Hey Nick,

Just opened up the replacement grinder and there's some very visible scratches around the grinder, mostly on the faceplate but one small one on the body and another on the catch cup. Even a little marring on the hopper.
I've attached some images. It's definitely not something I'm comfortable keeping in its current state.

Do I need to do a return on this one too and buy another? I've now got two Ode's at my house that need returning. Let me know how I should proceed? Feel free to drop me a PM if it's easier to handle this privately as well.

So sorry for this Joey. I'll work with you directly to resolve.

Nick

Thanks Nick, I would appreciate that.

Hi Nick!


I was so excited to hear that you guys finally made a grinder for espresso. I really want to buy ASAP!
Before that, I just want to ask a few questions about Opus.

Q1. How about retention? Usually that kind of ring burr format makes quite a lot retention, so I'm worried about it might not adequate for home espresso grinder for daily 1~2 cup users.

Q2. I could see there's no knocker. Does that mean I don't need to worry about falling off extra fines from chute when I pull off the catch cup after grinding?

Q3. Does the burr need seasoning? If so, how much?


Thanks.

Hey there, here are the answers to your questions:

1) The architecture of this grinder is very unique; there is no impeller at all. The coffee has a direct path from the hopper right to the catch cup. Retention is very low (.2g-.3g in our testing), and we built the lid of the hopper in such a way that you can use it as a bellows if you wish. This is not the 1-2g of retention from complicated exit path type of grinder. I'm sure we'll be able to go into details of the architecture soon.

2) Funny enough, we actually did design a test knocker into Opus but found that it didn't make a substantial enough difference during testing to keep it! We have the same anti-static tech as Ode Gen 2 in Opus, and it's very clean. Plus like I mentioned above, you can use the hopper lid as a bellows if you want to really push out anything that's left.

3) In my opinion all burrs need seasoning, but I have found that these conicals taste great almost right out of the box. My experience with the Opus burrs (and most conical burrs in general) is that they need less than flat burrs. I have been happy with them after running a couple hundred grams through.

Thanks,

Nick

Thanks a lot Nick!

I appreciate your answer!

fellowproducts wrote: 2) Try not to pay attention to the stream underneath the filter. Some very lightly roasted coffees can be pushed very high in extraction by extending the contact time, and I have found the SSP MP burrs to extract extremely evenly (there isn't much channeling that happens even when going fairly fine), so don't be afraid to extend contact time a bit.

3) With your 5 pour method, you are inducing a lot of agitation into the bed. As an experiment, can you try doing a bloom, followed by a slow, single steady stream with low agitation until your target brew weight? If that's not possible with the grind size you choose; try splitting the weight into 2 pours instead of 4, trying to keep agitation low.

Hi Nick,
Following up as promised. Thanks very much for the pointers here. They've made quite an improvement. Here's what I did based upon your advice and a few other bits I was able to scrape off other forums while searching for Ode SSP Chemex users.

I took your advice and switched to a bloom, followed by two gentle pours. I tried very hard to keep the pour at 2.5g/s, but I have hands like the Waco Kid, so it wasn't easy. With the first pour I moved in slow circles from the center to the edge, but for the second pour I basically poured it into the middle.

Another user reported that they got much better results if they were careful to minimally agitate the coffee on the bloom pour. I don't know if this actually makes a difference, or is entirely baloney, but it seemed to work better for me.

This has allowed me to go back to brewing in the 6-7 range, and has allowed some other other markers that you suggested I not focus on to improve as well. (It's brewing faster, and in a stream instead of just drips. I'm not timing -- this is just observational). I'm able to taste more of the flavors, but I'm still getting a bit more bitter flavors than I've been expecting. When this happens I tend to adjust to a more coarse grind, but sometimes when I do this, I also lose the high fruity flavors too. If you have any further pointers about how to tune things here, I'd welcome the input.

When you were helping Joey debug the anti-static problem, I also put an ear up to my machine after the grinder stopped. I don't hear a clicking noise on mine either, but I do hear a high-pitched whine and catch a whiff of ozone. Would that be anything to investigate further?

Thanks again,

Chris

It can come across as a crackle or a whine; as long as the anti-static feature is working you're good to go. Also I want to state that what we have inside of Ode Gen 2 is NOT an ozone generator like some air purifiers have. We went through A LOT of legwork to make sure what's in the grinder meets very, very strict UL standards.

Thanks,

Nick

Just wanted to say I've had an absolutely fantastic time with the Ode gen 2. I've been super impressed with the stock gen 2 burrs and after a brief period comparison with a SSP mp Ode there is even more appreciation for the value of the current Ode and price point with the new burrs. Quite an accomplishment with the design, bravo!

Looking forward to more tech info on the Opus and to see what subjective opinions start showing up about the burrs in this new model. Are we still a ways out before fellow releases some of the video you shot? Everything you've stated or hinted at seems especially promising.

I was curious about the useable espresso range when the overall calibration of the unit is shifted to the lowest grind range adjustment. How are the size between clicks on that finest grind setting? Enough to adjust a pull using several clicks or is dose size going to still be a required component similar to larger stepped hand grinders in your opinion?

Thank you for the kind words!

I don't think the videos will go live until the release date, which is 2/21. In the mean time I am happy to try and explain some stuff, because I know people have been asking and I want to help. There may be some sneak peeks before then, but we shall see.

The amount of total adjustability between settings in Opus is 16.7 microns of burr travel. Depending on how you set the inner ring, you have over 120 positions of grind adjustment by combining the inner ring and outer ring. During my testing, this was enough to dial in almost any coffee I was using relatively easily. That being said, there will always be coffees and people who want more granularity in their recipe, so some up dosing or down dosing is totally on the table.

Nick