Sunbeam EM0360

soloespresso

Bigw had a special on these for $25 delivered. How could I resist, a conical burr grinder with a bonus stick blender attachment capable of crushing ice. Extract your coffee and then use the stick blender to make an ice coffee! I am primarily buying it as an aeropress grinder, but I thought it would be interesting to put it through its paces on a Rancilio S24, which is usually paired with a la san marco sm95. The beans I used were Columbian excelso from mycuppa, roasted 5/3.

My cameras refuse to perform, so I will note some observations, and try and get some pictures later. First, grind speed is pretty quick from fineness 4 onwards, perhaps half the speed as the lsm 95. Any finer and it takes a long long time to grind. The burrs are 4-5 cm diameter, the top burr is attached firmly to the plastic. The bottom burr is attached to an axle which in turn connects to the motor of the blender. There is a fair amount of wobble of the bottom burr on its axle.

On setting 2 out of the box it chokes my machine.

On setting 3 the grind looks quite fine, not too unlike a fineness I would use out of my grinder. There seems to be a fair amount of fines. This is somewhat confirmed when tamping (I tamp firmly), the puck compresses a lot, and on polishing the puck surface looks completely smooth! Out of the machine the shot flows like a ristretto, but there is none of the thick syrupy texture. I would say that there are faint bitter notes.

Setting 5, again puck compresses by a fair amount when tamping. Shot flows normally but blonds early. A fair amount of crema in the cup, the aroma is pretty good, but bitter notes are much more pronounced.

On setting 7 grinds look fairly coarse, producing a gusher on the machine.

Brett H

Thanks for sharing your experience.  As you've discovered, cheap grinders are not suitable for espresso due to the variation in grind sizes within any given setting.  I too have fallen victim to the 'or $30 it's surely worth a go.' For espresso however you'd be better off saving your money.  I don't know much about the Aeropress but it it's anything like my plunger I binned my cheapy gindrr and use a noisy old Nemox Lux.  Even my colleagues can taste the difference!

UNM

Got mine today (they tried to deliver it yesterday, but no answer so took it away again). When ordering, I specifically said OK to leave at front door and this was clearly printed on the label, just above the equally clear instruction that a signature was required.  :head: :head: :head: Anyroad, not used it yet, but initial inspections are mildly encouraging. Burrs have been sharpened by some grinding mechanism (rather than rough cast or pressed as I have seen on some cheapies). The drive spindle is held in place fairly securely and both burrs are as stable as I would expect for an entry level grinder. One concern is with the rather uneven edge on the burrs - I am guessing due to a coarse grinding tool. The drive mechanism has a reducing gear so the burrs spin way slower than the drive motor (which is 600w). As I can't easily get in to inspect the gear, I don't know, but am guessing plastic so longevity might be an issue. Will play with it tomorrow and also post some photos.

UNM

First use of this grinder today. Grind setting: Counting back from the marked '5' makes the finest setting zero. On setting 2 with Malawi Nyika, I get zero output after 30 sec. On setting 5  I got a 15 sec gusher. By this point I really wanted a coffee to drink. As I have some suitably aged MM that takes a marginally finer grind than the Nyika, I tried  setting 3 and got about 15ml after 45 sec. Quite drinkable (at a lower extraction temp than normal as I expected it to be slow). The change in fineness between click stops is pretty large. Popcorning/bouncing is pretty bad. Grind is slow and noticeable static. Grind retention almost zero. Evenness of grind doesn't LOOK bad, but would need to measure or inspect with a microscope to be sure. A bit messy - when you take the top off to refill, a few stray grounds hit the counter top. The grind output is direct into p/f or separate container. So far, I would say this is not worth the $119 RRP, but for a $25 grinder (and stick blender) well worth the money. For travel, the hand grinders are far better as no power needed, they are far smaller and grind into an enclosed container. Next update will be after using it for turkish style coffee.