The ProM was a brilliant piece of industrial design that fit home spaces and had a burr set that punched way above its class. With just a little more engineering and QC, it would have been very successful. As it stands now, with Mahlkoenig trying to resolve brain box issues with their supplier and all their American distributors having dropped it, I don't know what its future is.

A replacement fuse just arrive from Mahlkonig, and it's working again! So, "electrical suicide" was a bit of an overstatement (unless it fails again in the near future). Of course, I still have no idea what caused the fuse to blow.

Anyway, I'm still buying the K30 Vario.

I hope you have the time to do a head to head comparison.

That would be interesting.

It's hard to do a fair head-to-head, since the grind on the ProM was too coarse after the repair (even after I re-calibrated), and I had to updose to get a decent shot. When the burr carriage was properly adjusted, it was a very nice machine.

The K30 arrived yesterday. It took about 5 shots to get it dialed in (4 seconds at #2 grind setting). It is a dream to adjust. You just loosen the top screw and turn the lid. The grinder does not have to be running. There is little or no waste or mess. I got some spillage when interrupting to tap and settle the fluffy grind. I solved that by re-setting the time to 2 seconds and not doing the settling tap until it stops. Then I reinsert the portafilter for the second 2 seconds.

I am sure I will play around with it to see how different doses and grinds affect the cup.

This may be the honeymoon phase, but I like the K30 very much. A big plus is that, with the small hopper, it is about the same height as the ProM and fits under my counter quite nicely.