dfk41 You see, this is what confuses me:
once the gaps are filled with compacted coffee, it does not exchange into the shot.
vs.
older coffee is mixing with newer coffee on a continual basis
They can’t both be simultaneously true.
I totally agree with the argument that if one changes beans and/or grind frequently, then a zero-retention machine will be cheaper (and possibly more convenient) to run. With good coffee at ~£40/kg, saving 60 g per change (assuming 4 tries required to dial-in, 3 doubled to purge retention) is the equivalent of £2.40 per change. As you say, it doesn’t take many of those to make up £50 in initial price difference (and honestly, since I’m trying to get my mitts on an Evo Leva, £50 on a grinder are kind of immaterial at this point, I think…)
However… my anticipated workflow sees 2, maybe 3 changes of bean a year. For the rest of the time, a hopper with 250-500 grams of coffee in it, from which we pull 6-10 timed fills/day (so the hopper content is gone in a couple of days at most) works fine, and is possibly more convenient than weighing 18.5 grams every time.
The attraction of the Niche is that it would make changes easier; the attraction of the Kony is that it is a beast of a machine, suits my currently expected use case, and it will literally last a lifetime (I’m using a 1978 Stax CA-X pre-amp in my stereo, and you should see how that thing is built. Yes, I’m a dinosaur, but those lasted a heck of a long time too).
DavecUK I think you may have seen me itching to scratch myself with a pair of conical burrs 😁. The question is whether the itch is real, or imagined. I have a generous but finite budget, and am currently planning to spend >80% of it on the machine, because the ACS Evo Leva is a dream in terms of engineering - and it seems to make absolutely splendid coffee. Again, maybe I should spend the same £500 on the Niche, and get a really nice ‘large flat burr’ grinder later. Or maybe I should rebalance things and spend less on the machine and get a better grinder. Or … 😵