Have this grinder, I use for pour over, it's good to use bar the issue mentioned in this video which is excess coffee coming out over time onto base. The base hasn't got scratched but it just involves some cleaning. I hadn't used the lid to push out the excess coffee but will try doing that (as per Tom's technique in this vid)
I love my opus it makes great espresso and pour overs . I can recommend it as well . Thanks for the reviews. I'm new to your channel but I love it very informative
Dear Tom! Thank you for the amazing review! :) I just bought the opus and have the same setup as yours in this video. Even the Normcore bottomless Portafilter. I noticed, that I have to grind at around the setting 3 to get 14g of coffee beans in under 30 seconds. The ratio 2:1, 28g in the cup. Am I doing something wrong? Or is it normal? Since Fellow recommends 0-2 for espresso… I use WDT, leveler and tamper for puck prep :) Thank you! Alles liebe aus Österreich!
Habe d'Ehre! Well, your beans might be super fresh, or the inner collar might be set on the lower side. But no worries, use the setting that works out for you. Cheers!
I have the same grinder, nice! But after 2-3 months usage, grinding time just doubled from one day to other. Now it takes 0.3g/second. Don't know why. Cleaning done. Fresh bean using. Any idea?
I think I would prefer a high-resolution step grinder over stepless. On my Eureka, it's great being able to dial it, but I like to switch between dark roasts and lighter roasts, do pour overs etc. and It always takes 2-3 shots to get the grind setting back to perfect. I don't really grind directly into the portafilter, but would prefer to use my own dosing cup that fits the portafilter, I grind into the cup then put the portafilter over the top upside down then flip the whole thing over to get a mess-free and more distributed fill.
I have the Eureka Mignon Manuale and struggle to get my espresso dialled in, in fact i am giving up with dialling in and just going the Italian Barista style of 19-25 seconds. Espresso making should be enjoyable, shouldn;t it?
Hi Tom, Nice video! Im using a dedica with a bottomless portafilter but i cant seem to extract it with setting 2.2. i can only make a good extraction (1:2 ratio) on setting 5.2 which is weird although the recommended setting for espresso is 2-3. the beans were fresh and roasted about 3 weeks ago. the micro adjustment is set at 0. what could be the problem? or is it because dedica has a small basket?
Hi Tom, I just bought Opus Fellow, and when I grind a coffee, it taste different than the one dialed in Kingrinder k4. Like it is better on a hand grinder :) I am grinding on about 4.2, with inner dialer is set on the finest. The machine is Gaggia Classic Evo Pro with bottomless portafilter. Is that possible?
Hmm, they should be similar in my estimation. Both conical grinders with similar burr designs as far as I can tell. Maybe the ionizer is making a difference? Not sure but I quite like the cups from the Opus.
@@TomsCoffeeCorneras always, I really appreciated your answers :) tnx Tom! I will continue for dial adjustment in Opus and hope to get the coffee taste that i love... best regards
I think you missed the catch cup fit to 54mm and 58mm portafilters... no need to use a doser. Manual says it so. Also, there was no mention to the fine adjustment inside the grinder...
Hi Tom! Have you ever use fellow opus with breville bambino plus? I'm using both of them, the suggestion grind 2 for espresso was not working for me, I'm using 5.9/6 for now, I've saw someone in youtube using bambino with fellow opus that was totally working, but when I try the same setting, not a single drop coming.
Hello! Thanks 4 the video, i was Looking for some vídeos to dial in my Fellow Opus, because i don’t know what’s wrong in my case. Let me explain, when i grind i can’t get lower than number 5 in my grinder, although I’m using good quality fresh beans. The ones I’ve got now are roasted the 28th of August and 85SCA. (I’ve used differents coffees all fresh and over 85SCA. My coffee machine is a sage bambino and I use a bottomless ikape portafilter with the básquet that came with the portafilter. I use a 20gr dose because I like a larger espresso. My complains are that first of all I can’t go finer than 5 and I think I don’t get enough crema in those settings. After it takes ages to grind 20gr. I have to press many times the button, (recently discovered that a long press is for manual stop) 😅. My grinder has a lot of retention. I’ve cleaned all parts several times and see if it was all ok with the grinder and it seems all parts are in good conditions. Long story short, under the lid of the grinder it says that the range for espresso is between 1 and 3 but I can’t grind under 5, and it takes for ever to grind and I can’t get enough crema. Hope you can give me some hints!! Thank you!!!!
hey Tom, I recently got an IMS basket for my dedica maestro plus, and my shots are running way quicker with the same grind setting. I read that IMS baskets require finer grind, could you confirm this? also, do u think this grinder would be able to grind fine enough for an IMS basket?
I have the same dedica arte and the fellow grinder. What is the best setting on the fellow, both internal and external settings (blue ring) for a good espresso with a bottomless portafilter? I keep running into an issue where there is a little slow drip or basically no drip at all. Lots of pressure built upthat I have to release. Frustrating.
Well, I think the ESP is going to be just about as noisy. But the office is not exactly quiet either. The only quiet grinder that I know of honestly is the Eureka Mignon Specialita/Silenzio/Filtro Silent.
Hey Tom great videos. I just got the Fellow Opus and I use the Delonghi Dedica. I have tried several settings for the grinder. Even at 2.3 it seems to be too fine. Does that make any sense? DO you have any tips?
Hey Tom. Hope you are fine. Do you have any idea about Sage SCG600 Grinder? Unfortunately this grinder that you showed is not available for purchase in my country for a while. Is Sage SCG600 good alternative for this one? What is your opinion? Best regards.
The Sage grinder is fine. It's essentially the same one as in the Barista Express. I do find that the Opus is more refined, although not perfect either of course. My go to recommendation in Europe is always the Eureka Mignon line.
Thanks Tom! Very informative. I bought the same grinder and use it together with the Delonghi EC685. Hope I can improve my espresso following your video.
I am wonder of pick up this grinder or a DF grinder. I use a Timemore c3 pro and love to hand grind but really have my eye on a budget Eletric grinder. Thanks Tom you rock!!!
I am considering this grinder. Since your review I have read several Amazon reviews that claim the Opus breaks down after a few months. Do you use the Opus often. Is it durable? Thanks for your channel.
I am thinking the results will be very similar, but I have not tried it yet. There are some other reviews though, comparing the two. I think Sprometheus made one.
Now we can compare it to its competition. That is to say espresso grinders at 200 - 250€. For example Baratza Encore EPS €180 Sage the Smart Grinder Pro €250 Rommelsbacher EKM 500 €180 If there are others, I'm interested. These are the prices in France / Germany
I know this is is pretty specific, but I know you have (had) the Graef CM 702. How does the Opus compare to it? I'm expecting the Opus to be better, I just want to know how much, and how clarity / body etc. is compared between the two.
Well, the Opus is a much more refined machine all around, and the cups are excellent. I find them to be nicely balanced, low astringency, decent amount of body. Clarity is good too, for pour over, at least as far as my palate can tell. I never used the Graef for pourover though.
It's usable for that, yes. You can switch pretty well between espresso and pour over. That being said, I'd suggest the DF54 for this. It's more solid, and more intuitive to use.
Right now i have a breville barista express but i plan on upgrading to something in the near future. Do you think this grinder is better than the one built in on the breville
Yes, for me it's better. More refined. Similar construction though. I think the difference is in the de-ionizer to remove static and allow for better puck prep.
I have been using the machine for about six months now. I recently have been experiencing a timer of static in the catch cup. I think this could be from my air conditioners running and low humidity in the room.
I've had mine for about 6 months, too. It's very dry where I live, so every month or so, I brush it out, including the bottom where the anti-static bar is and it performs great again. "It’s early I need coffee." Good idea! I'll get one, too.
Hi Tom, I've gotten an opus and suffer from quite a bit of retention even after lots of tapping/slapping. Does this happen for you too or you just slap really hard haha?
@@TomsCoffeeCorner you have been very helpful. I got a bambino plus and what a pain getting the perfect shot. I’m using Starbucks Espresso roast because that is what we used for are regular coffee. Not sure my Bodum burr grinder is the best but it does grind very fine. The beans seem fresh. My puck is a little wet after extraction. Can you please stop by my house and dial in my Bambino😂 if you’re ever in the Detroit area? Thanks again, I’ll keep watching.
@@TheBrad605 Detroit? Packers fan here, lol. Anyway, I’m not sure if the Bodum can grind well enough for espresso, although it should probably work for a pressurized basket. I’ve had awful luck with Starbucks beans however. They’re generally really old (far off roast date). See if you can get a small bag from a local roaster, where you know they’re freshly roasted. Cheers!
@@TomsCoffeeCorner looking at a new grinder. Counter space is such an issue. The entire espresso thing is taking so much space. Got a recommendation on a small grinder. You think Aaron will make it through a season with the Jets. For some reason I was actually rooting for them till he got hurt. I really appreciate your help, and I am getting fresh beans to try. The Starbucks espresso makes a decent pour over, At least my wife likes it :)
Just for reference, after settling in, I find my ESP to be in the same ballpark of 5 seconds per click +/-. Good value grinders. I got mine as a place holder because I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I am moving at the end of the year and will have to buy again. Shot quality wise, it is not as good as my K6, at least to my palate. That said, I think a video comparing this to the internal grinder on Touch Impress you posted about would be great. Even a short, or just a mention. I've not had the opportunity to use a built-in grinder but from videos I have seen, these budget grinders look like they'd be a lateral move. But nobody seems to post shot time differences with built ins. As always, I enjoyed the video, thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing! I was torn between getting this first, or the ESP. Since I hadn't reviewed a Fellow product yet, I went with this one. It has some really cool features. Thanks though, for sharing your resolution on the ESP. I guess these grinders are quite similar in that regard, and probably in the cup. I also think these are going to be similar to a built in grinder like the Impress, but maybe a bit more refined, due to a newer burr design. Cheers!
Great video Tom! But wasn't the Graef CM702 good for espresso... believe you said so some time ago, that one is like under €100 or around. The Fellow Opus looks like a great grinder, but is it really slower then the Wilfa Uniform?? That one is really slow what I have heard, but is also in the same price league as the Opus, at least in my country. Something I wish you would do in your grinder reviews would be to use the box called The Kruve, that can tell how fine the grind is, because I do believe that there are some hidden gems among espresso grinders. For me the Fellow Opus reminds me abit to the Breville/Sage Dose control pro. They don't look the same, but the way to dial in the grinder is the same, but the Dos control pro can take a portafilter! The thing for me is that I don't trust companies today, why well there are so many companies that makes there products in the same factory so for example you can pay a high price for one brand, but you can get the same product from a less known brand for a lower price so its really confusing for consumers and that is also why I don't believe that consumers need to pay €200 and up for a espresso grinder. But anyway it would be great if you would use The kruve, to measure how fine the cheap/expensive machines grindes? Keep up the good work! PS: Would you consider making a review of the Graef CM501EU, think it's around €80 at the moment on Amazon?
Perhaps I will get a Kruve sifter soon enough...could be fun to play with. In the end though, I don't think $200 is expensive for a grinder. When you subtract the costs to manufacture, package, ship, as well as retail, I feel like there's not a ton of margin left over. Not to mention, these companies have to stand by their machines and provide customer support, R&D, reclamation handling, etc. I have not reviewed the new Graef, because it gets poor reviews, and the CM702 already gets many positive reviews. By the way, I think you can tell which grinders are obviously made in the same factory...there are several manufacturers, who license China to build the same grinder, and just put a different brand name on it. See Solis and Eureka. Or Turin and MiiCoffee. Best! Tom
@@TomsCoffeeCorner Hi Tom! That would be great if you would get the Kruve sifter. Because then you could show us the viewers if the grinder do produce fine enough for espresso and it would be very interesting to use it on budget grinders that isn't obvious that they can or cannot do fine find for espresso! Well, for some €200 isn't much, but for other it is. I myself bought my De'Longhi Dedica slightly used for €40. And due to that I'm a newbie, I'm not prepared to cough up €200 when I haven't masterd to make a smooth cup of espresso and I don't believe that I have to buy a grinder for that amount of money. But I do agree with you in some terms about R&D and that companies has to stand by their products. But today world that doesn't really hold, because if I had a company in China. I could buy a couple of Fellow grinders and let my engineers dismantle the grinders go through them and then make something similar for a lower cost. But what I also mean is just take a look on Breville for example, you can buy the Sage dose control pro for around €200, but if you buy the same grinder but it's made by Gastroback it's a lower price, and the Breville group owns Gastroback, but also Solis. Breville I believe also owns Baratza, so at the moment it's just on Breville's good intentions not to make cheap versions of the Baratza's products. Another example is the new Gaggia MD 15, you pay one price if you want it with the Gaggia brand on the grinder, but you pay a cheaper price if you buy it as a Caso Barista Flavour grinder. If you take the espressomaschine Solis Barista Gran Gusto you have to pay one price, but if you buy it as a Gemilai CRM3005G, you pay another price. The same goes for some Sage espresso machines, you can find the same machine for a lower price but with the Gastroback brand on it. And for example the Wilfa Svart, you can find that grinder as a Sunbeam EM6910, Breville BCG450 or a Russian Kitfort grinder. So this is why I don't trust the majority of companies, many times you just pay for the brand and not the performance of the product. Another reason for what I mean, take the OXO burr grinder that was popular a couple of years ago, it still popular because it makes very consistent grind. But if you buy that grinder in the EU ( I found one on Amazon Italy) you have to cough up around €200, is this really worth it ? Because if you go to Amazon USA it cost just $100, so how should I as a consumer know if I bought something that does perform well or not or if it's really worth €200 or not? Of course there are exceptions like Ascaso, FrancisFrancis, Fellow and Eureka and some more, but they are exceptions! But this is why it also is so confusing for consumers. Like why should I buy a Audi, when I can get it for a lower price as a Skoda or a Seat? And it's because you pay for the brand and not the performance, if it was the performance then the Skoda would have been the expensive car due to the fact that Skoda's are more reliable than Audi's by statistics. And this is also why I believe that a grinder that can grind ultra fine for espresso doesn't have to cost €200. But I also when we are on the subject of grinders etc. I always liked your videos because you have showed us views how to mod for example the De'Longhi Dedica and that was great! But I have a request because you are a engineer, so I hope this will interest you. I have found a mod for the Wilfa Svart, that will if I'm understand it right will make it a stepless grinder that will make fine enough for espresso: coffeesnobs.com.au/forum/equipment/grinders/25551-breville-bcg450-modded-now-excellent-grinder It would be great if you could do a RU-vid video of how to mod the Wilfa Svart, they are quite cheap if you get a used one? 🙂
Well it's highly dependent on bean roast and freshness. I found 2.2 good for the Dedica and my bean. You have to experiment a bit, based on your bean and machine. Cheers!
I think you could definitely put your mini scale and a portafilter under there! would be great if you could just dose right into the portafilter. Hopefully someone will make an adaptor or stand of some kind.
The problem is mainly besides the height, that the platform is too small to balance a portafilter. I can fit my little MiiCoffee scale with a bottomless PF underthere, but without funnel, so the grounds would not all make it in the PF. Also, the PF cannot balance on such a small surface area.
Ah! I see, I have the same scale and should be getting my Opus any day now. I know the Opus is meant to be a single dose machine but has the hopper holds 100g, I was hoping to keep the hopper full and just weigh out the grounds as they come out. I guess I could do that if I find a short dosing cup that can sit on the scale.
I saw your Gevi photo on IG. Your videos are always concise. I'd love to see you contrast the two grinders and maybe compare the Gevi to the Dedica? @@TomsCoffeeCorner
Hi there! I have a short ESP vs Opus comparison filmed, and I will be releasing a video on the Gevi 20 bar today, which loosely compares it to the Dedica. Cheers!@@georgelacey6381
Hi tom, thanks for your video! I am a little bit confused about my grind settings and would be delighted if you could give me some advice. I've received my opus and lelit mara X a week ago and haven't gotten a decent shot (well, decent, yes, but not well balanced). I am using 18g in 36g out with WDT tool, tamper and puck screen. I've started out at Grind setting 2.1 which took 2:30min. Then adjusted to 2.2, 2.3 and now 3 - which still takes 1 minute to pour. I am confused to why people are using a grind setting of 2.2 to get a good shot. I do have a very fresh batch of beans but it doesn't seem to work out for me. Temperature on the L58E Group thermostat shows me fluctuation between 94-98°C on the lowest setting. Do you have any recommendations? Should i try out an even coarser setting?
Hi there! Yes! Just because I used it at 2.2 does not mean that you need to do the same. Try maybe 4 to 5, and see what happens. You have to keep opening it up until the flow gets better. Have fun! Tom
Using it for over 6 months. It’s Loud, Slow and messy but I love it. Ionizer is ineffective. Just spritz the beans generously and all the mess and retention goes away.
