To be honest, I haven't tried grinding directly into the portafilter, but what I can say is that it does not make a nice even pile inside my dosing funnel. So I doubt it will directly into the portafilter (but I will try anyway). And after using the clicker, some would most likely fall to the edges of the portafilter. I do use the OCD tool after I've done WDT, which may not be necessary, but I do like how the tool evens out the bed of coffee before tamping.

With my E8, I didn't use WDT, just side tapped and used the OCD. Which was extremely fast and convenient....something I miss haha

Here is a video showing the EG-1 dosing directly into a portafilter.

And here is some pictures of the grind. As well as some retention due to the static. This is with RDT.

mivanitsky wrote:Yes. Perhaps also precision alignment if one masters the technique. Time and experience will tell. This also begs the question, if excellent alignment is indeed predictably attainable, for how long will it be stable, or will there be a tendency to drift out of alignment. My HG-1 2014 was so difficult to align, that I had to send it in for alignment, but it has performed flawlessly since. So perhaps there is hope. No one has yet complained about retention, which did plague the prototype IIRC.

I had a lot of problems with my HG-1 alignment as well. The way you align burrs with 4 screws is a bit ridiculous and incredibly imprecise, it's almost impossible to perform micro-adjustments. It's unacceptable for a "precision barista tool". I had to send my grinder for a burr alignment as well (was charged for that since I am the second owner), but the resulting alignment was still worse than mine. Now I am in the market for a flat burr grinder and wonder if EG-1 is anything like that.

So here's my take regarding static and the blind shaker. I use a small mist bottle to do RDT, which gives an even coat of water on the beans. When I first pull out the blind funnel there is a light coating of fines on the upper surfaces. I brush off the stuff right on top of the plug with my finger (otherwise it will stick to the lid), and then I give a few shakes up and down, one or two vigorous taps against the counter, and a few horizontal swirls, all with the lid on. This procedure leaves the grinds in the bottom of the shaker, with minimal clumps or retention on the sides or lid.

As to the picture of retention on the underside of the funnel: I saw this too, so I went ahead and brushed it all off and carefully collected it for weighing. The total accumulation was less than 0.1g. The fines look like a lot because they are tiny and evenly distributed by static over the exposed lower surfaces, but I doubt it makes any difference in the cup. I'm certainly not going to brush the underside every time because it is a PITA, and I am getting less than 0.1g of retention on average.

I only get fines around the top carrier if I don't RDT, otherwise I get almost nothing sticking there

I remove the shaker, give it a tap to settle all static cling fines and the little bit sitting on the top of the handle, put the lid on, shake vertically and swirl horizontally, another tap on the mat, tap the lid on the shaker, then onto the portafilter, lift and spin the handle, easy peasy, but it's 50:50 for me each time whether I have to tidy up the distribution with a skewer, maybe I should get an OCD, but they're a bit pricey

I use the OCD and really like it, but the current version, I do find grinds can tend to stick to it (up 0.2g depending but more times 0.1 or less). So i usually use a small brush after using it, to get the grounds that stick to it, back in the portafilter. They are coming out with version 2 soon i believe to help prevent this (but im sure will even be pricier than version 1!)

Okay thanks for the info Chris

[creative nickname] wrote:So here's my take regarding static and the blind shaker. I use a small mist bottle to do RDT, which gives an even coat of water on the beans. When I first pull out the blind funnel there is a light coating of fines on the upper surfaces. I brush off the stuff right on top of the plug with my finger (otherwise it will stick to the lid), and then I give a few shakes up and down, one or two vigorous taps against the counter, and a few horizontal swirls, all with the lid on. This procedure leaves the grinds in the bottom of the shaker, with minimal clumps or retention on the sides or lid.

As to the picture of retention on the underside of the funnel: I saw this too, so I went ahead and brushed it all off and carefully collected it for weighing. The total accumulation was less than 0.1g. The fines look like a lot because they are tiny and evenly distributed by static over the exposed lower surfaces, but I doubt it makes any difference in the cup. I'm certainly not going to brush the underside every time because it is a PITA, and I am getting less than 0.1g of retention on average.

I use a small mist bottle as well, to evenly coat my beans before hand. And as I previously mentioned, the static is an annoyance and does not effect the taste in the cup. I didn't spend a lot of time messing around with different shake sequences to try and get some consistent usage out of the shaker. I may at some point try the shaker again, but for now I seem to be have rock solid consistency with my current routine.

I will also agree with you on the cleaning of the underside of the spout. Every couple of days I take the upper and lower burr housings off and quickly brush off the static grinds. This is an absolute brilliant feature IMO. Cleaning this grinder takes mere minutes.

Here's my retention and distribution after making an espresso