Well said. +1

I would agree and add that the new-style static wiper seems to have eliminated the problems with the old one, since it's stronger and does not stick down below the lower burr carrier.

Best,
David

I've had mine for several years now, still on the first belt, and am very pleased with its performance and small footprint. I'll call for the new static wiper, sounds like a nice upgrade.

Every once in a while I pull the Mazzer out of the cabinet and use it. Then I can once again appreciate what clumping, grinder modifications, brushing out the grinder between uses, and all the other issues I dealt with before are like. The M3 spoils me.

Well said , OPOTHER
I'll call for the " new wiper " ?! I'm way behind! now
I love the small foot print, the stable weight, the consistent quality grind and the easy care of it.


Nathan

My belt lasted for quite a while after my last post on this issue (deformed old worn out belt) but my grind quality recently went down hill (inconsistent pours) and the need to adjust the grind finer which I attributed to my recently replaced burrs wearing in (ascaso brand replacements.)

It was not the case at all. I finally got a new belt to put on and the first thing I noticed was the diameter of the belt was noticeably smaller and the color clear as opposed to the dull gold clear color of my old stretched and worn belt.

I got out my alcohol grain spirits and cleaned the pulleys as well as the new belt for good measure.

Slipping the new belt on was nowhere near as easy as slipping on the old worn belt.

With the grinder up and running with the new belt I noticed a few things one: it was quieter, two: I had to set the grind right back to the coarser settings it was on before to prevent the first couple of chokes my Brewtus experienced after installing the new belt, three: the grind and pours were consistent again, four: there was more popcorning due to the fact that torque was more brisk with the new belt.

To sum it up a worn out belt seems to have a significant detrimental (bad) effect on grind quality and required me to adjust my grind finer to help reduce but not totally eliminate inconsistent pours due to channeling. The frequent stalls during grinding (old belt slipping) were a pain too and inconsistent pours were present even when the worn out belt did not slip.

Since popcorning was much less with the worn belt I think the belt may have still been slipping unnoticed during grinding when it did not stall.


I wonder if the Burr change was even needed (the new burrs work fine by the way) but one thing I do know belt changes are needed if the belt wears out.

My belt lasted about 3 years with light use. The belt is made out of a pliable (stretching material) and uses friction (no teeth on belt) so I figure it will eventually stretch and need to be replaced whether it is used heavily or not.

I wonder if it would be wise to remove the belt when the grinder is not used for a period of time to prolong it's life, my previous belt was always on the grinder at all times.

I will think about this. Does anyone have any opinions ?

For quite a while my M3 has been missing 3 of the felt ??? pads (they are lost) that are supposed to be on the bottom to prevent the base from scratching the kitchen counter.

They do tend to flatten badly and come off over time. The one that was left is so flattened that when it was on the grinder you would be hard pressed to tell unless you looked under it.

I replaced them all with skitter dots (about $1.00 a dozen plus postage) that I purchased from Orphan espresso. These seem to be high quality tough non marking 1 inch diameter by 1/4 inch thick rubber disks that are by products from the manufacturing of the OE Pharos grinder counter pad. The rubber looks like the type of stuff used on the floors of public playgrounds.

They are perfect in size and probably would have been best attached using silicone gel but I did not have any so I used a hot glue gun instead. I have to say it works well and they look like they belong on the M3.

This green solution is in my opinion top of the line and highly recomended.

I will see how they do over time. I am optomistic.

Watching a youtube video I noticed a problem with the Versalab.

At 0:50



Shows not enough clearance between PF holder and the base, so some coffee drops and somehow you ruined the distribution created. Do you have problems with this? Why Versalab do not make the grinder a little taller? It would be easy to fix.

No I don't have that problem. My Rancilio and E61 portafilters as well as my bottomless triple fit just fine and leave enough space between base and grind funnel for me to clear the portafilter without disturbing the grinds.

One thing to note is I do not use a portafilter holder. I use my hand to hold the portafilter under the funnel.

I don't have that issue with my M3, and I do use the portafilter holder with a BZ07. Both the Bezzera portafilter and the Breville portafilter I have tried have enough clearance... but I only use doses up to about 18g. The M3 does have a very fluffy grind which makes a tall pile, so there isn't a lot of extra room. Is the Strega portafilter taller than most?

Thanks for answer. So perhaps is the strega PF...

I'd like to know something about the hopper. $375 for a hopper? Medium & short hoppers are listened at $420 Or this price refers to the hopper + the mechanism for the "bushings"?

The standard hopper looks giant... anyone have a pic with the short or the medium hopper?