another_jim wrote:The photo looks like chaff on the grinder, not static in the cup. Home roast?

Yes. It's all on the chute, body of the NZ, and some on the counter. Goes away when I use RDT. Not a home roast. It's from my local Whole Foods. They roast in the store and label the roast date. This one is labeled as a medium roast.

Ah, you spray water on the beans, and it goes away. Not static, just chaff getting wet enough to get broken up by the burrs. Put the beans in a colander, use an electric fan or AC duct to blow off the chaff. It may slightly improve the coffee, and save you a step every time you grind.

There appears to be a fair amount of grinds on the chute, body, and counters too.

jchung wrote:Yes. I get lots of static when grinding into the stainless cup.

That's interesting! Even with the most static prone bean I have at the moment, the static was no where close to what you're getting. Is that specific to certain beans? Or does it happen across the board?

How much retention do you get when that happens? I think this can be an important consideration to be included in the review.

This is about the worst I get (may be a little bit more with second-crack roast). With the Ethiopians/medium roasts that I generally drink, there's almost no sign of static on the chute.

another_jim wrote:The Sette is a fun and forgiving entry level grinder, but it isn't close to the Niche.

That's what I had thought. Sette is made of plastic and problems are frequent (according to forums), but customer support seems good so there's that. It's important to note that the cheap construction and burrs make it easy to replace by Baratza such that buyers are paying extra for "warranty" and Baratza are still profiting. If it had a larger burr set (60mm+) and better build, it would have been the go-to for every home barista but I'm glad NZ took on this challenge and succeeded - at least in my book.

another_jim wrote: I can't comment on the Atom or K30 in terms of head to head grind quality; but your first decision branch should be whether or not you single dose. Conventional flat burr espresso grinders like the K30 and Atom are a complete nightmare for single dosing, since flat burrs don't suck beans in like conical ones.

Clive Coffee just released this video on single-dosing Atom 75 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCRyELe8-7o which shows 2.3g of retention and recommend a short purge every day. I bought a K30 that I thought had light use but turned out otherwise and I'm so glad I was able to return it. The size is inconvenient for many and I realized I would not benefit from a hopper since I change my coffee weekly or consume two SO's at once.

I bought ten $2 glass jars to store my beans in and it has made wonders. I fill them every time I buy a new bag so that I just drop it in the grinder (NZ or Kinu) and get grinding. Bonus that it helps with freshness because beans are sealed. This helped me immensely in my single-dosing workflow and imo it's no better than a hopper.

samuellaw178 wrote:That's interesting! Even with the most static prone bean I have at the moment, the static was no where close to what you're getting. Is that specific to certain beans? Or does it happen across the board?

How much retention do you get when that happens? I think this can be an important consideration to be included in the review.

This is about the worst I get (may be a little bit more with second-crack roast). With the Ethiopians/medium roasts that I generally drink, there's almost no sign of static on the chute.
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Granted... that photo was the worst case I've seen. Now that the weather is a little warmer... static, without RDT, is better controlled, but still there.

Here is what it looked like today grinding into the cup.



And here it is grinding into the PF.

It almost looks like the differences are probably more related to the coffee as both have some buildup around the nozzle. I've experienced issues with static cling when grinding and the worst cases have always been the darker roasts.

samuellaw178 wrote: Just to double check, are you saying that you get a lot of static too when grinding into the stainless cup? I notice it can be messy when attempting to grind into a portafilter (which I mentioned in the review). But when grinding into the stainless cup, I haven't noticed any issue/mess arising from static. In fact, I did want to comment how clean the grind cup is after the grind transfer (with a tap on the bottom of the cup).

In my experience the stainless cup gets a bit 'static' (actually, I think just dirty) over time: so wiping/cleaning it thoroughly with dry kitchen paper helps to prevent grounds sticking to the bottom/sides. (I don't do RDT).

I find it impossible/difficult to get a homogeneous puck without doing WDT in the basket; if I WDT in the cup before bringing over the grounds to the basket, I hardly ever get even pours from naked PF.

I find it impossible/difficult to get a homogeneous puck without doing WDT in the basket; if I WDT in the cup before bringing over the grounds to the basket, I hardly ever get even pours from naked PF.

That is my experience as well. That is why I prefer shaking using the basket upside down as a lid. Works best with a lose basket. Otherwise I stir in the basket. WDT in the cup does not help with good distribution in the basket.

Markant wrote:In my experience the stainless cup gets a bit 'static' (actually, I think just dirty) over time: so wiping/cleaning it thoroughly with dry kitchen paper helps to prevent grounds sticking to the bottom/sides. (I don't do RDT).

I just replicated chaff sticking to the rim of the cup and the chute. But only since I started doing French Press coarse grind settings. For me, the chaff gets chewed up in the burrs at finer settings.