Hi everyone,

I wonder if you guys have the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. Does it grind fine enough for espresso, like the Baratza Sette?

I'm at a loss looking for videos. Interestingly, none of the Breville videos show the espresso pour.

Has been widely reviewed across the internet....

There is some variance from grinder to grinder but the older models would either grind fine enough or be easily updated with a shim kit and the newer model has a built in adjustment to facilitate this. Either way it is about as cheap as a grinder can get and still be adjustable enough to produce espresso

I have one and it was my first grinder which I paired with a Quickmill Anita. It can definitely grind fine enough for espresso, even to the point of choking the machine. I've been able to grind lighter and darker roasts successfully. You may have to adjust the outer burr carrier to get that finer grinder. It's a standard feature and easy to do. I have since moved it to coffee service after purchasing a Ceado e6p v2.

wearashirt wrote:Hi everyone,

I wonder if you guys have the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. Does it grind fine enough for espresso, like the Baratza Sette?

I'm at a loss looking for videos. Interestingly, none of the Breville videos show the espresso pour.

The original Breville promo videos for the BDB showed them using the Smart Grinder (original version) for their shots. Once the Oracle came out obviously they didn't need a separate grinder.

I've owned all those combinations of Breville gear -- Smart Grinder, BDB (both now sold), and an Oracle, which my in-laws use. I did install the shim kit in the smart grinder because it wasn't doing the job for espresso.

Even with the shim kit I struggled with consistency, the grinder wasn't really robust enough when dealing with tough beans. I think it would be great for french press and similar brewing methods but it was the first piece of gear from my Breville era which I sold.

The Pro version is of course newer, if I had the ability to compare it side by side to the original grinder I'd compare the details of construction to see if the bearings and burr mounting feel more robust. Overall grinder weight might speak to some of those improvements too, maybe.

For the money I'd probably look for a lightly used Baratza or similar in the classifieds, IMHO.

wearashirt wrote:Does it grind fine enough for espresso, like the Baratza Sette?

Keep in mind that it's not just how fine that matters with a grinder.

I struggled to get my smart grinders to do adequate espresso grinding mainly due to alignment. Even with the burrs almost touching with shims, still too inconsistent. My first grinder was better but it broke a gear and was able to get a refurbished warranty replacement that was worse.

On a good note, this grinder and Breville is what trigger me into roasting...out of spite with complaining to the Breville customer service and them claiming my coffee wasn't fresh enough - I'll show'em fresh coffee by god!

My smart grinder has been demoted to drip grinding Mr. Coffee at the office.

Definitely better espresso capable grinders for the same price IMO.

CAFE_JD wrote:I struggled to get my smart grinders to do adequate espresso grinding mainly due to alignment.

That's an interesting point. However, you're talking about the 1st gen, non-"Pro" version, am I right?

Oh Yes non pro . I still think there better choices over the new and 'improved' pro.

I had both the original smart grinder, and now the smart grinder pro. The older model definitely had limitations, but the pro model solved them and added features on top of it (timed grinding, different times stored for different amount settings: you can set one time for single shot, another for double shot, etc. So you could set a time for one blend on 'single shot' and another time on another roast for double shot, and have them both be enough for double shots). I don't fill the hopper, but single dose instead, so that feature is not something I use now.

It will definitely grind fine enough, and Socratic Coffee has measured the grind size distribution and found it compares favorably to more expensive grinders that are considered to be excellent by many.



Breville stuff has a polarizing effect on folks, it seems, so there can be a lot of haters who have actually never used the product. When that data showing it was in-family with other well regarded grinders was shared on another forum site, the response was mostly crickets as cognitive dissonance set in, then a few feeble comments that maybe narrow distribution must be (suddenly) not as important.

If I could change one thing on the grinder, it would be the grind adjustment knob: it feels like there is some range of movement between definite steps in level, and so one wonders if the burrs are moving continuously during that range or not. I haven't noticed any difference in results, however.

As for the Sette, I have been interested in it. I have not even used one, so no direct experience. That said, it is a new product and seems from what I read here and on other forums to be experiencing some birthing pains. I'm deferring my interest in it until the early adopters help debug the thing, and also because I'd kinda like to save up for a Monolith. As a single doser, that one appeals to me a lot, and seems to be a real contender in my book.

Socratic did a distribution test on the Sette. I'd still want to see it run again in a year or so when the Sette is on v2.0 or even 3.0

I have a the Smart Grinder Pro and it is a fine grinder. It can grind fine enough to choke my La Pavoni. I still keep it for de-caf, having bought at Ceado E5P, which is better but it was not the huge improvement I was hoping to see.

It clumps a bit, but a few toothpick swirlings and it's fine. The timer is very accurate and more than a nice to have. No real complaints about it, especially considering the price.