Almico wrote:Candlelight was so much better. Best thanksgiving ever.

Nice! I guess my minor equipment meltdown pales in comparison to your story but I'm so glad you pressed on and made it a memorable evening.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love my Eureka Mignon Specialita. Fantastic little machine, looks great, small footprint, quality built, very consistent grind, low retention, but I only do espresso.

txxt wrote:cross-post on reddit

Apologies for cross posting, didn't mean to spam people with my post but can totally see how it would be annoying. I've been a lurker for many years but still new to posting so I'll keep it in mind for next time. Thanks for pointing it out.

Do you have a link to the comments about the Niche Zero muddying the brew? Most of what I've found here are glowing reviews and endorsements bordering on fanboism hehe

DJL wrote:Love my Eureka Mignon Specialita. Fantastic little machine, looks great, small footprint, quality built, very consistent grind, low retention, but I only do espresso.

Those pictures look stunning and thanks for the feedback on the machine it seems to tick all of my boxes and that chrome finish looks great!

I have the same red leveler and really enjoy it love that silicon base you got for it. Out of curiosity that looks like a Profitec portafilter, what kind of machine do you have?

juandg wrote:Do you have a link to the comments about the Niche Zero muddying the brew? Most of what I've found here are glowing reviews and endorsements bordering on fanboism hehe

I opened the Niche Zero long thread and in the Search this topic... box near the top of the page I typed "brew". On the second page a few posts down you can see some relevant remarks. search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... 1&start=10

About a month or two ago my Baratza Virtuoso conked out on me. Not during a meal with lots of guests fortunately. But needless to say I didn't get to enjoy my morning coffee that day. Anyway, I sent an email to Baratza and I had a response from a real person there within 30 minutes. They had me run a few diagnostic tests and quickly determined it was the motor. The person then sent me another email that had a video attached showing how to replace the motor in a Virtuoso and asked me if I could handle such an operation. After watching the video I decided I was up to the task so I told him I could do it and he said he was sending me a new motor. I had the new motor within 3 days. Took me about an hour in total to remove the old motor and install the new one. And I was back up and running.

So, given my own experience I suggest you do two things:

1) Email Baratza about your problem. They may cover the cost of any replacement parts and you can fix it yourself. And use the Vario for all of your non-espresso coffee needs.

2) Go out and get yourself that new grinder your lovely wife has given you the green light to purchase and use it for espresso. And when she asks how the old Vario started working again, tell her that you were able to get your hands one some parts and miraculously was able to get it running again, but who knows how long it will last.

You'll then have all of your coffee grinding needs covered. No need to thank me. I know I'm awesome.

juandg wrote: Those pictures look stunning and thanks for the feedback on the machine it seems to tick all of my boxes and that chrome finish looks great!

I have the same red leveler and really enjoy it love that silicon base you got for it. Out of curiosity that looks like a Profitec portafilter, what kind of machine do you have?

Thanks! The portafilter is made by Rocket it can be used on many non-Rocket E61 machines, my espresso machine is a 2019 Quickmill Andreja Premium Evo.

MntnMan62 wrote:And use the Vario for all of your non-espresso coffee needs.

Thanks MntnMan62, you are definitely awesome, sorry to hear about your Virtuoso, but I'm glad you were able to get it back to working order.

Unfortunately the root of my problem is that I haven't been happy with the Vario's performance on the brew side of the grind spectrum for quite some time now and that's why I don't want to keep it as a brew dedicated grinder. I guess I could keep it for Espresso since it performs OK there and get a Baratza Encore for brew, but it would be compromises all around.

I've had the Vario for 5 years, first with the ceramic burrs, but early this year those were getting old and dull and the coarse grind was very inconsistent, so I replaced them with the new Steel burrs and that made a big difference but it was still not great. Even calibrating it for burrs touching at 1A (which effectible makes it useless beyond basic Espresso) the grind was still too fine for Chemex and large brew batches. I decided it was an OK compromise for having an all purpose grinder, so moved it back to be calibrated at 2Q (giving me a bit more Espresso range) and learned to accept the longer draw downs on Chemex and batch brew as long as the taste was good (I managed to adjust my doses, etc. But still not ideal)

That was 6 months ago and then last week the motor stops, so you can see why I hesitate to keep it specially as a brew dedicated grinder. My suspicion is that all the plasticky parts inside the Vario are starting to wear out causing alignment issues and maybe even this recent motor issue. The only option I see to keep it, is actually sending it in to Baratza and having them refurbish it somehow so that it performs better for brew.

DJL wrote:The portafilter is made by Rocket

Ah I guess it's a common design since it looks similar to the my Profitec portafilter, maybe they source the PFs from the same third-party

You have a beautiful set-up and I think based on all the reading I've done in the past few days and the recommendations from owners like you, the Eureka Mignon Specialita is now moving to the top of my list