I have the same grinder as well as the Niche. I use the Niche for decaf and if I roast something new and will only be pulling shots for one batch. The grinder is great for multiple coffees. You can go back and forth between settings and hit your timing very precisely. The build quality seems to be great and it should last for many years. The Atom 75 does retain a few grams and as a result, I get a difference in brew times between the first shot and subsequent shots if you do not purge at the start of the day. The grinder is pretty consistent with minimal beans in the hopper so what I do is divide my roasts into smaller batches and freeze them. I load about 6 days worth of beans in the Eureka and before the first shot in the AM, I purge about 3 grams. I set the single dose to .5 seconds and use this to purge. I then get consistent timing for all of the shots. Grind quality is great on both with the Niche a bit fluffier.

Small update. This morning I spent more than an hour trying to dial-in the same beans I thought I had managed to do yesterday. They're 8 days old so staleness shouldn't be a problem, yet the coffee still gave me bubbles and yesterday's adjustment was completely out of whack. I don't know if opening and removing the top burr could be the cause of this, still I managed to dial it in back properly and pull two more shots. This time I didn't have to push the lid too hard.

First shot gave me 17,5 grams, after 2 pushes and some extra grinding I got 18 (I put 18.2 initially).
Second shot gave 17 grams. Again, after activating the motor for a bit and pressing the lid a few times (though not nearly as hard or for as long as yesterday) I got 17,8 (i put 18,1 in).

I'll make another shot later today then open it and see how much it retained, then I'll update you.

The whole reason for ever wanting espresso at home is because you can save and of course get a better cup vs going to a coffee shop(atleast for me). I leave a kilo of coffee inside my hopper and I am good for almost a month. My setup is not exposed to the sun so maybe that is why you taste a difference in quality as days go by. Try using a 250g/1kg hopper and load it up and in the morning to avoid the "gushers" just do a quick .8-1.2 second purge to remove the old coffee. That equates to maybe 6-8 grams of coffee. I have the eureka 75e and an 18g shot takes around 3.4 seconds that is how I came up with 6-8 grams. Some people updose the first shot of the day also to counter act the gusher shot so from the usual 18g they go 19 or 20g. I think you can do a .5 second purge if you use darkers roasts as lighter roasts seem to take more time grinding from my experience.

Keeping a kilo in the hopper, for a month, is not really recommended. Something like 100g should be ok for pretty consistent shots. But a purge is absolutely necessary before each session.

I've checked the retention on my Atom 75, again, and it seems to be around 2-2.5g with a fairly light roast.

PS: Light roasts take longer to grind because you most definitely need to grind finer for the same quantity of grounds.

Quenthel wrote: Pros

• It is super fast. And insanely quiet. The SGP sounded like someone violently strangling a cat, this one sounds like said cat sleepily purring on the couch. Honestly, the videos you can watch online don't do justice on how quiet this actually is.

Absolutely agree to the speed and quietness. I did a video myself to compare Sette 270Wi to the 75s but it absolutely don't give any of them a fair verdict. The Sette is more noisy and the 75s is far quieter. The video is taken using a decent Canon camera with external mic but the result is still not representative at all. Well, here it is (you have been warned ): I use the Lavazza Crema & Aroma as my day to day beans and they are FAR from fresh roast but every now and then, I get a few kg of Malabar from my local roaster. I repack it in 100-200g vacuum bags and this is small enough amounts that I can't taste any difference between the first and the last bean in the same batch when sitting in the hopper for a couple of days.

SveinHa wrote:Absolutely agree to the speed and quietness. I did a video myself to compare Sette 270Wi to the 75s but it absolutely don't give any of them a fair verdict. The Sette is more noisy and the 75s is far quieter. The video is taken using a decent Canon camera with external mic but the result is still not representative at all. Well, here it is (you have been warned ):
video

I use the Lavazza Crema & Aroma as my day to day beans and they are FAR from fresh roast but every now and then, I get a few kg of Malabar from my local roaster. I repack it in 100-200g vacuum bags and this is small enough amounts that I can't taste any difference between the first and the last bean in the same batch when sitting in the hopper for a couple of days.

I'd nuke them both .Both very noisy.
But in real life I'm sure that will differ.

If noise level is an issue you NEED to listen to them in real life, NO video do them any justice.

It's been a while and I thought I'd post an update. Here are my observations:

I have opened the grinder a couple of times. I can still see some of the compacted coffee there but it's not so bad, I suppose that it won't see that part in my cup and I believe that it kind of acts against retention.
After about 3kg of coffee things have normalised quite a bit. Retention is relatively minimal at around +/- 0.2gr max and it gets better, so that is the good news; I don't have to abandon my single dosing routine but I do have to grind for 3-4 seconds more in order to get that extra half gram every now and then.

However, very importantly relating to single dosing, using the blow-up system properly is crucial. The tip here is that you need to start pushing air as soon as you start grinding, rather than at the end of it (in the hopes of getting those last remaining grounds as common sense would dictate).
I've achieved a regular flow and the minimum retention I mentioned above using this method whereas if I am to slam the lid after most of my dose has been ground, that will eventually release some of the trapped coffee (and it takes a lot of effort) but this will eventually have to be replaced by your next dose.

Finally, I've removed the portafilter holder. I am using a bottomless one and it's not very stable anyway. This gives me more freedom moving the portafilter around a bit in order to get the grounds as evenly as possible. With some light shaking after grinding is done (but no tapping) the coffee is ready for my leveller and off to the Bianca it goes!
WDT is not really required. It might improve extraction a bit (it certainly did marginally before I resolved my temperature issues with my espresso machine), but the result is good enough as it is and I don't want to incorporate fiddling with a needle for 30 seconds into my workflow.


So, do I recommend it after a couple of weeks of use? I am still a bit ambivalent in regards to single dosing. I am sure there are other machines better suited for that purpose but I don't know of many in this price range, speed and availability. Is it a good grinder? Yes, it's great! Even with the single dosing limitations, the resulting fluffy grounds are a testament to how well this is built and I don't regret purchasing it.
Oh, and it's damn quiet. With Bianca's super silent pump and the Eureka I could brew an espresso with someone sleeping in the same room and the noise might not be enough to wake them up!

There is a few threads and videos on how the Blow Up system doesn't work all that well because the hopper is not properly sealed to the base and the lit not sealed to the hopper.

Some have put in their own seals and achieved dramatically improved results.

Hello Jason,

Indeed, I came across the same posts and one of the first things I tried was to tape any openings the hopper has. I am not sure it's a great idea though because the grind chamber is not really hermetically sealed on the sides.

In other words, if I take the hopper, the bellows and the lid and try to pump air blocking the bottom side of the hopper, I couldn't press the lid (which tells me that I applied the tape properly). However, after installing the hopper, ensuring the little screw behind it is properly tight and all that, most of the air would not go through the exit chute of the grinder but rather through its sides where there are three air vents. I do wonder now if that was the reason I found coffee within the internals of the grinder when I first opened it?

Perhaps the reason the blow-up system exists is to provide a gentle push during the grinding as I've speculated, rather than get ride of every little last bit of coffee left there? I admit, I am a bit confused, since this video from 1st line shows the blow-up system used on the end: ... while this one from Eureka explicitly states that the bellows should be used during the grinding process: I would probably go with Elektra's advice since even when taped, I could never get all the remaining grounds out consistently.