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One thing I'd like to know about the Palazzo is the size.  When I looked
at the pictures it looked to be considerably smaller than the 5K.  Is
that true?
 
Rick W writes:
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appealing
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It's not that simple, Rick.  The bean hopper for the 5K (I own two of
them) isn't removable and the inside is full of curves, dips and sticky
uppy things.  It takes me a good 10 minutes, maybe to remove the beans
from the hopper with a spoon.  Then you forfeit a couple of shots.  I
don't mind forfeiting the shots, but I do mind the time it takes.  Of
course, if we were rich, like Wandering John, we would just use our shop
vacs to suck out all the beans in the hopper.  Hey -- there's an idea.
Why not buy a $15 dustbuster and dedicate it to bean changes in the
Solis?  Suck out all the old beans into the clean dustbuster and put
them back into storage!
 
-- Rick
 

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Rick,
 
When I spoke with Baratza today, they said the Palazzo is a smaller
footprint than the 5K.  I'd asked about the amount of grinds in the
chute of the Palazzo and they said "it holds approximately 2 doses of
ground coffee in the chute between the burrs and the brewing mechanism".
I'd spoken offline with John Abbott about his 5K and seem to recall he'd
said his only held a couple of doses too.  That's why I'd made the
comment, but it sounds like your experience is different.  Maybe the
Solis should have come with a Dust buster eh?
 
Rick W.

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Rick W writes:
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said "it holds
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and the
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and seem
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your 
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No, exactly the same.  I was talking about the amount of coffee before
the burrs, which is up to about a pound.  So suppose you're drinking
some fine Columbian and you decide you'd like to switch to Peruvian.
First you shovel beans out of the bean hopper (10 mins), then you pull a
couple of shots of espresso (don't want to waste water), then you load
the bean hopper with Peruvian and pull your Cafe Crema.  Want to go back
to Columbian?  The same procedure.  It's not like a Mazzer Mini, for
instance, where you can just pull off the bean hopper and dump it.  The
bean hopper is permanently attached on the Solis 5K.
 
Actually, in rereading your orginal post I see where the confusion
entered.  You were saying that if the Solis 5K did have a bypass doser
you could simply forfeit a couple of shots.  I read it as though you
were saying it would be simple enough without a bypass doser.  Sorry.
 
Now I'm wondering where the bypass doser enters the system...  Right
after the grinder, or right before the pan?
 
-- Rick
 

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Good stuff Rick.I hadn't considered the amount of coffee that needed to
be cleared before it got to the grinder (when changing varieties).  My
wife needs decaf in the evenings, so I know that I'd be switching beans
at least once a day. The bypass doser should address that need.  Because
I roast 4-5 different types a week, I'm wondering if I'd have to limit
that practice around the Palazzo.  Each day, I'd be changing caffeinated
beans in addition to the decaf change in the evenings.  Hmmm.maybe I'd
better think through this a bit more and what it might entail based upon
your information.  
 
I don't know (didn't ask Baratza) at what point the bypass doser enters
the system.  
 
Rick W.