Have you bought alternate burrs for your grinder?

dfk41

Just a fun poll. The idea is on a busy forum like ours, to get a feel for the amount of members who have bought a grinder then gone out and replaced the burr set with one of the popular but expensive aftermarket options. Voting NO is just as important as voting YES!

tompoland

Can I vote 23 times? 😁

DavecUK

I have not personally purchased them but I have them for testing.

dfk41

DavecUK Shall I make an extra voting button so you do not feel left out……LOL

DavecUK

dfk41 No it’s fine.

JHCCoffee

Question: Were any of the attempts to change the burr in the Niche Duo successful? Ie actually work and improve taste? There were long threads about it and I recall that this was a dead end rabbit hole.

Can’t afford to add a Duo to my Zero for a while as I am still recovering from my Decent purchase.

dfk41

JHCCoffee It is a little bit like passing your driving test. That does not make you a good driver. It just means that you can go out on the road on your own and start to learn your road craft. Folks have been hoodwinked by the industry, in the form of “the latest thing”. AS @Cuprajake says, the grinder and then burr set is just one very small part ie if you have the latest thing grinder with the most expensive basket, custom made filter papers, hand crafted needles for stirring etc etc, then that is all fine and dandy. But if you get the basics wrong with your shot preparation, then all of that is irrelevant. In any cases, all these “latest thing” gadgets make minuscule differences to the cup. When the world record is set for the 100 metres, the new winning margin is calculated in hundreds or thousands of a second

tompoland

JHCCoffee not a dead rabbit hole here at least. All Mazzer and SSP burrs fit and work fine as does the DF DLC and Gorilla Gear. There are some that haven’t fitted included Caedo.

As others have pointed out, “better” isn’t really a thing when it comes to burrs but they all offer something different for sure. The stock Mazzers are going to be liked by most owners.

It depends therefore what you are after in an espresso and I have my favourites especially the Mazzer k151H (not stock) for medium/light and SSP Espresso (HU) for light roast.

Have to say though that for playing around with burr swapping a 64mm grinder like the DF64 Gen 2 or DF64V makes a lot of sense from a financial point of view.

Cuprajake

there is no better just different,

its way too specific

you can change taste with sooooo many other things as apposed to burrs

baskets are massive as is adding paper to the bottom of the basket, then theres temps, ratio, speed of shot.

people seem to get fixated on burr swapping, its kind of the cool thing atm, but you are really just chasing your tail, one mans best is another mans worst.

grinder fomo is massive right now, with a new grinder out every week.

JHCCoffee

dfk41 Folks have been hoodwinked by the industry, in the form of “the latest thing”.

Good point. Wondering whether the Niche Duo was/is a “latest thing” (FOMO) purchase for Niche Zero owners or alternatively whether its a substantial improvement. For me, selling my Eureka Mignon and buying the Niche Zero was a game changing decision; I noticed a significant improvement in taste and work flow and ease of use and maintenance. Buying the Decent was a similar game changer, which I am now learning to use, to improve taste and more importantly consistency. The Decent is all about driving skills, but its like driving a cross between a Tesla and a Ferrari.

Wondering what my future “game changer” will be? Probably a grinder that allows me to create better tasting coffee with lighter roast beans, ie a flat burr grinder.

Cuprajake

@JHCCoffee

with you having the decent now it would be a great test,
use the same dose and basket then change the profiles and do multiple brews then taste, you will be shocked at the difference

tompoland

JHCCoffee Wondering what my future “game changer” will be?

Nominations: Duo and DF64V.

Pros and cons with each.

Pricing: In the UK apparently the pricing is close so the Duo would be better value. Here in Austalia if sourcing locally you’re looking at $1,100 odd for the DF64V and $2,200 off for the Duo although the latter can be landed direct from Niche, including import duty, for around the $1,500 mark assuming its the single burr option.

Other: DF64V has variable RPM, slimmer form factor, magnetically dettachable chute but you need to use the bellows. The Duo of course has the extraordinarily designed extra burr carrier/cartridge thing.