I'll keep the opening short. My Sette 270 died 8 months into ownership and near daily use. Average use was 2-3 doses per day. Got up and the timer ticked away and no motor grind. . Called Baratza and they were very easy to deal with. Sent my invoice and a replacement was in UPS the same day.

There were some issues with the original grinder, some of which I didn't recognize. It's hard to say where the issues stem from, but I know that Baratza was trying to crank them out as fast as they could when they were released. There were no units in the country and when a batch came in they were sold out nationwide in a day. I know because I had to wait over a month for mine.

Yes, the original Sette 270 was lightning fast; 18gms of coffee ground for espresso in about 5.25 seconds. But one issue that Baratza recognized early on was that the fine setting had "drift" . They know about it because they had a felt "noodle" (they called it) that could be installed to create more drag. Unfortunately that slowed down the setting drift but didn't stop it. Additionally, like the setting (photo) on the original article on HB my generally preferred setting as 3 (gross) and D (fine). It worked ok at that setting but left me a little concerned because there was little headroom for finer grinds. While I was getting consistently timed pulls, there was always and odd taste to my espresso that I couldn't pin down. I went to the trouble to install a PID on my Gaggia Classic, experiment with various temperatures, steam blips, etc. I could get pretty good (usually better than pro coffee shops), but never the God short.

And so comes the replacement. Thinking it would be the same settings I set it to 3/D as I did with the original grinder. That setting CHOKED out my GC. Not a drop came through (10 bars, calibrated). Not a drop on the next, or the following as I moved the settings 3 clicks at a time until I got to 13. Yes, 10 clicks down from the original machine's setting. But once there it ground coffee as it should and I have plenty of headroom for more adjustment, particularly to grind finer. FWIW, I have been using Redbird beans exclusively for a few months, so the beans were as consistent as I could get them from the roaster.

The one thing that was also noticeable was that the grind time was noticeably slower. Instead of 5.25 seconds, it's now somewhere around 8 seconds. Baratza tells me they changed out some ring that lets the beans fall in slower. Makes sense. It's still super fast in comparison to everything else. They seem to have been having problems and had to make improvements in this area too. Also, no more fine setting drift. I've been on 13/D, getting consistent grinds and very, very good tasting espresso; the best I've gotten in 8 months. My only fear is that my warranty does not reset and in 8 months should something go wrong I'll have a big repair bill on my hands. But let's keep our fingers crossed that Baratza got it right and it will hold up for years.

Just thought I'd share my experience with this grinder.

Vin, welcome to HB!
Email Baratza. It's a a new grinder, but even a refurb gets the full year, far as I know. Maybe double check to verify?

Wow, 13??? Mine, with 2 shims is at 5 b-e, depending on the coffee. Only once did I have to go finer, to 4, and that was with coffee from Italy, containing some Robusta.
My Sette was one of the first 200-500 I believe. I've had not a minute's problem, save for needing the shims, as originally I was grinding like you, at 2.
My espresso machine is way different, a small spring lever, so all relative. My coffee has never suffered from what you described, an "off" taste. Perhaps, due to the burrs and other issues, you had a lot of trapped, stale grind going into your shots. With this, or any grinder, if only doing 2-3 shots a day, I recommend a .4 second flush...again dependent on the grind setting, etc. That gets about 1.3 grams out. Stale. If you're more than 30 minutes in between shots, I highly recommend you set one of your buttons to maybe .2, and hit it 2-3 times in the morning, or, as I said when returning to the grinder after a prolonged period of time.

It's great to see you're now a happy camper. BTW, that was money well spent for the PID. My .02!

I talked to Baratza directly. Only the "balance" of the warranty period is covered, at least officially. In fact, I ordered the thing in early December and it didn't come until the 2nd week of January, but they're counting from the December date! Maybe someone at Baratza will see this post and reach out?

Yeah... Now the setting is 13! Obviously they've made a few adjustments. Maybe it's "pre-shimmed"? I dunno. I did get an extra shim in the package. But as far as residual grinds... Nope. I don't dump a load of beans in and figure it out later. I measure the beans exactly on a jewelry scale, dump the measured beans fully into the hopper and grind them completely. If there are any residual grinds left in the hopper they are minimal. I'll often hit the button once more to clear it and very, very little comes- 0.24gms, to be exact.

As far as the PID goes, I am so happy that I did it. I can't see how you can be consistent with a Gaggia Classic or a Silvia without one. There's an engineer on the Gaggia users forum that sells his own design for a lot less than you'd get from one of the main PID players. It comes with everything pre-wired so even for morons like me it was a relatively easy installation.

Anyway, thanks for replying Rob!

Even once your warranty is up just keep contacting Baratza to help resolve your issues.

I have a Preciso, which is another of their grinders that has had lots of issues. I think I have replaced every movable part in the grinder at least once since buying mine in 2011. Baratza has been very good to me in making sure the grinder stays up and running, they even sent me a new motor for the grinder even though I was well outside of the warranty period.

So I doubt you will be left in dark if it fails you in 13th month or something. But just realize you have a home machine, and grinding for espresso is very hard on these little machines. It will break again, but be happy you spent only a few hundred dollars when to get something comparable that is built like a tank you will need to spend 5x the amount.

Intrepid510 wrote:Even once your warranty is up just keep contacting Baratza to help resolve your issues.

I have a Preciso, which is another of their grinders that has had lots of issues. I think I have replaced every movable part in the grinder at least once since buying mine in 2011. Baratza has been very good to me in making sure the grinder stays up and running, they even sent me a new motor for the grinder even though I was well outside of the warranty period.

So I doubt you will be left in dark if it fails you in 13th month or something. But just realize you have a home machine, and grinding for espresso is very hard on these little machines. It will break again, but be happy you spent only a few hundred dollars when to get something comparable that is built like a tank you will need to spend 5x the amount.

Thanks for the info on Baratza customer service.

I have to chuckle when someone says "you only spent a few hundred dollars...". It's all relative, I guess. But the mind blowing truth is that I was getting wonderful espresso from my refurbished Saeco Sirena machine and a Cuisinart grinder (self shimmed for finer grind). No, I wasn't using the pressurized PF, but normal. In fact, I'm using the Saeco PF on my Gaggia as the basket is a bit deeper, but fits perfectly I've done nothing but wrestle to this point with the Sette/GC combination. And my GC has been fairly well modified: Pressure reduced to 10 bars. Shower screen replaced. Brass shower plate holder replaced cast aluminum one. Silvia steam wand. PID. Each step improved just a little bit.

Here's a quick vid of my routine with the new grinder and my GC. You can see how far over the main grinder dial is. The PID also gives a pretty good representation of what the steam blip does in compensating for cold water coming into the boiler. Not exact science, but at least repeatable once you get it down.