Femobook - A4 (1A4-GD)

A4 is the J series one.

Femobook A4 is an electrified, chargeable J-Max. It’s an insane value if you’re looking for espresso only. https://femobook.myshopify.com/collections/rechargeable-electric-grinder/products/a4

Ode gen 2 doesn’t stall, the new Burrs influenced by Lance Hendrick. Also you can get it with a SSP set. Variable speed is a gimmick, James Hoffman has a video commenting on how its utility is really not known well and adds another layer of unnecessary complication to dialing in. Stepless doesn’t matter in pour over. Or go a4 femo, an electric zp6 (yes I know the burrs aren’t 1:1 identical but they produce very similar cups)

Depending upon the profile you are after, I would look at the following grinders: Shardor 64 mm flat burr commercial-grade (currently $249 on Amazon) Ode Gen 2 Lagom Casa Femobook A4 (while it's their espresso-focused model, it makes nice pourovers as well--a more rounded and blended cup. I have one and it's a bargain at $279) Femobook A4Z Femobook A5 Timemore 078 or 078S, depending upon what you want DF83V

I would get a Femobook A4Z for pourover and a Femobook A4 for espresso, and have $400+ leftover for beans.

FWIW, a Femobook A4 and A4Z will not take up much space. Their profiles are very compact—2 of them together would take up less counter space than a Timemore 078S or MHW Bomber Navigator. Even more so because they don’t need to be plugged into an electrical outlet.

if its mostly or only espresso, niche zero is the best, imho. havent found anything better. the simplicity is the best. its still the iphone of espresso grinders. and considered the gold standard. you can't go wrong with it. i tried a few others but didnt like any over the zero. i tried a femobook a4 too, but it sucked at espresso, its more for drip coffee. in the long run the niche you'll enjoy using and its like an end game grinder. i need another and can't find anything better. i wanted to try something but not happy with results. i like the full body taste so niche wins for me.

Femobook A4 is on sale for ~£200 (literally double your budget, I know), but you’ll never need another grinder. Slow rotation conical burrs, zero retention, no mucking about with bellows to blow coffee out or anything. Tiny footprint. Extremely well made. Portable when you need it to be. Femobook is a sister company of 1Zpresso. I moved from a huge Ditting 804 with 83mm flat unimodal burrs and was shocked by by how much I preferred the cups from the Femobook. Crazy good taste for the price point.

I have the A68 (larger version of the same burrs in the A4) but the A4 is essentially an automatic K-Ultra/Comandante and the cups from those hand grinders are absolutely fantastic. The A4Z burrs are nearly identical to the burrs in the 1ZPresso ZP6 which I own. I find the cups extremely clear, papery, and thin (similar profile to the competition burrs in my Ditting). Very unforgiving when you don’t want every single cup of coffee to be that transparent like you’re in a brewing competition. The trick to making hand grinders shine is a steady, slow pace (~50rpm), maintaining consistent RPM (which can be hard) and the Femobook solves that problem. I initially became curious about Femobook after going back to using my Comandante after years of using a Ditting with competition burrs in it and being very taken aback by how sweet the Comandante tasted with the same beans. It was quite hard to find a nice conical automatic that matched the slow speed of a hand grinder so I was happy to find Femobook.

If you want to go crazy, the Femobook A4 is on sale right now and is probably the best grinder you could get for the money (easily)! It's like $280, but it's an absolutely incredible little electric grinder that's capable of espresso and pour over. Superb build quality and easy to use.

I think this is good advice - the Pietro itself is a pain to use but the Femobook may solve essentially all problems. The one caveat I’ll give about the Motto is we have essentially no idea if it will be any good.