osanco wrote:Has anyone seen one of these yet? I got an email about a month ago and was sort of intrigued. Crossed my fingers, wired some money, and yesterday opened the box.

We'll be demo'ing this and the Tonino roast color meter at SCAA Big Central US Coffee Championships Nov 7th -9th here in Minneapolis. Weather permitting, we'll be doing roaster demonstrations outside too.

Thanks for sharing information about this new grinder, but please read the site's guidelines on Vendor participation in the forums. Since you're in the business of selling roasting and espresso equipment, this thread falls under the category of "posting opinions, product/service offerings, or critiques of competitive products." Normally we would delete such a thread as a commercial post, but since there's already some level of interest, I'll allow this one-time exception. Thanks for your consideration.

osanco wrote:I don't know anything about "no brand" Ebay grinders, but neither do I know exactly who the manufacturer is yet. It could be the guys I'm buying from or not.

I'm still just playing around with it, but so far it's pretty cool.

To the OP, the grinder you posted clearly has a brand name of some sort of info as well as a model type; right by the dosing display. I'm sure the underside of the grinder has an info sticker or plate as well.

I'm just confused as to why you are purposely being vague as to where you bought it and from whom ("crossed my fingers, wired some money"), and the brand/manufacturer (when the info is clearly marked).

No, I'm not being intentionally vague, this isn't a marketing ploy. My near vision is such that I can't read the marking and I haven't had a moment to figure much of anything out.

I apologize for running afoul of the "vendor" post guidelines. I just wondered if anyone else had seen one. I got an email from a Chinese vendor with pics and prices and wired money for a sample. I don't know who the manufacturer is yet. Frankly, I'm not sure I care. I guess it's possible I'm the first one stupid enough to buy one, but after using it, I have no regrets.

Re. the Ebay link: I see that's the same "no name" grinder North Coffee Equipment sends us in the roaster crates and I keep a couple around just for grins. I don't have them on our ebay store, but I think they're pretty. I guess I know something about "no-name grinders" after all, but I don't have a clue as to who makes those either.

If its a Chinese supplier, you will probably never find out who the "manufacturer" was.
Often equipment in china is assembled to a spec under a supply contract, from a collection of parts supplied by any one of thousands of companies..again made to a spec or simply copied from an existing unit.
The best you could realistically hope for is to know who the assembly shop was.
North CE do look like a possible source since they seem to claim that "no name" grinder as theirs.
Either way it will have to be cheap ( < $500 ?) to entice any buyers to take a chance on an unbranded , Chinese supplied, grinder.
..even if it is a pretty color !

The grinder adjustment collar looks like a http://www.heycafe.com/en/, if so then they are decent people and been building since 2006. The owner Ilan is a very smart guy. They had a very clever home machine last year at Host. They do OEM stuff as well as their own brand.

Yes that collar shows up on several of the Chinese sourced grinders, but like many other components,..burrs, motors, etc etc , i suspect its a generic Chinese "pick'n mix" part...so knowing who actually makes them is not easy.
North CE show pictures of batches of grinder components which look very similar to those on the HeyCafe site.
.. but that does not necessarily mean either of them actually make those parts..or even assemble the final grinder !
Grinders are pretty basic mechanically, but as we know, they are not all equal, and you only need a few cheap bearings, fragile switches, or weak motor insulation to render it a dud.