This new grinder from Compak is now shipping. Anyone had chance to try it?

Hi,

I have the new Compak E10 master since about 3 weeks. It is fast and big, i had reservation at first coming from a good 64mm flat burr Ceado. I'm now able to pull very good shot , better than my Ceado.

I use the short K3 hopper. The electronic controls are easy to use . The more i use it the more i like it. I wanted the polished aluminium version but it is not available. Finally i beginning to like the black matt finish. I will put black matt cups on my Quickmill to balance the look.

I'm satisfied of my purchase

Nice looking grinder you have there!

Any thoughts about retention with this grinder?

Hi,

There is about a table spoon (TBSP) worth of coffee in the chute. It takes about 7 secs for a double basket when i single dose. It is about 4 sec with the hopper full.

I use a little brush and 3 short motor stroke to dislodge the coffee.

If there is coffee under the burr, i do not know. I will wait to see a maintenance video on how to clean the burrs.

When i single dose i have to dial 4 point finer.

20 on the dial for single dose and 24 on the dial with the hopper full

New to the forum and wanted to pass on some early observations with Compak E10 OD. Upgraded to Vetrano 2b last year from Andreja Premium and used Mazzer Mini manual/dosed all along. When I upgraded, I tried everything I could read and modify to get more consistent pours, avoid uneven extractions and overall better espresso. Got VST filter baskets ( 20gm) , fiddled with dosing, headspace, grind- didnt fix. Always weighed doses with Hario scale and always timed shots, aiming for 25-28 secs and 32-35 grams of espresso in cup with consistent 18 or 20grams doses. Still suffered from inconsistent and uneven extractions using my bottomless portafilter (which I always used).

Combining this experience with reading lots in this forum, I knew it was time to upgrade. Researched K30 Vario and big conics. Almost bought the K30 but couldn't find enough about it online to sway me. Intrigued about extraction qualities attributed to big conics vs big flats. Was converted with discussions on big conics and looked at options for Canadian purchase. Settled on Compak E10 OD which just arrived. It really did take 2 lbs to dial in the dose, time ( if anyone has shortcuts, please post) as the grinder came with collar at finest setting. Once I got the right grind size dialed in , then I customized the timer to give 20 gram dose using the #2 button. Its pretty consistent so far now but by weight , doses can vary slightly eg 0.5 gm ( maybe retention) but too early to tell.

Here is what I wanted to read before I upgraded and didn't find: upgrading from Mazzer Mini to Compak OD fixed all the above, and was absolutely justified. Consistency of pours is phenomenal- even with sloppy technique, no sink shots or sprays- most shots, video perfect quality. More importantly, the taste profile of my go to espresso is incredible- aromas I haven't even experienced, subtle, floral, pure, rich coffee smell. Flavour as everyone eludes to compared with flats, is juicy, bright and complex. Its like a whole world.

In summary, upgrading to this grinder gave me exactly what I was looking for and justified the upgrade without any question. I have every confidence that no cafe in this city could give me a better cup at this stage.

herring choker: thanks for your post! great info and comforting to hear of your success with the grinder.

I have been eyeing the Compak E10 OD as my next grinder, as I will be passing on my HG-1 to another with an upcoming move. If I do not buy another HG-1 I would buy the Compak E10. The HG-1 has been great but I need something quicker for my morning routine and with a quicker shot-on-shot turnaround time.

I have a few concerns in switching from single dosing on the HG1 to the on demand E10, I am hoping you or others could address:

I have kept a log of my HG1 grind settings in relation to the 3-6 of my favorite coffee blends and Single Origins I buy from 3 separate sources. I can then reference my grind setting from the previous time I used those beans, and thereby guarantee a dialed in shot to within 1-3 +/- notches on the HG-1, resulting in decreased waste and pretty darn good shots at the first try right out of the bag.

My question: With the E10 grinder, is there any grind setting indication that I could continue to mark or record the location of the E10 grind setting knob, as I currently do with my HG-1, so that I can record the setting used on the E10? (i.e. notches, numbers, etc?)

Thanks very much for your assistance!

There is a number with notches on the e10. Mine has been working flawlessly for the past couple months and I swear that it is the easiest to use grinder I have tried. My path started with a cimbali max hybrid, pharos modded, hg1, ek43 and then the e10. The E10 is a no fuss press the button get coffee, tamp and extract type process. No WDT, no water drop techniques and no nutating to get a decent extraction.

Flavor wise it is better than the Pharos and hg1 and satisfies my pallet better than the ek43. The EK misses on the crema front.

Thought I would post a reply to indicate that I just took receipt of the E10 yesterday. Wow this grinder is massive, coming from an HG-1 and never owning a full sized pro grinder of this sort in the past.

I'm curious to learn from any other owners any tips, tricks, or recommendations you have after using it for some time.

Do you use preselect or automatic modes?

What are your 1,2,3 time settings?

What is your grind adjustment setting?

Have you learned how to clean the burrs? How often do you clean inside the burrs?

Does anyone use the grinder for drip or french? What are your settings for this?

Very excited to use this grinder more. It is beautiful and first few baskets worth far surpass the consistency of anything I ground with the HG1.

Thank you all,
Ben

BladeAndStone wrote:I'm curious to learn from any other owners any tips, tricks, or recommendations you have after using it for some time.

Just picked up an E10 and have only had a couple of days so far with it. I'm also interested in answers to your questions from other E10 users, so hoping that by responding I can get this thread active again.

BladeAndStone wrote:Do you use preselect or automatic modes?

I'm using the preselect mode where you set the times for doses 1, 2, and 3, then use the touchpad to select the dose you want, and a push of the portafilter activated button starts the dose. I spoke with someone at Compak and asked them which of the three modes they recommend and they said preselect is what they mainly use.

BladeAndStone wrote:What are your 1,2,3 time settings?

Right now I've got it set up with dose 1 at 1 sec (for a quick purge or to dose a few extra grams), dose 2 at about 3 sec for about a 16 gram dose but I still need to calibrate this, and dose 3 at 10 sec for times when I'm single dosing when more time is necessary to fully empty the burrs and grind chamber.

BladeAndStone wrote:What is your grind adjustment setting?

Current setting while I'm single dosing is right about 16. From what I've read when hopper dosing you need to adjust about 4 settings coarser, so that would mean about 20. When making adjustments to the grind I've noticed it doesn't take a lot of movement. The pitch of the threads seems like it must be steeper than what I'm used to on the HG one. Definitely not as easy to adjust as the HG one. But to make it a little easier I've been leaving the burr collar lock knob loose. First, you really don't need to tighten it at all because of the design of the upper burr carrier - the bottom section of the upper burr carrier has a pin that prevents it from turning when grinding and the upward pressure cannot overcome the friction to turn the burr carrier. Second, people I've spoke with at a dealer and at Compak noted that it's easy to strip that screw if you overtighten it. It's totally replaceable and they have replaced the aluminum version with a steel version on models manufactured after June 2015. But my feeling is why mess with it if it effectively serves no real purpose.

BladeAndStone wrote:Have you learned how to clean the burrs? How often do you clean inside the burrs?

I took the burrs out to inspect and clean them when I got it since the machine I got was used as a demo. I also found the adjustment to be a little stiff because the bottom and top sections of the upper burr carrier did not seem to rotate separately very well as they need to do when making adjustments. After taking apart the upper burr assembly I regreased it with food safe grease, reassembled, and reinstalled the upper burr. Now it works much smoother.

BladeAndStone wrote:Does anyone use the grinder for drip or french? What are your settings for this?

Nope, and no plans to do that. Would not want to be adjusting it that much anyhow.

BladeAndStone wrote:Very excited to use this grinder more. It is beautiful and first few baskets worth far surpass the consistency of anything I ground with the HG1.

I'm also moving to the E10 from an HG one, but I wouldn't necessarily agree with this. So far I've found the HG one to be more consistent, mostly because it's a lot easier to get a consistent sized dose with it than the E10. If you consistently measure the beans going in with the HG one you get a consistent output. With the E10 you can't really rely on that with single dosing so you need to measure after dosing as well. I think I'm going to try hopper dosing when I get my K3 hopper and see how that goes as I'll only need to measure once - post grinding. The downside though will be the need to purge before a new session. Overall I haven't had enough chance to play with it yet, but the good pours I've had have resulted in a longer time before blonding than the HG one.

A few other observations, I dislike excess noise so I turned off the touchpad beeps, which is a nice feature. I'm a little surprised at how noisy the fan is though. It's a little bit of a nuisance to have it running all the time, so I've been switching the machine off when not using. From what I've heard the results in the cup are better with hopper dosing so I'm looking forward to trying that - if so, it will have been worth picking up. At the very least it will make entertaining a lot easier.

Curious what others, with more experience, have to say about the E10.

This grinder rocks.