Hi Sylvain,

I bought a Nino in preference to a Robur!

But I have no personal experience of how the two compare for taste profile, crema, consistency etc.

I was responding to your concern about the electronics on the Nino (touch pads) and simply noting (to quote myself) that "if you want foolproof simplicity" there are no electronics to go wrong on a dosered Robur. As I also noted, however, your post is the first time I have heard of any such problems. My Nino continues to work faultlessly.

Your reasoning is solid and is the same as that of all of us who joined together in the group buy.

I don't know of anyone who regrets their choice

Cheers

Mike

michaelbenis wrote:But I have no personal experience of how the two compare for taste profile, crema, consistency etc.

I have no experience either. I am just relying on what I read in this thread.

michaelbenis wrote:I was responding to your concern about the electronics on the Nino (touch pads) and simply noting (to quote myself) that "if you want foolproof simplicity" there are no electronics to go wrong on a dosered Robur.

I just had not understood that... Man I just can't read. I though you were linking it to the small P/F size.

As for the touch pad "issue". It seems that it was prevalent with the early stepped models. I guess this type of failure would occur more often in a commercial environment and we would not hear of it so much with home users.

If anything the Nino would be better for the small PF sizes. It performs well and without waste not only with my 49mm baskets for the Elektra and Cremina, but equally with the little 44mm ones for the Caravel. And because you can see the coffee grinds coming down the bottom part of the chute, it is very easy to shuffle the PF around to get even distribution.

FWIW there have to my knowledge been no other reports of early pad failures anywhere - even in professional Barista circles.

I'd be interested to hear from Nino + Robur owners or ex-Robur owning Nino owners about how they feel the two compare in shot consistency and in the cup. I may (as everyone has probably read ) be getting a second grinder and will probably get another Nino, but have received a very good offer on a Robur which makes it tempting....

michaelbenis wrote:I'd be interested to hear from Nino + Robur owners or ex-Robur owning Nino owners about how they feel the two compare in shot consistency and in the cup. I may (as everyone has probably read ) be getting a second grinder and will probably get another Nino, but have received a very good offer on a Robur which makes it tempting....

I have both. Get another Nino. Although the Robur-E which I have is worse than the dosered version for grind retention, the dosered version will still be pretty bad for your intended usage. It is by all accounts quite manageable for single dosing, but you have demonstrated a preference away from that. That being the case, although you may be able to clear the chute with a brush you will not be able to clear the burr chamber without running it dry since you'll have a loaded hopper and that alone will create a lot of waste.

Shame you're not leaning towards a Major-E, I'd have liked to hear your thoughts on it!

And you might as well wait until early in the NY to hopefully get the latest software, in case we have troubles getting a software loader or the likes.

Cheers, Chris

michaelbenis wrote:I'd be interested to hear from Nino + Robur owners or ex-Robur owning Nino owners about how they feel the two compare in shot consistency and in the cup.

gyro wrote:I have both. Get another Nino. Although the Robur-E which I have is worse than the dosered version for grind retention, the dosered version will still be pretty bad for your intended usage.

Interesting that the question is about results in the cup, but the answer makes no mention of taste or mouthfeel whatsoever (only grinds retention). FWIW, the two grinders have virtually identical burrsets and so one would expect results in the cup to be very similar or even identical.

I single-dose into the grinder so I have zero grounds retention, but if you prefer to run with a load of beans in the hopper then the Robur will keep quite a large volume of partially-ground beans in the grind path that would need to be purged at the start of every session

So the Robur retains 0 grounds if there is no bean column above the grinding chamber?

With my usage pattern, yes, but so have my other grinders.

I load a weighed dose, grind it through, brush the chute and bump the motor until no more grinds come out, and then sweep the doser into the basket (my doser vanes have tape sweepers on them).

I'm sure there is some caked-on grounds in the grinder's nooks and crannies but the weight of grounds in my basket is typically within 0.1g of the original weight, and never off by more than 0.2g

Indeed, if you're single-dosing and brushing the chute (if it exists), then pretty much any grinder that allows chute access for sweeping will work for you. If, as Jim Schulman and Jon (to name a couple of examples) have, single-dosing works for you in terms of consistent result and 'work flow,' then the whole issue of waste becomes moot, and you will want to look for other things. I don't think I'd spring for the Nino if I single-dosed. The doser Robur, IIRC, was better at it. As Michael observed in what does single dosing lose?, the timing function is rendered useless and, in my experience at least, often you have to press the grind button multiple times, even at long time settings (a PITA and potentially bad). The Robur E would have similar, indeed dramatically worse usability problems with single dosing, because it's utterly non-functional (uncontrollable static) without the screen over the chute, and retains probably 5-10 grams in the chute that you can't get with a brush if you do keep the screen on it.

The doser Robur's on-off switch and doser strike me as ideal for single-dosing, if you're OK with doing that. The doser must be swept out at the end of every session, but it acts as an excellent holder for grinds while you sweep the chute and pulse the grinder before finishing off your dosing into the portafilter. It will accumulate a lot more packed coffee cake in the chamber than the Nino, I think, but it's actually easier to take the top carrier out and clean, which is a plus.

If ~$2000 is your grinder price range, I'd go Nino if you want to make drinks with a loaded hopper, Robur if single dosing is your thing. Probably, though, the K10 WBC would serve you just as well (but I've never used it, so I can't say for sure).

Jon,

I'm not being intentionally perverse (it just comes naturally ), but have you compared the shots you get from the Robur when single-dosing to when its running with a (even partially) filled hopper?

I have no way (at present anyway) of knowing whether my findings with the Nino and Super Jolly would apply equally to other grinders, though I imagine so....

Which means I'd been interested to hear about your own findings on the Robur.

Cheers

Mike