Author Topic: Vario w/steel: best COFFEE grinder????  (Read 1452 times)

BozemanEric

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Vario w/steel: best COFFEE grinder????
« on: April 19, 2014, 10:34:55 AM »
Ever since the Major came into my life my Vario-W has been lazily sitting on the counter collecting dust.  I have kicked around the idea of putting steal burrs on it for over a year but never got around to it.  In researching the steel burrs I found a lot of opinion, but little fact.  I did come across some charts and graphs that were just too complex for my inferior intellect to decipher to any relevance. 

I tried to put this in layman terms because this is how I like thing explained to me.  And, with pictures.  I took these while I was getting my grind settings off the Persico.  The grind on the left is the Vario-W/steel and the grind on the right is the Perciso.  I apologize for the quality of photos.  This is something I just threw together on my phone when I was doing about ten things at once in the kitchen.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 10:58:50 AM by BozemanEric »

BozemanEric

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Re: Vario w/steel: best coffee grinder????
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2014, 10:36:32 AM »
Press Pot

BozemanEric

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Re: Vario w/steel: best coffee grinder????
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2014, 10:37:15 AM »
Gold Drip

BozemanEric

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Re: Vario w/steel: best coffee grinder????
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2014, 10:37:49 AM »
Filter Drip

BozemanEric

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Re: Vario w/steel: best coffee grinder????
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2014, 10:38:34 AM »
Paper filter pour over

BozemanEric

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Re: Vario w/steel: best coffee grinder????
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2014, 10:56:02 AM »
On first impressions, and after only a couple days of use, I am not overly impressed.  If there are less fines in the Vario it is not to the extent that I can tell easily.  I was hoping that the Vario would completely replace the need for the Perciso and I am not sure if this is the case.  The W part of it does make the mornings a little easier but I am not a big fan of leaving beans in the hopper.

I think the largest drawback of the Vario is the grind range.  After re-calberating it for coffee, I find my press pot on R10 and my our-over on A1.  I am using the entire spectrum of my grind range just to cover pour-over to press.  On the Perciso, I had almost 10 full adjustments on either side of my coffee spectrum (11 below pour-over and 8 above press.)  If I do need a road mix for something like a long-soak, iced coffee I will have to either re-taskt he Persico or re-calabrate the Vario.  This is the only major drawback with the Vario I see to date.

My initial impressions are that I would prefer my Persico as my coffee grinder.  This might be a rushed decision as I have only been using it for two days and it could be just what I am use to.  I will update my opinion after a couple weeks of use.  If you are looking to buy a new coffee grinder, I would say it is not worth the added expense to go with the Vario/steel over the Perciso.  In fact, the best bang for buck in the product line in my opinion would be the Virtuoso.  I think I would be a little disappointed if I had spent the money to upgrade from the Perciso to the Vario. 
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 10:59:53 AM by BozemanEric »

Offline sontondaman

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Re: Vario w/steel: best COFFEE grinder????
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2014, 01:25:56 AM »
Do you think it will improve with the burrs being "broken-in"?

BozemanEric

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Re: Vario w/steel: best COFFEE grinder????
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2014, 07:10:44 AM »
My biggest complaint is the grind range that I get out of the Vario. I do not know if this will improve as the bearers break in. It might a little but I don't see how it would make a big difference.

fcar

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Re: Vario w/steel: best COFFEE grinder????
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2014, 10:56:38 AM »
I switched to the steel burrs approx 2 months ago and find the grinds and adjustments more uniform than my ceramics.
My Vario was probably made late in first year or early in second year of production so that may account for some change,
and I only do filter drip.  FWIW