uncola wrote:I spoke too soon about the shark tooth burrs, after brewing more cups and seeing the leftover coffee bed, it seems to produce a lot of fines and muddy bed, even at coarser grinds which I assumed it was supposed to be best at....

Today I put in ssp 98mm brew burrs I got from titus brewing with the zrn coating and for filter, it's really great. Lol I only had two cups but I can tell already just from brew bed appearance it's wayyyy better. I'm a pourover guy, no espresso btw. Anyway just wanted to let you guys know a highest quality third party burr like the Titus brew burr fits perfectly in this machine

There is an Eastern European dealer that sold them with ssp burrs as well and they install them with no problems on the perfex.

uncola wrote:I've been enjoying my china ek43s. externally it's really nice and solidly built. Tonight I changed from the stock burrs to some "shark teeth" burrs from aliexpress.. they're a variant of ghost teeth. I wasn't going to comment on the difference til I drank more but even the first cup tastes better than the stock burrs hehe. The internals seem not quite as good as stock mahlkonig machining etc but perfectly fine. Maybe once my bunafr smart bean roaster gets here, I can use this machine to grind beans to give to my friends. This is my first expensive grinder after owning a df64. I already have a zerno z1 with ssp mp burrs ordered with great alignment and machine tolerances promised.

here's some pics of the machine and the old normal flat burrs and the new shark teeth burrs. they included philips head screws that fit the new burrs. Interestingly, the burr carrier and the new shark teeth burrs both say "baliou" on the back. I used the mahlkonig burr resplacement instructional video and everything was the same. Except the outer screws were allen key instead of flathead. One of the two set screws on the outer knob was reverse threaded which was confusing til I realized that. I zero'd the burr using the mahlkonig video instructions with no problem.

Thanks for the pictures. Any chance you would be willing to take a photo of the power brick so the electrical information printed on it is visible?

Okay guys, time for me to gulp down a huge helping of crow.

Long story short, I have one of these now. I looked for months for a bulk grinder on the used market and came up empty handed. The venerable Bunn G1's are like gold these days for some reason. So I took a chance on this. I was no way in the market for a real EK43 due to cost. I needed something to bulk grind for folks but this is going to be fun to play with as well.

First off, I didn't realize how huge it was until they delivered it. It came in a wooden crate!



It was well packaged inside of a box in the crate with ample foam packing. It came with Allen key tools and a stainless catch cup. I ran about 6 pounds of coffee through it and then spent an hour aligning the burrs. The burrs absolutely need to be aligned before using. The burr carrier needed the alignment work while the fixed burr needed no alignment. The burrs seem to be very similar to the EK43 burrs. I plan to recheck alignment once more coffee goes through it. Once aligned, it produced a bit more fines than my Fellow Ode with SSP MP burrs (to be expected?)

Ode with SSP MP:


Xeoleo 98mm:




This thing is massive and sturdy. It weighs 46lbs measured on my bathroom scale. It stands 32" tall with hopper, 23" without, and is 16in deep. Nothing about it looks cheap. It has a better build quality than both the Niche or the Ode but not quite as nice as something like a Ceado e37. I haven't messed with a real EK43 so I'm not sure how it directly compares with that. All the internal parts are heavy and well finished.



The cup/bag knocker is made of plastic but seems robust. I'm unsure what the EK43 is made of, but metal components here would have been nice.



The only button is the on switch and there is also a reset breaker.

As for tasting, I havent had enough experience yet to say much. I've had a few pour overs side by side with the SSP MP and have some initial impressions but I need more time to dial in the Xeoleo. The SSP MP burrs taste clearer with more acidity while the Xeoleo tastes a bit more complex. This surely has to do with fines and dial in, so more to come there. I plan to play with espresso as well.

Something I did notice is that it tends to grind a touch finer when loaded with beans compared to when single dosing but again, I need to more time to play with it. So far it seems like a pretty good deal for the money. It is a lot of machine. Also these burrs will grind unusably fine, like powder. No need to set the 0 point just before burr chirp because several notches would be unusable.

Milligan wrote:Okay guys, time for me to gulp down a huge helping of crow.

Long story short, I have one of these now. I looked for months for a bulk grinder on the used market and came up empty handed. The venerable Bunn G1's are like gold these days for some reason. So I took a chance on this. I was no way in the market for a real EK43 due to cost. I needed something to bulk grind for folks but this is going to be fun to play with as well..

Thanks for posting Tim. Loved reading your thoughts and seeing more pictures.

If you have time, might you take and post a picture of the power brick/adapter so that the specifications on it are visible? Enjoy the new toy, hope it suits you!

No power brick on mine. It plugs directly into the wall via a cord. I'm using the 120V version.

I'm planning to do the sandpaper alignment. I did a quick alignment with foil but feel like the big burrs need more nuance.

I spent some time today aligning the grinder better. I started with the sandpaper method but it doesn't work that well on this particular grinder because the burr housing is made of aluminum. The aluminum loads the sandpaper very quickly and becomes a huge chore. I did several passes even using a drill and when the paper loads with fine dust it essentially floats on the aluminum/oil mixture. I ended up back with the foil spacers and got it tightly dialed in. The fines were much reduced. On par with the SSP MPs but at coarser level the Xeoleo looks even more uniform in shape. I can dial in finer on espresso now and am getting some very tasty shots.

I'll give myself a week or so using it quite often comparing between the Niche and Ode with SSP. Very curious if it can out perform them in both filter and espresso.

On the two grind pictures, the EK43 clone grind looks finer and more uniform. If so, both of those attributes would cause more fines.

Milligan wrote:I spent some time today aligning the grinder better. I started with the sandpaper method but it doesn't work that well on this particular grinder because the burr housing is made of aluminum. The aluminum loads the sandpaper very quickly and becomes a huge chore. I did several passes even using a drill and when the paper loads with fine dust it essentially floats on the aluminum/oil mixture. I ended up back with the foil spacers and got it tightly dialed in. The fines were much reduced. On par with the SSP MPs but at coarser level the Xeoleo looks even more uniform in shape. I can dial in finer on espresso now and am getting some very tasty shots.

I'll give myself a week or so using it quite often comparing between the Niche and Ode with SSP. Very curious if it can out perform them in both filter and espresso.

Hey Tim,

Curious how you are getting on with this beast. I have a few questions if you have time/energy to answer.

1) I know you bought this for bulk grinding. How do the espresso shots from it compare to other grinders you have used for espresso?
2) you said you can dial in finer now for espresso, does that mean before alignment you couldn't grind fine enough for espresso?
3) if yes, so you think not being able to have enough range for espresso could be a function of the burr geometry as well?
4) do you find the dial can make accurate adjustments?
5) are you still using the stock burrs? If yes, any desire to upgrade to SSP?
6) any chance you have a kill-a-watt meter handy? I was curious if the grinder actually draws 1000w. I'm interested to know the load while spinning only, and the load under grind.

I'm still searching for a 98mm. Thanks for any info you can provide.

1) I did a few shots after aligning the burrs but not enough to say much about it other than it was easy to dial in. I don't mind messing with it more over the weekend.
2) The grinder absolutely needs to be aligned out of the box. There were more fines that there should have been and aligning made it much better.
3) Plenty of range now. I actually set the burr adjustment know outside of the espresso range at the lowest setting to get into the cold brew range for clients. If I adjust to 0 behind just before burr chirp then that gives me plenty of range to dial in.
4) The movement on the dial is smooth and stepless. There is quite a bit of granularity so much so that you can't span the full range of Turkish to cold brew without unscrewing the set screw. This isn't a big deal since I'm not using it for espresso right now. But if you do make cold brew or French press and espresso then you'd need to adjust the knob's range often.
5) Yes I am using the stock burrs and do not plan to upgrade anytime soon since it is primarily used for bulk grinding.
6) I don't but could figure out a way to measure it. It burns through a 12oz bag very quickly so it definitely has plenty of power. 1000W is quite a bit of power so I'd be surprised to see it run that during grinding. Maybe on startup or if beans are loaded on start up. You may get peak power of 1000W then.

I'm surprised Chinese didn't clone it earlier.

I do second people, saying knock-offs are bad for companies and innovation.
That being said, in 30 years MK did add couple more colours, made a shorter foot and recently released new burrs. Market was their to grab - they had a waiting time for EK. They could have created tons more colours. Different burrs themself. Perhaps, smaller motor (and cheaper price) for home use. Look at EG-1, its now in V3. EK43 - more or less the same as 30 years aog.
My second thought, when MK charges 3500+USD for a grinder, it should come perfectly aligned. As of today, you need to buy tools from Titus (or youtube, do with markers, etc, etc), preferably get Titus, SSP burrs or re-sharpen to pre-2015 level... I'm not saying I will do it, but in this specific case, it makes sense to get a Chinese clone, if you still going to spend another 500$+ on the new burrs and alignment tools.

Anyway, it would be really interesting to see how it fares with proper burrs and alignment.