One aspect I didn't see discussed here: cleaning. I own both a Vario (at home) and a Rocky (at work), and for the price difference (esp if you buy refurb directly from Baratza), I can't imagine anyone choosing the Rocky over the Vario, due to the Vario advantages: much faster grinding times, next to no clumping, basically stepless design, less grounds retention, easier cleanup.

The Rocky works well overall, but when it comes to cleaning it, it's a time consuming affair: screwdriver to remove screws, a million turns to unscrew the top burr carrier (which is hard to grip properly), hard to clean surfaces, pay attention to any tiny speck of coffee on the threads when reassembling, add back the teflon tape (without which the Rocky is just too erratic) and screw back the top burr carrier until the burrs touch, reassemble the plastic parts. If you left any ground coffee on the threads, it won't screw all the way in, and you need to repeat the process

On the Vario is a <60 seconds affair: remove the hopper by hand, untwist the top burr carrier by hand, brush/vacuum the inside, reassemble in seconds.

If you value your time at all, and clean your grinder at least once a month, the Vario pays for itself in no time

The Rocky is a peculiar grinder. It is an example of a common modern phenomenon--a machine that has outstanding general design, but contains some bad engineering. It also has some extraordinary and some not so good parts. The drive system and motor are nearly outstanding. However, the motor should have high quality ball or roller bearings to make it fully outstanding.

I dislike dosers on any household grinder so I have some difficulty understanding why they not only put one on one of their models, but a poor one at that. The doserless model has a defective chute that is difficult to clean, and with little effort they could make this perfect. The doserless should also be wired so that one switch turns it on continuously and the other for on-off operation. As it is, it requires three hands to adjust.

The really bad design is the click system that quantises grind. This is an extraordinarily bad design. The plastic housing with the 50 or 60 clicks should be a piece of die cast aluminium with brakes similar to the ones on bicycle wheels. This would give continuously adjustable grind. Instead of the printed PAPER scale, the grind fineness indicator should be a precision metal one, preferably with a vernier.

That Rancilio would make the hopper with the three recessed screws that fill full of beans and coffee debris is beyond comprehension. Why would anyone design something like that??

I have heard some imply that the new burrs are often not perfect. This is inexcusible for the price that is charged for them. Burrs should last for hundreds of kilos of coffee. I understand those on the Rocky do not!

What is odd is that dramatic improvements in this grinder could be made by the manufacturer at practically no cost to them. Those improvements would enable them to sell a lot of Rocky grinders.

At present a Rocky grinder is the best choice for someone who likes to modify otherwise well built machines with some flawed parts and designs.