-
Comes with two portafilter forks, for 58mm and 51/54mm portafilters
-
Price is is its best feature, especially when on sale
-
Can grind directly into most filter baskets including V60 brewers
-
Relatively quiet operation compared to some grinders
-
Burrs can be micro adjusted for further refinement of the burr settings
This year marks the third time I’ve “unboxed” a Breville Dose Control Pro. My first was back in 2014 (I still have that grinder!); the second was in 2017 for the old review on CoffeeGeek. Well, guess what?
Nothing at all about the product and box has changed. Well, one thing changed: the logo up front on the grinder base is now grey instead of dark purple. Otherwise, same box, same packaging, same old style purple-cover product manual. Same promo graphics on the box. Same exact grinder.
Inside the product box, the grinder is encased and protected in cardboard forms, which is very good (and forward thinking for Breville back in 2014!), since the company, still to this day, uses a lot of styro in their appliance boxes.
The Dose Control Pro grinder itself, and accessories are wrapped in plastic bags. This could easily be changed to compostable bags at some point and gain enviro points for Breville.
The grinder doesn’t come with a lot of stuff, but one thing is hidden inside the machine. It ships with two portafilter forks you attach to the grind exit chute collar: a 58mm sized fork, and a 53/54mm sized fork. The machine also ships with an adjustable-size, plastic version of Breville’s Razor device. I actually prefer this adjustable one over the all metal one that comes with their espresso machines.
The bean hopper – a more squat version of the one the Smart Grinder Pro comes with – is unattached during shipping and wrapped in its own plastic. The capacity is 340g (12oz) of coffee, and features the Twist to Lock system Breville uses on all the hoppers on their espresso machines and Smart Grinder Pro.
The Twist to Lock hopper mechanism is actually pretty ingenious. It does double duty of a) sealing off the hopper to prevent beans from flowing through and b) unlocking and removing (or inserting) the hopper into the grinder. It’s a series of cams, resistance tabs, and a rotating vane system, but it works, and works very well. Removing a hopper full of beans from this grinder is fairly hassle free. Other designs on other grinders often require several steps to close the hopper and remove it from the grinder.
Looking over the machine, the controls are very basic. The main collar of the grinder has 60 clickable grind positions, going from fine espresso all the way to press pot, and the major zones (espresso, percolator, drip, press pot) are indicated on the dial.
Up front, there’s one dial. It has a light up ring when in use, and numbers and ticks from 0 to 50. As in seconds. This grinder has a 1 second resolution digital timer. Barely acceptable in 2014; very passe and unacceptable today, especially for a timer-based grinder intended for espresso.
The dial is multipurpose. Dial it for your time. Press it to start the grinder. Press again during operation to pause the grinder (more on this feature below). As long as the ring light around the timer dial is glowing on and off, the grinder is in “pause” mode, remembering the remaining time. Press again and it will grind for the rest of the preselected time. If you don’t press within 10 seconds, it will reset, and the glow ring will fade off.
The grinder is mostly plastic. The body panels look like Breville’s signature brushed steel plating, but they are plastic. It’s all BPA free. The feet on this grinder are really great, gripping feet – no slipping with this grinder. It’s interesting though that Breville designed a “profile” for the bottom of the grinder that make it look like it sits on much bigger rubber feet than they actually do.
The body’s contour is a typical vertical grinder profile you see on a lot of home grinders, and the overall profile of the grinder is nice and low enough to clear all kitchen cupboards. The Breville logo is up front on a removable tray and around back you see some air vents for the DC motor inside.
The grind adjustment collar looks chrome plated at first glance, but it’s just more plastic. There are 60 grind settings, all with a tactile yet subtle “dedent” click to indicate moving from one grind setting to the next.
The two portafilter forks are identical to those that ship with the Smart Grinder Pro. Made of flexible plastic, they will conform to most 53/54mm portafilters as well as 58mm portafilters. I tried a few 49mm portafilters and they can just barely balance in the smaller fork, but I wouldn’t rely on it. Grind directly into the La Pavoni Europiccola portafilter, if you own one of them.
Subscribe to
Coffee Pulse
Delivered twice monthly, CoffeeGeek's premier newsletter dives into a specific coffee topic each issue. The Pulse also occasionally features contests and giveaways. Subscribing is free, and your personal information is never shared.
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: CoffeeGeek. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Support CoffeeGeek
If you enjoy and learn from this resource, please consider making a one time or recurring donation to help support our work and fund purchases for future reviews.
Let’s get something straight: the Dose Control Pro from Breville is definitely an entry level grinder. You give up some desirable things (like a 0.1 second resolution timer, or a grinds bin) but gain some good stuff too, like a very good (for its class) burrset and grinding range. The burr set is not as good as the Baratza M2 conical burrs (which just made their way into the latest Breville espresso machines with built in grinders) and it’s nowhere near as good as the burrs in the Niche Zero, but it isn’t meant to win those battles.
It is meant to be one of the better $150ish grinders on the market. But is it?
Grind Quality and Output
The burrs in the Dose Control Pro definitely need a good amount of seasoning. What’s that, you ask? Seasoning is conditioning and honing the burrs to their optimal cutting range. Fresh out of the machine shop, burrs still have some microscopic jagged edges that will wear down and become a more uniform grinding edge with time and poundage put through them.
You notice this on a new Dose Control Pro: out of the box, the grinder works great for espresso at an 11-12 setting on the grind dial. Within a few months, it’s better at 9 to 10. Within 6 months, your range has moved to 8 or even finer. That’s the entire machine “settling in” and the burrs becoming fully seasoned. I still use the 2014 Dose Control Pro from time to time, and it’s been reliable for espresso at around the 7 mark on the grind dial for most coffees, for years now.
With a fully seasoned grinder, output for espresso through Chemex is good to excellent. I’d even argue it hits above its weight class for the quality of grind coming out. I did some very informal sieve tests (I did a lot more formal ones for the Smart Grinder Pro, which should have similar performance) and compared to my archived numbers for the Baratza Encore and OG Virtuoso, the results were in very similar ranges, with about 65% of the grinds in the sweet spot. The Dose Control pro does produce about 5% more fines than the two older Baratza conical burrs. I have not done seive tests yet with the Encore ESP, which I expect to be a better performer with the M2 burrset.
The most interesting result is that the Dose Control Pro produced about 5% less “boulders” or oversized particles than the two older Baratza grinders. Personally, I would rather have fines than boulders, for espresso.
Where the Dose Control Pro stutters is on a proper turkish grind (it cannot do one), and press pot grinds (very little sizes above 1200 microns). The press pot grind output (our target is 1250 microns) is okay, but on the slightly fine side, and a lot of fines are produced. The geometry of Breville’s conical burr set just can’t stack up. It is important to note most conical burr grinders cannot do a great press pot grind. It isn’t in their design.
The grinder can definitely “choke” an espresso machine with a very fine grind. It’s not a turkish grind, but very, very fine.
In terms of speed, it’s decent. You’ll get up to 2g/sec in the pour over range, and around 1.2g a second in the espresso range. I’ve used much worse (link to wilfa grinder). Noise isn’t much of an issue either. The Dose Control Pro isn’t a quiet grinder, but it’s not going to wake up the house.
Hyper Adjusting the Grinder
Breville innovated quite a bit with this grinder when they designed the burr housing for it. The grinder actually has about 600 different possible grind settings because of a rather ingenious internal adjustment you can do. Remove the bean hopper, to expose the burrs. You’ll see a little folding steel arm. Lift that, turn it (it might be hard to do because of residual coffee in the burrs) and you can pop out the upper burr ring.
Then, you can remove the steel arm, and actually rotate the burr collar finer or coarser (they are marked on the burr set). Each “click” moves the burr housing up or down just a few microns, but it does have the effect of changing your grind levels across the 60 accessible settings. If you find you need more range on the espresso side, move the dial a bit finer. Want better press pot sizing? Go coarser. Re-assemble the metal clip, and put the burr group holder back into the grinder. Rotate it to lock into position (make sure everything is spotless before doing this – stray grinds will make this hard to do), and you now have 60 new settings on your grinder.
To this day, I can’t think of many other grinders that give this easy way to adjust the overall grinding range.
Grinding Directly Into Portafilters
So, while convenient, there is a problem with grinding directly into portafilters using the Dose Control Pro’s included PF forks. It side loads. As in too much coffee on one side of the filter basket, and not enough on the other side. The output is also pretty clumpy.
This can be alleviated somewhat by taking advantage of the Dose Control Pro’s pause feature: grind half your volume, pause, (quickly) redistribute the grounds, then reinsert, and finish the grind timing.
If your goal is to get the best possible espresso shot, you’re going to have to do a lot of WDT moves on the ground coffee dosed directly into a portafilter. In fact, we now recommend doing the WDT (and having a proper WDT device, or at least a fine paperclip, unbent) when grinding for espresso on most grinders.
That Timer Dial…
Even in 2014, a 1 second resolution timer dial on an espresso-forward coffee grinder was barely acceptable. I told Breville as much back then. In 2023, it is really bad, and almost a deal breaker.
Espresso forward grinders based on timers need a 0.1 resolution digital timer today, full stop. There are $50 grinders today that have 0.1 second timers (everything else on them is bad however).
I’d argue this is the worst thing – by far – on the Dose Control Pro.
The pause feature is nice though, especially since the grinder clumps and sideloads into a portafilter. This lets you settle the grinds mid session.
There’s one more feature about the timer dial. If you press and hold it, you’re in manual grinding mode: the grinder will operate as long as you hold that button. Good feature if you like to eyeball your doses (and who doesn’t from time to time?). I found this especially useful when grinding into a larger Hario 02 filter holder with paper filter in place: I know roughly where 28g (for 400ml brewed) is visually in the basket, and if I’m off by a gram or two, that’s not a big issue for me.
Static and other usability observations
In nearly 10 years of using three samples of this grinder, I’ve only run into real static issues because of exceptional atmospheric conditions that promote static in everything. Otherwise, I’d consider this a low static grinder. It’s not overly messy when grinding directly into a portafilter (except for the side load issue), and grinding directly into a V60 basket or a dosing cup is fairly straightforward.
I particularly like this dosing cup / sifter from Amazon for the Dose Control Pro. It works well with the grinder and has the added benefit of sifting away some fines for your pour over and Chemex brews. Worth the $12 upgrade and then some.
A small feature but one I appreciate: the heavy duty power cord can be partially stored inside the grinder, shortening its length. Keeps your counter looking nice and clean
Grinds Retention
The Breville Dose Control Pro retains a lot of ground coffee between grinding sessions: around 2g in some of my tests, but up to 3g in tests I did a few years back. If you decide to use this grinder as a single dose system, bear this in mind.
There’s two ways to deal with the grinds retention. One. is to simply flap the bean hopper’s lid to force some air through the grinder and dislodge the stray grinds. This mostly works, but wont get all the retained grinds out.
Or you can buy one of these nifty upgrades: a bellows system designed specifically for Breville grinders. Bottom line is, if you want to use this grinder as a single dose grinder, get a the bellows, and bob’s your uncle.
Other Quirks and Benefits
The hidden Razor tool is different from the sleek metal ones that come with Breville’s Barista line of espresso machines. It’s a bit clunky and all plastic, but I quite like it because the height can be adjusted and it will work with a wide variety of filter basket sizes. I’m still not convinced of the Razor’s benefit, but end of the day, it’s a great tool if you aren’t weighing your coffee and overshoot the amount of coffee you grind into a filter basket.
The Dose Control’s adjustment collar can be a bit tight or jumpy to adjust: I find using two hands to do it gives you more precise control.
This grinder is not suited for extra light roasts (read: baked coffee instead of roasted coffee). Few budget grinders are. I’ve stalled the grinder a few times using a local Victoria roaster’s coffee (they are known for extremely light blond roasts).
Subscribe to
Coffee Pulse
Delivered twice monthly, CoffeeGeek's premier newsletter dives into a specific coffee topic each issue. The Pulse also occasionally features contests and giveaways. Subscribing is free, and your personal information is never shared.
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: CoffeeGeek. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Support CoffeeGeek
If you enjoy and learn from this resource, please consider making a one time or recurring donation to help support our work and fund purchases for future reviews.
We covered some comparisons above including how it stacks up against some older Baratza grinders. For me, there’s only really three current competitors for the Dose Control Pro, given features + pricepoint (and maybe a fourth group, if you dare to throw in manual, hand cranked grinders): The Baratza Encore ESP and the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. For fun, I’ll throw in the Timemore Chestnut X Lite as well, a manual grinder we’re currently evaluating.
Breville Smart Grinder Pro
In almost every way, the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, at $50 more, is a better grinder than the Dose Control Pro. It has a better motor, (same burr set though), more refined grind selection, multiple grind memory settings on its light-up, multifunction LCD panel, a 0.2 second digital timer, a larger bean capacity hopper, and a multi-purpose grinds bin. It comes with the two portafilter forks, but has the added bonus of a start-stop button you can press with your portafilter, for true one handed operation. The only reason to buy the Dose Control Pro over the Smart Grinder pro is if you only have $150 or less to spend (vs the $180-$200 typical price for the Smart Grinder Pro).
In fact, as I type this, the Smart Grinder Pro can be bought on Amazon for under $15o (though this changes often).
We reviewed the Smart Grinder Pro back in 2015 on CoffeeGeek and called it a best buy at the time. It recently got a new review on CoffeeGeek (linked above) and we still rate it highly.
Baratza Encore ESP
The Encore ESP, at $199, is also a better grinder mechanically and when output is judged, but does not have a timer function. It’s an off-or-on grinder (it also has a pulse button up front), so in that one aspect, the Dose Control Pro beats it. The Encore ESP has much better fine tuning of the grind level for espresso, but is also capable of doing a better pour over grind than the Dose Control Pro. The motor is better, it retains less grinds, and it is marginally faster. The Encore ESP comes with both a dosing cup and a grinds bin. You can also optionally buy a single dose hopper for it.
Probably most important, the after sales service and support for the Encore ESP is on a completely different level than the Breville grinder (which is notable too because Breville now owns Baratza). To me, this adds at least $100 or more in value to the Encore ESP because you should be able to keep it running for decades, and do most repairs yourself, buying very inexpensive replacement parts from Baratza.
I haven’t done sieve tests yet on the Encore ESP, so I cannot comment there.
ed.note – our review of the Encore ESP is now complete, see link above
Timemore Chestnut X Lite
Very briefly comparing this grinder to the Timemore Chestnut X Lite grinder: one’s powered, one is not. But the Chestnut X Lite outputs a much better grind than the Dose Control Pro. You’re limited to grinding 25-30g, and espresso will take you about 60-70 seconds to grind, but the output is more fluffy and even and there’s zero retention. It costs the same as the Dose Control Pro, hence the brief comparison.
To be honest, the convenience of a motor is one thing, but the Timemore gives you portability options and for me personally, it’s not a major deal to hand grind 18-20g of coffee. If you literally only want a grinder for espresso and single serve press pot, the Timemore Chestnut X Lite might be the better option, given it is a near flagship model manual grinder.
Support CoffeeGeek
If you enjoy and learn from this resource, please consider making a one time or recurring donation to help support our work and fund purchases for future reviews.
There’s a lot to like about the Breville Dose Control Pro, when it first came out. The only comparable grinder at the time was the old Baratza Encore (it had a mechanical timer back then) and the Breville model had more grind settings, the nice portafilter forks, and a digital timer. For $150.
Today, the grinder is still $150 in most places (with inflation, it should be $193 today), and if your absolute max budget for a grinder is $150, this is still the unit to consider. If you shop around, finding it at $120 or less wouldn’t be too hard. If the retail price was $120 all the time, it would bump up our review score to the mid/high 70s.
But I cannot recommend the Dose Control Pro today, when both the Encore ESP and the Breville Smart Grinder Pro are only $50 more. The latter does everything the Dose Control Pro does, but better, with a lot more features and a much better multi-setting digital timer. It’s definitely worth the $50 bump in price.
The Encore ESP is really let down by the lack of a timer, but Baratza wants you to use that grinder as single dose grinder (it needs bellows to really be that), and it wins out on a) a better burrset, b) the super fine adjustment in the espresso range, and c) Baratza’s legendary after market support.
If Breville made one change to the Dose Control Pro: a digital, 0.1 second timer with simple display, I would rate this grinder in the low 80s and change it to a recommended purchase. If they added a simple dosing cup (like the aftermarket one mentioned above), it would bump it up another 5 points and change to a very recommended grinder, especially if the price point was similar.
Bottom line? Spend the $200 and get either the Breville Smart Grinder Pro (if you want a lot of features in a multipurpose grinder) or the Baratza Encore ESP (if you want an espresso primary grinder that does drip to press pot as well).
-
6.5DesignUnlike the Smart Grinder Pro, there’s only one colour choice for the Dose Control Pro
-
6.0UsabilityVery hard to dial in your dose of espresso when one timer click = 1.5g difference in output.
-
6.0FeaturesThe 1 second timer knocks score down quite a bit. Lack of grinds bin ditto.
-
7.0PerformanceGrinder is decently fast, but the motor is a bit underpowered still.
-
7.0Value vs. CostFor $150, it’s an okay grinder. If it were $120 it’s be great!
-
6.5Quality of BuildLooks good at first glance, but a lot of plastic overall. I’m probably being unfair here.
-
8.5Service / WarrantyStandard US warranty, though Breville does sell parts at very good prices.
-
7.0Included in the BoxPretty basic compared to the SGP, but we do love the adjustable razor tool!
-
7.0Resale ValueNot as good on resell as the Smart Grinder Pro is.
-
6.5OverallRating it around it’s overall rating score.
Where to Buy
Subscribe to
Coffee Pulse
Delivered twice monthly, CoffeeGeek's premier newsletter dives into a specific coffee topic each issue. The Pulse also occasionally features contests and giveaways. Subscribing is free, and your personal information is never shared.
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: CoffeeGeek. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact