Coffee Grinders - Niche Zero?
 

Looking to get a grinder....heard good things about the Niche Zero.

Anyone with real-world experience love/hate these?

Any other options I should consider?

Many thanks....

No experience with that but I bought a Baratza Virtuoso+ a few months ago and have been very happy with it. Combination of consistent grind size, reliable operation, and ability to either single dose the hopper or use the built in timer (adjustable to 0.1 seconds which is a little excessive in my mind) to grind from a full hopper. Also about half the price of that Niche Zero.

Niche owner, huge fan. Does well for espresso, and equally well for the occasional french press pot. Easy to disassemble/clean. Very little residual coffee from single dose. As side note, somewhat mixed on the flow control disk (or whatever it is called). I used it for about six months, didn't think it made much difference.

I wish I could say the same. Quite a bit of retention (~0.3 g) even when humidity is 40% or above.

Still, I like it, but I just don't quite get the hype...

Interesting to see differing first hand opinions.

It's such a good looking grinder but I've always read mixed opinions.

I also thought some of the coffee intelligentsia considered the Niche stronger in some areas and weaker in others in terms of what type of coffee you wanted to make (Espresso versus drip).

Niche is a nice grinder. Up until now it did not much competition at that price point and being a single dose grinder with conical burrs. Nice construction, decent burrs, pretty low retention.

Till recent in that department the Niche really did not have much competition but then yesterday I saw this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZCP_4gU54

And it seems REALLY nice and about the same price as the niche (or cheaper). Its new so its not as proven but Hedrick review is favorable and I do like the guy.

The other question is if you want flat or conical. This is a huge rabbit whole since its primarily preference but a lot of people prefer flat burrs over conical ones. I would love to one day do a back to back to see but I do believe that it can change coffee taste with different burr profile just like if you get a nicer burr like an SSP can extract more flavour from the coffee.

So if you rather have a conical your options for around niche price is the DF64 (there is a new one, DF64P which is much nicer than the old DF64 which construction was a lot worst). I think the niche still takes in terms of construction and requires NOTHING out of the box, the DF64 might need some mods and alignment of burrs.. But its a good price and its flat burrs, you can also upgrade the burrs which is a nice feature by putting some nice SSPs in there (pretty sure teh DF64 can, I know the DF83 can do that).

Another more traditional one you can look into is the Eureka Mignon, its a more traditional grinder (they do have a single dose one now too), it will have a hopper and you can just grind from it as you go. I have one of those now for 5 years and was great, no fuss, good coffee.


What I got now is super nice but its more expensive than all the ones I mentioned here but if I was buying under $1000 I probably do that Femobook or try and see if I like conical vs flat before deciding since the DF64 is also a great grinder. You can't go wrong with the niche either though, its been the darling of the coffee world sub $1000 for a long long time now

this is a reason why I skipped the niche and went to the option P64 (amongst me wanting flat vs conical and wanting SSPs).

I am getting no retention with my P64, sometimes .1.

Are you doing RDT? You have to if you want almost no retention. With no RDT will be trickier (even though I am not even getting much retendition without it on my P64, this thing is amazing)

No RDT (addition of water droplet to the beans) in more humid month; yes RDT during winter.

And even with RDT, still getting a lot of static in the winter.

bought the reasonably priced Baratza for my mom and it broke within a couple of weeks; common problem.

bought a Niche Zero and it’s going strong for over half a year of daily use, grinding from filter to espresso fineness levels.

highly recommend the Niche Zero.

They seem great. I wouldn't worry about <1 gram of retention. I deal with significantly more on a single-dosing Mazzer, and it doesn't appreciably affect shot quality.

I bought a Niche to resolve our morning espresso conundrum, my wife drinks caffeinated while I drink decaf. Although it was well above my paygrade it does its job well, as compared to our prior Baratza Preciso (anyone want a used Preciso?) and my wife likes it (she's the barista).

The Niche is much quieter and noticeably more consistent. I do notice some retention (how much? too much? No idea) that necessitates frequent cleaning (once a month or performance suffers). Cleaning is easy, but requires recalibration each reassembly. I'm convinced one should be able to maintain the prior grind setting during disassembly/reassembly, but I've yet to pull it off. No idea how these issues compare to other higher end grinders.

It's a single dose grinder handling our two triple shots well, but higher volumes become a nuisance. It also doesn't excel at very course grinds (cold brew).

My Quamar M80 (digital) is beautiful, and grinds well too. No experience with others for comparison.

It will help if you mention what is the intended use? Drip, pour-over, immersion, or espresso? For espresso, low retention and lots of adjustment flex is pretty much a must. For espresso I use a manual grinder. Pretty much zero retention and super adjustable burs, 1Zpresso J Max.

Timely! My wife and I are gifting ourselves a proper grinder for Christmas.

We are likely getting the Eureka Mignon Facile. quiet and simple - all I need.

No experience with the mentioned grinder. I do have a conical ceramic burr grinder that does a very good job just takes time since its a manual grinder. I also have a Baratza Encore that does as good a grind as the hand grinder without all the work. It grinds slowly so no bean burn.