TIMEMORE - Sculptor 078S

For both espresso and pourover with a budget of $900, I highly recommend looking at the [Timemore Sculptor 078S ](https://www.amazon.com/TIMEMORE-Sculptor-Electric-Coarseness-Adjustment/dp/B0DNZ3SKCN). It's a solid flat burr grinder that is an excellent value proposition considering the quality you get. Things I like... + Flavor separation (especially in espresso) is the best you are going to get for under $900. + The sliding chute, fines knocker, and magnetic catch cup are great QoL improvements. + The build quality is superb. It's a cast all-metal body. As a result, it's somewhat heavy, which may not be ideal for some. For me, I absolutely love it. + It's remarkably quiet. Perfect if you don't want to wake up others when brewing coffee in the morning. Things I don't like... - The small hopper makes larger batches more challenging. I still keep my Sette 30 ➡️ 270 conical burr grinder to make cold brew every week. I also use a 3D printed a hopper extension for french press when we have several folks over wanting coffee. - Disassembly is somewhat more difficult compared to many other grinders. Recommend picking up a bottle of Grindz for routine cleanings in lieu of full disassembly. - 78mm flat burrs are not a common size and may limit future upgradability. I upgraded from the Niche and it's been my daily driver for over a year now. I have zero regrets and no desire to upgrade to anything else, after trying some grinders that are twice the price without any improvement.

I had a ton of success with the baratza encore, but it is probably better suited for espresso and not pour overs. After upgrading to the sculptor 78s, I realized the encore produced a ton of fines even at the coarse settings I used for pour overs.

I should also add .. I’m not sure “a ton of fines” is accurate. It definitely produced less uniform grinds than, say, the sculptor (visually obvious, not just suspicion). It also had poor retention so I had to add a bellow.

As stated above, two grinders is the solution at this price point You could get two very nice grinders that target both your needs separately. No single grinder will hit all these points without swapping burrs, which is often a bit of work. I'm currently using a two grinder setup (that is well under your budget) for this reason. I really enjoy my timemore 078s (1100 canadian) for our espresso. I have no issues with dark or light roasts in it. It's not perfect, but no grinder is. But for the price point, I am very happy. To go up from here price wise doesn't make sense to me unless you plan on swapping burrs regularly per bean. As for filter, I opted for a pietro with the pro burrs (670 cad). This is a manual grinder, but I absolutely adore it for it's clarity and vibrancy so far. If you want something that's a little better rounded for more beans, the 1zspresso max is a great option as well. And if you want something electric for filter, people have spoke highly of the timemore 078 with its turbo burrs. It's the same price as the espresso model above. Happy shopping

I have a 078s and don't really like it for pourover. My main issue is 1) interchangeability of grind settings. When going from coarse to fine, you will get stuck a few times when adjusting down to the espresso settings. Just have to be patient with this but too much work for the cup of pourover 2) don't really like the cup I'm getting with 078s, I'm not an expert but I prefer cups from my Zp6. My 078s is now exclusively for espresso or moka pot

This grinder isn't 0 retention so there is bound to be Coffee grounds left between the burrs after each grind. The coarse coffee powder tend to get stuck in between the burrs as I am adjusting to finer setting. That's because when I turn the burrs closer together, the coarse powder get jarred in between the burr. The grinder will need to grind them down to the size before you can turn it further. So you have to repeat this process until you reach the final espresso setting. Luckily the motor on the 078s is strong enough so there shouldn't be any issues. But there is a slight risk if you are using greasy dark roast, you might jam the grinder and stall the motor.

Yea that's what I'm doing. You are not supposed to adjust grinder when it is stationary precisely because you will cause it to get stuck more. But even so, I have to do 2-3 adjustments before reaching espresso

This list seems somehow outdated, and is missing some important items, that are popular and offering a great value. Hand grinders: **Kingrinder K6, K2, K0, Timemore C3S, C2S** Electric: **Zerno Z1**, soon also **Z2** (80mm, now in a prototype stage), **Mazzer Philos, DF64V, Sculptor 078s,064, and Lagom 01** (although grinders with burrs larger than 83 mm is a rather niche ultra-high-end, so not sure really, if EK43, P100 and L01 make sense to be included in such a list) Also: In this list, the **Fellow Ode2** is placed in "budget-friendly", while **Fellow Opus** in "mid-range/prosumer"?? :) Ode costs almost twice as Opus, and while Ode is rather popular for manual brews, Opus is not that popular neither for brew, nor for espresso, although technically "it can do both". (edit to add) Also missing, the **DF54** low-cost electric grinder.

Agree. The built-in has limitations. Does not like high hardness light beans at all. And it’s a huge pain if it gets stalled. But if you’re getting cute and trying out light roasts, you either slow feed a couple beans at a time or upgrade. (I like my TimeMore 078S)

TimeMore struggles some with light roasts but has a protective shutoff. And getting them out of the grinder is as easy as twisting the setting to a coarser grind and tuning the machine back on.

Same. I rdt and double check before turning it off.

I use a hand grinder for pour over. I like being able to grind by hand, and for filter it doesn’t take all that long. But, for espresso I use an electric as grinding that fine by hand isn’t all that nice. I’ve had electric grinders for filter, and hand grinders for espresso, but find that my current setup is best for me. This would be the case if I had the money for a much more expensive grinder as well I’m using a 1Zpresso ZP6, and a Timemore Sculptor 078s.

I have the Timemore 078S and use it for both filter and espresso. I can’t comment on the Mazzer, but the 078S is good for both IMO.

The answer is absolutely yes, and the best recommendation will depend so much on what kind of beans you like, what kind of drinks you like, and your budget. But if it were me, these would be my top choices for a two-in-one (I do both pourover and espresso, but I lean towards pourover these days): If you're willing to hand grind, 1zpresso K-Ultra or Comandante would be outstanding. Kingrinder K6 on a budget. A lot of people find this tedious but it's actually my preferred method and I swear by my 1zpressos. You won't beat a hand grinder for price to quality, and you'll save space. For electric, Lagom Mini would be fantastic and space saving, or a Lagom Casa. Timemore 078s for a slightly higher budget. If you want to blow your budget, you've got TONS of options. Lagom P64, Zerno Z1, WPM ZP-1, Acaia Orbit, Lagom O1...we could go on. The DF grinders are an option I guess...Excellent bang for your buck but I personally do not like them or recommend them at all (I have a DF64 Gen 2 and...let's just say it's gonna be gone soon).