Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder White

So far (1 month), this grinder has been great. I grind for pour-over, not espresso, so I have not seen some of the issues reported by others. The only small complaint I have is the small amount of grounds that escape capture by the catch bin. If not brushed out of the bottom of the compartment, they will cause the catch bin to not slide in flush and then even more grounds escape. However, this is common to many grinders. Having a grinder entails some minor ownership responsibility. It’s not as simple as a toaster.

Now, how to make this grinder awesome: The more expensive burr grinders have the ability to grind for a specific amount of time – either using an analog dial or digital controls. Baratza’s Virtuoso+ is $110 more expensive to get this feature. However, using a WiFi-enabled switch, you can make this one even better. This grinder has a simple on-off switch on the side. It will keep grinding coffee until you switch it off. That means you have to stand there and keep an eye on it and endure the loud noise the grinder makes very close up. Not if you do this:

(Disclaimer – my instructions are for a home using Apple HomeKit. I’m sure Android users can do something similar, but you’ll have to figure that out yourself).

Step 1: Get a HomeKit enabled smart outlet switch to plug the grinder into. I use a Meross switch, purchased on Amazon for about $10 each when you buy a 4 pack. It’s more $ if you buy smaller numbers, but still very inexpensive.

Step 2: Add the accessory to your home following the simple process via Home app.

Step 3: You need to get a decent estimate for how long the grinder needs to grind to produce enough ground coffee for a cup. I use 15g of coffee for 350g of water to make an approximately 12oz cup of coffee. At my grind setting, this takes about 11 seconds. How full the bean hopper is may affect this, so don’t worry about being super precise.

Step 4: Create a shortcut using the Apple Shortcut app to turn the switch on for 11 seconds (or whatever you determined you needed).
In Shortcut app, hit the + symbol in upper right hand corner. Tap on + Add Action. Tap on Apps. Tap on the Home App symbol. Tap on Control (whatever you’ve named your) Home. Tap on Scenes and Accessories beside the word Set. You will see a list of your accessories, tap on the switch you added previously. Then Next. Now set the state you want – on, by tapping on the switch icon. Hit Done. This will turn the grinder on when you run the shortcut, but you only want it to run for your specified time, so keep going. Tap on the + symbol below that first step. If the Apps list is still there, tap the x to close that. Then, tap on Scripting. Scroll down and tap on Wait. Now you will see a Wait step below the grinder on step. Tap on the 1 second and increase it to your desired grind time. Then, tap on + symbol below that Wait step. Now you’ll be setting the off step. Close the Scripting screen and then tap on Apps again (not the open App function within Scripting). In Apps, choose Home again. Tap Control your Home. Tap Scenes and Accessories. Tap on the switch again, then Next. Set the switch to the Off state. Hit Done. Now, your shortcut will have the generic name New Shortcut at this point. You will want to give it a name that not only lets you know what it is, but will be what you want to tell Siri to do. I called mine Grind 1 Cup of Coffee. This is done by hitting the . . . symbol beside the New Shortcut name. On the next screen, you can change the name, set it to show up on your Apple Watch, and add a shortcut tile to your Home Screen. I recommend that last one so you don’t have to go into the Shortcut app to run the shortcut. However, I always use Siri. After setting up what you want there, hit Done.

Step 5: Set up an Automation to shut the grinder off after 30 seconds, just to be safe. Sometimes, not often, a command gets missed and the grinder could keep grinding away until it runs out of beans to grind. It’s best to create a backup signal via automation to prevent this. Here, you start in the Home app, not Shortcuts. Hit + in upper right. Tap Create Home Automation (best way, but requires you to be using an Apple TV or HomePod as your HomeKit hub) or you can create a Personal Automation if you are not using a hub. The catch here is that it only works for you. (BTW, the shortcut you created will only work for you until you share it with others. I’m not going to explain that here.) Now, on the next screen, tap on An Accessory is controlled, then tap on the switch icon. Then tap on Turns On. This is letting the Home app know that you want this automation run any time that switch is turned on. Tap Next. Then, scroll down to bottom of screen and tap Convert to Shortcut. By default, this will show you a Set Scenes and Accessories step. Tap the little x to delete that. Now, tap + Add Action. Tap on Scripting, then Wait. Tap on the default 1 second and set it to 30 seconds. So, now you told the app, when the switch turns on, wait 30 seconds. Next you’re going to tell it what to do after 30 seconds, which will be to turn the grinder off. Tap on the + below that Wait step. Close the Scripting screen. You may see Control your Home in Suggestions below, if so, tap that. If not, type Home and you should then see it. Tap on Control ‘your’ Home. Tap on the Scenes and Accessories. Tap on the switch icon. Tap on Next. Set the state of the switch to off by tapping on it, if necessary. Tap on Done. Tap on Next. You’re done.

You can set up a shortcut for two cups of coffee by repeating the steps for the 1 cup shortcut, but having the grinder stay on longer. However, if it will take more than 30 seconds to grind that coffee, you’ll need to adjust your automation shut off time accordingly.

For my peace of mind, my shortcuts have two steps that shut the switch off. One is a few seconds after the other. You can add that by repeating the step to shut the switch off within the shortcut. I also have two automations – one at 30 seconds and one at 35 seconds, just to be sure that sucker turns off.

I also set up an automation to grind 2 cups of coffee at 5:30am Mon-Fri (only when I’m home), so that I don’t have to hear the grinder and my ground coffee is waiting for me when I stumble into my kitchen in the morning.

Now, here’s the bad news. If your power goes out, it is possible that the grinder could run until it runs out of beans when the power is restored. That’s why I never fill the bean hopper more than half full. Also, if I’ll be away from home for an extended period of time, like for vacation, I physically switch the grinder off.

I had an older – long discontinued Breville burr grinder before which was awesome and I was hoping the Encore would be as good as that one. The Encore even with M3 burr gives better flavour coffee. Is a relatively slow grinder by design which is a desirable feature.
The description is unacceptable because says is a 220v version. Is not vendor specific… I got the 120V like should be for Canada.

El producto viene bien protegido por parte de Baratza. Ha cumplido sus expectativas en cafés filtrados y de inmersión. El molido es completamente homogéneo. Es de buen tamaño y antiderrapante. Respecto al ruido, la verdad que no es tan molesto como algunos rewiews comentan. Falta checar lo de la limpieza que se le debe hacer cada cierto tiempo, pues sí retiene algo de café en cada molienda. Hasta ahorita, muy buen producto!!!

Ok, you wanted a review: Grinds the beans consistently every time. The machine is a pleasure to use. I’m guessing most burr grinders are be a bit of a nuisance to properly clean. Only takes about 3 minutes though.

The following are all observations about the idiosyncrasies of the machine, none of these are showstoppers, I would recommend this rig to everyone I know. Like with anything worth having you need to learn the proper operating technique.

There are nooks and crannies deep inside the mechanism you can never really clean, or see. You can get most of the way there. The machine would have to be completely disassembled in order to remedy this issue. A problem with any burr grinder I’m sure unless you buy some $$$ commercial unit.

It’s takes a bit of a knack to get the snug fitting rubber gasket to seat properly which is necessary to do each time you brush out the internals. A good thing I suppose as it does provide an excellent seal but I can see someone messing up the seating. If it is not right the hopper won’t quite fit and you may get people trying to force things or damage the gasket (see below).

Notes about some usage techniques are lacking in the manual, nothing you will not figure out for yourself over the course of time though. For example, there is a fixed on/off switch and a pulse button for controlling the motor. They don’t tell you what the pulse button is for though. Spoiler Alert: It is to be used at the very end of the grind when there are like 4 beans left. You should shut the main switch off at this point and then use the pulse button to coax those last few beans through the grinder. Otherwise they will just bounce around the container.

Important: when you clean the machine you can easily/accidentally rotate an internal ring, associated with the lower burr grinder, away from its’ home position. It rotates in one direction or the other when the bean container is in place to select the grinder setting. So anyway, if you unwittingly rotate it out of its home position while cleaning you will never get the bean hopper back on the machine. You will be convinced the machine is broken and have no idea why? And only after the second use! So, I refer back to the manual because I recalled a note about something or other not fitting right. There is a single sentence in there alluding to this situation about having to rotate the ring all the way in one direction. That of course fixed the problem, BUT, if you don’t read manuals you might be in trouble. Also, though the manual does mention this, it should do a much better job of calling it out as an IMPORTANT “feature” that can be encountered during cleaning. I suspect they have had machines returned by folks thinking they were broken. None of these issues are going to trip up an experienced or “technical minded” coffee jock. But a burr grinder rookie may sweat this one out a little and possibly damage the machine trying to force something. Once you know or figure out all of this stuff you will never have another problem. But never let an inexperienced person disassemble the machine for cleaning unless you have schooled them on these caveats.
Conclusion
Great grinder, manual could be improved upon. Oh yah, ship an extra rubber gasket with the machine! If that thing fails [for whatever reason] I suspect the grinder becomes unusable. And all for lack of a 50 cent gasket that at a minimum, must be painful to replace. That extra gasket is a great marketing tool that for pennies will immediately improve customer perception of your product.

Other than the assembly this thing rocked my world. I have been drinking coffee for the age of two. Has a small grinder and a bigger one in the past. When I switched to this grinder with the same coffee beans. The taste was like a switch had been flipped on. Also I has a lot of grinds in the bottom of my cup now absolutely nothing. The only thing that changed is the grinder. If you are struggling with the choice and cost this is well worth it. I am tight with my money and have to say that this was a game changer.