TIMEMORE Sculptor 064S Flat Burr Coffee Bean Grinder, Electric Espresso Grinder with Stepless Coarseness Adjustment, Suitable for Pour over, French Press, Cold Brew - Black

I waited about six months to make sure I had used the product enough to provide an informed opinion. I used it every day to prepare 5-8 shots of espresso each day. First the looks and build quality. Solid in every aspect; the grinder looks feels and sounds beautiful. It is sturdy so I expect many years of good use. Performance is very consistent and variations arise from the coffee beans rather than the grinder itself. Settings are accurate and slight changes are quickly reflected in the extraction time, flow, and the flavor in the cup. The grinding speed is consistent, smooth and fast; it takes about 15-20 seconds to grind 16-21 grams of coffee. The grinding profile highlights the sweetness and body of your coffee; this was an important feature for me so here the grinder has shinning 5 stars. Retention is close to zero and requires minimal maintenance. Static is there (all electric grinders produce static as a byproduct of friction and speed). a little tap on the dosing cup against the counter may be needed every now and then to empty up the fines. Cons. The grinding does produce some popcorning when you have a hot start or when you do not fully close the lid. This was not a biggie for me as it is low and occasional. The pitch of the feeder is on the flat side (I would say 25-30 degrees), this causes that some oily blends, (or when I spray the beans) not to slide down the grinder chute, requiring a little push.

This has got to be one of the most often reviewed coffee grinders on YouTube, so I’m not going to recap any of the features that have already been covered ad nauseam in that space. I’ve been using a Breville smart grinder and later smart grinder Pro for the past few years and that’s been a fine entry level grinder for the time being. The 078S represents a significant step up in terms of both price and quality. There’s been a lot of talk around this grinder about needing to “season” the burrs with as much as seven kilos of cheap coffee (if there is such a thing these days), before the grinder reveals its true performance. I’ve gotta say right out of the box, this grinder makes markedly better coffee than I was able to make with my Breville smart grinder. Also given the state and trajectory of the coffee industry, the idea of wasting 7 kg of coffee just to get the full benefit out of it seems pretty absurd. I put a light geisha roast through it recently and it made an absolutely exquisite cup. Maybe my plebeian pallet just isn’t worthy, but I’m also not afraid to tell the emperor that he’s not wearing any clothes. Or maybe once I get into that 7 kg mark I’ll notice that my coffee is at a whole new level, which I never even imagined and then I’ll have to eat my words. But until then I’m still enjoying the coffee that comes out. I’ve not had any issues with beans sticking in the hopper. I’ve also not had any issues with retention, but then I’m also not searching to the hundredth of a gram level (because it doesn’t actually matter!). I’ve also found none of the complaints about the power button to be merited. It’s solid. I also don’t care about the speed knob being in the back. I’d actually rather prefer it there, out of sight and out of the way. It’s a beautiful grinder and the knob would just detract from that. You’re not going to be messing with it every day anyways. I like taking things apart to see how they work. I also wanted to see if the burrs needed any re-aligning out of the box, which they didn’t. It’s worth mentioning that there is a tamper seal over one of the screws needed to take out the outer burr carrier, so if you are thinking of buying this grinder with the possibility of changing or upgrading the burr later, you should know that it’s very likely that you will be voiding the warranty once you break this seal. To further confuse the issue, Timemore has released a video on YouTube about how to reassemble the burr carrier group. While appreciated, it certainly sends a mixed message about whether you should or shouldn’t open your grinder up. Upon opening mine, I observed that two of the Delrin keys shown in the video, which are used for indexing the outer burr carrier were not present on my own model. I contacted Timemore because I was concerned that these parts were forgotten during the build of my grinder. Timemore responded within 24 hours and informed me that those parts are no longer included or necessary for proper function of the grinder. Props to them for their quick and useful response and for not asking my serial number so they can blacklist my grinder for future warranty claims. I’m not thrilled about buying anything designed and manufactured in China for a number of reasons, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised in the construction and thoughtfulness of design. Overall, I’m happy with my purchase which at the time was $600. I expect to get many years of service out of this grinder. Updated to add one important caveat: There’s a lot of videos out there, encouraging you to check burr alignment on your flat burr grinders whatever model it might be. I would not advise undertaking on that process on this grinder because in order to find where those contact points are, you’re essentially pushing the burrs together until, the flat spots around the outer diameter of the burrs begin to make contact. That ever happened with my grinder. I found that the initial point of contact between the burrs was at the sharper points of the teeth. Although it was circumferentially equal and not requiring re-alignment, just the action of touching the teeth at their sharpest points is inherently going to dull the cutting edge of those teeth a little bit. Especially when it isn’t possible to manually turn the shaft.

Great grinder so far. I did tons of research before I bought this one and when I could get it on a significant sale, it made it well worth the price. I knock at one star because this has been advertised as having very, very low retention, but the truth is that there’s quite a bit of popcorn in the hopper, and I wish there was a better mechanism than a tiny squeeze thing to clean this out between uses. Using a single dozer is particularly useful when you are changing in between beans frequently. But this still routines about .1 g of coffee and a lot of fines. I haven’t really heard of anything better especially for the price point, so it still gets four stars. It’s small and does a really good job with both espresso and pourover. My only other complaint is hard to prove, but when I pick a grind size I get pretty good consistency. However, if I change to a larger grind size and then go back to the previous grind size, I get a very different extraction outcome. I’m not quite sure if it’s user error yet, but I seem to be able to get a consistent shot before switching grind sizes. That’s what’s confusing to me. But anyway, for the price, it’s a great flat burn grinder that produces a pretty good espresso shot. Workflow is also great and it’s easy to use and clean.