Weber Key Grinder - Page 96

#951: Post by **Auctor** » February 18th, 2022, 1:28 pm

Yeah, i'm surprised this hasn't come up, but with the HG-1, it took 20lbs to settle in (which for me was months!).

February 18th, 2022, 1:34 pm

I remember everyone saying that but when I had my HG1 I didn't really notice a big difference, just a slight difference from new vs like 30+ lbs later. But ended up getting rid of it eventually as hand grinding just isn't for me lol, should've known better after having an Pharos w/ the voodoo mods years ago. Ended up using Vario over the HG1. Light roast and medium roast, very little dark roast.

#953: Post by **Jessipoo** » February 18th, 2022, 3:52 pm

I watched both Kyle Roswell and Sprometheus video and found it interesting the swings that Spro was having and also the rpm.

I've only had issues with light roasts and 30rpm, at 40rpm it didn't quite stall. I didn't have massive clumping issues either other than at higher RPM BUT I also have very low 20% humidity right now in my home due to Winter

As for the wild swings in time, it's hard for me to replicate that because I've been doing manual pre-infusion with the BDB and every single shot seems to be different in terms of 1st drop time and total time, probably due to puck prep but with the long manual pre-infusion I have great cups almost every time and I don't look at the time that much anymore. But now I feel like I should test that out...

#954: Post by **malling** » February 18th, 2022, 3:53 pm

versusqc wrote:...and it's out now, and yeah, it's quite negative video
It seems like the WDT tool is not working well for him (with a lot of spraying if he doesn't do additional WDT) and that's he's getting quite inconsistent shots, although he mentioned it getting better after a few KG of beans. He also noticed some alignment problems, which may be related to some of his problems?

His grinder is misaligned there is no way his will be resolved by breaking in, I owned some conical grinder in the past and what he experienced is exactly what I experienced when the grinder was misaligned and it's not an easy fix as with flats. If I was him I would seriously demand a return because such wild inconsistencies should not be there, albeit conical will never be upper tier flat predictable, this is just way to much.... I really think these two videos show why some of us simply went flat and why my trust in conical isn't what it could be.

#955: Post by **LewBK** » February 18th, 2022, 4:11 pm

I have to say I was surprised at how lukewarm the Spro video review was for a $2,000 grinder. Not exactly a ringing endorsement by any means.

February 18th, 2022, 8:14 pm

There any speculative update on the Onyx US orders?

I'm a 6/26/21 purchase date with a 3### contribution number but it feels like people are saying it took 6 months from their order date to actually ship? Based on date it seems close, number, not so much

#957: Post by **Dbcooper** » February 18th, 2022, 8:22 pm

I can't say that I agree with Sprometheus regarding the Niche Zero. I sold mine because of how much it muted the brighter notes of light to medium/light roasted espresso compared to a Sette 270 and Atom 75. Granted, I haven't received my Weber Key but the indications are that it is a brighter tasting grinder. No doubt that the law of diminishing returns certainly applies here and a $2k grinder not taste ~2.5X as good as an $800 one. We're chasing very incremental gains at this price point.

February 18th, 2022, 9:10 pm

I have to say that I'm disappointed in the eccentricity of the inner burr shown in the Sprometheus video and also in the video previously posted in this thread. I'm really disappointed in Weber's response to Spro:

They never outright said it's Mazzer's fault, but when explaining my issues they reiterated over and over that Weber's QC standards are higher (30 micron) versus Mazzer's (60 micron) which in my mind feels like a brush off of taking responsibility.

(To clarify, 30 microns is shaft eccentricity measured where the inner burr mounts - given Weber's IG pic.)

So ... that's two out of ... maybe 300 grinders shipped so far? That's 1 in 150 odds of getting a grinder that I would find very disappointing.

I hope Weber will make it good for those affected ... otherwise, I guess that we're all playing the Key Lottery. 149/150 is pretty good odds of 'winning,' but I would have rather paid extra and have Weber QC the Key where it matters - at the burrs, not the shaft.

Good luck to us all.

ETA: Weber's comment on Spro's video is fine and seems reasonable to me in and of itself, but makes no mention of burr wobble ...

Thank you so much for your feedback, Asa! We truly appreciate the time and care you took to create a review on the KEY Coffee Grinder. As you and I discussed, while verifying your machine is configured correctly, the burrs will still take some time to become adequately seasoned - an inherent aspect of burrs machined to this caliber, designed to last for decades of heavy home use (even when pre-seasoned.) We're confident you'll love it more with each passing day of use and look forward to seeing this expressed in any follow-up impressions you do in the coming months.

As for the lower RPM stalls, a brushless motor will inherently have less torque at lower RPMs, but the grinder should be able to grind any drinkable coffee at any grind size from the mid RPM range. 'Stalling' actually acts as a protection mechanism so your motor doesn't burn out - part of our way of ensuring it lasts decades. We could limit the lower end of RPMs, but that would mean that medium roasts and pour-overs wouldn't be able to explore the super-slow grind profiles that we think is interesting and unexplored territory. We think it makes it more powerful as a tool, even if it requires a little more 'gas' to grind through harder/lighter beans.

It's essential to us to have an open dialogue with our customers, so please don't hesitate to reach out if you have further questions!

#959: Post by **Jessipoo** » February 18th, 2022, 11:21 pm

Dbcooper wrote:I can't say that I agree with Sprometheus regarding the Niche Zero. I sold mine because of how much it muted the brighter notes of light to medium/light roasted espresso compared to a Sette 270 and Atom 75. Granted, I haven't received my Weber Key but the indications are that it is a brighter tasting grinder. No doubt that the law of diminishing returns certainly applies here and a $2k grinder not taste ~2.5X as good as an $800 one. We're chasing very incremental gains at this price point.

I have a Sette 270 and I am not a coffee connoisseur and it's night and day for taste.
I even drink it as a flat white and even with that I could tell:

KEY vs Sette 270:

Less body and texture

more clarity (which makes sense, one always gives way to the other), and really brought out the fruit from my Ethiopian natural coffees

I'm actually getting to a point that I want to switch coffees cuz I'm like this is a lot of fruit lol (after doing like 8 months in a row of Ethiopian naturals)

#960: Post by **Steveholt** » February 19th, 2022, 3:08 am

The responses to the Video review shot time observations by Weber are not great in tone imo, but it is good that it is showing that they can see the issue that was brought to light here as well with the user video earlier in the thread.

1-in-150 chance of not up to scratch for a 2k grinder alignment issues is less than 1%, and I guess you would hope that WW put the issues right for the Youtuber and the regular user than experienced this.

I found the brushless motor post very interesting. I have experienced a version of that safety shut-off "stalling" on my EG-1 also. I inferred that the cause was as Weber posted under that Key video, but I never managed to find an online document to confirm. There is comfort in that transparency for me, and hopefully for Key owners too. If they extend that transparency to resolving the 2 known alignment issues this could be great for the Key in the long run.