Hi, I have a Breville Barista Express BES870XL. The grinder on it seems just alright, and I'm no expert but the grounds seem to be very inconsistent.

I also just bought a Espro P7 French Press that I haven't used yet, and the Breville Grinder doesn't make very good coarse grinds and I don't want to break the grinder seeing it was only meant for espresso.

So I've been doing a crazy amount of research to find either the best French Press grinder or one that could do both Espresso and Coarse Grinds. The only one that has been recommended for both is kinda expensive which is the Rancilio Rocky Doserless Grinder.

The 2 grinders I've been looking at just for French Press are the Baratza Encore or the Krups Conical Burr Grinder with Scale GX430851

The Krups has a scale which I like but barley any reviews on it, plus Krups rebadges a lot of there products these days. The Encore seems to be the go to for many.

I was thinking of the Baratza Virtuoso but that might be too much and Seattle Coffee Gear said it's better for Espresso not that great for French press.

Any info would be great, seeing I would like to pull the trigger on one this week.

I don't have any particular grinder make/model recommendations, just a couple of thoughts.

You are highly unlikely to ruin the grinder in your Barista by turning it to coarser for French press. I did that all the time in mine.

If you use the non-pressurised baskets in your Braista, you've probably already discovered the problem with using a grinder for espresso and for other uses. That is, the vast majority of grinders need a shot or two to 'dial in' for espresso, even if you return the settings to where they were before grinding for other uses. On the other hand, if you're using the pressurised baskets this is much less of an issue.

My recommendation would be to use two grinders, one for espresso and one for your French press. Since the grinder in your Barista seems to be working reasonably well for you, I'd use that for espresso until it dies, then get a proper espresso-capable grinder (or just dump the Barist fro something better + an espresso grinder). You're lucky, I had three Breville Baristas and apart from one that had a good grinder the others were terrible. Breville has revised the internal grinder since I had mine; perhaps they're better now. That extra grinder adjustment they put inside was certainly an essential upgrade. Until then everyone was messing with home made shims (crummy solution) or removing the grinder and readjusting the mechanism (I found this best).

Yeah the coffee beans that I bought for the Espro P7 were flavored and oily and the the Breville was struggling with them, and that's the first time it's struggled.I then decided to get a grinder specifically for the P7.


I can only get lucky to pull a great double shot with this Breville machine. I know you need to waste some beans dialing in the proper grind but if I get the proper grind and the pressure gauge is where it needs to be, and I have 16.5g-18.5g in my Porta filter, with I think 30 pound tamper pressure, then it takes about 38 seconds instead of the 26 seconds recommend and I count after the pre infusion. And I usually don't get 2oz, always short. Today it was very sour and that was in a latte. I also have a Breville Milk Cafe for the Froth.

My medium roast beans are 3 weeks old in an air tight container.

I'm thinking about returning the P7 and buying the Breville Grind and Brew and putting a good warranty on it seeing all these types of machines have issues but that is the best of them.

I'll wait to buy a better Super Automatic espresso/coffee machine like the Jura E8 when I could afford it in the future.

I had a Capresso infinity grinder for the french press - worked great, but finally bit the dust. I have a Niche Zero in transit that I am going to try for French Press & Cold Brew. Most reviews have been for the espresso grind the Niche produces, but supposedly will go to a FP grind. It will serve as a back up to my LWW HG-1 for Espresso if needed.

My BBE could only grind for espresso at 1-3. I had to disassemble and readjust the wheel to move the burrs closer. I'd think at 20 it could be coarse enough for the press, but never tried it.

BrevilleMan wrote:I can only get lucky to pull a great double shot with this Breville machine. I know you need to waste some beans dialing in the proper grind but if I get the proper grind and the pressure gauge is where it needs to be, and I have 16.5g-18.5g in my Porta filter, with I think 30 pound tamper pressure, then it takes about 38 seconds instead of the 26 seconds recommend and I count after the pre infusion. And I usually don't get 2oz, always short. Today it was very sour and that was in a latte.

Mike, don't worry about it's taking 38 seconds instead of the 26 or the gauge being too high. The slower it runs, the tastier (less sour) is the shot. Use the manual mode to control the volume (or better, get a scales and control the weight) or reprogram the button to run longer and cut it off manually.
Also, let it heat up with the portafilter locked in the group for 30 min after you turn it on. I was getting sour shots until I figured that out.