I wouldn't worry about that. Turns out I read that blog a while ago but I never interpreted it the way you do.
I love to do measurements with the VST refractometer and playing with the VST app on the phone, the iPad and laptop but the taste is what it's really about. I use the TDS and extraction data as markers, information, but not indication of success/failure.
Consider this: if most beautiful fashion models are 180cm tall (I'm not sure they really are), that does not mean that you can assume a female of 180cm height is a beauty.
I wouldn't worry about that. Turns out I read that blog a while ago but I never interpreted it the way you do.
I love to do measurements with the VST refractometer and playing with the VST app on the phone, the iPad and laptop but the taste is what it's really about. I use the TDS and extraction data as markers, information, but not indication of success/failure.
Consider this: if most beautiful fashion models are 180cm tall (I'm not sure they really are), that does not mean that you can assume a female of 180cm height is a beauty.
J.J. Cisneros post=3892 wrote: Still no news? What happened with that phantom grinder, Reiss? :unsure:
Thanks.
Probably hasn't made it to NZ . I've been living with an Ek43 for a few weeks now and finally got my head round it . It is making incredibly sweet tasting shots , it a little different in ratio and mouthfeel at the same time.
obviously i will be putting hundreds of shots through it before we make any declarations, but no disappointment out of the box and having run about 5 shots through it - i can tell you already that roasts you think are 'ok' on a small 58mm flat burr are badly exposed on the R120
retention currently running at less than 0.2g which is far better than i dared dream for - whether that will change as the burrs settle in i don't know
this is a very refined product - lets see how it performs over the next few months and weeks
i am slightly hampered at the moment as i don't yet have my roasting facility set up in New Zealand, but we can work around that
thanks for bearing with us on this project - it seems to have taken ages to get the R120, but I'm very much looking forward to using it
The new grinder looks good! Probably out of my price range and the wife would hit the roof if something that big ended up on the kitchen bench, however if you get tired with it, feel free to send it to Invercargill for a second opinion.
How is the commercial property search going? I'm looking forward to trying some New Zealand roasted Londinium beans. I'll be up in Auckland over Christmas, it would be great to be able to drop in for a coffee.
if you are wondering why i didn't get an R140, the answer is i tried but was told they are not available to run on a single phase supply
it seems a bit odd as the R140 specification table on the Compak website implies that a single phase motor is available and so does the parts diagram, but hey-ho i asked multiple times in different ways and was told explicitly that the R140 is not available with a single phase motor
whilst my factory unit had (& will have) 3 phase it is pretty rare for a cafe or residential customer to have a 3 phase supply so i couldn't see the point in buying a demonstration grinder that was not relevant to our customers needs
single phase also allows us to stick it in the car and drag it around town to demo its capabilities with cafes & roasters that express an interest in trying the Compak R120
an R100 might be a suitable compromise for a domestic setting - you still get 100mm burrs, cf 98mm on a Mahlkoenig EK43
I was reading a blog (Bar1sta) about the EK43, and it mentioned in there that the blogger had the view that the benefit of the machine (and he was not convinced), was that it had very sharp burrs/blades, and that as such they would need sharpening regularly and replacing more frequently than a cafe/home scenario.
I don't know whether that is the case, and I did read that these Compak grinders have burrs/blades that can be sharpened...
Obviously Reiss and Dave (Hyde) will be able to compare and contrast between the two... We already know of some significant advantages of the Compak over the Mahlkoenig, like ventilated motor, bag shaker?, 0.2g retention....
But I also just read on the only place where I could find these prices, that the burrs for the Compak are a third of the price of the Mahlkoenig...
yes, bite me indeed stephen! you are correct that the R120 is closer to the lens than the L1, but if you run height lines on the R120 along the vanishing point and across the back wall of the kitchen you will still be able to see that the R120 completely dwarfs the L1
a mere 13,000Kg for the R120 - i fully expect someone to say that is not good enough
the bag shaker is an absolute god send for a coffee roaster/deli/cafe if you have customers that drop in and want to take away ground coffee - if you have ever tried on a grinder without a bag shaker you will know that the grinds sit up in the top of the bag rather than falling the to bottom, and then the bag overflows which is funny the first time, but seriously annoying thereafter
did i mention it is seriously quick? - about 2 seconds run time processes 18g of beans
you seem to obtain slightly better results if you drop the beans in the hopper, then start the grinder, rather than having it running and dropping the beans in
as an engineering fact this grinder is going to cope a lot better with on-off-on-off-on-off operation as it is equipped with two cooling fans & associated ducting to shift the air past the motor (starting motors, esp single phase ones, results in high current draw, which in turn produces a lot of heat). the active cooling system of the R120 means it is much better equipped to deal with on-off usage than some similar grinders in the market that do not have an active cooling system
WOW is about all I can say, but I would wager that my wife would have other things to say, and say, and say, and....
Now if they could just come up with the motor horizontally positioned behind the burrs so the grinder was deep and not tall :-) More like a short EK43.
The new grinder looks good! Probably out of my price range and the wife would hit the roof if something that big ended up on the kitchen bench, however if you get tired with it, feel free to send it to Invercargill for a second opinion.
How is the commercial property search going? I'm looking forward to trying some New Zealand roasted Londinium beans. I'll be up in Auckland over Christmas, it would be great to be able to drop in for a coffee.
Cheers Ian
hi ian - good to hear from you again. the property search is going ok i guess, but we are only after 150sqm and many of the properties are bigger than this. we have one lined up that looks quite good, although the current tenant does not vacate until the end of august, but i think it is worth waiting for - just waiting for critical details on the services to be verified in writing. by the time you come up we should be firing on all cylinders. we do have our green beans in the country, even if our roasting plant is still floating around in the pacific kind regards reiss.
I wish I could justify such a beast because of the almost zero retention. With my Kony-E I need to pump 2 doubles of grounds to get fresh grounds in the morning shot.
it has at least one thing in common with the Mahlkoenig EK43; both make roasts that taste 'ok' in smaller grinders taste significantly over-roasted, i.e. like soot. this is a very pronounced effect in both grinders - i.e. you don't have to have an over-active imagination as i think is generally the case when people start pouring superlatives out to describe a roast. it is very clear cut & instantly noticeable - it was the EK43 that really rammed it home to us that we needed to back off our roasts. unfortunately i don't have any of my own roasts just at the moment so i will need to go hunting for some lighter roasts here in Auckland
i need to run a lot more shots, but as already mentioned the retention seems to be running at less than 0.2g
if you are struggling to accept this, run the video above and stop it at 0:49
at that point you will be able to see clearly how this series of grinders achieve such low retention
its no accident, there's no witchcraft - you can see clearly with your own eyes how these grinders have been engineered to achieve this astounding result
warning: the audio is a bit annoying - you may want to watch the clip on mute
Reiss, when you are looking at the burr, just to the left of the burr is a couple of pulley wheels that appear to be connected with a rubber "O"ring belt. What is that for?
Comments
everyone who partook was very impressed to the best of my knowledge
just experiment and drink what you enjoy/like the taste of and spend a lot less time worrying about the proclamations of 'experts'
ex-spurts are drips under pressure aren't they?
I wouldn't worry about that. Turns out I read that blog a while ago but I never interpreted it the way you do.
I love to do measurements with the VST refractometer and playing with the VST app on the phone, the iPad and laptop but the taste is what it's really about. I use the TDS and extraction data as markers, information, but not indication of success/failure.
Consider this: if most beautiful fashion models are 180cm tall (I'm not sure they really are), that does not mean that you can assume a female of 180cm height is a beauty.
I wouldn't worry about that. Turns out I read that blog a while ago but I never interpreted it the way you do.
I love to do measurements with the VST refractometer and playing with the VST app on the phone, the iPad and laptop but the taste is what it's really about. I use the TDS and extraction data as markers, information, but not indication of success/failure.
Consider this: if most beautiful fashion models are 180cm tall (I'm not sure they really are), that does not mean that you can assume a female of 180cm height is a beauty.
Well said Frans!
Thanks.
Probably hasn't made it to NZ .
I've been living with an Ek43 for a few weeks now and finally got my head round it .
It is making incredibly sweet tasting shots , it a little different in ratio and mouthfeel at the same time.
i have just received an update - it should be ready to send on DHL to NZ at the end of next week
like many others i very much like what the EK43 does, which got me thinking, could there be something else out there that delivers similar results?
there may not be, but it will be fun to get this beast out here and see what we think
But...waiting to see what Reiss comes up with for his "inverter"...given he's now trying to pull LI shots upside down :D
unfortunately no beans at the moment
M.
Now we know what Reiss was trying to tell us exactly 4 weeks ago when he replied this to Ian Densie:
This is a man who goes out of his way to meet customer's demands!
Me too, Dave... I'm tempted by the EK43 though!
obviously i will be putting hundreds of shots through it before we make any declarations, but no disappointment out of the box and having run about 5 shots through it - i can tell you already that roasts you think are 'ok' on a small 58mm flat burr are badly exposed on the R120
retention currently running at less than 0.2g which is far better than i dared dream for - whether that will change as the burrs settle in i don't know
this is a very refined product - lets see how it performs over the next few months and weeks
i am slightly hampered at the moment as i don't yet have my roasting facility set up in New Zealand, but we can work around that
thanks for bearing with us on this project - it seems to have taken ages to get the R120, but I'm very much looking forward to using it
The new grinder looks good! Probably out of my price range and the wife would hit the roof if something that big ended up on the kitchen bench, however if you get tired with it, feel free to send it to Invercargill for a second opinion.
How is the commercial property search going? I'm looking forward to trying some New Zealand roasted Londinium beans. I'll be up in Auckland over Christmas, it would be great to be able to drop in for a coffee.
Cheers
Ian
That's a 4000€ grinder and 40 kg weight. What a beast.
this seems to be the image people want to see - i.e size relative to the L1
B-I-G is the answer
it seems a bit odd as the R140 specification table on the Compak website implies that a single phase motor is available and so does the parts diagram, but hey-ho i asked multiple times in different ways and was told explicitly that the R140 is not available with a single phase motor
whilst my factory unit had (& will have) 3 phase it is pretty rare for a cafe or residential customer to have a 3 phase supply so i couldn't see the point in buying a demonstration grinder that was not relevant to our customers needs
single phase also allows us to stick it in the car and drag it around town to demo its capabilities with cafes & roasters that express an interest in trying the Compak R120
an R100 might be a suitable compromise for a domestic setting - you still get 100mm burrs, cf 98mm on a Mahlkoenig EK43
I don't know whether that is the case, and I did read that these Compak grinders have burrs/blades that can be sharpened...
Obviously Reiss and Dave (Hyde) will be able to compare and contrast between the two... We already know of some significant advantages of the Compak over the Mahlkoenig, like ventilated motor, bag shaker?, 0.2g retention....
But I also just read on the only place where I could find these prices, that the burrs for the Compak are a third of the price of the Mahlkoenig...
http://www.coffeetec.com/category_s/22.htm
BTW: Do I detect a perspective problem in Reiss's kitchen photo...?
Like this:
the answer to the burr life can be found here (page 16); http://www.compak.es/docs/R120_M_EN.pdf
a mere 13,000Kg for the R120 - i fully expect someone to say that is not good enough
the bag shaker is an absolute god send for a coffee roaster/deli/cafe if you have customers that drop in and want to take away ground coffee - if you have ever tried on a grinder without a bag shaker you will know that the grinds sit up in the top of the bag rather than falling the to bottom, and then the bag overflows which is funny the first time, but seriously annoying thereafter
did i mention it is seriously quick? - about 2 seconds run time processes 18g of beans
you seem to obtain slightly better results if you drop the beans in the hopper, then start the grinder, rather than having it running and dropping the beans in
as an engineering fact this grinder is going to cope a lot better with on-off-on-off-on-off operation as it is equipped with two cooling fans & associated ducting to shift the air past the motor (starting motors, esp single phase ones, results in high current draw, which in turn produces a lot of heat). the active cooling system of the R120 means it is much better equipped to deal with on-off usage than some similar grinders in the market that do not have an active cooling system
Now if they could just come up with the motor horizontally positioned behind the burrs so the grinder was deep and not tall :-) More like a short EK43.
hi ian - good to hear from you again. the property search is going ok i guess, but we are only after 150sqm and many of the properties are bigger than this. we have one lined up that looks quite good, although the current tenant does not vacate until the end of august, but i think it is worth waiting for - just waiting for critical details on the services to be verified in writing. by the time you come up we should be firing on all cylinders. we do have our green beans in the country, even if our roasting plant is still floating around in the pacific
kind regards
reiss.
I wish I could justify such a beast because of the almost zero retention. With my Kony-E I need to pump 2 doubles of grounds to get fresh grounds in the morning shot.
i need to run a lot more shots, but as already mentioned the retention seems to be running at less than 0.2g
if you are struggling to accept this, run the video above and stop it at 0:49
at that point you will be able to see clearly how this series of grinders achieve such low retention
its no accident, there's no witchcraft - you can see clearly with your own eyes how these grinders have been engineered to achieve this astounding result
warning: the audio is a bit annoying - you may want to watch the clip on mute
that is the belt drive for the stainless steel wire 'sweeper' that revolves around inside the exit tube - clever eh?
more evidence of the extreme lengths that Compak have gone to ensure bare minimum retention of coffee grinds
Are the burrs laying flat in the grinder, i.e. parallel to the bench? Then propelled out horizontally into the dispensing chute?