This is my first post here and so I hope it's useful!

I bought a Macap M2 grinder "blind" having only seen some photos and read some google-translated reviews. I hope this review (now I've had the grinder for a month or so) will be useful to anyone considering buying it. The bottom line is it's really well built and produces nice fluffy ground coffee. I've no idea how it compares to other grinders in its class as the last grinder I had was a Gaggia MM which although (after adjustment) ground fine enough to choke my Classic eventually became too inconsistent to be useful. Needless to say the Macap is in another league in terms of performance...

OK on to the review:



From the front the Macap M2 looks a lot less "industrial" than the other commercial grinders in the Macap range. The only bit I don't like is the portafilter holder which is plastic and doesn't fit the bottom of my Gaggia portafilter well. Since I've adjusted the spring in my portafilter so I can easily remove the ridged VST baskets I use, I prefer to dose into the basket (and weigh it) with the portafilter locked on the machine. I've removed the portafilter support to make this easier. The doser throws to the left a bit but it's pretty good at not making too much mess on the counter so I don't use the tray supplied.



The doser does a great job at breaking up any clumps (although the coffee is pretty clump free as it comes out the chute) and sweeps almost clean as standard. A bit of tape on the fins means it's essentially completely clean after a few thwacks. The grinder is stepped (which I wanted as I do use it for a cafetière sometimes - hence the red tape arrow to remind me approximately where espresso grind is). Now I've finished off the machining of the burrs by grinding a load of cheap beans, each step is a few seconds of pour time and so fine enough for me. At first I was single dosing but I think the consistency is better with a ~ 1/2 full hopper. There's a trap-door and you can easily pick out enough beans from the grinder throat to leave less than 5g in the grinder. I store the beans in a tin, purge out the beans left in the grinder and load the hopper in the morning then empty it when I'm finished for the day.



One reason I chose this over the doserless model is that the exit chute is really easy to clean - I use a chopped down lolly stick for scraping it out and a paintbrush for cleaning after use. The switch is a push-button that locks in and makes it easy to pulse the grinder. The bar stops the lolly-stick going into the burrs but doesn't hold back any coffee (it's really not that thick).



The lower burr looks just like the scaled-down commercial Macap grinder it is and the smooth extended nut combined with the narrower grinder throat means no finger-guard is needed in the hopper making for easy single dosing (if preferred).



The burr carrier and upper burr are similarly well made.

I'm really impressed by the quality of this grinder and would definitely recommend it to someone who wants a commercial style grinder but doesn't have the approval of their partner/housemates to turn the kitchen into a coffee shop! It's quiet (apart from that lovely doser thwack) and looks good next to my Gaggia classic. Other bits of essential (?!) coffee paraphernalia should give a good idea of its size.



That's the sort of review I'd like to have read before buying it so I hope it's useful to someone else. I realise from lurking here for a bit that a £250 grinder is considered a bit low end but the espresso I make using it is good enough for me.

I'm not sure how international a term "lolly stick" is and it was actually a wooden fork from a motorway services so here's a picture of the exit chute cleaning device:

Good review. Haven't seen the M2 on this side of the pond.

Good effort Huw. How big is the burr set (diameter)?

Burrs are 50 mm. They have Macap stamped on them so I guess they're unique to this grinder.

I've seen the M2 for $460 on a US supplier's website (not sure if posting links is allowed). I bought it from a shop in Italy and with the £/€ rate at the time it worked out at £250 which is about £20 more than the dosered Rocky and £100 less than a Mahlkönig Vario (from a UK supplier).

edit - Just realised the M2 I'd seen in the US was the more expensive chrome version - so seems similar to the UK price.

Great review and pictures! The grinder is a perfect mate for the Gaggia.

I've been testing a m2 for the last several days and so far
so far so good, more to come
PS here is a picture next to a digital one

That's a really helpful photo! Is there any chance you could post some more with the M2 next to other common grinders (Mazzer Mini, Rocky etc)? I found it really hard to get a good impression of the size of the grinder before I bought mine.