Stavey wrote:My ode will grind plenty fine, however the inconsistent retention is something I didn't have to deal with when using the encore. It's actually quite maddening . I've used the knocker every way and to the point i thought I may break it off. Still hit or miss. The second issue is the cup and lid . More fiddling around instead of just pouring straight in. Taste is good but in my opinion at least at this point I prefer the Encore. The Encore may have been a little louder and made a predictable mess upon removing the bin hopper . However it was nice not messing with the Odes lid and the mess it creates. I don't dislike the Ode , At this point I just don't think it's worth twice the price of a Encore. Time will tell in terms of longevity but I have my doubts here as well . I may actually go back to the Encore or try a Eureka brew grinder ?

I'm not actually sure the knocker does anything at all. Occasionally there will be a gram or two that falls onto the magnetic base when I remove the bin. I'm not doing anything different, just randomly happens.

I have found that rapping the bin with lid on my countertop clears the lid, so there is little to no mess from the lid anymore. Similarly, with the bin inverted over the filter, a couple or three sharp knuckle-rap on the center of the bottom empties the bin fairly well, with just a little bit of coffee dust left inside.

I'm still disappointed by the top lid. If they had put half the consideration into its design that they did on the catch bin lid's fit and finish it would be great. On the other hand, it is necessary to leave the lid off (or remove it after the grinding stops) so I can check to make sure all the beans in the hopper really went down the throat.

It seems like it is meant to be better than it is. It is the little things: random dumps of ground coffee AFTER removing the bin, the knocker is not ergonomic at all, and the hopper lid is just sloppy, lazy design. The bin lid is so snug that it is a bit difficult to put back on the bin, and every time I do it I wonder how long that rubber bit will last.

I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. For a single dose grinder, I'd expect a hopper design that cleanly empties the beans into the grinder, not one that makes me check every time. I'd expect a hopper that easily holds 40g of beans with room to spare, not one that requires me to carefully pour the beans in and nudge them with my fingers to get them to a place where they will hopefully feed properly without additional nudging.

I'd planned to make it my daily grinder for my morning brew, and use my Smart Grinder Pro with a full hopper for general use on busier mornings. As it is, they sit next to each other, the SGP still standing ready to be my single doser for brew.

I want to love the Ode, but I just don't. Probably I shouldn't have backed it. Early adopters get the ones that still have bugs I guess. I'm still using it each day, as some things like the rapping really do improve the usefulness of the catch bin. No local fix for the sloppy hopper lid. And it just feels like the knocker doesn't do anything at all.

There's lots to like, but the minor issues affect how I feel about using it every single day.

I would suggest adding a tiny spray of water to the coffee in a separate container and shake it to spread the water evenly. I got no retention at the moment. 28.6 in and 28.6 out.

Ira

Must be a large variation in tolerances between Odes because I've literally used mine around 30 times with around 10 different kinds of beans and it was dead on I think once ? I'll give the water a try but at this point I'm thinking my Ode is going back .

Got mine yesterday and have only used it a handful of times but first impressions of my particular unit are:

-I agree with the folks who are complaining about the static and the knocker on the side being ineffective at knocking the grounds off. It's quite messy if you aren't careful, and even then, it's still quite messy.

-I disagree with the complaints about the lid. It seems fine to me.

-It does emit a humming / buzzing sound but you have to put your ear right up to it to hear it. Non issue in my opinion

-I had to calibrate it immediately out of the box because the finest was still too coarse, and I think it still is. They've made calibration quite easy, though.

-I will say it is fast. Extremely fast. 15 grams ground in about 3 seconds. This is probably something like five times faster than my Vario with brew burrs.

-I haven't had enough time with it to tell if it produces a better cup than my Vario. I plan to test this somehow. I think it'll be quite difficult to do a fair comparison.

My Ode arrived today and so far I am more than satisfied for the price. My interest was putting something more aesthetically pleasant on the bar than my Bunn FPG. I ran a pound of old beans through it and made a couple of pourovers. The Ode has significantly lower fines compared to the Bunn and does not impose the same filter clogging issues. The static issues - if you can objectively call them that - are no worse than the Bunn, so at this price point I'm not going to complain about that. I have no current complaint on the lid since mine did not ship with one. I've emailed Fellow and expect that they will correct that. I don't care for the wings in the magnetic cup. I don't believe they are necessary and they are just in the way of easy cleaning.

I'll be putting a few months of use on it before I make up my mind on the Ode. I want to see how performance changes as the burrs season and obviously reliability. As of right now, I'd call it an even swap for the Bunn. While I have zero delusions that the Ode will last as long as my Bunn, I do have to remember that my mother-in-law is still daily using a Breville smart grinder that I purchased several years ago. If the Ode performs this well for 7 or 8 years with the increased usability that it offers over my Bunn for sub-$300, I'll consider that a win.

I can't relate to the other static issues other people are having, but I find the Ode to be much neater than any Baratza Grinder, and the Fuji Royal. I'm noting most the stuff that gets attached to the sides of the catch cup is just chaff. After pouring out your ground coffee, I just knock it into the trash. Maybe it's just me, but I find this to be a very neat grinder compared to the multitude of others that I've used.

Off topic, but what a great technique!

Shife wrote:My Ode arrived today and so far I am more than satisfied for the price. My interest was putting something more aesthetically pleasant on the bar than my Bunn FPG. I ran a pound of old beans through it and made a couple of pourovers. The Ode has significantly lower fines compared to the Bunn and does not impose the same filter clogging issues. The static issues - if you can objectively call them that - are no worse than the Bunn, so at this price point I'm not going to complain about that. I have no current complaint on the lid since mine did not ship with one. I've emailed Fellow and expect that they will correct that. I don't care for the wings in the magnetic cup. I don't believe they are necessary and they are just in the way of easy cleaning.

I'll be putting a few months of use on it before I make up my mind on the Ode. I want to see how performance changes as the burrs season and obviously reliability. As of right now, I'd call it an even swap for the Bunn. While I have zero delusions that the Ode will last as long as my Bunn, I do have to remember that my mother-in-law is still daily using a Breville smart grinder that I purchased several years ago. If the Ode performs this well for 7 or 8 years with the increased usability that it offers over my Bunn for sub-$300, I'll consider that a win.

Is that a Bunnzilla with 3rd party burrs (SSP, etc) or stock Bunn burrs on something like a G1? If it's any of the Bunn commercial grinders, I'm quite surprised you think Ode produces more fines.

I'm most frustrated with the Ode being too course.

Well I finally received my replacement Ode from Crate & Barrel today. The upshot is that the SSP burrs fit in the replacement and the humming/buzzing, while still present, isn't nearly as annoying as the first Ode.

The auger in the new Ode came out quite easily with a quick push (like in Fellow's video) whereas the old one did not. Maybe this suggests the old Ode was a tiny bit smaller than the new Ode?

The metal looked pitted, not machined. Surprisingly the stationary burr was a tighter fit than the older Ode. It took a bit of effort and wiggling to get out.



The top burr is in the stationary mount. It was a very tight fit but no excess force required to get the burr into place.



The bottom burr is mounted to the auger. This one was a tighter fit. I had to put a decent (but not excessive) amount of force on the bottom burr to "snap" it into place. It scratched the side of the SSP burr, so you might want to sand some key parts before installing if you care about that kind of thing.



Once properly in their mounts, there was very little play in either burr before they were screwed in.

I calibrated the Ode at 1 click coarser than burr chirp and ground a quick test batch at 6.0. I'll play more with this tomorrow morning when I'll actually drink the coffee.



Regarding the humming/buzzing noise: in the first grinder, there's much more of a high pitched whiny element and in the second grinder, it's a lower pitched buzzing sound. In a quiet kitchen, you can hear both ~3 feet away, but 6 feet away it's much harder to hear the lower pitched sound. In my opinion the high pitched humming is unpleasantly annoying while the lower pitched hum is tolerable. It would be nice if the Ode didn't make any noise while not in operation but for me the replacement is good enough to keep.