Helo everyone! I have reacently been looking to by a rancilio silvia espresso machine to replace my bialetti moka pot. I of course long for real espresso but there is only one problem. If I am going to buy the vario or sette grinder from baratza I will land at a total sum of 1000$ wich is a litle high for a 18 year old studying in college. I have looked at the rocky grinder wich will only cost me about 250$ and is much cheaper than the sette or vario. But some people talk about this grinder like its horrible and wont get the job done? My question to all of you is, would I be wrong if i bought the rocky and then uppgraded later down the line? Intstead of dropping 1000 dollars on my first setup.

I would recommend going at it the other way around and save for a good grinder first and then buy a Silvia.

It will be difficult to dial in a shot when you are first starting and you want to eliminate the grinder as the cause, by buying a nice grinder.

Remember the nice grinder can be used for your moka pots as well before you buy an espresso machine.

Another option for grinder are hand grinders. You can get a very good quality grind for a slightly cheaper price, because it is human powered. I believe the most popular ines right now are: LIDO and Pharos (Orphan Espresso), Kinu, Commandante, and Fieldgrind.

No experience with the Sette and based on what I've read I will likely never bother with one. I did have a Vario and don't miss it one bit. The grind quality was good, but the consistency wasn't. Especially after cleaning or accidentally bumping the lever(s) out of place it was a pain to dial back in at times. Then over time I started having issues with the cheap parts giving out... the microswitch, the hopper lip cracking, the external housing cracking and finally the circuit board went up in smoke. I gave the piece of crap away for parts. I've been rolling with a Rocky since and it works quite well for me. I've owned or used some good home/commercial grinders and what I get out of the Rocky totally works and I have no reason to ever spend more time or money looking for anything else. It gets bashed often, but for the grind quality, build quality, price and longevity I see nothing matching it.

Leofar2 wrote:Helo everyone! I have reacently been looking to by a rancilio silvia espresso machine to replace my bialetti moka pot. I of course long for real espresso but there is only one problem. If I am going to buy the vario or sette grinder from baratza I will land at a total sum of 1000$ wich is a litle high for a 18 year old studying in college. I have looked at the rocky grinder wich will only cost me about 250$ and is much cheaper than the sette or vario. But some people talk about this grinder like its horrible and wont get the job done? My question to all of you is, would I be wrong if i bought the rocky and then uppgraded later down the line? Intstead of dropping 1000 dollars on my first setup.

Have you considered a fully manual set-up? Something like a Kin M47 and a Robot? I haven't experienced the Robot, but I do have a Kinu M47 and love it.
I also have a La Pavoni Professional at home and a Portaspresso for travel, and many times I end up using the Portaspresso instead of La Pavoni. There are other options out there like the Flair and Espresso Forge that seem to work very well.

For what it's worth -- I've had a Vario for about a year with no issues.

Do you want to make milk drinks? If not, for the espresso machine I suggest you consider a Cafelat Robot (regular without the gauge and a professional basket). It's very forgiving compared to pump machines, and will give you tasty espresso. I enjoy the manual aspect of making the shot by pushing down the arms. It's designed and built to very high standards, yet since it is not complicated, it's relatively affordable. That will give you a little more flexibility with your grinder budget, whatever direction you decide to go. I have a fancy lever machine at home, and even so, I have been using the Robot instead lately. There's plenty of user experience to read about it here: Cafelat Robot User Experience

Couple more budget options

https://www.espressocoffeeshop.com/coff ... nder-black

https://www.espressocoffeeshop.com/coff ... ee-grinder

Difference is they are finely adjustable. The Rocky is not.

Flair + Sette 270 makes me very happy last six months. Gaggia Classic (similar to Silvia) gathering dust on my counter.

Have a look at the Bezzera BB005 grinder. It isn't very expensive and will give great results. Besides hand grinders I can't think of any grinder in that price range performing better. It'll keep up with the Silvia easily and they seem to last a very long time. It's just slow and noisy but the Sette is much louder.

You can also have a look at a second hand commercial grinder with doser and remove the autofill. Then you'll have 64mm flat burrs and a grinder build like a tank for around $200-250.

I have the BB005 and can say it's a good grinder for it's price range. I don't find it noisy but it is a little bit messy with a 54mm portafilter
Can't say what it would be like with standard 58mm.

Cheers

Randy