Baratza Vario or Preciso - Which one would you get?

[GC7]

I'll chime in by asking why either of these are your best bang per dollar if you are using this grinder exclusively for brewed coffee?

Why not just get a virtuoso which IMO is excellent from french press all the way down to a finer grind for vacuum pot, aeropress or drip/pourover.  It has more than enough steps to adjust for these methods and it has the same Baratza service and you've saved a lot of cash. I would hope they might come out with an upgrade to virtuoso with the preciso burrs but its not necessary to get great brewed coffee.

For espresso IMO you are better off with a more sturdy commercial rated grinder then a Baratza vario where I've seen lots of small problems that could become bigger problems five years down the line.

[mp]

I'll chime in by asking why either of these are your best bang per dollar if you are using this grinder exclusively for brewed coffee?

Why not just get a virtuoso which IMO is excellent from french press all the way down to a finer grind for vacuum pot, aeropress or drip/pourover.  It has more than enough steps to adjust for these methods and it has the same Baratza service and you've saved a lot of cash. I would hope they might come out with an upgrade to virtuoso with the preciso burrs but its not necessary to get great brewed coffee.

For espresso IMO you are better off with a more sturdy commercial rated grinder then a Baratza vario where I've seen lots of small problems that could become bigger problems five years down the line.

You make some good points.

 

[grinderz]

Here's a video showing grounds directly into the stock Vario grind holder. I'm still getting static charge with this container. I used two different types of beans and two different roasts, none of that mattered, the static charge was still persistent. The only time the static dissipates is when the grind is tightened up for espresso but anything coarser begins to hold a charge and the coarser it gets the more it charges up.

Is this a typical result for you guys who are using the container?

I had a static problem with my Vario for about 4 months last year, then it went away. I never did figure out why.

Now I have a static problem again - but it is pretty minor. I can tap the plastic grind holder, and only a little bit sticks to the area within 1/4 inch of the rim.

Was it during the winter months? The humidity (or lack of it) tends to affect the static.

[rgrosz78]

I had a static problem with my Vario for about 4 months last year, then it went away. I never did figure out why.

Now I have a static problem again - but it is pretty minor. I can tap the plastic grind holder, and only a little bit sticks to the area within 1/4 inch of the rim.

Was it during the winter months? The humidity (or lack of it) tends to affect the static.

The problem seemed to go away over the winter. And now it returned at the start of August.

I suspect it is something other than humidity. As an experiment, I will unplug the Vario, and everything else during the day. I am out of town at the moment, so I'll report my findings this weekend.

[peter]

You guys need to get one of these; Zero-Stat.  I used one for years on my vinyl records, and they work wonderfully well.

[BoldJava]

You guys need to get one of these; Zero-Stat.  I used one for years on my vinyl records, and they work wonderfully well.

Why would you want to put your records through a coffee grinder?  Lost me...

B|Java

[staylor]

You guys need to get one of these; Zero-Stat.  I used one for years on my vinyl records, and they work wonderfully well.

I used to own one of those as well. No self-respecting vinyl geek could go without one.

[7over]

You guys need to get one of these; Zero-Stat.  I used one for years on my vinyl records, and they work wonderfully well.

Don't use vinyl any more but I think I still have a Zero-Stat in a box in the basement somewhere!

 

[mp]

You guys need to get one of these; Zero-Stat.  I used one for years on my vinyl records, and they work wonderfully well.

Don't use vinyl any more but I think I still have a Zero-Stat in a box in the basement somewhere!

What's old is new again.  Everyone is jumping on the vinyl records band wagon again.  Apparently the sound is better than CD.

 

[Ascholten]

They dynamic range isn't,  the warmth might be.  Tube amps are making a comeback too, gee go figure,  I still have several I rebuilt from years ago that are working fine, I like the sound better too than SS amps.  However carver has a magnetic field amp that does a nice job too, can pump the hell out of it and it's very robust.

Aaron

[Ascholten]

on the static,  think of it this way.   The chaff is more 'adhesive' than the grounds are.  The static is actually helping you dechaff your coffee so you are drinking a more 'pure' product.

Humidity will play a large part in static.  Have you tried one of these anti static mats you can get for computer desks and other geek domiciles?  or like a desktop unstaticer.

On that little static gun it is essentially a small ozone generator, like those over priced things you see at sharperimage and places like that.  you can build one for about ten bucks, anyways..... DO know it does generate ions (read static electricity), so be careful poking that thing around too close to your coffee grinder, if it has any digital type controls in it, you could very easily toast them.

I have a 6 foot tesla coil I could let you use, I also have a sick SICK 200KV power supply I built, when I turn that bugger on it it ionizes everything in the room, you wipe the crud off the walls afterwards it all gets charged and clings there.  It will put out a hard coronic discharge when energized and draw an arc about 20 inches.   I could let you borrow it to destatic your house heh.  Im sure the UV the thing probably puts off will sanitize too.

Aaron

Aaron

[staylor]

on the static,  think of it this way.   The chaff is more 'adhesive' than the grounds are.  The static is actually helping you dechaff your coffee so you are drinking a more 'pure' product.

Humidity will play a large part in static.  Have you tried one of these anti static mats you can get for computer desks and other geek domiciles?  or like a desktop unstaticer.

On that little static gun it is essentially a small ozone generator, like those over priced things you see at sharperimage and places like that.  you can build one for about ten bucks, anyways..... DO know it does generate ions (read static electricity), so be careful poking that thing around too close to your coffee grinder, if it has any digital type controls in it, you could very easily toast them.

I have a 6 foot tesla coil I could let you use, I also have a sick SICK 200KV power supply I built, when I turn that bugger on it it ionizes everything in the room, you wipe the crud off the walls afterwards it all gets charged and clings there.  It will put out a hard coronic discharge when energized and draw an arc about 20 inches.   I could let you borrow it to destatic your house heh.  Im sure the UV the thing probably puts off will sanitize too.

Aaron

Aaron

NASA just called, they want their power supply back.

[expy98]

another ex-audiophile here...  until my first kid learned to walk and started to jab the speakers w/ a pencil.
That was my clue that I was done...

Anyway, I wonder if the Zerostat might help my Pharos, would like to give it a try.  Interested in
selling it?  pls let me know.

[EricBNC]

I'll chime in by asking why either of these are your best bang per dollar if you are using this grinder exclusively for brewed coffee?

Why not just get a virtuoso which IMO is excellent from french press all the way down to a finer grind for vacuum pot, aeropress or drip/pourover.  It has more than enough steps to adjust for these methods and it has the same Baratza service and you've saved a lot of cash. I would hope they might come out with an upgrade to virtuoso with the preciso burrs but its not necessary to get great brewed coffee.

For espresso IMO you are better off with a more sturdy commercial rated grinder then a Baratza vario where I've seen lots of small problems that could become bigger problems five years down the line.

I have a nice grinder for every day, fill the hopper and forget it espresso. 

I think what I want is a secondary, single dose espresso grinder to add some variety to my espresso experience.  If the 2nd grinder can perform well for press or pour over too then all the better.  I do have a Virtuoso I use for coarser grinding and it can stay in the rotation if necessary so all around versatility is trumped by shot quality and lack of grind retention when used for single dosing.

These are in range of my current ebeans credit on ROASTe - right now I can get the Preciso and still have beans to spare for a Hario Buono or the better part of a Yama syphon brewer with the butane burner.  If I blog another week I can get the Vario outright.  I can still get the other items later though so the only real cost for the Vario over the Preciso is delayed satisfaction.

The next step up worth considering is the Wega 6.4 series of flat burr 64mm dosered grinders - would one of these be a better single shot grinder?  If so then I am only half way there.  To me it looks more like a duplication of my other 64 - 65mm flat burr grinder.

[rgrosz78]

I had a static problem with my Vario for about 4 months last year, then it went away. I never did figure out why.

Now I have a static problem again - but it is pretty minor. I can tap the plastic grind holder, and only a little bit sticks to the area within 1/4 inch of the rim.

Was it during the winter months? The humidity (or lack of it) tends to affect the static.

The problem seemed to go away over the winter. And now it returned at the start of August.

I suspect it is something other than humidity. As an experiment, I will unplug the Vario, and everything else during the day. I am out of town at the moment, so I'll report my findings this weekend.

Maybe it is related to the humidity. We had a very dry August and September this year - very few days had our typical extreme humidity.

I left the Vario and the Technivorm unplugged for a day, and the static dissipated. Possibly the action of moving the levers on the Vario between coarse and fine is generating the static. I have drip coffee in the morning, and espresso in the afternoon.