Good morning everybody,

I am a new member in the forum and I would like to ask you some questions if possible

First my setup:

Rancilio Silvia with PID installed. I had previously a Baratza Vario, then a Mazzer Mini Electronic A and now I am without a grinder

I am looking first to upgrade my grinder and I was considering to do a major upgrade. The grinder is for home use, so I would prefer not to have great retention, like the 10-15gr of the Mahlkonig Peak. 2-4 double espressos per day. The coffee I drink is light-medium roasted.

In the coming months, I hope to finally obtain a GS/3 MP, if my wife does not kill me first

Another thing I started to like is V60 and cold brew coffee, so I would like the possibility that the grinder could change to coarser settings then back to fine without a problem. If there is no such grinder, then I would prefer to focus now on the normal espresso grinder.

Between Mythos Clima Pro and the normal Mythos of the Simonelli are there other differences apart from the cooling system?
Because I understand that for home use, there is not such a need to have this cooling system enabled. Is there something else that I am missing, apart from the aesthetics?

Another proposal is the Mahlkonig K30, do you have any feedback regarding this grinder, probably some pros and cons especially for home usage and comparison to the Mythos Clima Pro?

Do you have another possible choice for me?
I have read some of the respective threads for these grinders but was looking also for your personal view on this.

Thanks again and sorry for the long post.

Your post is excellent because it details many of the things we'd normally need to suss out before giving you worthwhile recommendations. The retention game can be tricky, there's many options available for low retention and it comes down to how much work you want to do to minimize retention on some of these, i.e. bump and brush with common dosered conical grinders. You won't get three or four posts in to a buying advice thread for a grinder without someone mentioning the Kafetec grinders that are garnering pretty much universal praise for their design and low retention and other positive attributes. Your import duties and exchange rate may make them cost prohibitive relative to what we'd pay, but they're still going to cost less than a Clima Pro and likely work a heck of a lot better for what you need.

There really isn't a cooling system between the Mythos Clima Pro and the base model, it's the active heat regulation system that heats the dose in the burr chamber. The Clima Pro may not be something a low use home user would be able to really capitalize on, it's more designed for cafe use.

I would pay close attention to the Kafetec Flat discussions and inquire with actual owners how often they can easily switch from coarse drip to espresso. Knowing that it's often a bit too much of a hassle for a high end home user to want to dial back in for espresso, often leads folks who can afford these good grinders to already have a second dedicated drip grinder. But that doesn't mean that one couldn't be used as such.

The EG-1 from LWW is now out (sooner for some countries relative to the US market) and while it too can do the same basic job, the indexed pin and slot adjustment means it would be a tad bit fiddlier to adjust from one end of the spectrum to the other quickly and easily. But the upside is that your grind setting won't drift or be hard to re-locate again and again.

I'm forgetting at the moment where things are in the development of the new EK43 Barista model, but it seems to be a very well designed grinder that should be capable of doing both jobs quickly, easily and with very little retention as well.

Very important question - do you mind or are you planning to single dose at all?

To switch back and forth between different brew methods, single dosing is the only way. Thus the Monolith will be the better choice.

As Tom has mentioned, the Clima's feature is more relevant for cafe use (unless aesthetic is a big factor - Clima has a different front cover and a smaller hopper, and a slower rpm too if that matters).


Having owned both K30 ES and Mythos Plus (Mythos Ti-coated burrs with the clump crusher), my opinion is they're both excellent grinders for hoppered dosing. Can't go wrong with either. Consistent dosing and manageable retention (not zero). Acceptable pour/extraction without needing to WDT. Dispense nicely into filter basket with little mess - unless you're grossly overdosing. Just good grinders doing what grinders are supposed to do.

You will still need to purge on both, and both are not great for single dosing (workflow issue). The biggest differences between the two are the look of the grinder (duh ), and the loudness. The Mythos has an unconventional look (odd aspect ratio) for a grinder and is deep in dimension. Quite tall too. The K30 is fat and round. You have the option for short hopper. The Mythos is not super noisy but the K30 is quieter.

Thank you very much for your proposals and feedback TomC.

Kafatec products look very appealing to the eye, both the flat and the conical units.

However the problems with non US citizens are many. The import duties sometimes might reach +70% of the initial amount of the product, depending on the importers mood..

The other issue with these grinders is that the support of the product outside US might be close to non-existent, meaning if I have to send back the grinder if a problem arises, then imagine the waiting time to have it back in my hands. Last but not least, these grinders are not yet known to Europe, so if I wanted to sell them in the future, the demand for them will be very limited.

Tom, when you mentioned the new AK 43, do you mean a new model that appeared, which it had an option to manually adjust the rotating speed of the burrs? I think that wheel was located on the side of the grinder.

I will look further in the Kafetec threads for some users feedback, too bad that import duties exist

So for now, you suggest that the simple Mythos will do the job, compared to Mythos Clima pro, for home use?

Thanks again!

Edit: Thanks Samuel for the feedback. I do agree that Mythos looks are somewhat strange, especially if you try to fit it in a kitchen. My main concern is also to avoid clumping in the basket, my Mazzer mini had issues with that.. I would not mind some small retention, 2-5gramms.

I have already some additional tools to help me level the basket, such as the OCD tool, at least know my leveling is perfect.

No I do not plan to single dose in general Samuel.

One last question is, does a grinder exists that does not just throws the coffee in the basket, but also distributes it inside perfectly, without the need of WDT afterwards?

Tom.....your quote:
"I would pay close attention to the Kafetec Flat discussions and inquire with actual owners how often they can easily switch from coarse drip to espresso. Knowing that it's often a bit too much of a hassle for a high end home user to want to dial back in for espresso, often leads folks who can afford these good grinders to already have a second dedicated drip grinder. But that doesn't mean that one couldn't be used as such."


Tom...I don't know where the hassle comes from that you refer to. I do it all the time. I have used both the FLAT and the CONICAL Monolith's for pour overs and espresso. I make notes on the label of each coffee container the last setting that I used for espresso with both grinders. However setting it for coarser/pour overs is not required to be as precise as for fine/espresso. Resetting to the previous espresso setting takes seconds and I have never seen any variation from the previous "dialed in" setting. Now, remembering to reset it to espresso has been an issue several times but that's my fault. Both of the grinders are extremely quiet in operation and take up a very small amount of real estate on the home bench. They were created by and designed for the home barista. I have been using a Monolith Conical for close to four years now and a FLAT for around 6 months. I no longer wake up my wife when making espresso at 4AM in the morning. So, the WAF is a huge benefit. Either grinder would eliminate the need to have a separate grinder for pour overs which would save space and dollars.

Gataros wrote: My main concern is also to avoid clumping in the basket, my Mazzer mini had issues with that.. I would not mind some small retention, 2-5gramms.

I have already some additional tools to help me level the basket, such as the OCD tool, at least know my leveling is perfect.

One last question is, does a grinder exists that does not just throws the coffee in the basket, but also distributes it inside perfectly, without the need of WDT afterwards?

No clump for either. You can likely keep the OCD in the drawer. All grinders will benefit at least a little from WDT. But some can't do without it and will spritz and channel big time without WDT. WDT is optional for K30 & Mythos, but it makes your pour looks even better. If you feel lazy, just grind and tamp, will still be 90% good. Of course it will also depend on other factors - which filter basket (VST or others), preinfusion, brew pressure etc.

Indeed the Flat Burr Monolith looks very tempting, however I imagine that production levels are very low.

I sent an enquiry to Kafatek about delivery times, let's see how they will respond.

I could not resist, happily preordered a Monolith Flat!