Information

EUREKA OLYMPUSTechnology Solutions

75E MINI REVIEW

EUREKA OLYMPUS 75E

(WITH TITANIUM MYTHOS BURRS)
MINI REVIEW

© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275 e-mail: claudettep@towability.com

EUREKA OLYMPUS 75E MINI REVIEW.doc 02-June-15 Page 1 of 8

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75E MINI REVIEW

INTRODUCTION & SPECIFICATIONS OF THE OLYMPUS 75E ................................................................................. 3

WHAT MAKES A GOOD GRINDER .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Burr quality......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Low retention ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Slower and consistent rotational speeds ............................................................................................................................. 5
Motor and bearing Quality ................................................................................................................................................. 5
EASE OF USE ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Grind time settings.............................................................................................................................................................. 6
Display & Dispensing ......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Grind Adjustment................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Ease of Cleaning & Maintenance ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Size...................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Finish and Packaging ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
QUALITY CONTROL .................................................................................................................................................................. 7
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275 e-mail: claudettep@towability.com

EUREKA OLYMPUS 75E MINI REVIEW.doc 02-June-15 Page 2 of 8

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Many people modify commercial grinders to try

Introduction & Specifications
Of the Olympus 75E
Eureka manufacture a number of doserless grinders
at various price points.
• Mignon, well respected compact entry level
grinder with 50mm flat burrs
• Zenith 65E, Midrange grinder with 65mm flat
burrs
• Olympus 75E, Beginning of the high end
range grinder with 75mm flat burrs
and make them work better in the home
environment. These modifications sometimes
improve a grinder which is not suitable for home
use in it's standard form. The Eureka grinders
being reviewed, has not been modified in any
way and are working as intended by the
manufacturer.
Quite a bit of the usual information you may see on
other web reviews is omitted from this review. This is
not a sales review, I am trying to limit the review to
information I think you really need to know to help
you make a decision. I also cover the suitability, or
not, of these commercial grinders in the domestic
environment.

If you want to read the marketing "information", a

This review is limited to the Olympus 75E, but I may quick search on the web will give you all the
make reference to the other grinders mentioned in background and videos.
the Eureka range.

Bella Barista are looking to fill a gap in the upper

end of their range and the Olympus 75E was seen Specifications
as a potential candidate. Eureka Olympus 75E
Voltage 230-240 V • 50-60 hz
The 75E is a 75mm flat burr grinder, Eureka have Power 575 W
considerable experience of 75mm flat burr usage in Burr Life 400kg approx 1500kg approx
their extremely well respected Commercial "Mythos" (steel) (Titanium
grinder range. The Mythos is probably one of the Mythos burrs)
most well respected 75mm flat burr grinders out Rpm 900 rpm
there. Gross 17,5 Kg
weight
I want to make an important point right at the Dimensions 250d x230w x 490h mm
beginning, these are expensive grinders and as with small Height without Hopper 415mm
such my review may be harsh in areas where I hopper (all dimensions approx)
feel Eureka might do better. Please be aware all Burrs Ø 75mm (flat)
grinders have good and bad points, because this is Hopper 1600 g
not really a sales review, you will read both good capacity
and bad. This may conflict with other opinion on the Note Additional voltage models available
web, if it does, it's because I am independent, have
Dispensing Timed, on demand/Doserless
no owners goggles and will send the grinder back
when I have finished with it. In addition Bella Barista
Note: The grinder has only been evaluated for
would not wish to stock any high end grinder not
Espresso use over a 6 week period. But will
meeting their standards at a sensible price.
grind coarse enough for drip or filter.
At first glance the 75E might be seen as a simple
upgrade to the 65E, with 10mm larger burrs. As we
shall see later, this is definitely not the case. Eureka
aim these grinders at the commercial market, but do
understand that many home users buy them as well.

© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275 e-mail: claudettep@towability.com

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75E MINI REVIEW

What makes a good grinder

This is a personal opinion formed over many years
using different grinders. The list covers mechanical
as well as functional points and applies to all
grinders.

• Good quality burrs, with the correct cut for

the grinder
• Low retention
• Slower and consistent rotational speeds
• Weight
• Motor and bearing quality
• Ease of use e.g. grind time settings As you can see, I was not disappointed, MYTHOS
• Ease of grind adjustment on the side and the tell tale gold colouration. After a
• Ease of cleaning & Maintenance close inspection, I fitted them. The standard burrs
• Small Size (in home environment) and the Mythos TiN burrs looked very similar, but I
can confirm after fitting them that not only did the
The list isn't exhaustive and even if a grinder meets Zero point change significantly, but the grind speed
all those requirements, it may not always be good. It for 19g increased by 1 second. I think this speed
can sometimes lack a certain "je ne sais quoi" as might increase further as the TiN burrs run in more.
the French say.

Burr quality
The grinder came with the standard 75mm burr set
and I used these for a while. It ground reasonably
well, the sort of upgrade you would expect for a
75mm burr. Was it an improvement on the Zenith
65E, yes, was it an improvement on the Mazzer
Super Jolly, yes again. The question that was on my
mind was, am I getting the best this grinder has to
give?
A quick phone call confirmed that the Mythos
Titanium Burr set would fit this grinder and a set was
on it's way to me.
Note: when I say Titanium, this is the common term
used to describe a Titanium Nitride (TiN) coating on
metal
The Mythos TiN burrs arrived a few days later and I
definitely wanted to see Mythos on the side of the
burrs. The TiN coating makes the burrs much
harder, so much so that their life is 1500kg,
compared to 400kg for the standard burrs!
The difference in grind quality was significant, less
clumping and a far more compressible pile of coffee
in the portafilter.....in short a much better grind. This
was supported by the way the coffee extracted
before and after. This difference was so marked that
I have recommended to Bella barista that they
supply this grinder as standard with the MYTHOS
TiN burrset, not just TiN, but I wanted to see
MYTHOS on the side. My further recommendation
was that they do this for no extra cost to the
customer if possible (these TiN burrs cost
significantly more)....and they needed to talk to
Eureka. My understanding at the time of writing
is that not only will this grinder be supplied by
Bella Barista with MYTHOS TiN burrs as
standard, but that it may be priced below the
normal RRP for a grinder with standard burrs.

© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275 e-mail: claudettep@towability.com

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75E MINI REVIEW
Low retention
This is especially important for the home use. In a
commercial setting retention of coffee within the burr
chamber and grinding system is not critical as it
rarely stays long enough to go stale.
For home use grinding is relatively infrequent and
retention is important as these retained grinds go
stale and require purging. Purging refers to the
practice of grinding a small amount of coffee and
discarding it, then doing the grind proper into the
portafilter. The 75E is designed well and has very
low retention. I measured this at between 1 and 3g.
The reason for variation is how fine you grind and
roast level of the coffee used.
As you can see in the photos, the sweep arms are
thin and space around the burrs is small, so the
amount of coffee retained very low. Even with that
space full, there is no more than 3g held in there.
© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275
EUREKA OLYMPUS 75E MINI REVIEW.doc 02-June-15
The exit path from the burr chamber is very short
and none is retained in the chute. Retention is of 2
types lets call it static and dynamic. Static, refers to
the coffee that fills a space and then doesn't move
again, it just sits there.
Dynamic, is coffee that sits in a space and is
continually replaced by new coffee. My 3g refers to
both types of retention taken together.
For you at home, this means a 1 to 1.5 second
purge and discarding these grinds, then grinding
for your shot. It's standard practice and ensures
fresh grinds into your portafilter.
Slower and consistent rotational speeds
The 75E has a rotational speed of only 900 RPM,
this is significantly slower than most flat burr
grinders in it's class where the standard rotational
speed is 1400 RPM. This does make a difference to
grind quality in my opinion, as I believe high
rotational speed, increases the force of impacts and
shattering within the pre crush zone of the burrs. I
don't think this is a great thing for grind quality. Flat
burrs do need a certain speed to grind well and the
75E more than delivers that.
The second factor that's critical in producing good
grind quality is consistent speed. The quality and
power of the 75Es motor (a significant part of the
grinders considerable 17.5 Kg weight), means a very
consistent rotational speed with all coffee roast
levels.
Motor and bearing Quality
It's a big heavy motor (why the body of the grinder is
thicker), the bearings felt nice and the bottom burr
spins easily with the chamber open. The motor is
really powerful and there is quite a hefty mechanical
relay used in the circuit as the initial run current will
be very high. This relay does make rather a loud
click as it engages each time you grind. The grinder
itself is relatively quiet and the slower speed actually
makes it even less intrusive. I have a blind cat and
he is unconcerned when I start the grinder up...so It
can't be that noisy.
e-mail: claudettep@towability.com
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Ease of use
When you lock the portafilter into the holder it
Grind time settings presses the grinding button and coffee is dispensed
into the portafilter. Even though the chute that
I only ran the grinder with beans in the hopper. I dispenses the coffee can be moved to different
think it could be single dosed OK, but it's really not angles, I still find the use of a portafilter ring helps to
necessary with such low retention. It's also the make the grinder messless. These rings can be
easiest and best way to use the grinder. purchased or made from a cut down yoghurt pot or
similar.
I set the grinder up with the left hand timer button set
to 1.5s for my purge and the right button set up for
7.5s for my 19g dose. The dosage is pretty accurate,
even when there are only a few beans left in the
hopper. This is in part due to the central auger that
draws the beans down into the chamber. It's the
gold nut type retainer in the centre of the burrs.

Changing grind times is also really easy, just a +/-

button each side of the 2 grind dosage buttons
(single/double and you can increment or decrement
the time on 0.1s increments. The minimum time is
1s

You can see my home made portafilter ring at the

foot of the grinder in a small grounds catcher tray.
The grinder comes with a large steel tray for this
area, but my review model did not have one.

The grinder can be set up for dosing or for manual

press /release the button grinding.

Grind Adjustment
One of the easiest grind adjusters in the business. A
large knurled knob at the top is simply turned to
make grinding coarser or finer and a small window
with numbers gives a reference scale for
repeatability. The knob is smooth as silk and very
easy to turn, but never moves out of position when
grinding.

Display & Dispensing

The display is a nice clear animated OLED screen

nothing fancy, but it does the job. Just above the
portafilter is an LED light to illuminate the coffee
dispensing area. It is unfortunate that Eureka have
not eliminated the problem of the odd stray grind
finding it's way into the display. This can be cleaned
if it becomes annoying.

© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275 e-mail: claudettep@towability.com

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75E MINI REVIEW

Note: the grinder in this review has the mini hopper,

Ease of Cleaning & Maintenance this smaller hopper will come supplied as standard
One of the easiest grinders to clean, opening the by Bella Barista and is ideal for home users.
burr chamber is removal of 3 screws and takes less
than a minute..

A clean grinder always works better than a dirty one,

some grinders are so difficult to clean that the
manufacturer recommends it's done by a trained
service professional. I personally think the average
home user will want a grinder that's easy to open up
and clean on a 1-3 monthly basis. With the 75E you
would be happy to open it up as often as you want.

Finish and Packaging

The grinders come in a Sturdy cardboard box and
the main packaging is shaped expanded
polystyrene. The construction of the grinder and
packaging don't make it likely that it will get
damaged in transit The matt black exterior finish
looked good and the grinder is finished well for a
commercial unit.

Quality control
No real issues on the grinder I had for test, mine
didn't have a manual or grounds catcher tray, but
this was because the doserless version is a new
product and this unit was quickly sent for test.
This photo also shows the Mythos TiN 75mm burrs I
fitted, again a very simple job, 6 screws and a few
minutes. Of course with the TiN burr set and
domestic use, it is unlikely you will need to ever
change the burrs, but it can be useful to remove
them for deep cleaning, if required.

Size

The Olympus 75E is grinder occupies the same

footprint as it's smaller brother the Zenith 65E, but is
2 cm taller and more muscular in the body. It's a
grinder that definitely makes a statement, but is
absorbed reasonably well into the average kitchen.
Sure it's not as small as say a Mazzer Mini E, but
the grind quality is a LOT better, so much better that,
if you can fit it in your kitchen, then you should. If
you were considering the very popular Zenith 65E,
then don't overlook spending a little more and
getting this instead. It's only a few cm taller .
© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275 e-mail: claudettep@towability.com

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Grind quality is excellent with little clumping, any

Areas for improvement
There are 2 areas where I think Zenith could usefully
make improvements.
1. The big mechanical relay makes a loud clunk and
I just think it would have been more..."stylish", to use
a noisless solid state relay.
2. Most doserless grinders rely on computerised
electronics for their operation and this is exclusively
true of all large burr doserless grinders. I simply do
not understand why there is not a 3rd position on the
main power switch, giving complete manual
operation via the grind button, with all the
computerised electronics being bypassed
completely. For a commercial setting this would
absolutely always make sense, as a failure of the
computerised electronics would still leave the
grinder operational.
small clumps simply fell apart. I understand Eureka
are now fitting a "clump crusher" in the chute as
standard. They are doing this to improve dose
consistence and reduce clumping. In my opinion the
crusher is not necessary and I have checked...you
can remove it if you decide to.
It's slightly larger than a 65E, but well worth
it if you can stretch to the extra money
required. It's one of best value for money
and easiest to live with large flat burr,
doserless commercial grinders on the
market.
Note: I have not given full technical information in
this review as this is all available from Eurekas own
web site (link below).

I make this comment in all grinder reviews, in the http://www.eureka.co.it/prodotto/olympus-75-

hope a manufacturer will read it and decide to eng/?lang=en
add the 3 position on off switch and 3 bits of
extra wire required!

Conclusion
This is a good grinder and with the TiN Mythos burr
set, it becomes an excellent grinder. As I said
earlier, I advised Bella Barista to get a deal with
Eureka, so that this grinder comes as a special with
the TiN Mythos burrs already fitted at a special price.
I did this because the grinder really deserves these
burrs and it moves it into a different league. I
strongly advise you to buy the grinder with these
burrs. I don't believe Bella Barista will actually
stock the 75E with the standard burr set....well I
hope they won't.

Note: As the TiN burrs are at least 3 times harder,

it's going to take around 15-20kg of coffee to run
them in properly and start getting the best from
them. This is in contrast to the usual 3-5kg for
standard burrs.

© Bella Barista
Bella Barista, Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1LD
Tel: 01933 273275 e-mail: claudettep@towability.com

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