autoexec wrote:Apex has the ghost burr and not in any way related to the normal flat burrs. They pretty much hit the sweet spot RPM (300) for that type of burr. Flat burrs need to spin way faster than that. From what I can see it (Apex) has an adjustment knob and you only change the shimmings if you have some drastic change to the distance of the burrs.

I'm well aware of that

However it still might open the door for that to happen, noone would have thought we one day would go away from only using conical burrs a few years ago. So its a positive sign that we finally see something else.

autoexec wrote:Not suspicious but impressively too low. The graph almost looks like its sifted to me. I don't think the folks at OE would mess up the graph or do something on the grounds before the LDS just to gain attention. Not even sure they did the particle size analysis. I'm in the tighter-grind-size-distribution-is-better camp and if lesser fines is what makes its distribution tighter so be it. I'm in!


Exactly my thoughts.

Coffee need fines to get a propper extraction, however you wouldn't want to many of them so you'll end up with allot that dos not cling to larger particles.

I have tested dozen of scenarios with my sifter, and no or minimal fines just make the coffee flat and booring lacking allot of the characteristics I like.

Besides it's physically impossible not to get fines, these are produced when the bean break. So a peak can only be so high.

The good think about the EK is that even if you grind very fine you won't get a large amount of it, just like you won't have a large amount of boulders.

I where in the same camp, untill I tried it, the coffee where not very interesting with a very tight particle distribution, it where better with a more spread out (not conical vice)

hankua wrote:I think one of the goals of the Apex hand grinder is to compare favorably to the little Fuji ghost burr grinder, not the EK43. The adjustment lever does have a short throw, not sure if that's a purely engineering issue, design, or both? My concern is accidentally bumping the lever or it getting in the way as I rarely every change settings after settling down to just one.

Just because one uses the same type of burrs means Apex was built to compare to other electric ghost burr grinders. I don't even remember Fuji having low percentage of fines as one of its traits. I believe the lever adjustment has clicks if it won't have labels so it's just for you to remember where you're at on the adjustment just like with any grinders.

malling wrote:Coffee need fines to get a propper extraction, however you wouldn't want to many of them so you'll end up with allot that dos not cling to larger particles.

I have tested dozen of scenarios with my sifter, and no or minimal fines just make the coffee flat and booring lacking allot of the characteristics I like.

Besides it's physically impossible not to get fines, these are produced when the bean break. So a peak can only be so high.

The good think about the EK is that even if you grind very fine you won't get a large amount of it, just like you won't have a large amount of boulders.

I where in the same camp, untill I tried it, the coffee where not very interesting with a very tight particle distribution, it where better with a more spread out (not conical vice)

Good info. Didn't know that when fines are totally removed it will taste boring at least to you, thanks for clarifying that. I imagine it can be true to me also, but I don't think the low % of fines of Apex can be comparable to when a grind is sifted so I still remain as excited about the product!

even when sifting the grinds there will be fines left on larger particles, so it dosen't exactly remove all of them. The Apex would most likely have allot more of those specific particles, however if it dos produce as few as reported, those fine particles would probably just be clinging to larger particles, make people believe that there is fewer than there actually is.

But that is a good thing that the fines cling, as the free ones seem to do nothing good.

Interesting! Now I can see how the 4:1 gearing ratio of OE from Apex might have really opened doors for a flat burr hand grinder.

In case anyone missed it on Twitter or Instagram, Barb & Doug mentioned last week that they're going with an aluminum chassis for the Apex:

Sounds like an improvement over the original plastic.

It doesn't surprise me that as usual, Doug and Barb have stability and consistency dialed in. It should also look terrific..in it's unusual self.

Not sure if anyone follows OE on insta, but they've posted photos of the Apex's grind range recently. Here's apparently the fine end of the spectrum. Too coarse for any of my preferred brew methods, unfortunately.