This is something else that I think is fairly important, most of us are grinding coffee early in the morning, so a grinder that sounds like a Boeing 747 probably isn't the best idea.

Coffee grinders often have several grind settings to choose from, as different coffee makers require differently sized grounds. A cafetière, for example, wants a more coarse grind, whereas an espresso requires very finely ground coffee.The reason for this is that the environment, whether it's in your kitchen or in your office, isn't the best place for coffee beans – and if the beans are in your hopper, they're in your environment. The hopper doesn't give any protection from oxygen or from fluctuations in temperature and humidity. These things will mess with your beans, and you don't want things messing with your beans. I didn't want an espresso specialist grinder, because I did quite a bit of manual brewing too and I couldn't afford to buy a second grinder for brew, I wanted an all-rounder. I'd ruled out blade grinders, my coffee knowledge definitely wasn't what it is now, but I knew enough by that point to know that while blade grinders are better than nothing, it was a burr grinder I needed. So, they replaced the grinder, and all was well. It wasn't until a few years later when I knew so much more about espresso in general and had so much more experience with the Smart Grinder Pro, that I figured out what the issue was. It was just the coffee beans! My settling down after a complete clean relates to getting a consistent timed or beans weighed in out of them. An Oracle weighs so settling will be a bit different.

I had a problem with a loose nut too. Being too careful when I did it up. As turning the nut will also spin the motor removing the nut needed a jerk to make use of inertia. I re tightened it the same way and it has remained in place since. I am now using a coarser than normal grinder setting but also a bigger filter basket so would expect to really. For example, I’m usually looking for 18g for a double shot, and I usually start out with a grind size of about 12, and a timing of about 17.5 seconds, which will usually get me close to 18g, and I’ll weight it, and then either take a bit out or grind a bit more. The timing will change from bean to bean, which is why you can’t purely rely on timing. A much fairer comparison would be the Sage Smart Grinder Pro vs the Baratza Virtuoso +, as the Virtuoso Plus is only slightly more expensive, and is sold as being mainly a brew grinder. I've used both (and the forte, and most other Baratza grinders), and again, the SGP has a lot of pros vs the Virtuoso, mainly where features and ease of use are concerned, and I think they're incredibly evenly matched where cup quality is concerned, in fact, this more scientific comparison resulted in the Smart Grinder Pro being awarded the title for the best particle uniformity. Automated Shimming It should never be complicated, uncomfortable or difficult to use your coffee grinder. It should be simple to load up your coffee beans and get the perfect grounds you're looking for.With the Smart Grinder Pro (and the dose control pro, and all of the integrated grinder machines from Sage) the outer burr has a thread, which enables you to shim it by simply adjusting it to one of the numbered settings, from 1-10. Ready to get a quality espresso coffee machine and make the best espresso drinks? Third wave speciality coffee sees coffee as an artisanal food, produced to achieve the ultimate taste experience from bean to cup. When it comes to replicating third wave speciality coffee at home, there’s no cutting corners. This means you'll have to use a quality espresso machine for best results. That’s why Sage created a range of automatic and manual espresso coffee maker models that honour tradition and techniques that define the very fundamentals required for third wave speciality coffee.

The Smart Grinder Pro is an all-rounder grinder, It'll grind for manual brew methods such as Aeropress, pour-over, stove top & cafetiere, and it will also grind for espresso, with traditional or pressurized baskets. Most of us are familiar with cordless drills, which usually give you a numbered selection to decide how much torque you want the motor to be able to apply. If you're drilling a hole you'll have the torque limit (via the slipper clutch, although most of us probably don't realize this is what it's called, I certainly didn't) much higher than you would if you were using it in screwdriver mode. Being espresso capable isn't the only pro for the Smart Grinder Pro, though. It's one of the most user-friendly grinders I've ever used, and this is something Sage are really good at.

Reliability

The dose programming is just about setting the time for the number of shots, to get you close to the required dose, and this is separate to the grind size setting. You can’t really rely on timing for dosing, you really need scales, and the timing then is just there as a guide. Remember, at this time I knew nothing about grinders, and I knew very little about espresso making in general at that point, I'd mainly brewed manually up until not long before getting the Smart Grinder Pro as an upgrade to my manual (Hario Skerton) grinder and cordless drill setup. But I was up and running instantly, without even bothering to look at the instructions. That being said, I am a drummer, and for many years I didn't wear earplugs when I really should have, and I'm a loud drummer, the guitarists in the bands I've been in have been just as loud, so my hearing isn't the greatest. It didn't take me too long, however, to realize that this is just because the paddles on the side of the portafilter have to be parallel with the sides of the cradle, and because of where these are on the Gaggia Classic, you just have to put the portafilter in with the handle over to one side. As you can see, I needed to insert the portafilter with the handle to the left. It's true that the hopper lid on the Smart Grinder Pro has a gasket, and this is good mainly because it keeps some of the decibels of the grinding from escaping from the top of the hopper, so it dulls the sound slightly, but what it doesn't do is stop air getting in. Don't forget, coffee grounds can get out of the bottom, and the air is infinitely smaller than the smallest particle of ground coffee ;-). It's not just about letting your beans go stale, it can mess with your shots too.