Hi group,

I am selling my Mazzer mini and getting a Compak K10 PB.

I would like to keep my routine simple, and so am not currently single dosing. I have about 200-300 grams of beans in the hopper. I simply purge a few grams out of the grinder and get my session going. I've modified the sweepers and aside from the initial purge, I can get quite close to my dose without wasting more coffee. I don't change beans often, usually i'll wait until i'm through with the bag before changing.

I do 2 doubles back to back every morning and then over the weekend, i will do about 2 or 3 sessions of doubles every day. We also sometimes entrain coffee fans, so that's a couple of shots in a row.

I was going to just buy the K10 PB and keep doing the same thing, but i came across the E10 grinder and now i'm wondering if that grinder would not be better for me.

Why am i hesitating?

- reliability of electronics vs mechanical
- clumping/distribution
- a ton of retained coffee

I know single dosing along with bump and grinding is probably the ideal way to go in terms of waste. I'm just too lazy to do that and my wife sure as heck will not spend 1 second sweeping a chute with a brush!!

Now the E10 is fairly new and there doesn't seem to be a lot of info going around. Should anyone have some feedback on this grinder, i would appreciated it. Thanks!

I'm not clear if you have a mini E or a manual doser Mini ?
Your comment regarding the modified sweepers maybe suggests it's a manual doser ?...
...if so you are obviously going to change to a timed dose on the E10 which will take a little setting up for your specific beans and m/c, and then getting confidence with, and also deciding how long of a purge is needed before first dose.( ask the supplier ?)

The K10 PB works great with a small load of beans. I single does most of the time, but use the small hopper instead every few months and love that too. It might even be slightly better that way, but I haven't been able to convince myself one way or the other. My main waste when not single dosing is that I'm not great at hitting my exact dose so I probably go through a bag about 10% more quickly (a timer would probably help there a ton).

I played with the E10 at Fortuna a while back when it was first out and really liked it, too. I just pulled 2 shots or so and didn't really get to know it well so I can't compare it in detail at all for strengths or weaknesses - just first impressions.


Retention is probably comparable to most of the large E conicals but that is just a guess with nothing to back it up.

I think that both are great grinders and I expect I'd be quite happy with either, but it is pretty hard to beat a K10PB and I have no urge to replace mine.

Yes i have a mazzer mini with mechanical doser, i should have mentioned this.

I'm ok with setting up a timed dose as i don't change beans that often. Plus, there is always a grind button to do this manually to account for beans aging and weather changing.

thanks for the feedback so far guys, hopefully some E10 owners will chime in

Hi,

I have a Compak E10 master since july. I previously had a Ceado E7. It is big and fast about 2.85 sec for 14g basket. I use the K3 hopper. I brush the chute and there is about a couple of grams at the most. I bought the E10 master as the regular E10 was not available. The grind quality is very good.

It delivers grinds consistently in the middle of the portafilter. The touch screen is easy to use.

I used to single dose but i find easier to fill the hopper half full and go with it. Setting on the dial is 24 with the half full hopper and 20 if i single dose.

The downside is it is difficult to make adjustment as the grinder is so incredibly fast.

very happy with my purchase.

Do not hesitate to contact me directly if you want more information on the grinder.

deniss wrote:
The downside is it is difficult to make adjustment as the grinder is so incredibly fast.
.

..interesting !
I have often thought that timed dosing and very fast grinders was not an ideal combination.
It has to be more accurate to time a 8-10 sec dose than a 3 sec dose ?
Your 2.85 sec dose represents about 75 turns of the burrs at 1600 rpm...
You almost need a precision stepper motor type control system for consistency. .?

I believe these motors turn the burrs at about 400 rpm. Still the output is high compared to the Mazzer mini.

I would assume that dialling in these large grinders is more tricky regardless of if they are on demand or not, seeing as you grind through a lot of coffee while turning the collar. However, this is an issue only when you are trying to go finer, i don't turn on the grinder when going coarser. Either way, i am ok with that issue.

I also understand that these grinders are more stable once you've dialled in the grind. So in the end, maybe waste ends up being similar? Or close enough not to matter anyway...

I am warming up to the on demand concept, it seems more adapted to my routine. Just this morning i overshot the grind time and ended up with 10-15 grams of grounds in the doser that i didn't need.

Anyone been having issues with the electronics on previous fresh models?

thanks for the replies

Hi,

Your right, the grinder is very stable. Since july and 5 different blends of coffee, the grind dial is still at 24. I think i would only need to dial plus or minus one on the dial to have the perfect setting.

The hopper must be half full at least. if it goes below that it is less precise.

The primary differences between using a hopper-fed, manual, big conic with a good mechanical doser and a timer, and an otherwise, same model, hopper-fed, "on demand," big conic are the minor inconvenience of using the doser and the minor inconvenience of the greater price for the on-demand grinder.

Something which gets a lot of attention and seems very important to a few people is retention. For most grinders, including the Compaks, retention in amounts worth considering has more to do with using a hopper than the system from the grind chamber forward. If you use a hopper, there will be a significant amount of partially ground beans between the burrs and on the grinder chamber; 15g give or take with most grinders. If you single dose, and run the chamber out every time you dose the basket, retention will be less than a gram.

Is that important? Not very important to me, and -- since it seems like you've made the decision not to single dose -- apparently not that important to you, either.

Otherwise, the decision lies in price vs convenience.

Rich

boar_d_laze wrote:Is that important? Not very important to me, and -- since it seems like you've made the decision not to single dose -- apparently not that important to you, either.

I would say that is a true statement. I've not single dosed the Mini once since i've had it.