Eureka Speciality Atom 75E Grinder

It’s quite a mouthful. Bella Barista sent me one of these to have a play with. I don’t mind getting grinders (as long as they are good ones) because they are not as heavy as machines and not such a hassle to unbox and re-box for shipping back. It’s a Mini review in as much as I thought it would be useful to use 2 different grinder types whilst reviewing another machine. I had heard a lot about the Atom and my interest was piqued. I wasn’t actually asked to produce a review for this grinder, just to use it for a bit and let them know what I thought. I thought it was quite good….so went to the trouble of letting you know in a short review.

We are not well served in the home prosumer market for grinders. It’s either cheap small and sometimes not very good, or large commercial and expensive (some of which can be, not great). The grinder manufacturers in the main don’t care. Some care a little bit and Eureka is one of those. They have a stable of decent grinders for the home/business starting from the little Mignon with it’s 50mm flat burrs up to 75mm flat burred grinders like the Mythos, Olympus 75E and this grinder.

Likes

• Not too big
• Fairly Quiet (actually very quiet)
• Large flat burrs 75mm (good quality and options available)
• Nice display
• Great menu system and easy to set doses
• Fantastic clump free grind straight into portafilter and minimum mess.
• LED to light the portafilter work area
• Fantastic grind adjustment system
• Easy to open and get to the burrs
• minimal dead space in grind chamber and small thin sweep arms

Dislikes

• Bean Hopper design (bottom too flat)
• can’t single dose (not even with Eurekas “blow up system”, see later)
• purging
• a tendency to kick to the right a few mm on pulsing an empty grinder due to rapid burr acceleration (some surfaces)
• stupid small Allen screws holding on the top cover plate
• stupid big crosshead bolts holding on the burr chamber cover
• Please, please put a 3 position power switch so if the electronic panel/circuitry fails the grinder can be used manually
• kettles had removable leads, now espresso machines do…why not grinders?

Interesting but not so important for domestic use

• Nice quick grind speed (4g per second) 4.5 seconds to grind 18g double.
• Hopper holds plenty of coffee
• Rugged and super durable for grinding all day
• Big powerful motor
• Really heavy

Now this is a strange list of likes, dislikes and unimportant but this is a review for home use. If I were a small business user, it would be a great grinder for a cafe, catering trailer or coffeeshop. It does an excellent job as a doserless “grind on demand” grinder.

Grind quality is excellent, typical flat burr characteristics, if that’s your thing. grinds are fluffy and clump free with virtually no static. Espressos and other drinks are excellent and the grinder produces a consistent result (as long as you purge, or take appropriate measures for home use).

Eureka “Blow Up System”

Personally I would have chosen a different name in these modern times, can you imagine going through security at an airport with a box labelled blow up system. Or if asked what’s in it you say “blow up system”. You would be on the floor and Tazered before you had a chance to explain.

I asked Bella Barista to send me this unique sink unblocker esq device, perhaps I could successfully use this grinder for single dosing. Single Dosing Is The Process Of Starting With A Clean Grinder That’s Empty, Tipping 18g Of Beans In And Getting That Same 18g Out. It’s big, it’s bold and it’s ugly.

I don’t know if my grinder was special in some way but the blow up system simply didn’t work for me. I think eventually I got most of it out after 15 really hard presses, even then I was still a gram or two short.

I also tried it with the hopper full of beans, so I could remove stale coffee and eliminate purging…that didn’t work either.

Good idea, badly executed, it’s not cheap either, so don’t waste your time buying it for this grinder…perhaps it works OK on their other Eureka models. I think with mods there are cheaper more effective ways to make this a single doser.

Conclusion

It’s a nice grinder, not cheap but then quality doesn’t come cheap. It has a great display, it’s large but not too large and has a great menu/control system. Very fast and quiet, with excellent grind quality. If you are looking to single dose, you would have to modify it and there may be better options available.

If You Run With Beans In The Hopper, Want A Great “On Demand” Flat Burr Grinder That Neatly And Rapidly Grinds Straight Into The Portafilter With Almost No Mess And Will Last A Lifetime…..It Should Be On Your Shortlist!