The Wilfa Uniform doesn’t have any of these issues. It’s output is extremely uniform and fairly static free. It can grind down to espresso levels with no issues. Bean feeding is very good though we do have a slight issue with one or two stray beans popcorning inside and taking their time to be ground.

Sam wasn't a fan of the grounds bin, though. It's a nice metal but was difficult to fully empty and pour from. The power cord is relatively short at only 24 inches, so keep that in mind (or buy an extension cord) when considering where the Wilfa Uniform grinder will fit in your kitchen. Durability – 5/5 I have had the grinder for about two months now, so I thought it’s about time to share my impression with you guys. Pros The Niche Zero’s main limitation is how much coffee can be ground at one time, so you won’t be grinding for big batch auto drip with this grinder, or larger Chemex or Bodum press pots. The grinder is also very quiet, and has by all accounts and excellent, evenly distributed grind output. You might struggle a bit more to accommodate its height. While it has a relatively small footprint, measuring just 19.4 cm in diameter, it is a towering 39.6 cm tall. It fits under upper cupboards but doesn’t leave much room to spare to get the lid on and off and add beans to the hopper. And this is a single-dosing grinder, so adding beans to the hopper is something you’ll be doing regularly.

The power cord is relatively short at only 61 cm, so keep that in mind (or buy an extension cord) when considering where the Wilfa Uniform grinder will fit in your kitchen. Durability – 5/5 These results might vary a bit depending on calibration, roast level and your setup, but in general, you don’t have a lot of wiggle room to dial in a shot. Things got better from there. Even as things went sideways with espresso, they noted that it was a normal-retention grinder, meaning if you grind 18 grams of beans, you get close to 18 grams of grounds out of it. Sometimes, particularly with flat-burr grinders where gravity isn't helping, grounds get lost inside the machine or in the grounds bin, which means you're losing money every time you grind. There's even a grinder called the Niche Zero designed to leave (or retain) no grounds in the machine. Is the Wilfa Uniform coffee grinder for you? If you’re a lover of pour-over coffee who appreciates the clean and consistent cup afforded by flat burrs, absolutely. The Wilfa Uniform is one of the best coffee grinders of that style, and its price tag is very reasonable, given its performance and build quality.

If you’d like to hear from the man himself, take a look at Tim Wendelboe’s video describing the grinder’s range of functionality. A contentious point when it comes to the Wilfa Uniform is the inclusion of the built-in Bluetooth scale in the lid.Also, most consumers eyeing a grinder at this price point will already know their preferred brew ratios and recipes. They don’t need an app for that. I don’t know why I’m so sold on the auto off feature: most modern grinders have their own “auto off” feature, it’s called a timer. But those aren’t single dose grinders. This one is, and a digital timer doesn’t make sense in single dose grinders.

You sacrifice some for this. First, the Wilfa Uniform is less than half the speed of the Vario+, at around 0.8g/sec output. There’s no timers, no presets, no nothing, but given that it is a single dose grinder, this isn’t a big issue. The auto-off feature also makes up for this. I also like and appreciate how quiet this grinder is. It even dampens the noise the beans themselves make while being chewed up. You can really notice this by grinding with the lid on or off. Also, comparing handgrinders and eletric grinders is a bit of an apples/oranges discussion, since they are quite different in terms of daily user experience.

More importantly, I did a blind taste test comparison between the output of both. I couldn’t tell a difference in the cup, at all. This will be further tested later on, for the Etzinger ETZ-I review.

Say I’m aiming for 600 micron particle size. In the Kruve, I’ll put a 800 sieve and a 400 sieve in place, add 20g of coffee, and shake the bejeebus out of it. I’ll repeat this test changing the grind settings to finally find my ‘sweet spot’ to get max volume between the two sieves. It’s a bit of a labour intensive process, and time consuming too (not to mention coffee consuming). The test is also not perfect: all that shaking creates friction which could break up the strands and particles of coffee into smaller pieces. As an aside, Wendelboe apparently feels fast grinders generate too much heat and damage coffee. In reality, the jury is entirely divided on that, and to be honest, I just don’t buy it myself. And I’m not alone: there’s been plenty written and discussed (this is a video discussion well worth watching if you like the science of coffee and grinders), that say slower grinders actually generate and deposit more heat into the ground coffee than faster ones. But that is something for another debate, in another article. A few European reviewers have put the Niche Zero up against the Wilfa Uniform for non-espresso grinding, and it’s interesting that most seem to give a slight nod to the Uniform grinder. This is even though Niche has a cozy relationship with a lot of the Euro-based reviewers.

The Wilfa Uniform grinder is the second collaboration between Norwegian kitchen appliance maker Wilfa and professional barista Tim Wendelboe ( 1). It follows in the footsteps of the entry-level Wilfa Svart, but the Wilfa Uniform is a significant upgrade with a far superior burr set. Wilfa Uniform vs Uniform+ I have used a borrowed Ode in a few situations, enough to see the grinder’s benefits and failings. There’s also plenty of Youtube reviewers out there who have a lot to say about the Ode. Most of it is pretty bad.