DF83 - first impressions

DF83 arrived from BB today.

It’s a beast of a grinder in both size and weight. Included 2kg of beans will go through it this weekend although others have said seasoning of the stock burrs isnt really necessary?

skylark I didn’t bother with seasoning my DF83 when I got it last December. I was able to get great results pretty quickly, well before I had gone through 2kg of beans.

There are a lot of reports of people going through ~2kg of beans to season the DF83, and then having problems with clogging. I think it’s because the DF83 isn’t designed to grind that quantity of beans at once.

If you’re going to do the seasoning thing, I would do that in small batches, and get aggressive with using the bellows so that nothing gets hung up inside the grinder. I think an even better idea would be to just start using it, and if you can’t get the results you’re looking for after, say, 25 shots, then consider seasoning.

The same holds for modifying the DF83. There are a lot of folks out there who have a story like, “I tried one cup of espresso and then took the DF83 apart and cut up the declumper.” I’m not saying that you shouldn’t modify the DF83. I’m just saying that it’s a good idea to use it for a while before deciding that you need to do surgery on it.

Full disclosure: my DF83 is the original version, and I haven’t found the need to modify it. I use it twice daily for the past 9 months, so that’s over 500 cups of espresso at this point.

Good luck with the DF83! I think you’ll like it a lot.

wilburpan

Thanks. Good advice. This is the V2 version which has the ‘plasma generator/de-ioniser’ and modded declumper apparently so any problems should be behind it. I bought this from BB and i see that a new shipment has landed, they now have the black in stock at a whopping £100 premium over the white that i purchased (and wife ok’d, black was a non-starter!). I’ll play with it over the weekend but its already in place ….

Personally, I think seasoning is a massive waste of beans regardless of whether it helps or not. Just enjoy it straight out the box and know that it’s only going to get better with time.

Dusk Have you ever seen new burrs under a microscope? They have jags and notches on like you would never imagine, and where do you think the metal goes?

That’s the first time I’ve seen that reason used for why seasoning burrs is necessary and it’s probably the most compelling yet. However it still wouldn’t change my mind, there must have been a hell of a lot of worse things that have gone into my body throughout my life than a few microscopic bits of steel.

Dusk

No offence but i think the discussion has been won, in my mind at least, by the ‘other’ chap 😆. I know what i’m doing this weekend …

skylark for what is worth, I went to Aldi and bought a selection of their cheap and nasty coffee, 4 bags, 227g each, to season my Niche Duo.

And over the course of an evening and a morning, I ground it all, at a coarser setting (filter-like). Put it all back, ground, in the bags they came in, sealed it and gave to a relative who is more interested in the caffeine hit rather than the taste of coffee.

Have anyone replace Df83 v2 burr with mazzer ones? If yes do you think it is worth it?

delta76 not sure how helpful will this be but I replaced burrs in my df83 v1 with mazzer t151a. Can’t compare though as never used the burrs it came with as done it straight away. I do believe mazzer makes really good quality burrs. I am delighted with the coffee I’m getting from the grinder.

delta76 I managed to struck a decent deal on eBay to be fair. They are new in original sealed packaging. I went for the coated option as use RDT with grinder being a V1.

prezes just so I understand - you have v1 without the plasma generator so you need to use RDT (i.e. a spray of water?) to avoid static, then you need coated burr to avoid rusting, right?

delta76 yes that’s correct. No every bean suffers from static but some do need rdt to tame it

prezes interesting - would be nice if you can test v2 on same bean, just to see how good the plasma generator is

really tempted now, especially with the code from @tompoland , but still uneasy about the tax thing

delta76 I bet it’s great. I was toying with the idea of retrofitting but as said it’s only some beans that suffer with a bit of static and a single spray sorts it out completely.

prezes now you have a duo as well, how do you compare the two?

delta76

I have the DF83 v1, with the original burrs. I don’t claim to be an expert on burrs, but I do think I know what a really great espresso is like, and I can get there with my DF83 with the original burrs. I’ve found that between picking the type of bean for the taste profile that I want and adjusting the grind, that’s all I need to get what I want out of a shot of espresso.

As far as managing static, RDT and the plasma generator both work. but I’ve found that controlling the humidity in the house is the easiest way of dealing with it. I live in New Jersey, and in the summer I have little issues with static. In the winter, static becomes an issue, but then if I turn on the humidifier in my heating system, that goes away. Plus, the house is much more comfortable.

My usual workflow is to start grinding the beans, and then use the bellows pretty aggressively when the outflow starts to die down, and I keep using the bellows until nothing comes out anymore. So if I don’t have a problem with flyaway ground coffee bits, it’s certainly not because I am being delicate about the grinding process.

I am still confused - what’s the default burr in DF83 v2? definitely not DLC like DF64 gen 2, and maybe just the same as DF83 v1?