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Eureka Atom 75 - In Depth Review

*Commissioned Review*

A few years ago, I upgraded to my first big boy grinder, the Rocket Fausto. If you’ve never heard of the Fausto, it is made for Rocket Espresso by Eureka. If you enjoy home espresso, I TOTALLY encourage you to start investigating a grinder upgrade if you are still using some of the fan favorite and very popular beginner grinders. I can’t and won’t put them down as they do perform very well, and the majority of people aren’t going to take a large plunge into a $1000+ grinder on day one. I was in awe when I upgraded to the Fausto. The Fausto has very similar internals to the ever popular Eureka Atom 65. Whats not to like? A great looking grinder made by a company known for making top quality grinders! All of Eurekas grinders are hand assembled in Florence Italy.

As many of us do, over time we get the urge to upgrade and stretch the limits of making good even better. For me, that happened because I was able to try out so many amazing grinders! First the Compak F8, then Compak K10, followed by the Ceado E37S (many more but those were my fave). I mean… its hard to beat any of those grinders. Right? To me, the difference between the afore mentioned and my Fausto, was similar to when I went from a Baratza to the Fausto. It was a very noticeable jump in grind quality that could be tasted in the cup!

I knew I wanted to upgrade to larger burrs, but didn’t necessarily want an overly commercial sized grinder, it was just going to be for home use. I had been eyeballing the Atom 75 since the day it came out but had never used one before. Obviously I have had a great experience with the Fausto, so I figured I had very little to lose. I reached out to Joe Klob with Espresso Outlet and said “Joe I think its time for me to try the Atom 75” He said “Ok one will be in the mail!”

When I opened my door, the bright red box surprised me! (I had an Eureka Mignon sent as well at the same time, make sure to check out my review here).

Unboxing is nothing special, the hopper and instruction manual was on top, and the grinder was packed neatly below.

Assembly is a snap, no tools required. Pop the hopper on and plug it in!

Eureka has a rocker on/off switch on the bottom right side of the grinder. It blends in and I don't really notice it very much. It was a bit disappointing because the Fausto had an illuminated push button switch which I always thought looked really sharp.

First impressions: The hopper shape looks amazing on this grinder. The grinder overall was a tad shorter than my Fausto, but definitely had a lot more bulk. Still, the Atom 75 took up about the same amount of room on my counter top, and will easily fit under a standard cabinet. The hopper itself is quite small, it would easily hold a few days worth of beans if you so choose to fill it up that much, but they obviously knew the majority of home users using this grinder would throw a few in, pull a few shots, and add more the next day. The screen is a color display, upon startup it shows the Eureka logo and eventually lands on the main screen showing various information. Under the display is the chute for the grounds to come out of, and a very nice feature is a small LED bulb pointing into your portafilter while grinding. Under that is the portafilter fork. While its nicer than the fork on the Mignon, I really wish Eureka would design a much more elegant portafilter fork. At the bottom we have no tray for loose gorunds. There is a ledge built into the grinder but that’s about it. I don't think I will miss not having a tray but I am very used to having one on other grinders.

I never really know what to think when trying out a new grinder or espresso machine. Sometimes I am wowed, and other times it can be underwhelming. Just never know until you give it a go. For me a few aesthetic features of the Atom grinder never wowed me, but once I ground my first dose I knew I loved this thing.

For now I am going to focus on the grinder itself and follow up with shot quality.

As I mentioned above, the hopper looks great on this, I prefer this newer style opposed to the more squared off hopper I have seen on some older models. It was reminiscent to the Faustos hopper and lid. The main difference I noticed is the lid itself was a polished plastic instead of a flat black plastic. So far the shiny plastic shows little pieces of dust, and might scratch over time. I really wish they would have left it as the flat black. The hopper I really like!

One thing I hadn’t thought of was the steep hopper angle. Inside they have ribbing to strengthen the hopper and sometimes a bean or two will cling to the side before falling down the chute. Really not a big deal but it happens. I noticed some beans clinging to the side, but the gentle vibration of the grinder seems to shake them down without issue.

Eurekas bean shut off flaps have always been kind of cheap feeling. This one is no different. They do their job, but sometimes wish if they were going to make such a nice piece of equipment that they would look at every aspect of the grinder.

The adjustment knob functions identical to the Faustos adjustment knob. It is the same for the Atom 65 and the Mignon grinders as well. Slightly different look to each one, but they all function the same. What is so great about Eureka is instead of moving the top burr, the adjustment knob moves the motor itself up and down. If you were ever to remove the cover and clean your burrs (you should be doing this every once in a while), when you reinstall the top, you will retain the setting you had before with very little adjustment needed. So no excuse not to clean your burrs at least once a month! FYI, I did remove the burrs for photos and after reinstalling my zero was no different to me. The potential downside to some, I know people are used to having a set number on their stepped grinder and they worry about what number their dial is set to. I really do not focus too much on the setting and just focus on adjusting the grinder to perform for the beans I am using. A lot of folks love those definite settings that they are used to on their old stepped grinders. My recommendation is to worry less about the number and worry more about dialing it In as the steeples mechanism is designed perfect for that.

The color display is very cool. Eureka puts a ton of thought into the usability of their grinders, especially with their electronics. I swear with some of these other brands its like the Konami code up, up, down down, left, right, left, right, B, A… just to get into a menu to adjust the grind time. (If you don't get the reference, you probably aren’t a 90s kid). Jokes aside making minor adjustment like adding 1/10th of a second to your grinder timer can require a lot of clicking and holding buttons followed by more clicking. With the Eureka grinders I have used, it just works with very little effort.

The display itself looks very good. I noticed when viewing from certain angles it can look a bit dark. Not sure its really a big deal because you will be standing right in front of the grinder while you are using. The main screen has everything you need all on one display, and the 5 buttons allow you to easily adjust times, and select doses with ease. Everything is intuitive and fairly ergonomic.

The portafilter fork from first glance didn’t really impress me. It looked like rough stamped sheet metal and a bit unrefined. I really prefer these fancy cast/machined portafilter holders like you see on the Compak, or Mahlkonig grinders. This “Fork” can easily hold the portafilter hands free if it is adjusted properly, but I didn't feel like I could do so as easily as some of the portafilter holders out there on other brands. Once I started using the grinder, even though the design didn’t impress me at first, it guides the portafilter to the trigger button and holds it in place no problem, even with bottomless portafilters. The grinder grinds so quickly that there really isn’t much of a need to leave your portafilter in the grinder. Notice right above the fork is a button. The portafilter will hit this button to trigger the dose.

The chute tucks nicely behind the display and takes up no additional room. You almost can’t tell where the chute is at. Under the chute there is a small LED pointing down into your portafilter. I didn’t know how much I would like this feature until I was able to experience it for myself. The light allows you to guide your portafilter to fill more evenly if need be. I did not really have any issues as it fills my portafilter nice and fluffy, but none the less I like the light!

At the bottom of the grinder, there is no loose grounds tray. I have been noticing that less and less grinders are providing a tray that sticks out front of the grinder. I am glad because they do take up a ton of counter space! The Atom 75 has a small ledge under the forks to catch some of the loose grounds. The grinder itself is relatively clean and the majority of the mess is probably your own fault if you were to dump a lot of grounds. It might be nice if they had designed some sort of a built in removable tray, but anymore I just use a small paint brush to sweep up any mess at the end of the day. Below is a much larger mess than usual (over filled my portafilter), but you can tell how there is no grounds tray, so any mess you make, is going to be a bit of a mess. For the most part the mess is fairly minimal.

Hidden under the grinder, there are standard rubber feet, but something I am not used to seeing or having is suction cups. The motor is so powerful and has enough torque that without them the grinder might move around on your counter a little bit. So Eureka put some suction cups on the base to keep it firmly planted. I am not against having them, but found when I tried to scoot my grinder a little bit, they wanted to hold the grinder in place! Similarly when you to move your grinder to clean under it, if any grounds get under the suction cups they don't want to seal. So make sure to wipe them off if need be.

The burrs are 75mm flat burrs. Eureka also makes the Mythos grinder which has been known for its ability to make amazing espresso. The Atom 75 coincidentally uses the same burr diameter as the Mythos. If you so choose, you can upgrade to Mythos burrs as they are compatible with this grinder! My grinder came with the stock hardened tool steel burrs with Eurekas "Diamond Inside Burrs" technology. They used a patented process for thermal cryogenic treatment of the burrs where they treat the burrs at -193 degrees Celsius. Eureka claims the burrs (65mm in their test) were able to be used from 1300-1600KG or about 3000 pounds. That is a lifetime of beans for most home users.

Time to use this thing, throwing beans into the hopper and grabbing my scale, I couldn’t wait to start dialing this thing in. 18g out of the Fausto takes about 6-7 seconds, so I set this grinder on 5 seconds and figured if it was a bit too much I could just brush it off to get my grind size dialed in first. Whoops…. These 75mm burrs grind quick! It can grind 18g within approximately 3 seconds! A few people mentioned this as almost a con as that is quite fast, but hey, so many of the other high end grinders grind in about the same amount of time. That large motor makes quick work of the large burrs. A potential downside of grinding the beans so quickly is that dialing in your dose time can be a bit more daunting as it is able to grind 4.5-5.5 grams per second!

Atom 75 Grinding from Barrett on Vimeo.

I got it dialed in close enough within about 4 shots. I must say the Atom 75 was one of the easier grinders I have ever dialed in. By my 6th shot, the espresso was quite unbelievable! I honestly didn’t know if the Atom was going to be all it was hyped up to be, and I am a skeptic until its proven.

Time for people to freak out a little. I still don't fully understand why, but retention is a big deal. Yeah I get it, but grinders retain grounds and will get build up if not properly cleaned. I used the Atom 75 for 2-4 shots per day for over a week. Decided it was time to measure how much build up and how much retention it could produce as a worst case. The next two pics are pretty indicative of a fairly dirty grinder with a fair amount of build up.

Everything was swept completely clean, including the clump buster and the burr chambers neck. The burrs were completely cleaned and collected.

The worst case after about 2 pounds of beans, I collected 3 grams. While quite a bit, at least 1 gram was some residual build up. My estimated for transfer and retention is less than 2 grams.

The most important part, if you are investing in a grinder, you want it to look great, but even more important it needs to perform great! I am loving how the Atom 75 performs! The shot quality is amazing. Comparing to the Fausto or other grinders in the 65mm range, I was tasting a noticeable sweetness that is difficult to get out of the smaller burrs. It didn't matter if I was pulling a ristetto, average espresso, or long shot, the initial shots were some of the best shots I had tasted in quite a while. We want to balance acidity, bitterness and sweetness to find the perfect espresso shot. Obviously different beans and techniques all yield different extractions, but trying a handful of different beans from a very light roast all the way to a city+ roast, I was getting balance like never before.

Ran this light roast a bit long and it was absolutely amazing.

I don't do many lattes, just not my thing, but even milk drinks really pop with this grinder. Combining a balanced shot with the sweetness of steamed milk was quite good!

While there are a handful of things I would probably change on the Eureka Atom 75, I am choosing it for my latest home grinder. The footprint on your countertop packs a huge grinder into a manageable sized package. Out of all the grinders I have ever used it is probably tied with the Ceado E37S for being a very quiet grinder. I had a friend over for a shot and he said wow this thing is so quiet! I am fairly certain I could brew shots without waking up the family on the weekend. 75mm burrs I feel are a great size. They are quite large but not the enormous shop grinder burrs that can retain a lot of grounds and be a bit excessive for home use. I can tell a huge difference between 65mm and 75mm burrs, but I can tell very little difference between the 75mm and 83mm burrs, if anything I prefer the slightly smaller burrs. I think this is a perfect size for achieving a top quality shot, especially in a home setting.

Available in black, white, and polished chrome! I picked mine up from Espresso Outlet!

Technical specs:

Hight = 17 inch (with short hopper)
Width = 8 inch
Depth = 8 inch
900W single phase, 1400 RPM motor
Short hopper capacity = 300 grams

Who is this grinder for:

Serious home espresso aficionado who wants simplicity, doesn't want an over sized grinder without sacrificing quality. Powerful but somewhat unassuming for home use. Cafe quality shots!
Next level grinder from many popular grinders in the 60mm burr range. 60mm tends to be in a popular intermediate size. 75mm seems to be the small end of the large burrs which really add a next level to your espresso shot.

Pros:

Its a big upgrade to my Fausto (Atom 65), the large motor and flat 75mm burrs make a noticeable difference in shot quality.
The patented adjustment mechanism is fantastic. Eureka grinders utilize a mechanism to adjust the bottom of the motor which allows you to clean burrs without losing zero. The stepless adjustment is fantastic for espresso.
The Atom lineup is extremely quiet. Eureka claims the Atom 75 has a noise reduction of 20dB compared to conventional grinders.
It grinds an 18g shot within 3-4 seconds depending upon the setting and bean roast profile.
The footprint of this powerful grinder is so small. It is shorter than my espresso machine easily fitting under a cabinet. The footprint of the base is also about the same size as the Fausto. Come to find out the Atom 75 is the same case as the Atom 65. It is a big grinder in a small package!
An issue I have had with other grinders is excessive static. Eurekas "ACE System" (Anti Clumps & Electrostaticity) does an amazing job of breaking up clumps, the grounds have little to no static after grinding. This helps keep retention low and keeps the grinder quite clean.
Hopper is designed for a home user. They sell much larger (1.4KG) hopper, but the model I use (300g) is fantastic for home use.
A lot of thought put into the grinder. No complicated menus to sift through, the buttons are easy to figure out. Setting adjustments are intuitive using single/double shot buttons as well as +/- buttons.
Same size of burrs as the famous Mythos burrs. If you choose, the Mythos burrs are compatible with this grinder and regularly listed as an upgrade option during purchase.
The chute has a "spotlight" that is just bright enough to light up your portafilter. It is not necessary, but I have found it to be a very nice feature to have.
Dose button is triggered by the portafilter making one hand operation quick and easy.
NSF certified for commercial use
Eureka offers their "Blow Up System" which is a bellows lid. The lid is much more attractive and utilitarian than many of the accordion style bellows without a hopper that are popular on the after market.
Eurekas "High Speed Maintenance" allows you to perform regular maintenance such as cleaning out the burr chamber within just a few minutes.
Even though this is designed for espresso, its burrs and the adjustment range will allow you to grind as fine as Turkish, or as course as French press.

Cons:

I don't prefer the portafilter holder. For such a nice grinder I think they could provide something much better.
While the grinder is quite clean to use, I wish it was a bit cleaner. It might be nice to have a grounds tray like on the Ceado. Minimalistic but can catch some of the extra mess and be removable.
The screens viewing angle could be better. The screen itself is fairly vertical. The screen is best viewed straight on. I wish the screen was a bit more clear, and tilted out a bit more. I really don't use the screen a lot though so not a major con for me.
The hopper cutoff flap is very indicative of other Eureka products. The cutoff works fine, but isn't very refined. For most using at home its not a big deal.
While the suction cup feet are nice to have, they can be a bit annoying at times. They packed a huge motor and huge burrs into a relatively small grinder. They did it for a reason, but just know it took me a second to get used to.
Its a bigger grinder, retention levels will be higher, but I really do not find to be unacceptable. After some heavy use, doing a thorough cleaning including build up equated to 3 grams. Transfer and retention I would imagine closer to 1.5 grams.

Time to crack this grinder open for a bit. Since I had 3 Eureka grinders, and all 3 were perfect specimens for this, I wanted to do a quick comparison between each grinder. What are you really getting for the extra money when upgrading?

Side by side, they all look fantastic. The size difference is obvious. From left to right, the Rocket Fausto (65mm burrs), Eureka Atom (75mm burrs), and Eureka Mignon Specialita (55mm burrs). All 3 have different displays. The Fausto has a blue backlight display with white numbers and icons. The Atom 75 has a color LCD style display. The Mignon has an all black touch display with white numbers and icons. Without the ground tray on the Fausto, all 3 take up almost the same space on your counter despite each being quite different.

The dust cover is removed with 3 small hex screws.

The display is removable, although you should probably not need to remove unless you plan to deep clean the ground chute. Two small hex screws allow the display to tilt out. Note during reassembly, the LED light needs to be slid into the round pocket at the bottom of the chute.

If you are going to remove the top burr, make sure to mark the orientation!

Pop the tops, the internals are designed very similar to each other. An outer body, with a motor and grind chamber. The adjustment dials are all similar in function but of varying designs. The motors are mounted on nice sound absorbing mounts. The lids and top burr carriers all come off in a similar fashion. Despite the outside looking quite different, the design of all 3 is similar, just scaled up or down.

You probably noticed above, but here is a better comparison of the top burrs from each grinder. From left to right, the Eureka Mignon with 55mm burrs. The center is the Rocket Fausto with 65mm burrs. On the right is the Atom 75 with 75mm burrs. While that might not seem like a big deal, the surface area between the Fausto and the Atom 75 is quite a large difference.

The chute on the Atom 60, 65, 75, and Mignon are all designed very close to the same. With the display removed, you can see the chute and clump buster. The black rubber piece has been pulled back to show the inside of the chute. Off to the right, you can see how the adjustment mechanism works.

A closeup of the clump buster. This piece of metal is fragile so be careful while cleaning. The clump buster will retain some grounds in the grinder, but I think the clump buster does an amazing job of breaking up and making a very fluffy coffee ground. Also note to the left is one of the large sound absorbing motor mounts.

You will love the Eureka Atom 75. Make sure to give Joe with Espresso Outlet a shout if you have any specific questions about this grinder.