Baratza Vario-W Coffee Grinder - Baratza 985

This does exactly what I wanted: It lets me micro-adjust the size of the grind, and guess what? I can tell the difference between microgrinds right away, both from the behavior of the espresso machine (how fast the drip comes out) and from the taste. This has opened up my espresso technique considerably. It's true what they say: A good grinder may be even more important than a good espresso machine. I particularly like the automatic dosing by weight. No more guessing how long to let the grind go before cutting it off! Every time, the dose is just the right amount! (You can adjust it up or down.) Machine was easy to figure out, and it doesn't build up crud or dirt anywhere. Fines stick in a few corners of the dispenser basket, but they don't build up, and it's not a problem. I won't go into the many thoughtful ways this machine was designed for the frequent user: I'll just say that once it was on my counter, I knew I wasn't ever going to need a different grinder. I've had it nearly a year now, and I'm just as happy as I was the day I started using it.

This is my 3rd espresso grinder and it is by far my favorite one. Previously I had a cuisinart grinder, I returned it after using it for one day, espresso went all over the place and the grind quality was all over the place, so for a while I would just have the coffeeshops grind my coffee instead (which I have since learned was a terrible but I was using a super-auto so it didn't make that much of a difference).Once I got the Breville BES900XL Dual boiler I decided I needed a real grinder as well, so I initially purchased it with a Breville Smart Grinder. For about a week I wasted bags after bags of espresso(*tears up remembering the bags of wasted honolulu coffee company/gimme coffee/intelligentsia*), I thought that maybe I was in over my head with the machine and I should have just gone back to my Jura. But I decided to change the grinder since I read others were getting inconsistent grinds from the smart grinder.With this grinder, I had to adjust the grind settings twice, and I didn't have to touch it as long as I had the same bag of espresso, and I would get great shots from my BES900XL shot after shot. With the smart grinder I had two big issues, inconsistent weight dosing it would vary from by 1-4g _everytime_, even more if you adjust the setings. Also, I noticed that at the finest grind setting it was still fairly chunky. It was pretty much night and day difference with the Vario's the grind quality and accurate weight based dosing.The only negative thing I can say is that when I first needed to clean it, I thought I could just take it apart and brush it down, but the upper burr is installed very tightly and unless you have a tool that can provide you leverage there is no way your going to get it off don't even bother trying unless you want to cut up your fingers. I contacted customer support regarding this, and they were very fast to respond but their recommendation was to use Grindz/Puro to clean the grinder every month. (Luckily amazon has 4 for 3 promotions for Grindz and Puro so it was fairly cheap to buy supply for a year.)

It came with the hopper cover missing. I emailed Baratza customer service and they sent one out right away, got here within 2 days. Excellent customer service and very friendly!Performance-wise it's much faster and grinds more consistently than my Gaggia MDF. The scale is a convenience, but I have no doubt the regular Vario with timing is just fine. I have seen the grind setting knob (right side, numbered) move down to the larger number while grinding. I have taped the knob. I haven't seen that happen on the left side (alphabet side) move. Overall it's an excellent high end pro-sumer grinder.

This is a fantastic home use bur grinder. Because I use it for drip or poor over brewing I ordered steel burs from the manufacture as the provided ceramic grind too fine for those brewing methods. The grind is very consistent and the micro and macro grind settings are great at delivering the perfect grind based on the bean, and humidity. The scale with auto shut off is nice too but after 5 months of use it has stopped working properly and now I weigh the beans before putting them in the hopper. This is why it only gets a 3 out of 5.

Price is absolutely the only reason this doesn't get five stars. Grind is amazingly uniform and the built-in scale is such a time saver when pulling multiple shots back-to-back. I thought having so many steps was a gimmick at first but no longer. Very useful feature for dialing in the perfect grind for different roasts and brewing methods. Still smarting over price but if it tells you anything I have no regrets and would buy it again.

I've heard many good things about the company online, and wanted to spend as much as I can so that I don't spend any more money on another grinder forever. It doesn't disappoint for espresso. The calibration was a bit off out of the box but the information given at Baratza's website quickly sorted things out. This is a machine I feel I can 'dig into' and DIY. The service provided to others and the information from other users show that the people behind the company care about their products. (Basically, you can't really go wrong when the company's engineer CEO writes technical articles on their blogs.)

Absolutely the best!! My history includes extensive use of several different types of commercial grinders for every grind from french press to manual and electric pump espresso brewing including brewing with an ibrik. I've used mill (not actually a grinder) and burr grinders using both metal and ceramic burrs. I've even tried a mortar and pestle. This grinder allows me the range of grinds I need depending upon the brewing method I choose. It also allows minute adjustments to refine the grind. Assuming quality of manufacture and length of service match the grind quality, I'll give it 6 stars!

Fantastic machine, expensive, (relevantly speaking) , but worth every penny. Works flawlessly, the only maintenance required is occasional cleaning.

The Vario-W is the top of the line Baratza grinder. It is not cheap, and one definitely has to think about how much you really want or need to spend on an item such as this.Incredibly, mine arrived D.O.A. It would not work. Contacting the vendor (iDrinkCoffee.com) for tech support did not help. Direct contact with Baratza did not resolve the issue. Baratza's tech support (via e-mail) was better than the retailer's, which was cryptic at best. Obviously the retailer is not at fault for what was presumably a manufacturing defect but it is hard to believe that such an expensive piece of equipment could be sold without proper quality control testing. A sign of modern times, perhaps.The only resolution was to return the machine, which meant packing it up and returning via Canada Post. The retailer paid for shipping, thank you. They decided to repair it rather than ship a replacement unit. This took a long time, some three weeks or more.Now that I have it back in full working order it is great and I am glad I decided to buy it. But the buying experience was not pleasant, and I am happy to have that behind me.Update: The upper burr carrier is incredibly difficult to remove. I had been using approved tablets to clean the grinder but that stopped working. So I followed the instructions in the manual and have not been able to remove it. Newer versions may be better but this is incredibly exasperating.

This is quite possibly the finest grinder on the market. I have 2 - one in my permanent home and one in my vacation home. I have just given one as a housewarming gift to my son. Both of my sons consistently say the best cup of coffee they ever have is at my house. Over the years I have not had a single problem with either of them. One of the best purchases I've made, albeit very expensive ones.

Scale is very fragile. Should go with the Vario instead with the timed grind vs. by weight