I've been fighting the Niche since Christmas morning. I finally decided to email them last night. I had a response when I woke up. Within 2 back and forths, they offered to ship me a brand new one to test side by side with my current one. Now that is GREAT customer service. I already got my shipping notification.

What kind of issues are you experiencing?

Burr Alignment and central bolt

yeleesn wrote:What kind of issues are you experiencing?

Poor shot quality. Channeling. Spraying. Something that I've never ever had issues with the Sette 270. Over the years of using the 270 with the Silvia, I've never had a bean that I couldn't dial in within a couple shots. Now all of a sudden, espresso seems foreign to me and I've yet to pull one good shot on the Silvia. At this point, I should've at least had a happy accident. I've gone through a few different beans (and a few pounds). I've done room temp and frozen. Dosed into the cup. Dosed into the portafilter. RDT. No RDT. WDT. No WDT. I can dial in 18g in to 40-45g out in the time that I want it. But I always have multiple streams. If they ever come together, they'll speed up and spray randomly. This just can't be anyone else's experience. The reviews are too consistently good. So anyway, they're sending me a new one to try.

Wow interesting!
Please keep us posted

I have all those same issues with the niche/silvia combo
Unless I very thoroughly WDT. Even then the streams only come together (and consistently) around 15g into extraction. Tastes pretty good though.

Yes, I've also had to become much more vigilant about distribution. I really wanted it to work like in DaveC's video where he just flips the Niche cup in the portafilter, gives it a few taps, and gets a beautiful shot. But if I just do that I have large clumps of grounds before tamping and lots of spraying during the pull.

I remember I've naturally dropped down dose and started grind finer on Niche. I've had Niche for almost a year now and tried a lot of different workflows. Now I am stayed only with shaking the grind in the cup side to side few times and pour it in to basket. Shake the portafilter a bit to level and if level is good tamp directly. If not I give a spin of leveling tool then tamp. Almost no issues now with channeling. Only time to time some mist spray but more often just after getting back from much coarser grind. New burrs may tend more to have uneven extraction. Give it a bit of play with dose. I guess that situation gets better and it will keep getting better as burrs brake in.

GregoryJ wrote:Yes, I've also had to become much more vigilant about distribution. I really wanted it to work like in DaveC's video where he just flips the Niche cup in the portafilter, gives it a few taps, and gets a beautiful shot. But if I just do that I have large clumps of grounds before tamping and lots of spraying during the pull.

It's why my low quality videos go up with no edits or cuts where necessary, in case people think I'm cheating.

However, yes it pretty much always works like that and I only ever used a chopstick to wipe around the edges of the cup so the grinds came out easy, usually I can't even be bothered to do that. I also checked on pressure profiling machines, non pressure profiling machines with Vibe pumps and HX machines as I have all 3 types. No problems.

I do also roast my own coffee, so I know exactly when/how it was roasted and packed. That said I have tried other peoples coffee and although it doesn't taste as good as mine, the pours are usually fine. Interestingly though my coffee does not seem to age as fast as others but I have not used 1 way valves for 4 or 5 years now and pack (heat seal) in foodgrade mylar without valves.

I've also used multiple different Niches on the machines. Prototype, Pre Production, USA Long term test and Japanese Pre Production models. In doing this I found the burrs definitely need around 5kg to get good, 10kg to get a little better and after 15kg they are perfect.

I have my Niche about a year in daily use...

I had also big trouble to get nice centered pours in the beginning. Visually shots with my Eureka Specialita, MK Forte and Kinu M47 all looked better...

Since I make a big deal of WDT things have improved much.

I just think it is part of the design. Due to the centripetal/centrifugal force/movement particle distribution is not that even. Just a matter of physics.

Solution is simple: shake or stir! If someone does not get good results even with thorough WDT something else must be going on.

And yes the grinder really gets more consistent in time as the burrs season...

By the way I agree that the Sette is exceptionaly easy to dial in and get good looking extractions without a gids. Same with the small hardgrinders. Perhaps burr size matters? With HG One and M68 I had to take care of proper RDT as well to get things right.

Regarding taste: I love my Niche!