Baratza Vario-W Weight Based Grinder

We just purchased 2 Vario-W's for our business. After a little order confusion being shipped the non-W version, we were completely compensated and on track with the right one. GREAT grinder. Quality consistency of grind. Fairly quiet. Plenty of grind settings. High quality materials not prone to get worn over time. Very impressed with the grinder itself.

I'm replacing a standard Vario with the W model because: 1, it's cool, and 2, it reduces the "counter clutter" of my coffee process. I now have only two devices on the counter, the Vario W and a Bunn Trifecta MB. The "VW" eliminates the scale and the coffee canister, and the Trifecta eliminates the kettle and thermometer. The only complaint I have is that the Vario required a major calibration, it was set way too fine, and I still haven't found a cure for the extreme static electricity causing the ground coffee to cling to the inside of the hopper. All in all, it works! It's fun! I love it!

First the good - this may be the best home grinder on the market. In terms of grind quality, it performs just as well, if not better than competitors twice its' price. The ceramic flat burrs produce an excellent fine grind for espresso. If you will be using this for anything other than espresso (I'm a straight pour-over guy), make the small investment and grab the Ditting steel burrs. I found it difficult to dial-in a good coarse grind with the stock ceramic burrs. The steel burrs give a wider range of coarse grinds and fines are nearly non existent. On to the bad - the quality of the grinder is not the best. The first one I received was DOA. I reached out to Baratza customer service (awesome by the way) and found the load-balancing cell was broken and needed to be replaced. For a grinder this price, I would expect the quality to match. Fortunately, Prima customer service (just as awesome) replaced the unit hastily. The one I have now works, but there are still small disappointments in the quality. The grounds bin sits angled and off level on the scale. I would need to disassemble the grinder to fix this. The plastic macro/micro adjusters are flimsy. The scale required manual calibration to come within the advertised .2g accuracy range. I needed to calibrate the grind setting coarser to get it where I wanted it for pour-over. Overall - the excellent quality of the grind makes up for the few quality issues. For the price, you would be hard pressed to find another grinder that matches the grind quality. I would recommend this to any home user that wants the best grind they can get at home at a reasonable price and relatively small footprint.

I've owned both versions of the Vario, the time-based version and this weight-based one. The weight-based dosing has surely spoiled me in both espresso prep and other brew methods! (Note: With the Vario-W, you cannot grind straight into the portafilter, though it has been no inconvenience at all to grind into the bin and then fill the portafilter.) As an overall grinder, I'm not sure if there's anything better than the Vario, especially at it's price point. Pros: The flat ceramic burrs can match a grind quality of machines twice its price, such as the Mazzer Mini and Super Jolly. It is also very easy and quick to adjust from espresso grind to more medium or coarse grinds for other brew methods. (If you do manual brew only, be sure to getting the steel Ditting burrs). There is almost zero grind-retention, so single-dosing and switching between beans is super simple. - Superb grind quality. - Easy adjustments. - Broad range of adjustments. - Zero grind retention. Cons: One reason grinders that match the Vario's grind quality are twice its price is because of their solid build quality. This is where the Vario is lacking. It's plastic encasement and micro/macro adjustment notches can sometimes seem flimsy, especially if you're used to a more solid build such as a Mazzer. Also, if the Vario is calibrated for espresso, the coarsest setting will be a medium grind and not suitable for french press. You can recalibrate so that it can do a good press grind, but then it's lacking on the espresso end. - Build quality. - Limited range (espresso->medium, or medium-fine->coarse). One last aspect to take in to consideration: Baratza customer service is top-notch! I have never dealt with a company that offers better customer service than Baratza. They truly go out of their way to make sure you can get the most out of your grinder! They stand by their products in superb fashion.