What are, in your experience, the pros and cons of each technique regarding grind quality and convenience?

WDT, when done properly, is more bullet proof. WDT is silent and thwacking can be quite a disturbance. Thwacking is faster and more convenient.

You can't really look at this in isolation, since so much of the result depends on the grinder. Some doserless grinders need quite a lot of shot preparation, others almost none. Thwacking is largely unnecessary on some doser grinders, but very helpful on others - it can be messy on some, neat on others, too. WDT can make a big difference in some cases, much less in others.

So.....

What grinder do you use and what results are you getting? Or what grinder are you thinking of buying?

Cheers

Mike

I'm using a Santos #6 (http://www.santos.fr/6.html). I removed its doser because it doesn't seem to be suited for thwacking (unless it's defective?) and I'm using it as a doserless.
The reason why I'm asking this question is that I find the grind remaining in the (huge!) exit funnel to be much fluffier than the one I get after I applied the WDT. The result in the cup is far better than with my rocky, but I think my grind is not as even as it could be.
Cheers
C.

michaelbenis wrote:Thwacking is largely unnecessary on some doser grinders, but very helpful on others

What grinders is it unnecessary on?

Versalab M3?

It depends (sorry).

1 - there are very few doserless grinders that don't have static issues.
2 - some dosers produce very clump-free coffee and others don't.
3 - some grinders produce an even and "fluffy" grind and others don't.


Fundamentally (and this is just my opinion), the "thwack" technique is pretty much required if you want to get fluffy grounds (vital for low doses and consistency) and low clump coffee from a grinder with a doser. Doing this well requires some skill and a fair amount of practice if you want good quality and consistent shots. When done right and with sufficient skill and practice, it yields results of equal quality with far greater ease and less time than what you would get from the WDT/doserless approach.

If you have a doserless grinder, with very few exceptions you are going to need to do something like the WDT if you want to get high quality and consistent results. There are very few doserless grinders that don't produce static-charged and "clumpy" coffee. With these grinders you need some sort of methodology to break up the clumps and get even distribution of coffee within the bed. The WDT is the most common of these methodologies among home baristas. The combination of WDT and doserless requires less skill and practice to get good and consistent shots that the doser and Thwack technique, but is more of a PITA in all ways.

cafeIKE wrote:Versalab M3?

The statement was that some grinders with dosers didn't require the Thwack technique.

You mean like this one :


from http://www.versalab.com/server/coffee/grindernew.html


No one said the doser had to be after the burrs

that's a hopper, not a doser.