# which would you choose: single dosing ie. do it yourself or hopper / weighing system



## dsc (Jun 7, 2013)

Hi all,

if you could have a grinder which has a weighing system (or a timer fitted grinder which dispenses a 'fixed' amount*) would you leave the beans in the hopper and let the grinder do it's thing or still single dose? With a hopper of course you'd have the beans sitting there for some time, how long depends really on how big the hopper is and how often you grind / how much espresso you consume a day, how often you switch coffees etc. Lets assume the following for the purpose of this exercise:

- the hopper capacity is around 750g

- there's zero retention in the grinder, what you grind comes out, so you don't have to 'purge' anything

- the grinder weighs the PF as it grinds, max error being 0.5g

Would you dump your bean bag in the hopper leaving it there for a few days, or would you bypass the grinder weighing system and single dose ie. weigh yourself and only dump the beans you want / need at the moment?

Regards,

Tom

*NOTE: it's not really fixed as the amount of beans in the hopper affects how much coffee is ground. With a well designed hopper this can be close to fixed with a hopper being 20%+ full


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## drude (Apr 22, 2013)

What market would this be for? I like the idea of a weighing system but most days drink only one double espresso so never leave beans in the hopper. Could a hopper be designed so that it didn't cause the beans to degrade while in it? Airtight, perhaps with one way valve, and nontransparent? Presumably a commercial environment would have no need of these no doubt expensive considerations, but for the home user they could be highly desirable.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Azkoyen Capriccio


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

The ideal would be a grinder capable of doing both. Full hopper mode and hopper off single dosing mode.

I mentioned the (little known) grinder above as it can dispense a programmed weight or run for a programmed time, with 2 settings for each (single n double or say 18 n 20g for the VST heads). It grinds onto an internal trapdoor with scales and plops the dose centrally into the portafilter. It can even be programmed to pre-prep the following shot automatically for those queue out the door moments....The weighed dose stayed within 0.2g over a weeks use. Produced some very good shots!


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

The tech in the azkoyen is accurate, solid and reliable, I guess attributes that most of us would want in the ideal grinder, if the key aspects of that grinder could be put in a smaller grinder and have zero rentention then I am pretty sure a lot of serious home users, prepared to spend over a grand on a grinder would be very interested. i for one would be one of them.....


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Furthermore, the biggest issues certainly from what i have gleaned from this forum are retention, ease of use, looks, practicality and size. Many members either do not have the space for a titan grinder, or the significant other in their life puts restrictions on the acceptability of the equipment that goes into the kitchen, therefore your design needs to be attractive in many ways and as i said before should you acheive these goals, within a lucrative package for all then this grinder could be a sensation........


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## CoffeeDoc (Dec 26, 2012)

Hopper weighing system would be ideal, best to put enough beans for a days use in and then let the weighing system do it's thing for that day.


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## forzajuve (Feb 2, 2011)

For use in the home environment I am a single dose fan. Primarily to store beans at their maximum outside of a hopper and also to enable retention to be removed between grinds. This issue with these weighing systems IMO is that they are not accurate enough and add expense where it is not needed - error of 0.5g would not be accurate enough for my liking. I weigh out to 0.1g accuracy and there is a difference at 0.2-0.3g.


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## rodabod (Dec 4, 2011)

I typically have around four different varieties of beans on the go at one time, so filling the hopper isn't really an option if I want to try something different regularly.

I just weigh and grind.


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## dsc (Jun 7, 2013)

Wow quite a mixture of different opinions. I'd like the grinder to offer both, so you'd be able to run with a hopper or simply single dose via the hopper.

I believe accuracy of around 0.1g can be reached, especially with the way I plan to control the grinder.

I also thought about an (almost) air tight hopper, but first lets get the grinder working as it is

Regards,

T.


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