New K30

November 7th, 2007

So today my grinder from Mahlkoenig arrived.  It was the K30 model that I won at the UKBC.

Mahlkoenig K30 Grinder

I must confess to being a slightly difficult customer and asking for the polished metal finish, with the blue body.  Perhaps I just like shiny things – I think it looks great.  At some point I shall have to spend a while trialling it against the Compak.  Perhaps when I get the GS3 (it is London now, so that should be pretty soon).  This model is stepped and I am wondering if it is possible to retrofit the stepless grind adjustment.  We shall see….

K30 Grind adjustment

A big thank you to Mahlkoenig for their generosity and support!

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  • http://www.ianclark.net Ian Clark

    If not for clumpy grinds and its stepped nature, the K30 would be my favorite grinder. I imagine it would be great to work with if made stepless – the body is so broad that you would be able to make super-fine adjustments with very impressive accuracy.

  • http://www.jimseven.com James Hoffmann

    They do make a stepless model – I just got sent the stepped one.
    As for the clumping – I will see how this one goes, I know they are working on the problem.

  • http://www.ianclark.net Ian Clark

    Oh yeah – one thing a friend of mine did is set the ‘one shot’ button to about 0.4 seconds or something… just enough to clear the grind chute out. The ‘double shot’ button is the one you calibrate for normal dosage. This makes clearing the chute very efficient.

    Enjoy the fun toys!

  • JT

    wow, the shiny chrome looks nice. Just out of curiosity, do you find the grinds that come out of the k30 on the warm side?

  • http://eliscaffe.com nik

    Nice, i have two of red ones. Stepless is great to work with. Just that from time to time, dosage is changing and im not getting from fixed time enough coffee, so i have to erase the time of grinding to have a proper amount. Any answer why so? Not finding problems with overheating even with more than 3kg of espresso making. Also, in Milano i had a chance to test new Electra NINO, grind on demand conical and looks and works great, Not as Mahlkonig in diff colors, just chrom finish but anyway…any other opinions about Nino grinder?

  • http://members.iinet.net.au/~simonandysolde/home.html Simon James

    Hmmmm… Polished metal…. Blue body…. Do you call it R2D2? ;-)

    Very nice kit indeed! I can’t wait to read your comparison with the Compak.

  • http://www.labohemecafe.cz Yara

    hi James,

    first, thanks for a nice espresso in Milan, unfortunately you were too busy to chat a bit, maybe next time;)

    anyways, got one question … you said: “I know they are working on the problem”
    since i work for Dalla Corte distributor here in Czech Rep. we are using their double grinder but also should be getting the new K30 next week. as i was told by both Mahlkonig people and DC, the only difference between those 2 grinders are the special ‘ridges’ in DC burrs (Bruno’s design)…unfortunately i dont see any improvement in the clumping issue. When I asked Mahlkonig about clumping they said it was a problem of previous generations of K30…i guess i lost my question somewhere but looking forward to your experiences with the new grinder:)

  • http://www.espresso-passione.com Teme

    Congrats on the new grinder Jim. I just got mine – the stepless Vario version. I ordered mine with polished steel and gloss black finish, which looks pretty cool IMO. I also happen to have the Compak K10 WBC, so I would certainly be interested in hearing your thoughts/comparisons between the two. I’ve only had the K30 for 24 hours, so no conclusions yet (but some thoughts, yes).

    Br,
    Teme

  • http://barismo.com Ben Kaminsky

    I dont mean to kick a gift horse in the mouth, but why on earth would they send you the stepped model? It’s a fantastic gift and I know you would never complain or send it back, but damn.

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  • http://www.rejuvenal.info Erik

    I am looking into this grinder and like the looks a lot. I hate to mill for 30 seconds for a double shot so this could solve my “problem”. But would you actually buy the machine, is it really worth the money and is the coffee getting better like more constant in quality and strenght?

  • HomeBarista

    Hello!

    A question for those of you who have used the stepped model (ES). Do you consider the steps small enough for use for espresso or is everyone thinking that Vario is the only way to go with K30:s?

    I would love to try out myself but have to order online and have had hands on experience only with the K30 Vario model.