Seems to be a very popular unit. I picked one up a couple of days ago and it seems pretty good. But don't trust me, I have no idea.
Used to go sub $200 last year on sale, but the lowest I've seen recently is $216 at TGG Commercial.
David Jones currently have it on sale for $239 with additional 10% off today with free delivery.
Updated.
This grinder has served me well for years and I'm sure it would continue to serve well but the grind retention is just too high and it's fairly annoying to deep clean.
Since i'm mostly pourover I replaced it with a little manual grinder (timemore chestnut c2) while I save bucks for a fancier grinder that is fast to service.
If you're new to coffee this unit will definitely give you 5+ years of faithful operation so just FYI
Can agree with the grind retention and needing to take a little bit to clean. I don't mind it but be aware.
I've been using mine for about 5 years and it's only started becoming a problem. When you say grind retention, do you mean consistency?
I feel like my one is not grinding correctly anymore and I'm pulling really bad espresso. Could it be that the conical grinders are toast? They're about $60 each and you need an inner and outer. Might just make sense to buy a new one.
Grind retention refers to the amount of beans that stay inside the grinder after putting a dose through.
If the machine has a lot of retention and it could mean that 4-5 grams of your dose are coming from the last time you used it, which can be a significant problem if you’re brewing only once or twice a day.
Another problem is that if you are changing the grind setting you need to grind through enough beans to replace the retained grounds (known as purging) so that you aren’t mixing grind sizes
Retention in terms of if I load 21g of beans to the hopper and I grind all of that through the machine, and then I only have 19.2g in the portafilter - the difference between the weight in vs the weight out is the grinders retention level.
It tends to be a focus for people who single dose (only putting the amount of fresh beans in the hopper that you intend to use for that coffee). There's benefits for any user in the sense that lower retention levels typically means a cleaner machine overall with less buildup internally.
@Bargain Slut: I have this grinder, and I seem to remember it being pretty good with weight in —> weight out.
I weighed out as close to 18g of beans as I could get, and got like 17.95g out.
If i remember, i'll do another experiment and update.
@jsilbz: remember you will need to clean out all of the old grind and then re-do the test. Otherwise your measurement will be incorrect as your grind out will contain beans in your previous grind.
I had this grinder and I was getting 2 to 3 g retention. It's OK if you're going through a few cups of coffee a day as the beans are still relatively fresh; otherwise you might be mixing stale with freshly ground beans.
@rily001: True, i did let it run til empty and gave it a bit of a shake but yes, there would be stuff up there still i guess.
@Bargain Slut: I use a small artist's paint brush and shove it up the grinder and wriggle it around after the single dose ends - it's amazing how much debris comes out.
As above, and retention is pretty high on the Breville. As such, if you don't clean it regularly (I do it every month or two) it does impact the grind that ends up in your portafilter.
Given the age of your one, it would be worth taking your time to give it a deep clean (focus on a deep clean of the inner burr as it retains much more than can be seen to the naked eye).
I had the same issue while mine was one year old. Turned it to #1 grind size but espresso still went too fast. The solution is to take the burr out and manually change the inner burr grind set to a lower number. That will last you some time until you need to replace the burr set
Reminder to Tighten the burrs before you buy replacements. The manual can be downloaded and shows you how to do this.
You take the metal piece off the burr and twist to your setting. Replace the metal piece.
How often do you clean them?
@sabaramo Yes! I'm going through exactly the same issue, I thought my old machine had a issue.. which it did.. but also the burrs must be blunt, as I used some ground coffee from my partners Mazzer grinder and coffee is much better and more balanced.
So I will get a new grinder, as paying 120$ for the two burrs doesn't seem to be right ( make sense)
I'm at 18+ months, haven't cleaned it once.
3 years not cleaned once ….. i don’t single does …… grind, fill, tamp, extract and enjoy …..
I think it's so well designed, any stuff left inside it, just gets included in the next grind.
@hamwhisperer: that's the point/problem. If only using it infrequently you get old grinds later which impacts the taste
Try dropping a few water droplets into the hopper and mix it around before grinding, helps with any static and grinds getting caught then build up. Might work for you, might not. But was a helpful tip I got from Hoffman on Youtube.
I do cold brew in batches of 250g at a time.
Would this grinder be worthwhile so I can buy whole beans instead of pre-ground?
Yes… this can do course grind better than fine grind.
what is grind retention
I clean mine every 2 weeks (one 250g bag). It retains about 2-3g on the first dose after the clean, each dose after than I don't notice any retention. Absolutely no issue for me and it's a great unit.
I'm very suprised to see some people not cleaning theirs out. I've heard of some people having mould issues but that's probably more the case when the coffee is left in there for a long period of time.
My BCG800 lasted about 3.5 years of only 1-2 coffees a day.
The BCG820 only lasted 2, but Breville at least replaced it.
It's a good grinder but has a major flaw that the main drive gear is plastic.
This regularly goes on sale to below $200, so if you're not in a rush, I'd suggest you wait a bit to save up to $50 on the price in this deal. I've had this grinder for 5 years now, no problems and its been great, and looks great with my Breville coffee machine.
Not in the last 12 months. I didn't want to wait any longer and bit the bullet.
Hopefully they do again soon so I can make a claim using price protection.
i bought it 199 during black friday from the goodguys
I recall it was a negotiated price and not the sale price for the general public. Not attainable by many unfortunately.
Doesn't look like it's been sub-$200 for 12 months though
Yeah, thats why I said "…if you're not in a rush..".
"This regularly goes on sale to below $200" - and yet our definition of "regularly" drastically varies.
due to supply chains many things aren’t as cheap as they used to …. breville perfect press, paid $91 … haven’t seen it for that price in 2 years …
Not saying you're wrong about them going below $200 but back when that was the average sale price a couple of years ago, you suggested to wait until they were around $150 which hasn't happened. I think OP's price will be as good as it gets for quite a while.
You never know. I'd expect some sales to be occurring in a week or 2 due to Australia day. There could be some price drops around that time. I cant predict the future, but like I said, if you can wait, are not in a rush, then at least holding off until the sales tend to occur (such as Australia Day, Easter, EOFY, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, Click Frenzy, or Xmas) may result in a better saving.
Not going to happen. Between Covid increasing demand (and prices) for home coffee gear, and Breville jacking up prices due to inflation and shipping costs, no one will discount to the old $150-160.
@Trishool: I don't even know what you're arguing, anymore… fact is, this is the new normal. $215 is a bargain in early 2022, and waiting for this to drop back down to $150-160 after the manufacturers like Breville and Sonos have increased RRPs across the board, is plain delusional.
Decent price, howevwr its worth noting they normally sell for $250 when not on sale, not anywhere close to the "$399 RRP". I wish it was illegal for them to do that
Whats the grinder settings thats good for Latte ?
I recently got one and have been experimenting a bit.
Currently I am on 10 seconds grind with 15 grind size for 1 shot.
Would love to know some other grinds settings to try ?
Also what is the best milk to create good foam on BES920 ?. I have tried a lot of full cream ones but calorie seems to be on the higher side.
Any recommendations would be much appreciated
The numbers don't really mean anything between grinders, they're only helpful for your individual grinder
If you want to go down the rabbit hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQOKa61YBYc
I see. That makes sense.
Thanks for the link. I'l check it out
100% recommend that James Hoffman rabbit hole though…
Those grind settings that work best for you will change based on the coffee beans you use, the type of roast, how fresh they are, how you’ve stored them and even the humidity. You’ll get the hang of adjusting it quickly enough with some experience.
YouTube guides are very helpful and there’s plenty of them around.
Would the seal that comes with the packing be sufficient ?
or do you think I should be putting the rest of the bag in a freezer ?
Buy a size/bag of coffee that you will use in time and just keep it in the original packaging in a dry place. The freezer, more specifically the pulling out of the freezer, opening, and closing, and putting back in the freezer will introduce condensation and moisture to the beans. (Think of a cold beer on a warm and humid day - water immediately forms on the outside.)
For bulk roasts I have been known to vacuum-seal 250g portions of beans and put them in the freezer, and then remove and allow the whole sealed bag to get back to room temp overnight before opening that bag to put into a "daily use" container to get around this condensation/moisture issue.
tl;dr: Storing "daily use" beans in the freezer is, generally, not a good idea.
Tbh, I couldn’t really say. I only ever buy enough beans to last a few weeks at most.
I keep it stored as it came unless it comes in those packs you can’t reseal in which case I use an airtight container.
Freezers are for ice cream :D
I store coffee in the freezer if I have too much - no worries - but I vacuum pack it first and then don't open the it until it has reached room temp to avoid condensation.
I own this grinder. I have had it for many, many years - somewhere around 7 years. It still works well, but it has never and will never make good, repeatable espresso.
The grind retention and the inconsistency of the grind size, particularly for finer grinds, make it very frustrating to use, impossible to dial in, and only very rarely will it make what I would consider a well balanced shot. It's perfectly fine for the other more forgiving coffee techniques I use such as an aeropress, or pour-over/V60, moka pot, and so forth.
It's also worth noting that it is actually really annoying to adjust between fine espresso and coarse pour over grind settings with this grinder anyway, as the burrs need to be removed and adjusted on the inside to get the full range. Until recently I was keeping the Breville in the one range and my hand grinder in another. In recent months I upgraded to a (much, much more expensive) Niche and could never go back.
With that said, a latte (or any milk drink) will hide a lot of the bitterness or sourness of a shot that is out of whack.
As for milk: fat makes the foam (stay together - it's more stable). If you are worried about calories then milky coffee is not for you, or just pull those (very few) extra calories from somewhere else in your diet. Or walk another lap of the block and use the right milk for the job.
Ha ha. Extra reps in the gym it is then.
I tried making a latte with a low fat milk and I learned my lesson. Non existent foam ;-)
You can get close to repeatable if you're weighing every basket, but I would have up to 2g swings between grinds with no changes
MilkLab Almond Milk is a bit more of a healthy option that still steams well, if you're into alt milks
This. Which eliminates the dosing issues (which are very real) but not the grind inconsistencies. A lot of fines and a lot of clumping makes it a tricky thing to dial in. Even with WDT techniques and fiddling with dosing weight, I never could get it to a point of set-and-forget with the same bag of beans.
@henno: WDT'ing with this grinder was the most frustrating experience ever, it makes it so much better than standard but you still get a few shots that channel like a waterfall. Not a great experience early in the morning when you end up with 20g in and 100g out after having a perfect shot the day before
@GalacticBacon: I have had channels literally squirt out sideways from a naked portafilter and coat my shirt and pants in coffee.
Not to mention the wastage from all of the sink shots, like you said.
Despite my whinging, I still maintain that no other grinder comes close at this price, but that doesn't mean it can do everything and espresso is Mad Science half the time.
@henno: I'm still not game enough to do a naked portafilter shot with my new Eureka Mignon Specialita, I've seen too many disasters on /r/espresso haha
At this price point though its a great entry level grinder, without getting into used or hand grinders
Depends on the beans. I often need 4 or 5 with some beans even with the default inner setting. For the Airjo Sumatra blend that was posted recently I currently have grind size 3 with 14 seconds.
Look up some YouTube videos on dialling in espresso.
Is this grinder any good for espresso or is it more of a drip coffee grinder? I have a Breville Oracle, is it the same as the built-in one on the Oracle (which is giving me inconsistent shots)?
Its probably a bit better than the built-in one, but I've just upgraded from my Smart Grinder to this for inconsistency reasons. The clumping on this grinder is pretty bad, I would suspect it affects 58mm baskets more than smaller ones
I've been considering the Specialita or maybe a Baratza Sette 270 but can't justify it yet as I only recently just dropped $800 or whatever it was on the Oracle and I puchased a Baratza Encore recently for my drip coffee. My wife won't understand that I now want a different grinder for espresso haha.
I had the Breville Smart Grinder Pro and upgraded to the Eureka Mignon Specialita in July. It was definitely a pricey upgrade, but has been the single biggest improvement I have made for espresso.
The general consensus is that the Specialita produces a better quality grind than the Sette, and from memory that is reflected in the price. But the Sette does have a lower retention.
I would not think this is a major upgrade on whats in the oracle already.
Also, inconsistent in what way?
I think I'm getting lots of channeling, sometimes the same grind setting will come out perfect, other times coffee will flow out too fast. Also in general, shot to shot the same setting is not always the same, it's got to be the grinder causing that.
there's lots of things that can impact that but yes, there's a fair chance that could be causing it.
Can you set the oracles up so that they grind and tamp in separate steps? i.e. could you hit the ground coffee with a WDT or something to reduce clumping prior to tamping?
My in-laws have an oracle and it produces decent enough results, that being said - I wouldn't personally buy one.
@Bargain Slut: I don't believe you can do separate the grind and tamp, like I would like to tamp it myself but I've read you can't turn off the tamp. I guess I could apply a spray to the beans beforehand to try preventing clumping though.
Overall I'm happy with the Oracle because I mainly drink milk coffees anyway so it doesn't matter that much to me how precise my espresso is. I find the auto milk frothing feature really handy. Sometimes I do drink straight espresso though and I wouldn't mind being able to control it a bit better, I believe it's the grinder letting me down there.
@bleeder: The milk feature is pretty good, I recently bought a family member a bambino plus for this reason but with a baratza sette 270wi as a grinder. The results are pretty good relatively speaking.
@Bargain Slut: I only found out the Bambino Plus had that feature after I got the Oracle, otherwise I would have considered the Bambino Plus. It's only a 54mm basket though, right?
@bleeder: Yeah its a 54, I'm tempted to get a pesado portafilter and a precision basket for it, which is probably going to be a waste of money, but I want to have a play around and see how good I can get it.
I've used one a few times and always been impressed by them, but I've never had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with one and play around with the outputs until now.
Mine died after 1.5yrs. Would still grind but LCD screen went cactus. Good Guys replaced but I had to pay the difference to get a new one compared to the cheap price I paid for the original…..weird.
That doesn't sound right. I would have refused. They're covered by a 2 year warranty.
You got ripped off
Some individual good guys managers can be real dodgy, you should talk to their head office about it
It probably counts as a new sale, so the guy got paid commission on it
Inflation sucks :(
I paid $170 or so for this 18 months ago. It's fantastic. Probably worth what they're asking for here, but still.
That's inflation and money printing for you….
I've got one of these - https://www.amazon.com.au/Sunbeam-Cafe-Conical-Coffee-Grinde… which is a bit cheaper. Has done me well for about 6 years now.
Been using mine for 5+ years with my Expobar Leva and it's beautifully consistent.
"Consistent" means knowing what settings to change as you change beans, etc., and that's all about asking questions on-line and realising that other people know more than you.
Two espressos and two cappuccinos every day means that it has had a fair few kilos of beans through it with no problems.
www.coffeesnobs.com.au is a great place to ask questions about coffee stuff in general, but be prepared to be buried with answers :-)
I just purchaser a dual boiler + this grinder just over a week ago and have noticed the Oracle is now on sale for $1600 on DJ.
I've used the machines probably about two times in total since opening it. Any chance I could return the Dual Boiler + Smart Grinder in hopes of getting the Oracle? Or will I just be pushed back.
You have used it. Why would you think you can return it because you changed your mind and want to buy a different model.
David Jones doesn't sell second had items.
To quote a clever person:
"David Jones doesn't sell second had items."
would depend if breville are like oral b and have money back if not happy ….
Looks like this is the original Smart Grinder - which I have, not the new improved Smart Grinder Pro?
part number is for the pro …..didn’t think they still made the old model …..
David Jones should label the product with the correct name "the Smart Grinder™ Pro Coffee Grinder" and update the old picture to the new picture (the labels on the buttons are different). It's very confusing, even the part number isn't obvious.
Does this David Jones sale include 2 years warranty like Myer?
Warrant provided by the manufacturer Breville, so does not matter where you buy it from.
I didn't like this fwiw - As others have said - the grind retention is too high. If you're using a pressurised portafilter basket (ie one with just a single hole that coffee comes out of, not hundreds) then this is okay. But if you want any more control over the grind then it's probably a bit too broad and difficult to get consistent
I have one of these. Great product for the price.
Bought another as a gift.
Great value grinder. There are better ones out there but you're looking at double the price. If you want a couple of good coffees a day it's hard to beat.
If using with a 54mm Breville machine, add one of these to make your life easier.
54mm Coffee Powder Receiving Dosing Ring Rotatable Aluminum Alloy Loop For Breville 8 Series Coffee Machines Funnels Accessories
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mr0MSG4
Thanks OP bought one.
Great investment, I’ve had mine since I got it in a bundle deal. Had it for around 6 years and it’s been used every day to make at least 4 coffees a day minimum. Great unit and at this price a no brainier
Likewise, paired with a decent machine it has saved me a heap - particularly with increase in remote working.
Had one of these smart grinder pros for a while, and it served me reasonably well. The convenience of an automatic grinder was fantastic. Unfortunately it developed an issue where I'd press the start button, the timer would count down, but nothing would happen. Got quoted $200 to replace the faulty main board. I contacted Breville, who were generous enough to offer 50% off the rrp of a new unit as compensation, which I declined and just got a commercial grinder instead.
Great grinder. I got it for $179 a few years back and no problems at all
every time coffee tool item is on sale, I get all fired up and re-read the posts/re-do research on the topic =)
But then I realize that I need to spend like $1000 for a decent cup of coffee and I just close the browser and make myself a cup in the old Nespresso =)
that's funny. I have one but now going down your rabbit hole and spending too much!
It isn't the best for espresso but adding milk/water negotiates all the faff and comes out pretty good
Got mine for $159 back in 2018 and it's still running smoothly. I generally do a full clean once I go through a 1kg bag of beans.
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