Quiet grinders

Hildy · March 2014

The purchase of a quiet coffee machine gets me thinking about a quiet grinder. Are the Compak Silent range much chop? Is there any other competition? (What sort of motors do the titan conicals run - can I slow them down somehow?)

Ol Grumpy · March 2014

My Pharos is delightfully quiet... That's if you ignore the gnashing of beans against burr, but that's inevitable, I suppose... And somehow very satisfying... Now, the aroma... That gets the juices flowing...

Brett H · March 2014

I have a Compak a8 that is advertised as low-noise but it's still 1-2 decibels louder than my Rocky. Rocky still makes noise as all grinders will unless there are specialised burrs fitted that are acoustically dampened... Teflon or some rubbish from memory. I don't think they were adopted, it was an idea I read many years ago on another site. I ran a DB meter on all my grinders and Rocky is the quietest. It's still not silent and neither are any of the compaks but there may be one I didn't try that is a bit better than Rocky.

mycuppa · March 2014

Compak had (they may still have) a K6 and a K8 available in a "silent" model. Not sure, but I think the K6 silent is no longer available locally. We have a few of these K6/K8 silents and the non-silent's out in cafes from the good-ol FOL legacy days. I can tell you there is a noticeable difference in the noise between the silent and non-silent. Whilst it was not easy to pick the difference in a side-by-side comparison in our factory, the true test was when I changed silent for non-silent (and vice-versa) in a client cafe setting whilst we serviced the burrs and cleaned up the unit off-site before returning it the following week. The loudest noise came from the cafe owners............give me back my quieter grinder..........or I want to keep this new grinder, it's great. I also have an A8 on the kitchen bench at home - but it's not a silent model (not sure how many of the A8 silents are around). It's not too bad noise-wise and because it's quite fast, the noise is only for a short time. Obviously, the larger the grinder, the shorter the noise duration but then you run into retention issues. I cannot vouch for other model/types of grinders by comparison, other than to say our fleet of numerous commercial Macap's are really tough, but also very, very noisy compared to the Compaks. Using a doser adds to the noise levels (although home users do not tend to buy dosers). I also think Compak's are slightly quieter than their equivalent Mazzer, but I have no technical or field facts to back that claim up other than my personal assessment. Happy to be told otherwise. Grump's suggestion of a modern, high-end hand-grinder is the best solution for a home use situation - noise, grinds retention, cup quality, etc.

Koffee_Kosmo · March 2014

The BNZ conical I use is fairly quiet A lot quieter than all my previous grinders KK

conikal · March 2014

My Rocky is almost totally silent,..just a faint "wirring" hum.....until you put beans in. ! I suspect many grinders are the same. It is not the motor / mechanism that makes the noise, its the way individual grinders "amplify" the actual grinding sounds that make the difference. I suspect that the hopper is acting like a loudspeaker as it is directly mounted on the upper burr carrier , so i have been planning a serious modification !

Anybody noticed if their Mazzers or similar are any quieter with the hopper removed ?

Hildy · March 2014

K6 silent is still available, as is the Wega equivalent (6.4 silent) - but it is only available in doser which I dislike. Can't buy a high end hand grinder for love or money right now - no stock of either pharos or HG One.

Naki^chap · March 2014

on 1394317670:

K6 silent is still available, as is the Wega equivalent (6.4 silent) - but it is only available in doser which I dislike. Can't buy a high end hand grinder for love or money right now - no stock of either pharos or HG One.

The production on the pharos has slowed down , you need to check each day for in stock .

C-man · March 2014

Should not be a problem getting an HG one, only took 4 days to get here just need lots of coin....

Hildy · March 2014

HG One is out of stock for another two weeks at least...

C-man · March 2014

Interesting.... Be prepared for a long time to season the burrs if you get the TIN coated ones. Other than that, it is a good grinder.

Koffee_Kosmo · March 2014

Tin is a soft semi precious metal that is used to rustproof other metals Tin is also food safe - hence it's use in steel food cans coated in tin KK

eggbert · March 2014

I think he meant Ti coated

Hildy · March 2014

or rather, TiN - titanium nitride - which gives a particular gold colour you can sometimes see on drill bits. Good for cutting surfaces.

C-man · March 2014

Yep, titanium nitride PVD (physical vapor deposition) in layman terms is a food grade barrier metal applied to a surface for purposes of hardening and protection. It is commonly used on cutting elements where edge retention and corrosion resistance are desired, and will extend the lifetime of a cutting part three to five times. I can't decide yet if it was a good Idea or not, being almost beach-front I need all the corrosion protection I can get, But seasoning them is a long slow process....

QM0996 · March 2014

on 1394441387:

Yep, titanium nitride PVD (physical vapor deposition)

There is PVD and then there is PVD and not all PVD is the same... Good quality drills as used in most machine shops are not; yet you will see many a set in Burnings but am sure many are just cheep plating. Quality PVD is an interesting process and as to food safe..... Not unlike the term ORGANIC OR GF; in the large majority of cases it is nothing more than clever marketing and people making assumptions and drawing long bows. I am happy with the placebo effect, but when some charge significant $$$ and know full well the product is only good for the placebo, that is questionable. As to a Quite Grinder, they are all noise generators; and without a barrier to trap the noise they can not change the physics involved and thus E=MC² still holds true. Cheapest is a set of disposable ear plugs :rofl:

C-man · March 2014

so true, I have used many a cheap drill bit with gold coating that we crap

Hildy · March 2014

on 1394490979:

There is PVD and then there is PVD and not all PVD is the same... Good quality drills as used in most machine shops are not; yet you will see many a set in Burnings but am sure many are just cheep plating.

My good quality set (Suttons) are not plated, merely HSS. The lathe interchangeable cutting surfaces are, though.

As to a Quite Grinder, they are all noise generators; and without a barrier to trap the noise they can not change the physics involved and thus E=MC² still holds true. Cheapest is a set of disposable ear plugs :rofl:

I can't get earplugs for the dog - who likes to bark at both the vibe pump (getting a rotary pump machine), steam wand (drink black coffee), and grinder (what can I do?)

conikal · March 2014

on 1395083574:

My good quality set (Suttons) are not plated, merely HSS. The lathe interchangeable cutting surfaces are, though.

Drill bits can , and are , resharpened. modern lathe tool bits are disposable... (probably TiN coated Tgn Carbide) No point in coating a drill if the coating is going to get removed during sharpening, whilst the coating on the disposable tool bit will extend it life considerably

on 1395083574:

I can't get earplugs for the dog - (what can I do?)

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