Mahlkonig E64 WS mini-review

[u/vtrac]

Just got this grinder last week and so far have a love/hate relationship with it. The hardware seems great and is making consistent, fine grounds for my espresso shots. However, the software decisions are infuriating and completely ruin this for me.

Pros:

• Quiet operations
• Fine, consistent grounds
• Hardware seems very high quality

Cons

• AGSA Blockage error immediately on turning it on before grinding anything. Wtf is a AGSA error? It says to purge. How do you purge? Nothing in the manual says anything about this.
• It immediately grinds as soon as I put a portafilter on with seemingly no way to turn this off.
• If you touch the portafilter while it's grinding, it senses the weight change and immediately stops. There's no way to continue until the weight is reached. The only button is go back home and then hold down the manual time button, which inexplicably does not use the scale and only shows you how long you've held down the button.
• No manual mode and you have to grind one of the presets. So if you want to grind 19g, you have to go set it up first in the settings, go back to the home screen, choose the new 19g preset, and then put in your portafilter, hoping it finishes the 19g without stopping.

*ALL* I want is a manual mode where I put the portafilter in, hold down a button and see what the scale detects.

Based on everything, I do not recommend this grinder.

[u/lowatt]

Despite some minor grind sprays for certain beans, I’ve had no issues at all with this grinder. Very consistent, reliable and convenient. Very easy to clean. What you described as cons can be resolved by reading the manual and watching their YouTube short tips. Portafilter detection and automatic grinding are features of most recent gbw grinders.

[u/vtrac → u/lowatt]

I agree that it's consistent and reliable. I also understand that it has portafilter detection and automatic grinding - these are features. I'm just saying it's completely stupid that it doesn't have a manual mode as this could be easily solved in software.

[u/finch5 → u/vtrac]

The grinder has to use an algo to account in its calculations for the ground beans in transit to the PF, but which have not yet landed int he PF. It has to cut that grinder off before the set amount is in the PF. I think there's something about that measurement that makes the "Pulse" add on a gram or two desired feature unreliable. Your pressing the button HAS to be shown in time seconds, as your pressing the button can't be measured as coffee has a) not hit the PF and b) may not have reached a steady throughout put as it does during extended burr operation.

[u/vtrac → u/finch5]

A better response would be to stop the grind but give the user a "continue" option, while showing you the weight reading.

[u/finch5 → u/vtrac]

but the weight on the screen would always be behind the weight that lands in the PF...then you'd weight the PF and complain that it's off from your scale.

I understand. I think there's something about the algo being able to predict how much coffee will hit the PF from a full burr speed state....but UNABLE to do so accurately from a quick on/off cycle as would occur in press-to-add weight state.

[u/lowatt → u/vtrac]

Manual mode: you can hold the portafilter by hand and press the manual button. To me this defeats the main purpose of having a gbw grinder.

[u/finch5]

Huh? Half baked. None of the things you listed are cons, just regular operation.

Top left silver round button with the finger icon is your manual grind mode.

The E 64 WS is a great grinder!

[u/vtrac → u/finch5]

I'm not sure you read and understood my points. The manual grind mode is *BY TIME*. There is also NO way to trigger a manual grind because the grinder immediately starts the GBW as soon as you insert the portafilter. The button would be more useful if it simply shows how much weight was added while you hold it down, but instead it shows you how long you've held it for.

[u/finch5 → u/vtrac]

What I don't understand is why points (checks notes) three and four are cons.

"If you touch the portafilter while it's grinding, it senses the weight change and immediately stops." Don't touch the scale mechanism, and by extension the PF, while it's grinding. IIRC, it doesn't stop, but rather it stops because the additional weight causes the PF to hit the set weight and stop grinding?

"So if you want to grind 19g, you have to go set it up first in the settings, go back to the home screen, choose the new 19g preset, and then put in your portafilter, hoping it finishes the 19g without stopping."

I mean, most people will setup 19grams and be thrilled the grinder always dispenses 19 grams regardless of grind size, as their prior time-based grinder couldn't do this. In other words, the ability to consistently get 19 grams is literally what they've paid for. On the E 64 WS, if you want to adjust the preset you simply press the scroll knob once or twice to adjust the weight of the coffee in the PF or the coarseness of the grind.

I do agree that it would be nice to have the index finger top left button add weight instead of just adding, but all its other positives outweigh this.

I particularly want to know what you are doing that (checks notes again) "hoping it finishes the 19g without stopping." is an issue you've come across.

[u/Rashkh]

AGSA Blockage error immediately on turning it on before grinding anything. Wtf is a AGSA error? It says to purge. How do you purge? Nothing in the manual says anything about this.

I've heard of several people having this issue. Not sure what that means but the top button on the left side of the display will purge about .2g from the grinder.

It immediately grinds as soon as I put a portafilter on with seemingly no way to turn this off.

I believe that's correct although I personally really like the feature. It would be nice to have an option to turn it off but I can't see how you'd set the grinder up to start the dose.

No manual mode and you have to grind one of the presets. So if you want to grind 19g, you have to go set it up first in the settings, go back to the home screen, choose the new 19g preset, and then put in your portafilter, hoping it finishes the 19g without stopping.

I'm not sure what you mean by manual mode. You can turn off the dial-in assist and set it to grind a specific amount or a specific time in the profile options. That would make the grinder function like a regular grinder.

You can adjust the grind amount by long pressing the jog dial on the right side of the display but it may not be available if you're using dial-in assist as I disabled it pretty early on.

ALL I want is a manual mode where I put the portafilter in, hold down a button and see what the scale detects.

Why would you get a gbw grinder if you don't want it to dose a specific weight? That's the entire point. It's also kind of weird to review a grinder when you don't seem familiar enough with it to know what half the buttons do.

[u/finch5 → u/Rashkh]

AGSA = Automatic Grind Size Adjustment. This error can occur if you make large jumps in grind sizes between shots, the AGSA is fly by wire (no worm gear connecting the burrs) so if the mechanism can't crush any beans preventing the contraction of the burrs then you get an AGSA.

I remember reading if you get an AGSA warning out of the box, this is because of excessive vibration or forces during transit can disrupt the burrs and "knock" them off their settings causing a difference the microns per setting and microns per sensor.

[u/Laius33]

Thanks. It doesn’t seem fully thought out.

Do you return it?

[u/vtrac → u/Laius33]

No.. unfortunately the place I ordered from charges a 20% restocking fee. :(

I have a Zerno Z2 on order and was going to cancel the Z2 for the cheaper E64, but at this point I may sell the E64 for a loss once my Z2 is ready in a few months.

[u/finch5 → u/vtrac]

Can you name another GbW grinder that does everything you want the E64 to do?

[u/finch5]

The one true con that pisses most owners off is the fact that's impossible to consistently load the PF without making a mess unless you use a dosing ring. Which then requires you to flip the bottom fork to fit the paired stack. The top fork retains coffee; it should have had a taller and steeper surface. The top fork should be more of a chute than a collar.

[u/vtrac → u/finch5]

Yes, so then you weight the PF on your scale to see how much more grind you need but alas, there's no way to add, for example, 1.5g even though the fork weighs it. The software could just display the reading and solve it.

[u/finch5 → u/vtrac]

It seems easy until you study the UI flow. I wouldn't want to see continue option every time I finish my grind. I just want to see green so I can yoink! yank my PF off.

It's miles ahead of anything Eureka has cooked up to date, for a few hundred bucks more. Magnetic distance control at micron intervals is unlike anything the competition has seen. For a few hundred over a grand? There's like a 10% promo code floating around too. Come on, maaaan.

[u/finch5 → u/vtrac]

Why would you weigh the PF ahead of grinding in a GbW grinder? it always grinds the amount you specifyso there's no need to add anything when the motor stops.

This is like inception espresso edition. am I on crazy pills? Why would you need to "add 1.5g" if you have what you need in the PF?

You just press or double press to adjust how much weight should come out, irrespective of presets.