Burr upgrade for Breville grinders? - Page 2

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
bgnome (original poster)

#11: Post by bgnome (original poster) »

I haven't really gone back to the stock burrs. I had some experience with them in a Dose Pro and a different machine. Last I checked, the OE burr set was no longer in stock on the website so I am not sure if they are still an easy upgrade option. Breville does not offer the conical burr as a replacement part, although I have seen them starting to pop up on 3rd party parts websites.

sg88

#12: Post by sg88 »

The Breville website lists the Etzinger upper burr only, but the company has both the upper and lower burrs available. If you call them they can fulfill your order. Mine arrive tomorrow. Looking forward to trying the new burrs!

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baldheadracing
Team HB

#13: Post by baldheadracing replying to sg88 »

Looking forward to seeing how the Etzinger burrs work out. It could be a useful upgrade for a lot of people.
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada

sg88

#14: Post by sg88 »

I am not a professional barista, and not even an experienced home-barista, but in my little experience they are pretty amazing. My Breville Smart Grinder Pro has had a few pounds of coffee run through it, probably 10 pounds or less. I got a Breville Dual Boiler to start playing with home espresso drinks and found that I had to adjust the "internal" burr setting (the upper burr carrier adjustment) from the factory setting of 6 to 3 to get a grind fine enough to pull shots that were developing normal pressures and normal brew times. With the Etzinger burrs in place it is almost the opposite. After first running about 3 pounds of old coffee through the grinder with the new burrs, leaving the internal burr setting of 6, my 18 gram shots are running 30 seconds for 36 grams out with the "external" grind setting around 16 to 18 and the espresso tastes great.

The burr set that is available on the Breville web site ($26.95 upper burr and $21.95 lower burr) is listed on Amazon at $79 each or $158 per set instead of $48.90 from Breville. I did ask Etzinger if that was actually their burrs on Amazon or a knock-off. They researched it for me and said that they did not know, but that it could be, as they sell their burrs in bulk to a Chinese firm that manufactures the machines for Breville. The Etzinger rep said that if they have the Etzinger name on them they are likely the real thing (albeit for a whole lot more money than from Breville). I sent a message to the company that lists the product on Amazon and they said that the product is indeed Etzinger despite listing the country of origin as China not Lichtenstein.

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baldheadracing
Team HB

#15: Post by baldheadracing »

Thanks for the update. There are so many people with the SGP or the BES870 who want to go beyond the capabilities of the Foshan Great Full Hardwares burrs that Breville uses.
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada

SnkyBstrd

#16: Post by SnkyBstrd »

Hello all.... I've taken quite a bit of info from this site over the years, decided this would be my first post since I took a run at these new burrs and have some info...

So I called Breville customer support in Canada, they returned my call next day, and ordered the Etzinger lower/inner Burr kit (SP0027463) and outer/upper Burr assembly (SP0027464) as breville does not have the inner burrs listed on their website. They shipped next day and arrived 1 day later in Toronto which was pretty great :D

I installed the burrs on a Barista Pro.... And consistent with what others have reported, I had to set the upper burr macro adjustment all the way coarse to 10, and grind at a machine setting of 24 for a 16g in 32g out medium roast shot... Which may not leave all that much room for adjustment if I wanted to pull a larger dose dark roast.... For reference, the stock Breville burrs were at 2 macro, 13ish micro for a similar pull...

After some faffing around, I settled on backing off the hard stop screw for the grinder coarse micro adjustments to give myself some more usable range if I needed to grind coarser. If grinding past setting 30 (max coarseness on the screen where the hard stop screw was) on the BBP now, the grinder adjusts coarser but the digital reading remains at 30... So you don't have the numerical representation on the screen but hey, can't win them all.... The reading kicks back in when you dial in finer (the white gear nearest the thermoblock is only responsible for tracking the grinder setting, it is not what moves the Burr when adjusting settings).

So far I much prefer the Etzinger burrs to the stock breville burrs. I'm finding they produce substantially fewer fines, resulting in less bitter shots with good body... I can also fit 2-3 grams more coffee in the same basket than with the stock breville burrs.... Which to me suggests fewer fines, but an overall finer and more consistent grind, which matches the flavour profile (I think - I am not a pro by any means).

Other than being at the absolute coarse grinding limit of my machine :shock: (I've not pulled any dark roast yet so I'm not sure how coarse I would need to go, or for turbos for that matter), it has been a worthwhile upgrade IMO, YMMV...

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baldheadracing
Team HB

#17: Post by baldheadracing »

FWIW, Breville is marketing these burrs as "Baratza European Precision Burrs." Etzinger has made Baratza's conical burrs for quite a few years now. (Mahlkoenig makes the flat ceramic burrs that Baratza uses, and Ditting makes their flat steel burrs.)

According to Mark Prince at CoffeeGeek, the burrs Breville are using are Baratza's M2 burrs - which are found in the Baratza Virtuoso, and also in the Encore ESP (but not the regular Encore).
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada

SnkyBstrd

#18: Post by SnkyBstrd »

The packaging for both the inner and outer burr do reference Etzinger on the label, had to double check so as not to spread misinformation... But otherwise they do not reference Etzinger.