CG835B Electric Burr Coffee Grinder
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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.
If the main criteria is the quality of espresso, I'd buy a machine with PID, e.g. Profitec Go, Apex V2, Lelit Victoria. If you think that she will make lots of lattes, maybe a Heat Exchanger like Lelit MaraX. If she will make milk beverages but the quality of her espresso is a must, I'd choose a dual boiler with PID like Lelit Bianca or Elizabeth, but then only the machine will consume your whole budget. Grinders are even more important, you're right. I'd recommend a DF64 because in the future she may try different burrs if she wants. And in the US, the DF64 are relatively cheap. Shardor is even cheaper, but the build quality is not the same, and it's a newer model, we don't have enough data to tell about longevity. I have both and I'm happy with my Shardor so far. But if you can, buy the DF64. Long story short, Lelit Victoria is being sold for 800 by Whole Latte Love, a Df64 you can buy for 400 from Amazon, then you can buy some accessories like a Normocore Tamper, a knock box, puck screen, tamping station, barista mat, a WDT tool, some nice espresso cups like Loveramics or Kruve, with your remaining budget. In case you're interested, I recommend this video about building an espresso setup: https://youtu.be/FcA8APz2khs?si=jpLjhj-UqNHNPSeA
I use a Shardor, not this model though. I got it in a package deal with a FreshRoast. It grinds well enough. I don’t have experience with anything else to compare it to. I’ll use it until it stops working.