So I finally bit the bullet and upgraded from a PL53 to the Quamar M80. I know there's a nicely detailed review on the site but I also wanted to contribute a home user, 2-3 espressos a day, perspective.

So for the last nine months I've been using a PL53 grinder with my PID Gaggia Classic with very nice results. My biggest complaints with the grinder was the noise. My routine would be to grind ~18g of beans at a time which would yield ~16.5g of grind (16g dose in the basket with a little left over that I tossed). Started out doing a lot of redistribution and WDT prior to tamping but over the last 2 months settled on just spinning the basket as fast as I could while the grinds fell in. The centrifugal force would break any clumps and then spread the grinds to the outside of the basket first and then up the middle resulting in a nice even mound. Then a quick tap down on the counter, tamp and pour. Great results in terms of taste and bottomless pour. Then when I was done with my drink I would take off the chute cover and sweep the chute clean, pulse, sweep again and then reassemble the chute for the next drink. Not too crazy.

Then as soon as I got everything consistent and reproducible I felt a need to upgrade. I was deciding between the M80, the M80E and a Baratza Vario. So far I'm happy I got the Quamar but the jury is still out as to whether or not I would've preferred the "E" model.

Here's a picture of my setup:



I decided on single dosing because I wasn't too happy with the stock hopper or the mazzer mini hopper I got. Additionally, the mazzer hopper's neck is a little too small for the Quamar. Here's a size comparison of the two hoppers in case anyone's interested:



The doser and single dosing with the larger Quamar took a few tries to get used to. As my first stepped grinder I found it interesting that using 16g of Redbird at a setting of 14 I choked my machine but at 15 I got a spritzing gusher. There are 5 steps between those two numbers in case anyone is interested. My current routine involves sacrificing ~5g of beans to clear old beans from the chute and then clearing the doser. Then I grind ~19g of beans, sweep the beans left in the grind chamber down, pulse grinder and then dose into my portafilter. With no WDT and a slight redistribution in the basket before tamping i get a great shot (16g dose:30-32g espresso). My standard ratio is 16g : ~28g so I can't do a direct comparison of taste to the PL53 yet. Then for cleanup I just pull on the doser arm until the doser stops dropping espresso. Here's a look down the doser after about a pound of espresso through with no cleaning:



I will probably start sweeping the doser every weekend or so but the stray grinds aren't bothering me too much right now. The one big issue for me right now is cleaning the chute. The overfill switch kind of prevents access to the chute so I might go ahead and try to remove it.

Overall I'm happy with the look and feel of the machine and the espresso, still not at my standard brew ratio yet to directly compare to the PL53 but the drinks have been better than the comparable highish ratios using the PL53. Also, the grinder is MUCH quieter than the PL53. The next things I plan on addressing are the doser switch and getting an ebay plugin timer for the grinder. Even if I spend ~$50 on a used gralab timer I'm still $100 less than the M80E. Still unsure if I'd prefer the M80E...

Thanks for bearing with the rambling post. A pound of espresso in 24hrs will do that to you

You actually do mention the gaskets in your review so no worries. I just couldn't find them on their site to purchase. When I was buying the hopper I did note that I was getting it for use with the Quamar but never heard back about the gaskets in terms of whether or not I could buy them or if they would be provided with the hopper.

So after a solid week of using the Quamar and another pound of Redline I thought I'd update my experiences with the grinder.

Still quite happy with the quality of the grinder but a few "Ease of use" issues are popping up that I thought I'd share.

First off, my insistence on single dosing and keeping the grinder throat clean has led to my doser now looking like this:



Very easy to remove the switch assembly but it took a little extra work compared to the writeups I've seen on here for the mazzer grinders. The leads for the switch inside the grinder were attached to the main power switch and another wire, didn't feel like tracing its origin, inside the grinder. Good news was that the lead to the power switch was a spade connector and the other was a fancy twist-type connector with a screw keeping the two wires attached. This allowed for very easy removal. The one problem was that I couldn't just then pull the leads out the doser hole because the spade connector was too big for the hole. I ended up de-soldering that wire from the doser switch, pulling the wire with the spade connector out the bottom of the grinder and then re-soldering the wire back so I could keep track of everything. 10min job total. I now have decent access to the chute to clean. The one drawback I see to this is that the exiting grinds now spray the entire inside of the doser instead of hitting the switch assembly and then falling down into the doser. This results in some extra OCD cleaning when I'm done. I might try and install some form of "splash guard" for the exiting grinds so they fall more nicely like before.

Second observation is what most of you who single dose already know. I've found that if I grind 23g, weighted with a 58mm tamper, for an 18g dose I get uneven, fast and sometimes spritzing pours that taste only ok. Common wisdom says to grind finer if I want to keep the same dose. However, when I put 32g, weighted with same tamper, in the throat for the same 18g dose I choke the machine. Once again, the knowledge base here would say that that's because the extra bean weight is changing my output fineness. I do find that 32g in the chute with a 16g dose give a very nicely poured shot, bottomless pf, that tastes very good. I might try to tighten the grind and see if the 23g of beans gets me the same taste on tighter grinds but I'd kinda like to enjoy the last of this redline instead of testing with it. I'm sure most of you would say "duh" to these observations but I wanted to include them in case anyone was interested in getting a Quamar.

So now I'd say that if I had to do it again I'd spend the extra money on the electronic version of the M80. But I'm still extremely happy with my grinder. Next up will be to look for possible alternatives to the doser and to also look for a vessel that will allow me to load 2-3 shots worth of beans into the grinder at a time. I'm thinking something along the lines of the acrylic tubes I've seen used on here or a nice stainless steel tube. And lastly, I've confirmed with Jim from 1st-line that at this time they do not have spacers/gaskets for use of Mazzer hoppers with the Quamar... Dan, I'm curious where you got your info about the spacers from.

Thanks for the info, I was going to upgrade to a M80e soon and you reaffirmed my future choice even though I know both seem to be great grinders.

That's interesting about the gaskets. I wonder if they just had some around and threw them in.

So after a few more pounds of espresso I've decided to try out using a hopper instead of single dosing. I didn't like the waste involved with grinding 32g for 16-18g shots each time and then throwing the rest out as I cleaned the throat and chute.

I've ended up using a bit of electrical tape to secure the Mazzer mini hopper on the Quamar. I had some group gaskets lying around whose ID fit the hopper neck but the OD was too big for the Quamar.




I've been keeping about 1/2 a pound in the hopper and then replenishing once the hopper empties. I find this works pretty well. I only clean the chute and the doser once I'm done and then purge ~2sec before the next shot. Up next I'll probably try the polycarbonate tube I ordered just to see if I like it any better than the mini hopper.

Side note, using the GraLab timer with the Quamar is fantastic. I'm getting about 2.5g out of the doser per second on the timer so I find that the 0.1s resolution of the timer works quite well for the grinder. At $27 it was well worth it.