Baratza Sette 270Wi-Grind by Weight Conical Burr Grinder

Replacing a 10 year old Vario-W that has had many design issues with it's adjustment levers. We plan on sending that back in to be refurbished for a 3rd time to have as a backup.So far this is an upgrade from the Vario-W. Super nice to have the flexibility of a direct to porta filter grinder, and the ability to grind into a container. We've had this for about a 2 months so far.The grind quality is exceptional, and is very quick compared to the Vario-W. One thing to note, in the manual it does call out a service interval (can't remember off the top of my head what the number is). Just be aware that this may be why I see so many reviews saying the motor dies on them. The service interval is how long you can run the grinder consecutively prior to needing to rest it for a period of time. So if you're trying to grind for a giant batch of cold brew or something, then make sure you understand this, or you could damage your machine.Time will tell, but I feel like this is a definite upgrade from the Vario-W in both grind quality, features, and build. We will come back and edit this review if/when any problems arise in the future.I will say from being a daily user of Baratza grinders, the fact that you can send them in for refurbishing is a huge plus. With that said, I do wish that the Vario-W would have held up longer before needing a rebuild. Last refurb lasted 3 years of daily 3-6 uses. Prior to that rebuild was maybe 4 years. I'm just hoping this machine does not need to go in every 3-4 years, and will be a bit more durable.

I read other reviews on this product before purchasing a year ago. I was concerned by what I read. I would buy this product again because most of the issues people raise are just wrong.I purchased it to replace an older grinder/doser I have been fighting with for 15 years. There was always ground coffee left in the doser regardless of how much effort I put into preventing it. This product fixed that.Is the hopper too small? Not for my use. The hopper holds about 1 week of beans at the rate I use it. The point is you really don't want beans sitting in the hopper any more than you want ground coffee in a doser. Is the build quality poor? I have experienced no problems with operation or quality of the unit. It seems sturdy considering it has, built in, the most sensitive electronic scale in my home. I did have a problem with not being able to verify it's accuracy. I had to pull out an old beam balance scale to do that. Do the forks vibrate so much it makes the scale inaccurate? Mine works flawlessly with the portafilter from my Rancilio. Is it loud? Grinders do make noise, this one was more quiet than my doser based grinder.It did make a mess the first time I used it. The scale was set too high for my portafilter and the grounds kept spilling over the top until I shut it off. Newbie mistake on my part. You do end up with a few bits of ground coffee around the base after using it. You should probably not use it in bed.It does everything I wanted it to do. It delivers a consistent quantity of freshly ground coffee with more than enough flexibility in coarseness and quantity. It's not cheap, but I got what I paid for.

Initially the grind adjustment ring (the "macro ring") hit a hard stop at about 21 when trying to set it less than 18 (first step in the instructions). Baratza support was ready to replace the grinder but asked that I first try using more force to rotate the ring. That did the trick- whatever caused the resistance disappeared and adjustment is now easy (I'm guessing it was a burr from machining, though I couldn't see anything). The grinder seems to be working fine.I bought this because the previous grinder (a Eureka Mignon) had an annoying issue with clumping. The Sette 270Wi drops perfectly ground bits of matching size coffee into the portafilter and *there's not one sign of clumping*!. The dosing (I use 16.0 grams) is dead on. Took only 3 times for it to learn the grind profile. Gotta love it!Adjustment of the grind is not as easy as I expected. I over adjusted toward more coarse and trying to recover has proven difficult. Just part of break-in/adjustment plus my own learning process. Grind speed is very fast, so I go through a lot of coffee for each tweak of the adjustment ring.Flavor of the espresso shots is distinctly different compared to the previous grinder. That's probably because I was over-dosing each shot by about 30% thanks to the clumping. Dosing by volume (vs. by weight) is apparently the (evil!) culprit.Bottom line is that I like what I see so far and expect my whines will disappear in another day or 2.Update #1: Just pulled the best espresso shots I've ever managed in 14 years of trying. What a difference dosing by weight instead of volume! I upped the rating to 5-stars from my original 4-stars.Update #2: It's rolling up on 2 months with the Sette 270Wi and I'm still very happy with the grinder. Here are a few added thoughts:1- I haven't forgotten that some folks have said the unit died on them suddenly, so I have this lingering concern that so far hasn't materialized. As a hedge against that possibility I bought the extended warranty (something I swore I would never do!).2- This thing is *loud*! I ignore it, but it was a little unnerving the first few times I used it.3- Dosing is consistently +/- 0.1 gm. It just doesn't vary. Never fails to make me grin!4- I've struggled trying to adjust the grind while the machine is running (it's a no-no to adjust the grind toward Fine with the motor's not running). The 270Wi grinds incredibly fast which means by the time I get the adjustment *almost* done I've just gone thru another 16.0 gm of coffee. I read on here that one user closes the gate on the hopper before adjusting. Yikes!! Why didn't I realize that on my own?!5- I don't feel it's realistic to plan on grinding with the Sette 270Wi for pour-over, then later adjust the grind for an espresso shot. You just waste too much coffee getting re-adjusted. I use an old Capresso grinder we've had for years for the pour-over and reserve the Sette 270Wi for espresso. The issue is space on the counter top, but we live with it.I still feel ok with my rating of 5 stars. It really is good at making precise grinds of matching weight. Very, very happy.Update #3 (20 Jan 2019): I've had the Sette 270Wi for exactly 4 months and today it died. It has been intermittent for about a month, but it would recover if I unplugged the grinder then reconnected it to the AC power. That magic ended today when the grinder refused to recover. I'm afraid my tentative 5-star rating has shrunk to 1-star. Considering how long folks have complained about the failure rate, I have to agree with the reviewer who said this grinder just isn't ready for prime time.Now we'll see how well Baratza service handles the problem. They were *very* helpful in September.Update #4 (25 Jan 2019): Baratza support came thru for me. After a few iterations of checking this/that they sent a replacement Sette 270Wi. They covered shipping both ways. This replacement grinder works perfectly. Very pleased with the operation. As before, the operation is (very!) loud and the grind is right on. I've changed the rating to 4-stars because of the failure after 4 months; that failure is balanced by the excellent support. At this point I feel the design concept is just too good for 3 stars, but the failure rate isn't at all impressive and can't be ignored.Update #5 (2 Apr 2019): The replacement 270Wi is still running exactly as it should. Couldn't be happier with the design concept. It's loud and it grinds perfect doses for espresso. I'm still unchanged about it being an unjustified expectation to switch between grind settings for pour-over and espresso.My only whine (other than the earlier failure) is the ambiguous markings for Coarse/Fine. I seldom adjust the grind setting, but when I do I get it backwards, then forget which way to interpret the Fine/Coarse marking by the next time I have to adjust (a simple </> marking on the appropriate end would have fixed that).