Zerno - Z1

This list seems somehow outdated, and is missing some important items, that are popular and offering a great value.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.

First of all, flat burrs won't just cure fines. I have a Pietro and even with the huge sweet spot it has there have been beans where I have just decided not to do v60 but AP because with the v60 it would music stall too much no matter on how little agitation I caused. Just 1 bean out of a lot more, but just something to consider. Next thing to consider is that both stock burrsets just won't be great for clarity in pour over. Any test for the two grinders you mentioned mentions these drawbacks. But at least the df64 you can order with ssp mp pre installed, which tbh sounds like what you want. From what I heard about them and considering you have a lever machine you should be able to pull great shots and they will give you the highest clarity pour over. These will also be the ones that differ most from your current grinders so IMHO the ones that give you the biggest gain over your existing grinders. Obviously the 64 has the higher amount of after market burrs and what I have seen from tests makes it easier to swap them out. It is overall at this point a very mature product that does come with some caveats which should be attributed to the price point though. From what you describe - a high clarity end game grinder with a lot of features - you could consider going up to the 1000 range and getting a zerno z1 or a mazzer philos. Both have a good auger feeding/pre breaking mechanism and come with good stock burrs. Given what we know so far about variable speed it mostly affects feed rate and doesn't have much of an influence on grinders with good augers. So I think these will give you a very good build quality, noise level and feature set and be basically the "entry level endgame" grinders you can get(bigger burrs can probs be more endgame but the only ones that have bigger ones at a lower/comparable price point come with other caveats)

Under 1k I think it is hard to beat. I think the next stop would be a Zerno Z1 with some blind burrs, but that would put you above 1k. Also the 078 should give a somewhat similar profile to the ZP6.

If you can afford it then two separate grinders would be best, especially if you're doing both pourover and espresso daily. Otherwise the Zerno Z1 is excellent but it'll be a while before you can get one.

I take 2 screws out of my Zerno once every couple months, brush 0.3g off the burrs, then put the 2 screws back in. It says calibrated between disassembly so no need to re zero it. Way easier than most hand grinders.

There's no quirks, the workflow and build quality are both amazing. The reality is it makes next to 0 difference in the cup over something like a DF64 though. I like nice things so I appreciate it, but overall I don't think I could tell the taste difference over another 64mm flat grinder.

Zerno Z1 with blind burrs needs to be near, if not at the very top of the list. Considering its features and best in the business engineering, this machine is an absolutely incredible value. The only downside is availability but it is well worth the wait.

Zerno uses a blind burr set - no screw holes so beans are ground across the entire surface of those 64mm burrs. This actually makes them closer to 75mm burrs = vastly improved clarity,. This grinder is punching way above the others in its price range class.

I have both. If you’re only doing PO get the 078. The benefit of z1 is mostly ability to do espresso and switch styles w different burrs, portability and build quality.