# Are s/h grinders value for money?



## RichD1 (Oct 17, 2016)

I've been looking at buying a s/h grinder, there are a few in the for sale section plus ebay & gumtree. In particular there are two Mazzers on here in the £170 region but they are missing some original parts.

So when you start adding these costs (new burrs, hopper, lid, grounds tray) and a paint refinish for damaged casing the total cost gets up to over the £300 mark where you could buy a new Mignon, K3 or M2D.

Is a Mazzer SJ still good value at that sort of total cost or would you buy new?

Richard


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Simple answer is yes. If you're single dosing you wouldnt need a hopper. I've never used a grounds tray. New mazzer burs for an SJ are £25 is.

If you don't fancy doing the work yourself Coffeechap probably has some referbed ones


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Oh and if you buy a mazzer from eBay check the bearing aren't knackered. If there's no beans in it it should hum along quietly.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

If you want perfect then you may have to spend that little more, but the point of the used Mazzers is that you live with some imperfections as the grind is better and at the price of that Mazzer which I would be surprised if you need new burrs, you would be getting a great deal, the scratch is not that bad and it is a fairly new one. You could ask on here for a tray and a hopper, but as urban said, most people do not use a hopper they use a lens hood for single dosing that when collapsed blows the exit Shute free of coffee grinds


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

IKEA sell flexible chopping boards you can sit the SJ on and tip the coffee in the bin, or do as I do (once I got bored of the chopping board) and just dust down the surface occasionally. You only really need the grind tray in a commercial environment where you are grinding multiple kilos a day


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

To echo the above posts, the bits you are referring to as missing will only ever be of use if you use them otherwise they just clatter around 

SJ's from the forum tend to be well looked after with known history, any mods needed to make them work in the home environment done and you can always repaint the shell with your own design at some point to make it personal to you should you wish ( have a look through the forum posts, plenty of re painted SJ's etc)

Value wise a good second hand grinder from here will always be better value than something off of ebay or brand new, so yes, better value

Hope it helps

John


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

I'm going to add another thought to this. Used *commercial *grinders that have *only ever been used in a domestic environment* are stonking value for money....in the domestic environment they will last pretty much for ever with only a change of burrs required after perhaps 10 or 15 years.

e.g. my e92 will last my lifetime and my sons, I will probably never need to change the burrs in my remaining lifetime.


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## RichD1 (Oct 17, 2016)

Thanks guys for your advice, hopefully my offer on the Mazzer SJ will be accepted.

Richard


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