![[eBay Plus] Breville the Smart Grinder Pro $259 Delivered @ Bing Lee eBay](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/91/818191.jpg?h=f44066e1)
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My grinder just died after 3.5 years of use so I need to get this again.
Interestingly, if you buy this grinder, and the Dual Boiler for $929, the total works out much cheaper than the "dynamic duo" deals.
[eBay Plus] Breville the Smart Grinder Pro $259 Delivered @ Bing Lee eBay
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the-rabs on 04/12/2023 - 15:57 ebay.com.au (1799 clicks)
Last edited 04/12/2023 - 16:06 by 1 other user
Last edited 04/12/2023 - 16:06 by 1 other user
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Whoa!!! Link?
$900 not $880
FYI - the retention on this grinder was around 2g+ for me, which is a bit much especially when single dosing, probably better getting something a little bit better - like the Fellow Ode or DF64 (both ~$550-650).
For reference, I've gone Sunbeam Cafe Series > Breville Smart Grinder Pro > Niche Zero.
The grinder is arguably the most important component of brewing espresso, get a good grinder!!…… also, weigh your doses, don't rely on the grind timer etc. on these things.
YMMV.
Was going to get a BSG but ended up with Eureka XL chrome for 891 on ebay. (didn't post a deal since it was just 1 unit) With a tilt base there is pretty much no retention. Though tbh I just do batch grinding of about 10 doses at a time since my wife can't be bothered to grind fresh in the morning. Compared to the grinder of the automatic coffee machine I get a lot more sweetness from the beans.
Yup, retention is bit of an issue. I simply serve the first cup to friends or relatives. :-)
In my case, I am my own friend.
Fellow Ode doesn't do espresso without a replacement burr set
Jeez - I get 0.1g or 0.2g at the worst with SGP, which is still frustrating, but I can't imagine losing that much per dose. Must be something else going on there - that's like 6-10 beans going into the ether
Do a deep clean, then run a dose through and weigh before and after…
Yeah that's only if you're running the same grind size and bean consistently and not cleaning it out. Essentially you're getting a little bit of the last grind each time. If you clean it you'll lose about 2g on the first grind then you'll get your 0.1-0.2g. I added an aftermarket bellows and it reduced the retention down to about 0.5g on first grind as it has a piece that blocks the chamber where a lot the rentention is held so well worth it if you're single dosing on the SGP.
Retention isn’t the difference in weight between coffee in and coffee out, it’s how much of the coffee going in is being replaced by coffee that’s already in the grinder. You could be putting in 18g, getting out 18g and still have a lot of retention.
Just give it a blip and throw away 2g before dosing if worried at the start of the day.
Yeah I still got the cafe series (EM0480) and basically decided it's not worth getting something slightly better. Before you know it you're back at $600 heh.
I did get one of those tools though, has helped with the clumpiness and hence less/no channelling.SG Pro would be good for <$200
I’m still rocking a ten year old Sunbeam Cafe Series, is this an upgrade? I don’t drink espresso though, rather Moka Express.
rather Moka Express
No.
Expensive grinders are wasted on moka pots, they have much more room for error than princessy espresso machines.
princessy espresso machines
😂
Yeah I think my grinder does just fine and what I notice the most is the difference in grind setting needed across different beans.
I mean this one speaks sense, I own this smart grinder and it's super user friendly, the 9.8 seconds default is usually bang on, and it came with my dual boiler in a set. But it's not a premium grinder, it's a good grinder.
Not the best grinder but great for the price
Had one of these and even for the price i wasn’t happy with it - inconsistent grind and slow. Spend a bit more and get a Sette 270 or DF64
Just breathe sette is very loud
I don't know about pricing development over the years. I got this one in 2019 for around $160, that's 62% up in 4 years !?
Yeah there was this whole virus thing and rapid price rises of lots of stuff while you were in your coma.
Price growflation.
Thanks for reminding me. Still have mine that I purchased for $160 years ago. Sitting in the box, never used. Just need to find it in the garage. Gumtree here we come!
As others have said, not that great a grinder. If you're looking for something around that price, consider the fellow opus or baratza encore
Encore doesn't go fine enough for espresso. It's a great pour over grinder though.
my bad, should have said encore esp
Can confirm, Encore ESP does indeed cover the full range of grind settings well.
Honest question, I've had this for 8 years, it works a treat and makes great coffee with the dual boiler, why are people negging this product so much, so often in this site? Are the other grind machines that much better that your coffee tastes better?
I always see 'get brand xxx' instead… this works just fine and if you can get it for sub $200, not bad at all…
Yep, makes a bigger difference than the espresso machine
This was true 8 years ago when it was $200 and there were no other comparable grinders in that price range. But now it's gone up in price and breville hasn't improved on it (if they did it was so minor that people don't talk about it), at the $300 mark there are other espresso focused grinders that produce a much better tasting cup.
Name 2 at $300 that have measured doses please. (Either time or weight)
None new, you'll need to go up to 500+ to get timer, this is probably the case since most home barista prefer single dosing which renders the time/weight function useless. The timed function requires you to have the hopper filled to some extent to ensure consistent grind output and if you don't go through coffee fast it will get stale in the hopper. If you really need a timed grinder at $300 look at the 2nd hand market, you should be able to find mazzers, macap, eureka that are in good working condition.
@ozlurker: So there really isn't much in the $300 range with a comparable feature set.
If you share a house with other people who don't want to deal with weighing beans, dosing out, etc, then you need a machine with a timer. It needs to be as "one button" set and forget as possible. Otherwise you'll quickly find yourself with a Nespresso instead.
That's the compromise with this machine - extra features and a good (but not excellent) grind at half (or even a third) of the price of the better options.
@dontpanic: Yep, if you're after convenience this is the one to get. But if you're after taste and consistency and don't mind learning more than look for other machines.
Agree, what other grinders are heaps better for $300? I think you'll find the next jump up in price/quality is more like $600-800.
You don't need to measure every grind, you can develop a feel for how much to dose into the group head (but interesting to weigh every so often).
True, you pay what you get. Your use is strictly personal preference to a budget you willing to spend.
Upgraded from one of these to a second hand Sette 270; the difference was immediately noticeable, much less clumping. My regular espressos went from 7/10 to 9/10 reliably, and I was able to really get much better extraction out of tricky lighter roast single origins. Used Sette cost me $300. Now that I've experienced the benefit of a better grinder there's no way I would recommend the SGP - the only good thing about it is that it's a decent all rounder for the price, and can grind at coarser levels for filter coffee as well as fine for espresso.
I'm up to year 3 and it works great still.
I accidentally got a bit of water in it, turning the gears into partial sludge, causing clicking and jamming.
Cleaned it, still works great. Very happy with this thing, very happy
It’s the best option in this price range, but it doesn’t age particularly well due to lack of replacement parts and the fact it clumps really badly on finer settings as time goes on. Using a WDT is pretty much mandatory with this grinder.
Lots of clumping, retention, slow to grind, not ideal for single dosing
If it works for you then great.
Coffee is one of the snobbiest things on planet Earth and is full of people who think you need to spend $5k on a grinder otherwise you might as well just drink rain water. They'll swear black and blue about the mechanics of it and treat it like they are creating literal artpieces.
Yeah not wrong mate. Highly subjective easily. Trumps audio hi-fi snobbery. People always likely to recommend whatever products they have as well.
Trumps audio hi-fi snobbery.
Until I can buy a $500 crystal to put on top of my grinder to "reduce harmonic resonance in the burr set", nothing will trump HiFi for snobbery.
My issue with Breville is that they don't stock replacement parts for their products.
Had one of these for 2 years and the internal gear stripped, called support and was fobbed off to a 3rd party to pay for repair.
Called them and they wanted $100 to assess the repair but if it was a gear unfortunatley there are no spare parts for it.
They are good for the price but I ended up with a 2nd hand Mazzer to use longterm.
Thank you, this is a big issue.. we all need to be able to repair things since we don't have a spare planet to consume. It's not like the technology for kitchen stuff is constantly being revolutionised as with computer equipment. I wish parts and repairability featured more regularly in reviews of consumer gear like this.
Yes unfortunately a lot of appliances are throw away items these days and build quality is pretty average. Have had the sunbeam cafe series grinder since about 2008 and it's a very solid Burr grinder without electronic gizmos, can't imagine it dying to be honest.
I've found your overall techniques, care and decent/fresh beans all make for a good coffee making experience, as long as you half half decent equipment.
By the way, do you use filtered water to make coffee?
It depends what city you live in!
Melbourne tap water is pretty incredible, but if you're in Adelaide… Yes, by god, filter it please!
(The chemical makeup of your water deeply changes the way your coffee extracts. Also, remember - your coffee is about 98% water, so if your water sucks, your coffee will taste like your sucky water!)
Agreed. You definitely need to filter your water in Perth when making a nice cup of tea or non-milk coffee.
I think it’s not as noticeable for milk-based coffee however.
Depends on your water quality, but basically water is the largest ingredient in coffee so if your water tastes bad its going to affect the taste of the coffee.
That's the way, bang the savings and get a filter installed.
Yes, always.
Using non-filtered water even from the tap is like putting decade old tyres on a Ferrari.
This is a great post covid price
Highly recommended grindr
But on a serious note, I have this model. We make Viet drip coffee. Its a big upgrade from using a blade grinder from kmart, very consistent taste. Crazy how we used the kmart one for so long.
What beans are you using for that? I just use the preground stuff for vietnamese coffee (very cheap). Given they're robusta beans they're much more rObUsT and literally tougher to grind although much coarser than espresso. Not sure if it's worth doing
Whatever is on sale at woolworths haha
@serbpie: Recommend the Aldi Medium roast, get those at least. 1KG is cheap, and actually very underrated. Those who know, know - best supermarket coffee beans IMO.
Yes it does. Do you have ebay plus?
Works fine for me, seems like a harsh neg
I bought one from Appliances Online ebay store the other week for $242. Forget what the coupon code was that I used, but it took $50 off the $292 list price. Should have posted the deal, but I seem to recall there was a reason I didn't. Maybe there was only 1 left in stock.
Had got Encore esp few months ago for 300 delivered, which was not too much more than this, much better though, less retention.
My bad. My eBay plus has expired
Then revise your neg?
The 169 I paid for this seems to have been a miracle
Had mine for 7 years, making on average 2 coffees a day. Picked it up for ~$160 on sale - so much value.
This or the baratza encore esp, I’m only going to make latte or flat white.
Baratza doesn’t have portafiller holder. You can’t grind a dose straight into the handle. Such a stupid design.
Baratza encore esp for sure for espresso. Baratza has great customer service too. Ive read they often send people spare parts to troubleshoot and fix - preventing landfill.
I own this for long enough, 8+ years by now. Been using it daily. It's pretty good, but cleaning and trying to source parts for it was not that great!
I haven't been able to replace the washer after it broke
[Edit]: just tried a random eBay search and it came up now, previously I searched high and low for it but couldn't find it
Yeah Breville not known for parts availability, but if under warranty, like mine was, they'll offer you a full refund through the store you purchased. In fact I got refunded more than I paid thanks to the eBay coupon I used.
Spend a tad more and get:
Eureka mignon crono + 50mm espresso burrs. €227 delivered ($370).Will perform like Eureka Manuale, Silenzio or Perfetto grinder.
https://www.espressocoffeeshop.com/en/best-deals/26-112099-0…
Thanks for this suggestion! I’ll have to look into this model. Seems like a good price right?
Mine lasted for 2 years and a few months. Then died. Breville's customer support is a joke. Eventually, I managed to fix it by myself. This product has not been manufactured to last or to be repaired. Lots of plastic etc. I will not buy any other Breville's product again.
Please do not use this grinder with the dual boiler or any other relatively decent espresso machine and expect condistent results. If you’re not using a decent grinder (eg baraza sette 270, eureka mignon, or better) then you’ve already wasted $900 on the espresso machine.
The dual boiler is just a Breville, not some magical machine. I'd say it's pretty well matched up on price (although the dual boiler isn't even cheap so why not spend more)
of course the dual boiler is not that special, but it's definitely able to capitalise on a great grinder. my point is that if you're buying the SGP, then you should do so for different extraction methods that don't require the very high uniformity and consistency that espresso does. Or, get the SGP for espresso, and know that a much cheaper espresso machine (eg bambino) will give you the exact same result as the dual boiler. The main thing is that the grinder is the limiting factor. Same as I would not bother putting sports rims and Pirelli P-zero tyres on my 90's corolla - it's not even maxing out the potential of my cheap tyres.
Yeah it's a funny thing, having to spend more on a grinder than a coffee machine, or just end up spending 1-2k. I agree and have heard good things about the Bambino for what it is.
Personally I am happy with how my em0480 and Gaggia classic (pre-2015) pair up. Back in the day it was only $500 for both I think. I've done some mods/repairs/upgrades but everything helps. Even those wdt needle tools help clumpiness and channelling and makes better coffee than a lot of cafes (a lot has to still be said for care and technique).
The coffee (profanity) are out in force. Any world champions here, or just over zealous James Hoffman fans. Get this BSG (similar burr grinder), get a Weiss Distribution Technique (WDT) tool, get a coffee scale, watch this taste comparison between BSG and Niche Zero (>$1000) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6ldIvyQwv0&t=4s Know the BSG is probably a throw away if problems occur outside the warranty. Spend savings on sampling lots of different coffee. Enjoy
Should it be a smart grinder model?
Thanks! I'll try this.
Does this work for the dual boiler?
This guy seems like a pretty good deal at $399 - https://alternativebrewing.com.au/products/coffee-tech-df64-…
anything better in that price range for espresso and single dose?
Website says $590?
As soon as you look at those you'll find out have to get the newer/already modded model (but in reality probably fine. Just silly if spending that much and still not good enough or needs modding).
Aaah my bad - I'm connected with a US work proxy and hence showing at $399. Bugger was just about to buy too
399.00
Regular price$743.00Same day dispatch
Orders placed before 3pm
Sounded pretty good haha
just did my bit to contribute to another interest rate hike by purchasing a DF64V.
Nice work why not
Mine’s struggling to grind light roasted beans at low settings, anyone having problem that getting stuck? (Been doing deep cleaning every month too)
duel boiler $880, just need to add a $1+ item for $120 discount off $1000