I ordered my Key grinder with both tumblers as soon as the crowdfund opened and received it early January 2022.

One year later, it's most probably my last grinder, such has been its form and function.

The novel slim design means it takes up much less counter space, so I have my Rocket Mozzafiato and the Key on a small footprint. I loved the design the day I unboxed it, and love it a year on. It meets all my needs and I can't see myself with anything which takes up more space, or has an ugly hopper on top.

The burrs bedded in maybe a month after purchase. I've played up and down the RPM scale, but at the moment leave it on 50rpm. As I've got more used to the fine adjustments and can get them right pretty much first shot by feel - my wife is a nailed-on dark roast fan, whereas I play around with a variety of light and medium roasts. It's broadly 10 increments on the dial between dark and medium, sometimes up to 20 increments when I have a lighter roast on the go.

I'm largely an espresso drinker, as is my wife. I have played around with pour-over, and sometimes with pretty high-end beans, and the Key works well for that format too. This latter benefit killed my plans of to look at an EG-1.

I like the easy cleaning. I like that it's a quiet grinder. The nice touches such as the pop-out cleaning brush and water mist bottle; the magnetic base to centre the tumbler.

Problems? There was a small issue with the original delivery, and to his credit, Douglas dealt with it personally and promptly. I had two magnets fall out of the Magic Tumbler, and while I was going to glue them back, I didn't bother, and it was not a problem. The 'wiper' that holds the RTD wire loop broke after 11 months. I mentioned it to Raymond in customer service, and he sent me a new one for free and kindly added in a bean feeder, again for free. I see quite a few posts critical of the service at Weber Workshops, and I have had nothing but great service.

I didn't experience any of the mysterious wobbling drive shaft. It stalled once, and it turned out to be a small stone in the beans. I haven't had the inner burr getting jammed in place, although I tighten it up very lightly with my fingers and then a tiny tweak with an Allen key.

Overall, I think this is a great grinder. I moved up from the Niche and enjoy my coffee more since I did that. It's pretty cool to get in on the ground floor of the crowdfunding of a beautifully designed piece of kit. The "it's three times the price of the Niche" arguments don't wash with me. My coffee is better, period. I love the design, period. Very happy customer. I have bought other bits and pieces from Weber, for example, the Unifilter, and in all cases, I have been very pleased. Coffee is an experience of the senses. Great design and innovation also appeals to my senses, and Weber Workshops really deliver.

I've only had my Key for a few months now, by my experience has been similar to yours so far. Took about a month to get the burrs settled in. I've landed on 50 RPM as my go-to setting. So far, with where I set the ring initially, I've been between 1.6 and 4 (a range of ~12 settings). I also can guess where to start a coffee based on the development.

The fit an finish is excellent. My only gripe is that the magic tumbler is "sticky" and doesn't want to release coffee from it, so I have to aggressively swirl the plug or tap it fairly hard on the side. I think I'm going to have a 3D portafilter stand printed and get a standard tumbler so that I don't have to use the magic tumbler anymore, but working on getting my LMLM plumbed and set up for pre-infusion first. Only so much time to work on finding perfection, especially while I focus on roasting better.

I love the Key so far, and don't have any plans to upgrade. The occasional Monolith Flat Max in the Buy/Sell section makes me wonder if I'd get better clarity and flavor separation, but the price pushes me away. For the $1,500 I spent on this through the Kickstarter, I'm very happy, and have enjoyed using this more than my previous Niche. I haven't tasted the two side by side, but cleaning the Key is easier, I think it looks better, and I think it will last a very long time.

I've had the Key in Snow for six months. I am also very happy with it. The fit and finish aren't perfect-Weber doesn't have two decades of manufacturing experience like Apple or Samsung. But it's good enough. On my Key, the RPM knob isn't quite flush and the shaft has a slight, albeit visible, wobble when there are no beans in the grinder. However, I can't see any wobble when beans are fed through the grinder and I have no extraction issues. The opposite, in fact. Dialing in the grinder is a breeze and easily repeatable, as other have said, and the vast majority of my pulls lack any channeling. Shots have great texture and better-than-expected clarity for a conical burr grinder, which is precisely what I wanted from this grinder.

I've been using mine for nearly a year now and it sits next to my EG-1. It has performed flawlessly out of the box and as the other posters have mentioned got better as the burrs became seasoned. From what little experience I have using other conicals, I consider this a hybrid. It doesn't offer quite the separation of flavors that the EG-1 does with the core burrs, but it does offer a richer mouthfeel than the EG. It is cleaner and has better flavor separation than the one NZ that I played with a few months ago. All in all, it has been an excellent grinder for my tastes.

How do you decide which grinder to use given to great options?

As a generalization which goes against conventional practices, the lighter the roasts I will try them first with the Key because I'm looking for a bit more mouthfeel. A medium to medium dark roast, I will typically use the EG-1. Now there are a couple of local roasters that make a medium roast that are just meh with the EG-1 because they lack richness but come much more to life with the Key. I bought the Key because I wanted to get into pour overs which it excelled at. Regrettably, my preference isn't for pour over and instead I would rather drink espresso drinks..

I got one a month and a bit a go. I think once you get used to it, it's a great grinder. No complaints and good service. I had a bean feeder break (it was the old design). They promptly sent the new version with no issues!

That's a beautiful setup. Who makes those white cups that are sitting on top of your machine?

Looks like Fellow's cups: https://fellowproducts.com/products/mon ... 5552424051

Ivyb82 wrote:That's a beautiful setup. Who makes those white cups that are sitting on top of your machine?

Fellows, the bottoms of those wear off and gets marred quickly if not being super pedantic with them. I don't use them anymore.