Solid, versitle, and very consistant grind. Great asset to my coffee experience.
Positive Product Points
Super solid, well built fit and finish. Beefy weight in at 18#. Excellent grind capacity, stepped for easy reproducablity. I go from the morning drip to afternoon espresso with the twist of the hopper. Also, lots of feed back on coffee geek threads for close to instant tech support.
Negative Product Points
This grinder has many quirks. Thanks to the good members on coffee geek they are easy to figure out. Just follow the treads. *oily french roasted beans will stick to the bean guard *old gound coffee stays in the machine until your next grind
Detailed Commentary
Like many coffee geek members, I made the inital mistake of spending my equipement capital on an expensive coffee maker (TV). Then I realized the beans that I was getting from Trader Joes and Gloria Jeans were not cutting it (new machine did not cover up fair quailty roasts).
I then made the jump to home roasting, getting very good and fresh roasted beans. But still something was missing. Post after post warned of such behavior. "first spend your money on a good grinder, then upgrade your brewing machines". The only problem was which grinder to buy. "Should I just get a decent grinder (SMP), or hold out for a very good grinder (Rocky), or go for broke (with a Mazzer Mini). Cost, counter space, and demand level narrowed the decision down.
Two weeks ago I made the pluge and purchaced the Rocky Doserless from Chris's. The machine came 2 days later, and ready to go. After cleaning the "test grinds" from the factory testing, I loaded it up with my nice oily French roasted beans. The machine worked like a champ until...
Then next morning, I went to grind some beans for the morning brew, and nothing came out. The grinder was working fine, but nothing out the shoot! Quick, up to my computer for a new post on CG Espresso Grinder page. Several members came to my rescue, Take the bean guard off, oily beans get stuck. Strange that a espresso grinder would get stuck handeling oily beans. After the guard was removed, the beautiful, consistant grinds came slideing down the shoot. At times, I need to push down my beans to get the grinding going (machine is off of course).
Again, this machine has a lot of followers, trying to make it better and better with little adjustments and upgrades. I followed one such advancement with the replacement of the top bean hopper cap with a click-clack lid (www.clickclack.com). This allows for a burst of air to fill the chamber, and push the remainding grinds that are held in the grinding slot out, and into your portafilter. This limits the problem of stale grinds at the start of your grinding.
Overall, I am pleased with its initial performance. This machine goes from Turkish to French press grindes very quickly and easily. I do mostly drip and espresso, so there is a wide variety of grind level between setting 0-40.
More later in my 3 month follow up.
Buying Experience
Chris's is a top notch place to do business with. Lightening fast shipping (ground), and nice people to talk to with any questions. About 2 months after purchace the plastic doserless chute was cracked. I called Chris and told them the problem. 2 days later I had a new chute. Good group of people to do business with.
Three Month Followup
The rocky continues to be a solid performer. It is easy to step from morning coffee to afternoon espresso. The stickey bean situation continues, but having a spatula handy to push the beans down comes in handy. No regrets for this good coffee and espresso grinde. And if there were any, the resale value is pretty high.
One Year Followup
The Rocky is still going strong. I replaced the burrs (the old ones still worked fine, but the new ones work great) after about 1.5 years. I have gotten more into espresso due to upgrading my machine to an Anita. The rocky is easy to dial in, but it would be nice if it were stepless. Overall, still quite happy with my purchace.
