Eureka Atom 60 - In Depth Review

Atom 60 Review

* Commissioned Review*

You just can't go wrong with Eureka. My first nice grinder was the Rocket Fausto (review here) which is made by Eureka. It is essentially a cross between an Atom 65 and the Nuova G60 (review here), which are also made by Eureka. Last but not least, I was also able to use a Specialita (review here) which has slightly smaller burrs than the Atom 60.  If you can't tell, I really like Eureka grinders!

A quick overview, the Atom 60 has been around for quite a while, and has been a fan favorite for quite some time. They eventually came out with the Atom 65 to give the burrs a bit more surface area. The body and design is pretty tried and true and has not changed. It is not very large but definitely has some bulk. It feels expensive! Something many people don't know is that the Atom 60, 65, and 75 are all identical in size and use the same body. What is impressive to me is how they crammed the Atom 75 into the same case! But that isn't what this is about. (Atom 75 review)

The Atom 60 retails for for $899 USD, a steep price but lets see what you are getting. While I am at it the Atom 65 retails for $1099 and the Atom 75 retails for $1399. Depending on the finish, prices vary, but the 60 is definitely the most budget friendly.

I like to start with unboxing. Since this isn't my first Atom I kind of figured it would be old hat. To my surprise when I unboxed it, it had the grinder I am somewhat familiar with, but a few things were different. The hopper is more square shaped. I knew that from the photos. The portafilter fork comes detached and is magnetic similar to the Specialita I reviewed. The thing that surprised me the most is that this grinder comes with a detachable grounds bin. More on that later.

The hopper is different from the round hopper on my personal Atom 75. This was the more classic Atom hopper. I had never liked the looks of it online. I must say in person I am converted to liking it. As for which I like better? I really like both a lot!  The Atom 60 has a clear cover, and honestly it makes it very easy to see how many grounds are left in the hopper. Since I only throw a few beans in to last me 1 day, its easy to see where I am at if I decide to pull that third shot.

Hopper shut off flap

I have always liked the adjustment knobs on Eureka grinders, but they can take some getting used to.  If you are not familiar with how the eureka adjustment knob works, it is different than many grinders in that it adjusts the bottom burr rather than the top burr.  Why is this a good thing?  Well, when you remove the top burr for cleaning on some grinders, you will lose your zero.   With the Eureka, as long as you don't touch the knob, it will be almost identical grind setting as before you took the burr off.   Similarly, the adjustment is quite slow, so many grinders a small increment makes a huge impact.  With Eureka, you are able to make larger adjustments, meanwhile it is not moving the burrs very far.   The downside to this adjustment knob, is that the resolution of the numbers on it can be hard to track.  IE if you wanted to go from a pour over setting back to an espresso setting, it can be kind of difficult to track.

Eurekas Displays do look nice but a bit bland. I find them a bit understated and not very flashy the more I use. I like them a lot, and they are a color display but they choose to use a single color. The display can be a bit difficult to see from different angles. Once you get it dialed in, you won't even pay a lot of attention to the display. Mine have always functioned flawlessly. Having used a variety of grinder brands, I find most competitors electronics to be very difficult to use in comparison. You end up holding down all these buttons and clicking and going through menus just to change the grind time. Seems unnecessary on the simplest of adjustments.

With the Atom 60, and all Eureka grinders, you can simply select the dose of choice and click the +/- buttons to adjust the time.  Thats it!

While I am on the subject, you have two pre timed dose options. These two options can be set to different time settings. Years ago I learned a trick. Rarely do we program them for single and double shots, so what I do is program my single shot for a very short duration such as 0.5 seconds. This allows me to do 2 things. In the morning if I need a quick purge of beans, I can hit once or twice and dump. That gets rid of any of yesterdays retained beans. The other thing it gets me is sometimes when I am changing beans I might be close but not quite enough grounds. I can add 0.5 seconds of a dose and count how many times I did that and adjust the other dose time accordingly.

The bottom of the display also has a light that illuminates the portafilter. It is not necessarily needed, but to me its one of those things where you don't know you like it until you have it. I find myself somewhat annoyed with grinders that don't have lights now. I think its a premium feature that doesn't really add much cost to include from the producer.

The portafilter fork has Eureka written all over it, and that's not a good thing. I have come to accept the holder, but I have never loved them. Even on their most expensive grinders, they have very simple cheap forks. I find they do work quite well but I don't find them to be as solid as some other premium brands. To me, Eureka is one of my favorites, and this feature has always been somewhat of a let down to me. I mentioned earlier that the forks are removable for the grounds bin. The fork just clips into place with a magnet. It works quite well!

So how does it perform, and how does it stack up to other grinders, specifically other Eureka grinders. At first the Atom 60 seemed a bit rough in terms of grind quality. After running several pounds through the burrs, I began to enjoy the 60 quite a bit! It is much slower than many of the other larger burrs. Atom 75 takes about 4 seconds to grind 18g dose, the Atom 65 takes about 8 seconds. The Atom 60 took me a solid 10-12 seconds for most 18g doses.

The grounds are a tad clumpy, not too bad, and I would imagine will become slightly more fluffy the more the burrs are used. The grinds it produces are very similar to the Specialita.

I also found it to be messier than the Atom 75. It is not the worst, but definitely see some loose grounds after grinding a dose.

The taste in the cup was fantastic! Smaller flat burrs aren’t going to perform like large flat burrs, but I had no problems making a fantastic cup of espresso.

I wanted to show a quick comparison of burr sizes. Since I also have an Atom 75, I pulled the tops off of both grinders, and also lined up the burrs with one that is similar in size to the Atom 65.  I also had some pictures of some different grinders burrs from past reviews for comparison.  

Since I don't have all these grinders at the same time, I used a photo from an old review.  The Atom 60 burrs will be between the Specialita 55mm and the Atom 65mm as shown below.

I mentioned the grounds bin.  I did not realize this came with the Atom 60.  I did try a couple of pour overs and it did perform about as expected.   That said, if you are wanting to buy one grinder to do both drip and espresso, I really still do not recommend it.  It takes so long to dial in your espresso settings, and I really don't like going back and fourth with this style of grinder.  Can it do it? Sure!  I just thought it was awkward personally.

Technical specs:

• Hight = 17 inch (with short hopper)
• Width = 8 inch
• Depth = 8 inch
• 450W single phase, 1350 RPM motor
• Short hopper capacity = 300 grams

Who is this grinder for:

Home Espresso aficionado who wants to have an amazing Eureka grinder. I still consider this to be mostly an espresso grinder. Someone looking for a larger and more solid grinder than a Specialita or similar, but also still looking to save a few dollars.

Pros:

• A simple high end grinder, looks great, performs flawlessly for me.
• Easy to program and easy electronic interface
• The bottom burr is adjusted instead of the top, one of Eurekas flagship designs
• The dose is triggered by pressing the portafilter against a button.  Note: you can manually grind using the control screens buttons for the grounds bin
• Extremely quiet, probably one of the quietest line of grinders on the market.  The beans moving are louder than the grinder.
• Portafilter light to illuminate your portafilter as it fills with grounds
• Short enough to fit under a standard overhead cabinet

Cons:

• Its a bit expensive for 60mm burrs.
• Trying to adjust the burrs to go between espresso and drip just didn’t work well for me. In my opinion if you buy, this is a dedicated espresso grinder or I guess it could also just as easily be a dedicated drip grinder. You can do both, but it was difficult for me to go from one method to the other consistently.
• The burrs definitely seemed to perform better when the hopper was full. I had a similar issue with the Nuova G60. The smaller burrs wanted to popcorn when you are almost out of beans. I felt the performance of the Atom 60 was slightly better than the Nuova G60 despite having identical burrs.
• No ground catch tray. These are becoming a thing of the past as grinders become less messy. I don't consider the Atom 60 to be a particularly messy grinder, but messy enough that a tray might be beneficial. If you're like me, buy an inexpensive paint brush to sweep up at the end of each day.
• The portafilter fork could be designed a lot better.
• The hopper shutoff on all Eureka grinders are not great

My parting thoughts on the Atom 60. If you are in the market and find a great deal on one, I would say to go for it without hesitation. If you are wondering if you should get the Atom 65, I would say yes. It doesn’t seem like much, but the 65mm burrs to me provides quite a bit better quality shot. Maybe not noticeable to all. I would say the Specialita with 55mm burrs and the Atom 60 are quite similar in shot quality. The Specialita is much smaller, and that might appeal to some.  Regardless of what you choose, the Atom 60 can be found at Espresso Outlet.