# Profitec t64 grinder mini review



## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Profitec t64 Grinder Mini Review

This is not intended to be super detailed review. For this, there are very good videos demonstrating and showing the features of this grinder on WLL. On this post, I would like to focus on my first couple of months experience with this grinder.

Since I upgraded from my Gaggia Classic to the Profitec Pro 700, I felt that the weakest link in my setup was the Mignon, so I decided to upgrade.

I am constrained by space, mainly width and depth wise. I wanted an electric grinder with very little retention, a good motor, 64mm (or bigger) burrs and the ability to grind on demand. Retention was one of the most important things for me, since I make 1 espresso in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Wasting 6-7g of coffee to clean the chute every time was not a very cost-effective option for me.

One of the things that I liked quite a bit was the fact that the anti-static screen can be easily removed, and is kept in place by two screws. If you choose not to use it, it is very easy to sweep the chute path clean. If you don't, it will retain between 0.7g and 1.5g there.

And so I started using the grinder like this. For about a month I've being cleaning the chute, dosing and pulling a shot. What I noticed however, was that the grinds were really fluffy, no clumps what so ever, and that it carried a bit of static. Not a big deal, and nothing that a dosing funnel can't resolve. The shots would start nicely, but towards the middle it would start to run faster than usual. I also noticed that the grinding adjustments were very sensitive in that respect, to the point that a very small turn (like, 1 notch equivalent, as it is stemless) would make a lot of difference in the shot timing. Eventually, I got bored of the routine of using dosing funnels, sweeping the chute clean and some stray grinds jumping about due to static.

For the past month, I decided to experiment using the grinder as intended, that means, with the anti-static screen in place. This screen is just a simple device which makes the coffee grinds back up in the grind path. With that in place, there is no more static, and I had to adjust the grinder to grind much coarser. If I had kept in the same grind setting, the shot that took previously 30s now would take 3 times as long. The retention behind the static screen is between 5g and 6.5g, and it takes between 7.5 to 8.5 seconds, depending on the bean, to grind 18g of coffee. I will carry on operating the grinder in this way for a few more months. My first purge of "stale" grinds before my morning espresso shot go to a little pot which I take to work and make an espresso on my MiniPresso. At least nothing is wasted 

As I only had this grinder for less than three months and it only had maybe 4kg of coffee through it, it is my understanding that until the burrs are seasoned it is kind of pointless to measure how consistent the timed dose is. It seems to be pretty consistent, however sometimes I do notice some variation over the tolerance of +/- 0.5g. That said, I never really tried to dose a few shots in a row and weigh the output. I weigh the amount dispensed once a day, first thing in the morning most of the time.


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

I've recently been experimenting using the grinder without the anti-static grid in place, and instead but a little "flap" made from a piece of a coffee bag. Although the retention becomes minimal (around 1.5g - 2g), there is some static (but less than if you had nothing in place) and it needs to be ground finer (see above). However, more importantly, my observation was that, despite having more crema, the espresso tastes thinner and bitter than if the grid was in place. The biggest distinction is as a latte: With the grid in place, 18g in, 36g out in 30s with the "Gaslight" coffee from Bella Barista gives me a great tasty 8oz latte. Without the grid in place, using the same recipe, I can pretty much taste only milk!

So, grid is back, 2s purge (5g) before making coffee and all is good. Not great retention wise, but not that bad either for a 64mm OD grinder.


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