Baratza Sette 30 Upgrades

I got a Baratza Sette 30 from my wife for Christmas. It’s replacing my old faithful Baratza Virtuoso+, with which I had been grinding for my Moccamaster Cup-One just fine. I used the Virtuoso+ for espresso, but I was looking for something that could be a little more dialed in than that.

The nicest thing about the Sette series is that most of the parts are interchangeable. I upgraded my new gift with the steel adjustment ring assembly from the Sette 270/270WI, which is a direct replacement, and gives the Sette 30 fully variable micro-adjustable grind capability, just like the 270/270WI models. I did have to add a shim to it, as for some reason, I had to go down to the finest setting to get a decent espresso grind. But, the Sette 30 shipped with two different thickness shims in the box, so I just swapped that in, and now for most beans, I’m between 5 and 7 clicks on the main adjustment ring, and then fine-tune from there with the micro-adjust ring.

I also updated the large hopper with a single-dose hopper with silicone bellows. I went with this model from Cafe Fabrique in Canada. The stock hopper worked just fine, but I like the smaller single-dose hopper a little better. The bellows are nice, but not that necessary, as the Sette series is a very low-retention grinder series by default. I think the bellows pumping may be more of a placebo than a necessary upgrade… ;)

I’ve even read that you can replace the Sette 30 controls and portafilter holder bits to upgrade to a full 270 or 270WI from the Sette 30, but I don’t know if I really need or want to go that far. It IS nice that Baratza sells pretty much any replacement part for the Sette series, though.

I’ve been able to nail down my espresso grinds very well with the new setup, so I’m quite happy with it so far. The only thing I haven’t tried yet was a coarse enough grind for the Moccmaster or standard pourover. For now, the Sette 30 is exclusive to my espresso shots. I highly recommend it for that use, in any case.

Cheers, all.