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Reddit Reviews
Get the shardor or a similar Chinese flat burr grinder, they go for about 150-200$ and are usually pretty good and reliable, my Shardor has been great for grinding espresso and pour over.
Shardoor flat burr grinder. Same price as the Baratza, but far better. You can even put high dollar burrs in it if you want. I got mine on eBay new in the box for $100.00. I uase mine with a Cafelat Robot and have had nothing but good pulls after I got it dialed in. Oh, and I have had zero retention with it, also.
Yeah, I am reluctant to get rid of my conical burr grinder, even though my Shardor will do single and higher volumes pretty easily. I just have my grind size dialed in so nicely, I hate to change it just to brew and AeroPress or a Moka Pot, or something.
Df54 with filter burrs should be better than og2. Shardor with some mods and the right burr upgrade might be pretty incredible.
My B&D burr mill conked out with just a few months. I've been using a Shardor burr mill for 2+ years now and like it almost as much as my old Cuisinart that lasted for well over a decade.
How do i fix this? I bought an OEM version of this machine with a different brand logo, but it's exactly the same factory machine as the Shaedor. It cost me only around $83 at my local store. It works pretty well, but this is my first time using a grinder machine, so I’m not sure what might not be working well or how to improve it.
I got Ode2 burrs for my Shardor. Much better results. Far less fines.
$30 bucks Shardor on Amazon prime sales. Easily modded to grind finer. Didn't know if I'd stick to this hobby, and I did. During the time my (replaced and twice fixed) old machined died, so upgraded to a Delonghi Dedica. So was trying out a cheapo. Thought of upgrading but no need to. Challenges of cheap machines are... never consistent. Espresso is actually VERY easy if you have the right machines, beans, etc. Usually expensive equipments will cover for little variables and mistakes. Kitchen appliance cheap machine is the hardest to make a good cup, IMHO. So don't go too cheap. 😁
I just bought a shardor and it works great with a bottomless at setting 3. I was going to return it on day 1 if it didn’t and thankfully it’s all good. I’m starting to think that a lot of these “rules” about grinders people have held for years now are starting to fall apart as new products hit the market. I recall a few years ago being told you can’t make espresso in any machine under $300 (used) and a friend of mine recently got one of those cheap $130 CasaBrews with a bottomless portafilter and it makes great espresso. Yeah, it’s cheap and probably won’t last many years, but it completely defies everything I had read on this sub a few years ago.
Rankings by Use Case
Top recommendations from others in the same boat
Best for Entry-level espresso

Top pick
Multiple Brands - DF54 Series
Best for Light roast espresso

Top pick
Multiple Brands - DF54 Series
Best for Multiple brew methods

Top pick
Baratza - Encore ESP
Best for Pour-over clarity

Top pick
Fellow - Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 Series





