 out (I flipped the flap in chute otherwise thats what causes the blockage/retention on the Vario).

Like heres the Monolith thread with similar reports of the Sette as far as retention
Monolith Conical retention

cmin wrote:Like heres the Monolith thread with similar reports of the Sette as far as retention

You could always get the Monolith Flat if you want really low retention, I just pulled the top off mine. Second time ever and over a month since last time. All I could scrape out was .2 grams, not hardly enough to bother with. And most of it against a wiper where it probably stays.

Ira

I'm talking about seeing a few grams trapped after 5 weeks, not after 1 shot. There SO much to like about the Sette, I'm a bit surprised why all the conversation abut 1 gram.
Though I don't have a machine at the moment, I'll weigh 16 grams, then grind using an espresso fine grind. I'll then weigh the resultant grind.

Hi everybody

The new Sette has just arrived in Turkey and i'll be one of the very first owner so i would like to ask experienced users what i should do after getting it and what i should check at first? cause i know there were some modifications by Baratza.

Thanks in advance

So now on to the next step in the "living with retention" saga...

Summary so far, (please correct as required):

If you clear out all the clogged coffee in and around the slots of the inner burr carrier, seems like it's been averaging about 1.5 or so grams.

If you weigh out say 18.0g and run it through the clean burr set, 1.5g or so will get trapped again.

Now the pressing question: once that 1.5g or so has been trapped, do subsequent doses merely run their way around the trapped coffee, whereby 18.0g in, gives you 18.0g out?

-Peter

djdigy wrote:Hi everybody

The new Sette has just arrived in Turkey and i'll be one of the very first owner so i would like to ask experienced users what i should do after getting it and what i should check at first? cause i know there were some modifications by Baratza.

Thanks in advance

Your current production Sette should be good to use. If the two thin shim washers are in the box you may want to add them to get the 'fine' grinding away from the edge of the grind scale where the indents are mushy. With the 270W... fine tuning your offset might be necessary to land 'exactly' on your weight setting, as mine does consistently.

I'm even 'more' happy these days with my Sette 270W after getting the 22g VST basket this week.

The Sette 270W worked perfectly with the 14g and 18g doses for the last three months staying exactly on target weights 99% of the time. The new 22g weights are just as consistently accurate so I'm not expecting any surprises, there were no were grind changes for the bigger 22g basket BTW.
Waiting for my first bad espresso from the Sette 270W grinder, it's been very consistent.

The Sette 270W is very fast and the bean hopper level goes down quickly. I've observed low bean levels of less than a 1/2 inch at the bottom of the hopper effect the accuracy somehow. It must need a certain minimum downward pressure into the burrs.