Ever wonder how much retention a Monolith Conical has in a hopper mode?

#1: Post by **samuellaw178** » January 7th, 2018, 3:42 pm

I did...just thought this might be interesting to some of you

I run it by filling the top funnel with beans to the top (probably around 40-50g). Ran it in 'hopper' mode for two days.

Just before the measurement, I did the palm tapping as many of us do, with the grinder switched off and unplugged. This removed the retention in the chute (and I believe a tiny bit from the burrs chamber), which was about 1.5 gram.

Then the whole beans (and some fractured beans - surprisingly little) were removed from the top. Then ran the grinder. This got a further 2.8 gram out.

Disassembled the burr carrier and carefully brushed out everything. There was about 0.8 gram total of static retention, of which 0.5 gram was stuck in the outer burr screw slots and the carrier itself, and another 0.3 gram at the gap between the sweeper and outer burr.

So the total retention was about 5.1 gram , maybe +/- 0.5 gram depending on the type of coffee you're using and the accuracy of the scale. Not too shabby for a big conical burrs. I measured about easily twice that and a bit more with a M. K30.

Looks like a 3-5 gram purging should do if you ever wanted to run it with a hopper. Need a good solution though to time-dispense a fixed dose. The grind setting needs to be adjusted a few notch coarser as well. Will go back to single dosing now.

But can imagine this will work well with a hopper when you have guests over and not wanting to measure each dose.

The results:

My cartoon Monolith Conical.

The static retention (0.3g here)

If you want a truly zero retention, single dosing is the way to go. There's close to nothing even after two weeks of single dosing. That's the chaff from my home roast sticking on the white cap - I intentionally did not clean anything, just for the pictures.

#2: Post by **ben8jam** » January 7th, 2018, 5:02 pm

I'm continually impressed by everyone else's experience with this grinder, can't wait till I can save up for one. Your cartoon Monolith is about all I can afford right now!

#3: Post by **BaristaBob** » January 7th, 2018, 5:27 pm

Thanks for the post on retention. I want this grinder, I need a fatter piggy bank and many coins to place inside it!

#4: Post by **Nessy1002** » January 8th, 2018, 7:43 am

I don't just want this grinder. I need it!

#5: Post by **RyanJE** » January 8th, 2018, 8:43 am

Or just don't serve your guests espresso..... OR don't have any guests over. That's what I always say anyhow....

#6: Post by **BaristaBob** » January 8th, 2018, 8:55 am

So RyanJE...

Your bio says you own one of these beauties. What has been your retention experience? This is one of my biggies...getting tired of fishing out 2g of grounds every shot. I want near-zero retention! If I add up all my spelunking time over the course of a year...it's a whole day!

There's more I could do with that day...like drink more coffee!

#7: Post by **Nessy1002** » January 8th, 2018, 11:03 am

Any of you considered the Niche grinder. Was a kickstarter and meant to have very low retention.

#8: Post by **RyanJE** » January 8th, 2018, 11:28 am

BaristaBob wrote:So RyanJE...

Your bio says you own one of these beauties. What has been your retention experience? This is one of my biggies...getting tired of fishing out 2g of grounds every shot. I want near-zero retention! If I add up all my spelunking time over the course of a year...it's a whole day!

There's more I could do with that day...like drink more coffee!

I think there are some other threads with more detail than I have gathered. My experience is that the amount of retention that moves from shot to shot is next to nothing, maybe 0.2 grams if I had to guess. I RDT and "hand puff"....

So no purging etc. really necessary. I mentioned elsewhere my conical is boringly predictable and reliable!

#9: Post by **JayBeck** » January 8th, 2018, 11:51 am

Would it not be just as fast (and much simpler) to just get some bean cellars (like Lyn Webber) and pre-weigh the grounds before guests arrive? That would give you 12 shots to pull and you wouldn't need to weigh the PF, adjust your grind setting, or deal with retention.

Now if you're talking about pulling 20-30 shots in an hour, I see what you're saying if you wanted to get a full hopper and go to down. I can't think of an occasion though, where I'd pull more than 12 shots which is why the Monolith plus Bean Cellars is an impressive set up for the 'Home Barista.'

#10: Post by **erik82** » January 8th, 2018, 11:54 am

I've also thought about the bean cellars but there is one major drawback and that's you still need to pour the beans in a bowl to do RDT. With that it's in my eyes pretty useless as you can also put that bowl on a scale and just weigh the beans. In the time your grinding the beans you can easily weigh the next dose.