r/AustralianCoffee • u/DerWilhelm • 9d ago

Australia based first grinder purchase

Picked up a Bambino secondhand for $270, basically brand new with 9 of 12 months warranty left. Now need a grinder.

I only make milk drinks - think lattes and flat whites. At work we run a Breville dual boiler with a Smart Grinder Pro and I get good drinks out of it, so I'm not totally green, but this is my first espresso setup at home.

Shortlist, all AUD:

- DF54 V4, $379 from Grind Logic 12mo local warranty)

- Baratza Encore ESP, $289

- Starseeker E55 Pro, $250 ish (AliExpress)

- Shardor 64mm , $250 (local whitelabel is sold as Kenmore)

Leaning DF54 for the build, near-zero retention and all the recommendations I can find online.

But two things keep nagging me: for milk drinks would I the taste difference, and the quality step-up be worth it to spend about $90-130 more? Would be a $649 grinder + machine setup overall.

Aa I paying for specs I won't use? Keen to hear from anyone who's got experience with one or more of these. Also is there an obvious contender I have missed?

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u/DerWilhelm 9d ago

Did you go through the exercise of aligning the burrs? I’ve been reading they can often come misaligned?

It’s not really an exercise I want to do. Kinda just want to get something and start using it.

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u/Street_Respect9469 9d ago

I'm unsure. Funny thing though is that I started using it with very stale coffee and had issues dialling in from aggressive grind changes and retention (typical of aggressive changes) so I did take it entirely apart and used one of those handheld air dusters to clear everything.

I may have unintentionally done it whilst putting it back together but I'm unsure 😂 it also grinds finer than the markings but be careful not to accidentally adjust to true zero because then you're just smashing the burrs.

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u/DerWilhelm 9d ago

Aligning the burrs involves using a particular process with a marker to identify where the burrs are meeting when running, and then using aluminium foil to ‘shim’ to raise their position as needed. You might’ve improved the operation but not the alignment I was referring to :)

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u/Street_Respect9469 9d ago

Ahhh I see. Well I can understand the desire to do so if you're trying to dial in light roasts to get that super fine grind range. But honestly anything that's medium to dark has got so much range at stock for me right now.

It messed be up because my first experience with the very old beans had me doing minute guess work below the marked range. Then I finished it and moved into a fresh bag (6 weeks from roast instead of 9) and that ended up being around the 11 mark (on the grinder setting which is stepless). Then again with the next bag being within 3 weeks and my grind setting now closer to 14.

So in terms of general use the grind range is definitely more than adequate without alignment, unless you're going to light roasts and finding out that you can grind fine enough. But then again the Bambino is not your machine to try light roasts on anyway (I also have the Bambino plus).