I'm hoping to squeeze another year of life out of this lemon but if not then I'd like to get some recommendations for a grinder that doesn't need constant servicing just to achieve inconsistent results.

I had it replaced after about 9 months when the motor just died. Dealing with Baratza was a total PITA because I'm in Canada and I think Canadian customers are more of an annoyance for them to support.

About 6 months after getting it back the display started to die but I was willing to work around that.

After another few months the grind became so coarse I had to use the finest setting all the time. Also, the dial started jumping around on its own every time the motor ran making operating the grinder a two-hand job.

I decided to install the shim they included and it seemed to work well for a few seconds but now the machine vibrates horribly, produces almost no coffee, and makes a terrible laboured noise.

I've learned my lesson about Baratza, where should I go from here?

Thanks!

If it's any consolation, I suspect it's just the Sette. My Vario is now over ten years old and has never even once failed to grind. Despite ten years of rock hard, light, to overly light home roast. Finally after ten years, I sent it in to Baratza for their $80 factory refurbishment. It didn't need it. It was still running great, but what I wanted out of it was the metal burr holder and chamber from the Forte... which I got. And now I come to find out it can be easily hyper-aligned, to Monolith-level parallelism. Baratza Vario owner experience

Be aware that with Flat burr grinders, if you are going to be attempting to make large swings in grind size, back and forth between drip and espresso, that you should expect to have to run the adjustment levers up and down with the motor running to relive internal stresses when you are returning to your fine setting. This applies even to the Monolith Flat, which I also own. Ultimately many people who stick around espresso long enough, keep a separate grinder specifically for espresso.

-Peter

I would ask yourself:

Conical or Flat

Single Dose or Utilize Hopper

Price range

Post that here and we'll do our best to help.

I want to recommend the Niche if you SD but it is tricky because although it has been rock solid for us it is not old enough to have real long term testing done that says it can last lets say 10 years which is reasonable to ask of a grinder. Plus I miss the Flat burrs a bit of my Compak K8 but at the same time I like that I'm not chasing the grind every day on the Niche's conical.

truemagellen wrote:Plus I miss the Flat burrs a bit of my Compak K8 but at the same time I like that I'm not chasing the grind every day on the Niche's conical.

I'm a "flatter" by preference as well as long as it's well aligned. I have noticed the Monolith Flat is both more expensive and harder to find used than the conical. If I didn't already have a brushless DC speed controlled motor on my LWW 83mm conical, I'd look at the Niche to fill the, ahem, "niche" (pun intended) for a conical.

-Peter

I never expected I would miss the flat so much but the K8 is seriously underated amazing used deal. It is just hard to find doserless which you can mod. I actually liked the doser as I never messed with distribution at all, perfect everytime. buuuutt grinder was a huge mess lol.

Sette 270 was my first proper grinder so I have very little reference for comparison.

I drink espresso, latte, and cappuccino, I use a Rancilio Silvia for brewing. I loved the form factor of the sette. I want something I can set and forget, dose a few portafilters a day, and get more than a damned year out of without it breaking down. (I'm so irritated from caffeine withdrawals)


Obviously I'm totally soured on Baratza as a brand. I know they have a great reputation and a lot of products but there's no way I'd risk getting fooled again. If they'd let a product like this into the wild I just can't get behind them.

Right now I'm looking at Eureka Mignon series.

hedonsmbot wrote: Obviously I'm totally soured on Baratza as a brand. I know they have a great reputation and a lot of products but there's no way I'd risk getting fooled again. If they'd let a product like this into the wild I just can't get behind them.

So check it out... (I'm the one with a Vario that is still going strong after ten years and not a single breakdown). I obviously have no reason to be soured on Baratza. BUT After looking at the Sette since before it even came out, there was just something about it that looked fishy to me. Especially the blazing fast grinding speed combined with the models that weigh the dose. From an engineering standpoint, it looked and sounded like madness. It even soured me to the idea of the non-weighing version. That and the complex, non-user serviceable sealed drivetrain. So I hear you about the Sette.

The Vario on the other hand, especially now that I know how easy it is to get Monolith-level alignment in minutes with just a screwdriver and no shims, and personal experience with how durable it is, I would buy another one in a heartbeat if my ten year old one ever failed... which doesn't seem ever likely at this point. But there is simply no way I could consider not having the performance and durability of the Vario for the price. And I have a Monolith Flat. In a funny twist... I know the Vario is super durable. But I only suspect that my Monolith will be. Well built as it appears to be, we still don't know for sure. Will the brushless DC speed controller ever fail? I have 100% confidence in Denis making sure I get up and running again, but a failure is still a failure (if it happens... and I want to be clear that it has not).

-Peter

hedonsmbot wrote:Sette 270 was my first proper grinder so I have very little reference for comparison.

I drink espresso, latte, and cappuccino, I use a Rancilio Silvia for brewing. I loved the form factor of the sette. I want something I can set and forget, dose a few portafilters a day, and get more than a damned year out of without it breaking down. (I'm so irritated from caffeine withdrawals)


Obviously I'm totally soured on Baratza as a brand. I know they have a great reputation and a lot of products but there's no way I'd risk getting fooled again. If they'd let a product like this into the wild I just can't get behind them.

Right now I'm looking at Eureka Mignon series.

Definitely understand your aggravation as I had a Vario for years and it functioned quite well until different things started giving out on it. Got to the point where it was beyond worth me fixing it to have something else fail sooner or later. Gave it away for parts and sought out a long term/high performing grinder that likely will live/perform as long as I do. Baratza does have great customer service and parts availability, but I'd rather have a quality/long lasting product that doesn't have to be tweaked (shims, etc.) to stay dialed in and then rely on customer service for parts issues. Reminds me of Breville as both brands offer innovation/lots of features at a good price, but for the most part their products are disposable garbage. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but for the most part JUNK... Of course there are fanboys on many sites defending those brands, but whatever works for them so be it as it's likely short lived anyway.

If I ever need another grinder I'd only look at the Eureka line as they offer quality/longevity at a fair price.

When the Sette first came out I had the opportunity to try, listen, feel and compare to other grinders. Material quality and sound alone was enough to squash the online hype. As good as the grind results it was evident that the grinder lacked robustness as it was light weight, loud and used thinner inferior plastics while some competitors used metal casings. Sometimes you have to filter the marketing hype get out physically try and compare. I stepped back lifted each grinder and concluded that the Sette felt like a toy by comparison. Great in concept but poor in implementation. The Etzmax appears to be a more robust implementation although believe not available in North America. https://etzinger-ag.com/go-for-the-etzmax/grinders-en

Some replacement options include Eureka Mignon Specialita and up from Espressocoffeeshop or Lamacchinadelcaffe in Italy. Ask for a discount code.

Espresso_Junky wrote:Reminds me of Breville as both brands offer innovation/lots of features at a good price, but for the most part their products are disposable garbage.

LOL. Maybe. But I'm just hitting eight straight years on my Breville without a single failure of an actual system part or a failure to brew, and only a handful of dollar in maintenance parts, (o-rings and such). And the maintenance I have done has been brainlessly simple. Pop the top and do the o-rings. At what point do I need to start looking at the garbage heap? If you have firsthand knowledge of some kind of garbage heap worthy failures, there is an appropriate forum in which to share. Otherwise, FUD'ish empty claims with nothing to back them up come across as kind of trollish.

My ten year old Vario has been even better. And no Vario ever needs shims for alignment. It makes espresso like a Niche or a Super Jolly right out of the box. And if that's not good enough, you can align it like a Monolith, it takes just a few minutes and NO shims.

-Peter