Step up grinder from Niche Zero > Weber Key? - Page 2

#11: Post by **JB90068** » December 5th, 2022, 9:23 am

sluflyer06 wrote:I just have a conversation starter around the key...why are all the forums flooded with people selling them?

I've also read their alignment is not good but I haven't paid much attention to the key since my grinder path is elsewhere.

I can't speak about other people's bad experiences with the Key as I honestly don't personally know anyone that has had issues. The few friends of mine, along with myself that have a Key are very satisfied. The only thing that had to be fixed on mine, was three magnets that hold up the magic tumbler had come loose and had to be re-glued. This took me all of two minutes to fix. Otherwise for the past nine months that I've been using mine, it has performed flawlessly and as I mentioned, fills a grinding gap that my EG doesn't. I originally bought it to use as a pour over grinder. I've found that pour over coffee doesn't suit my tastes and that the Key was actually an excellent espresso grinder for my tastes. I don't have any popcorning problems, perhaps because I typically run it around 70 rpm's and grind medium roasts. No issues with adjusting to workflow because it is very similar to using the EG-1, which is second nature and my preferred technique. The few times that I've needed to contact customer service about questions that I have, I've found the company to be appropriately responsive. This is just my experience and if I didn't like either grinder I would have replaced them long ago.

December 5th, 2022, 10:00 am

sluflyer06 wrote:I just have a conversation starter around the key...why are all the forums flooded with people selling them?

I've also read their alignment is not good but I haven't paid much attention to the key since my grinder path is elsewhere.

Some people ordered the grinder in hopes of reselling for profit. An MSRP of $2k with an IGG price of $1.5k seemed like an easy 33% profit.

December 6th, 2022, 10:42 am

Ah. I see, well I hope they lose money on them.

December 6th, 2022, 11:49 am

I'm conflicted.

On the one hand, if the grinder exceeded the hype then people would be lining up for the grinder and gladly paying full price.

On the other hand, the Key can be thought of a $1000 manual grinder with a motor. As a previous HG-One owner, I didn't mind paying $500 more for a well-integrated motor ... but I wouldn't pay $1000 more.

#15: Post by **JB90068** » December 6th, 2022, 2:34 pm

baldheadracing wrote:I'm conflicted.
On the other hand, the Key can be thought of a $1000 manual grinder with a motor. As a previous HG-One owner, I didn't mind paying $500 more for a well-integrated motor ... but I wouldn't pay $1000 more.

I've never had or tried an HG, so my question to you is: Is it worth the extra money to be able to change the flavor profile because of the variable rpm component?

December 6th, 2022, 3:34 pm

Not sure what you mean - you can spin your arm faster or slower; a metronome app can train your arm. The flavour profile is not going to be any different between an HG-One/HG-1 (or HG-2) and a Key - the burrs are the same, and the burr carriers, axle, etc., are all the same or very similar.

The convenience of not having to crank and the aesthetics was what I was willing to pay for. Otherwise I would just stick to my much less expensive Pharos and get indistinguishable (to me) taste results.

#17: Post by **JB90068** » December 6th, 2022, 3:43 pm

I've noticed with mine that if I go from my typical setting of 70 rpm to the fastest rpm, it changes not only the flavor but also the consistency. Since I'm not a body builder, I doubt I could achieve 150 rpm with an HG.

My question had to do with that feature and if in your opinion, that made it worth the extra money to get the Key?

December 6th, 2022, 4:20 pm

For most of the roasts that I fed it, I could comfortably spin the HG-One at 120rpm - with the grinder clamped to the counter

.

I didn't consider variable rpm at all when I made the decision to back the Key on IGG. However, I have more than one grinder, and I wanted the Key for espresso only, and primarily for more developed roasts. I have only adjusted the RPM to lower the grinder's noise.

Just my taste buds, but I haven't been able to reliably distinguish RPM vs. grind size in the variable-speed grinders that I've had. In other words, I couldn't taste an RPM effect once I changed each RPM's grind size so that the different RPM's all gave the same extraction parameters. Feed rate needs to be held constant as well. I haven't tested at pourover settings.

#19: Post by **sluflyer06** » December 6th, 2022, 9:21 pm

baldheadracing wrote:I'm conflicted.

On the one hand, if the grinder exceeded the hype then people would be lining up for the grinder and gladly paying full price.

On the other hand, the Key can be thought of a $1000 manual grinder with a motor. As a previous HG-One owner, I didn't mind paying $500 more for a well-integrated motor ... but I wouldn't pay $1000 more.

I'm just done with the scalping behavior in general, spending months and setting up multiple scripts and like 5 notification engines just so I could build a new simulation PC in 2020, had to play that game to get both a CPU and GPU at msrp. So not a feeling targeted directly at grinders.

#20: Post by **kpoz** » April 18th, 2023, 9:40 am

sluflyer06 wrote:I just have a conversation starter around the key...why are all the forums flooded with people selling them?

You could ask the same question about Kafatek grinders, which currently account for three of the four most recent posts in the Buy/Sell forum. Perhaps the increased cost didn't justify the marginal improvement in cup quality for those individuals. Or maybe they decided the expense was too great given their income and regular expenses.