Sculptor 078SSP

Now that you know many prefer to brew light roasts at or below 198F your position might change and you could get into light roasts. think about that before buying a grinder. Buy good grinder once and forget about any upgrades later. I have a Timemore 078 with SSP burrs for around 1k and pretty happy with it for both espressos and pour overs

TLDR: tried a bunch of grinders/burrs, settled on 078 and ode with SSP mp v1 (brew). Might move on from my zp6. I recently went down the grinder rabbit hole. I've had a zp6 for about two years. Regarding 64mm burrs, I sourced 2 fellow odes and swapped through: SSP mp v1(brew), SSP MP v2, ode gen 2, and 64mm sculptor turbo burrs doing side by sides. I brew via v60 and mainly brew ultralight/light washed and natural coffees. Looking for clarity, gen 2 burrs are too blendy for me. The 64mm turbos are a bit more clear but still not enough. MP v2 are good with vibrant acidity and clarity but definitely more astringent from the extra fines. I settled on the mp v1 (brew) burrs. They have the highest clarity, lowest body, but tend to be easier to brew to reduce astringency. In parallel I also sourced a timemore 078 and timemore 078ssp. The 078 SSP for brew has higher clarity but the intensity is dialed back compared to the 64 SSP mps. It's a different presentation. I really enjoyed the 078 turbo. Brews are high in clarity while retaining good body with added juiciness and sweetness. Noticably sweeter than the 078ssp. The build quality on the 078 is definitely superior to the ode. I don't think it's a fair comparison as price points are different. I'm keeping the 078 for naturals and funkier coffees in addition to washed. The ode with brew burrs will be focused for washed coffees. While yes you could jump straight to 80mm or 98mm recommendations, I think it makes sense to dabble in entry level flat burr grinders first so you can appreciate the difference. When you move into 80mm or 98mm there will be many types of burrs to help you achieve a certain brew, but the price point goes up substantially so it's hard to cycle through them all. You may very well find yourself needing two types of grinders to maximize coffees that are processed differently. For me I'm not a fan of Weber or zerno. I think the cost markup is a bit high for what it is. In addition to the p80, bookoo is rolling out an 80mm grinder also called the motto 80. Maybe worth looking into. Timemore m01 is another great hand grinder I've had the pleasure to use. Good clarity, body, juiciness, intensity and flavor progression. For me zp6 is clear but flavors and cup progression is not very cohesive. It leaves something to be desired. Another good guide for burr comparisons can be found here: https://www.robertasami.com/burrtopia

Instead of the df64 , why not the timemore sculptor with ssp burrs , I can’t stand the df64 for how loud it is tbh

The sculptor should have some better QOL imo - rpm adjustment , good for switching from filter to espresso, you’ll want to grind at lower rpm for filter - knocker at the chute to reduce retention with my previous experience with DF64 most of the retention is at the chute where the coffee fines get jammed up there, not so much on the burrs, same with most of the grinders I’ve used. In terms of swapping beans, shouldn’t be a problem if ur doing single dosing, as it’s what you are doing as well at the moment.

Timemore 078 SSP Got it with turbo burrs originally from the kickstarter for $500 for pour overs. Bought SSP burrs for $320 so I could brew espresso, chose it over the 78s burrs because I still wanted ability to do light roast pour over.

The Ode Gen 2 was my daily driver for quite a while and for the $ it’s great. I now have the 078 for my daily electric, and also regularly use a Millab 01 and Pietro. There are already a ton of great comments giving great advice, so I’ll keep it relatively straightforward: **1) Will you be traveling much and want to do pour over while traveling? If yes go hand grinder. 2) If you won’t be traveling or wanting pour over while traveling, get the Ode.** And either way, unless you give up pour over, you’ll be buying another grinder at some point so just get whichever one you didn’t get then. Another great thing about the Ode is you can upgrade later with SSP MP’s Timemore 064 turbo/ghost burrs, or another great burr and really increase the brew quality for a reasonable cost. Btw, love the M01 and Pietro and would highly recommend either.

As the other poster mentioned a C40 or K-Ultra are great blendy grinders, that can also do espresso if you ever have the need to grind that fine in the future. For the flat burr electric side, maybe Timemore 064, or 078 if you can stretch the budget. It's a nice balance of blendy and some clarity. The Ode 2 is a fine grinder, but it's not a great value proposition due to its age. The Lagom Casa is an excellent conical grinder, you can also consider the Femobook A5, or 68 depending on budget for higher quality conicals.

If your budget allows for it, I’d recommend the Timemore 078s but with the SSP burrs. I really enjoy the clarity it brings out for lighter roasts for both espresso and pour over. This was my first flat burr grinder, and admittedly I did have a bit of buyers remorse, questioning whether the upgrade to the SSP burrs was worth it. At the time, I wasn’t too big on pour overs, but after doing a blind taste test compared to my Baratza Encore ESP the difference was amazing. Now, I do about 60% espresso and 40% pour over I bought mine a few months ago and I used their 15% coupon code (still on their website) and paid $934 USD. It’s also SUPER quiet, like I don’t think there’s a grinder quieter than the sculptor. As a matter of fact, when I opened mine from the box and turned it on, I thought I got a defective product because it wasn’t turning on. Turns out it was on I just had my TV playing too loud in the background. Seriously, it’s that quiet. As far as retention, I get +/- 0.1g, and very rarely maybe +/- 0.2g. Overall, I’m really happy with the Sculptor. The only negative things I have to say about it is: 1. If you have the RPM set below 1000 and you don’t do a hot start and/or slow feed the beans I’ve stalled the motor a couple of times. Even with a medium roast, I’ve stalled it by doing a cold start. However, in my experience as long as you have the RPM over 1200, the motors never stalled even if I throw my beans in the hopper and do a cold start. 2. This isn’t much of an issue for me because I slow feed my beans, but the slope of the hopper isn’t too steep, so if you throw the beans in the hopper and start grinding, there a few beans that get stuck in the hopper instead of going into the auger, and if you use RDT it’s even worse. Timemore makes an aftermarket hopper that goes over the stock one, but I’m not sure what the angle of the slope looks like but I’ve seen other people saying that the problem went away after buying it. 3. The dial indicator that shows what grind setting your on is on the side of the grinder and is pretty much just a red line, and I have to get down to eye level to really pinpoint where I want the dial to be it. I bought an aftermarket dial indicator off of Etsy that attaches right to the side of the grinder, and that helps a lot too. 4. As someone else said, for the 078s model, you won’t have many options for burrs since. But as I said before, I’d recommend upgrading to the SSP Multipurpose burrs. The red speed coating from what I understand also helps with the longevity of the burrs. Timemore says the lifespan for them is around 6000kg, so by that time you should have enough money for a new set of burrs lol. Overall I’d give it an 8/10, Id consider it my end game grinder, but now I’ve got my eyes on the Zerno Z2.