# Sage Smart grinder??



## Mike99 (Aug 24, 2017)

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone has any experience of the Sage Smart grinder? Would you recommend it?

Cheers

Mike


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

Hi Mike - I would go for something with bigger burrs, but it depends what your using it with?


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

Mike99 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Was wondering if anyone has any experience of the Sage Smart grinder? Would you recommend it?


I have the Sage Smart Grinder Pro....

And would highly recommend it, for a domestic situation its the best 'bang for the buck' and IMHO can't be beaten, do your research and shop around for the best deal.


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## joey24dirt (Jan 28, 2017)

There's a nice black dose control pro in the for sale section


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

DaveP said:


> I have the Sage Smart Grinder Pro....
> 
> And would highly recommend it, for a domestic situation its the best 'bang for the buck' and IMHO can't be beaten, do your research and shop around for the best deal.


I had one and thought it was a pile of doggy doos.....strange how different people have different opinions and can both be right!


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## lake_m (Feb 4, 2017)

It depends what you're intending using it with. It's a great little grinder with excellent electronic features, dosing etc, but I wouldn't pair it with a high end machine.


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## lake_m (Feb 4, 2017)

Plus we're all assuming you are using it for espresso. As a brew grinder (what I now use it for) it's excellent.


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

Ok, let me expand in a fairer way. For £200, it is better than anything new, but secondhand you can easily rise above it. Small burrs, lots of electronic features. I madde 12 doubles back to back for a bit of fun and mine died. They are not built to do that and of course, after a rest it recovered, but, that tells you it has a small motor which cannot do heavy work. It is easy to adjust, you can shim it if you need to......but, if you look to second hand you can get more bang for your buck. What do you intend to pair it with please?


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## James811 (May 10, 2014)

I have one, I use it for mainly brewed but the occasional espresso using my duo temp also from sage. I find it brilliant for both.

Is there better?

Sure

Is there worse?

Sure

Depends what you're happy to spend but I'd say it's certainly the best grinder in the price range


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

dfk41 said:


> I had one and thought it was a pile of doggy doos.....strange how different people have different opinions and can both be right!


I suppose it's down to experience & expectations with an added splash of requirements


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## khampal (Feb 6, 2017)

For everything coarser than espresso? Yes

For espresso? As someone who owns one, no. You're better off getting a second hand super jolly or similar

Personally, I could never get a really nice espresso shot using the SGP. The steps between grind sizes seemed pretty large, and I found the adjustments on the upper burr basically useless for usability reasons. Now that I've moved onto a grinder with 64mm burrs I can get some really great shots. Others experiences with the grinder may differ of course, but I really struggled with it.


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## khampal (Feb 6, 2017)

To add, a summary of my thoughts about this grinder:

*The good:*


Relatively inexpensive. You're probably not going to get a better grinder new for this price.

Great on demand features.

54mm portafilter holder (for those using a Sage DTP/BE).

Absolutely fine for brewed coffee etc. Not had an issue with my kalita wave.

Looks pretty shiny and nice in the kitchen. If you have a SO then I don't think they'd complain it being there.


*The bad:*

*
*


Stepped (though might be useful if you change between different beans often eg decaf).

Noisy, sounded like the motor really struggled.

The hopper shut off was pretty bad. Beans still could and did leak through.

The safety shut off when you remove the hopper was an absolute pain. It was essentially a useless obstacle when half the time I would have to bypass it anyway with a pen so I could fit the upper burrs back or put the hopper back on (to remove any beans that might be lodged in there.)

The micro adjustments on the upper burr didn't seem to work as you might think they do. They didn't seem to go "a bit finer but not as much as the next macro adjustment". Seemed to be all over the place.

Could never get the espresso quite right. I sometimes buy beans from my (really good) local coffee shop so I can compare what the espresso should taste like. Was always either slightly off (in terms of bitterness/sourness) and the macro adjustments were too big to get it perfectly balanced. Or if it was balanced, then the tasting notes weren't really there. Since I moved to a 64mm stepless grinder I've never had these issues.

I didn't measure it, but the retention seemed pretty bad. Could be wrong though?


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

khampal said:


> To add, a summary of my thoughts about this grinder


Its almost as if you have a different machine, lol

My espresso is fine (forgive the pun) and taste as good as ground beans from several of the better roaster/grinders that are highly respected on this forum and the retention is minimal, comes with 2 different size portafilter holders, my hopper doesn't leak, and so on.

But we do both agree on



> You're probably not going to get a better grinder new for this price.












But comparing the Sage to your £900'ish grinder is a bit errrrrrrrrr.... > insert suitable word here


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## Mike99 (Aug 24, 2017)

I have yet to buy the coffee machine. After reading a lot on this forum I was thinking of a Caggia Classic. I will be using the grinder for espresso.


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

> Caggia Classic


Good choice, the Sage grinder is ideal.


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## khampal (Feb 6, 2017)

DaveP said:


> comes with 2 different size portafilter holders


Didn't say it didn't, I only mentioned the 54mm holder as a positive (58mm is pretty standard and yes it does come with that)



DaveP said:


> my hopper doesn't leak


Really? Everytime I had beans in my hopper and removed it I'd get a few beans travels over the kitchen floor. I used to have to stick a saucer under it.



DaveP said:


> But comparing the Sage to your £900'ish grinder is a bit errrrrrrrrr.... > insert suitable word here
> 
> The RRP on the Casadio Enea is a little silly, it's really very comparable to the much cheaper Mazzer Super Jolly and the Fiorenzato f64 in terms of specs. You can get the SJ second hand for about the same price as a new SGP, which blows the SGP away, and therein lies my point.


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

> the SJ second hand


However the SJ does come with its own set of 'foibles' and being second hand may cost way more than the purchase price to be at its best (caveat emptor and all that)

But hey, my tamper is bigger than yours


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## lake_m (Feb 4, 2017)

Mike99 said:


> I have yet to buy the coffee machine. After reading a lot on this forum I was thinking of a Caggia Classic. I will be using the grinder for espresso.


I have a newer 'post 2015' Phillips Classic. I would not recommend this machine. If you can get hold of an older 'pre 2015' proper Gaggia, that would be my recommendation. The Sage Duo temp Pro also has an excellent reputation and even a thriving owners club on this forum.


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## khampal (Feb 6, 2017)

DaveP said:


> However the SJ does come with its own set of 'foibles' and being second hand may cost way more than the purchase price to be at its best (caveat emptor and all that)
> 
> But hey, my tamper is bigger than yours


Of course, I'm just turning this into a tamp size contest and actually I'm not making recommendations based on what I've used and experienced at all.



lake_m said:


> I have a newer 'post 2015' Phillips Classic. I would not recommend this machine. If you can get hold of an older 'pre 2015' proper Gaggia, that would be my recommendation. The Sage Duo temp Pro also has an excellent reputation and even a thriving owners club on this forum.


Can definitely agree with that. The DTP, unlike the SGP, I've always been able to recommend. Plenty of downsides to the machine of course, but definitely capable of making a very good espresso.


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## SteveR (Aug 21, 2017)

I thought about this grinder to pair with my classic, but decided on the eureka mignon instead. Cost a bit more, but appears to be a lot more beefy and really easy to dial in. It's probably a similar size too, so not massive in the kitchen.


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## Dickie26 (Nov 12, 2017)

I've used one for the past 2 years with no problems. Grinds more than fine enough and has plenty of features.


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