Is the Ditting KR1203 the right retail coffee grinder for your business? This review is going to help you assess based on your business and professional requirements.
Here are the details we'll be covering...
- What the key features of the KR1203 are and how they support your business.
- Background information on Ditting as a long-established brand.
- How similar retail grinder models compare to the KR1203.
- What types of operations this grinder is a match for.
Let's get started...
Quick Summary
Ditting KR1203
With massive grinding discs and exceptionally fast grinding, the Ditting KR1203 is a heavy-duty commercial coffee grinder for large coffee shops with medium-volume traffic. It's ideal for continuous grinding for both retail bags and large-batch brewing.
Key Features And What They Mean
Huge Flat Burrs
This grinder means business. With 120 mm grinding discs, it can power through a grand total of 25,000 pounds of coffee before the discs ever need replacement.
Comparing the Ditting KR1203 to other grinders that have a quarter of that capacity, it's easy to see why Ditting has made a name for itself with its long-lasting equipment.
The flat burr shape has its own advantages.
While conical burrs are famous for creating bimodal coffee particles to enhance the brighter notes, flat burrs meld the flavors of the coffee together while bringing out the bassy qualities.
If you feature coffees with chocolaty and nutty notes, a flat burr grinder like the Ditting KR1203 is an excellent choice.
Ditting Grinding Disc Design
Part of the advantage of large burrs is cooler grinding since the discs need to make fewer rotations, limiting friction and heat generation.
But Ditting goes further in guaranteeing the coolest possible grinding with innovative grinding discs.
The burrs are specially sharpened to keep from creating heat that can damage the bean quality. No need for complex features with this smart technology.
Lightning Quick Grinding Capacity with Specialized Motor
The more customer traffic your cafe gets, the more important it is to have a faster grinder that can keep up with demand.
With a 1.8 kW motor designed for a large grinding capacity at coarse to fine settings, the KR1203 needs very little cool-down time. The result is the ability to grind continuously without overheating.
This model will grind three pounds of coffee in one minute flat and up to 60 pounds of coffee in a single day. If you're using it for one-pound retail bags, they'll be ground in the blink of an eye.
Large batch grinding and faster customer service are two key benefits that the KR1203 offers your business.
Stepless Grind Adjustment
From real Turkish coffee to coarse French press grinding, you have access to any fineness setting you need with the KR1203's stepless grind adjustment.
You aren't limited to a factory-set number of notches. As a result, you can find precise grind settings for drip coffee, pour-overs, cold brew, and everything in between.
Your customers also have access to this high level of precision, something that Ditting is famous for.
They'll benefit not only from your expertise when they bring you a retail bag to grind for their home setups, but also from your ability to tailor grinding to their brewing methods' exact specifications.
Large Hopper
To accommodate a larger output capacity, the KR1203 comes with a generously sized hopper that can hold 2.4 pounds of beans.
This is perfect for large-batch brewing. But if you need more room, you can opt for the upgrade to the five-pound hopper.
Vibration Plate
As a retail grinder, the KR1203 has all the standard elements to make grinding retail bags easy.
When you start the grinder, the vibration plate will begin shaking. This settles the coffee in the bag so that you don't have to do it manually.
Ditting strives to make all of its grinders as user-friendly as possible. The automated features help your business flow as efficiently as possible.
Optional Cold Brew Gear
Are you looking to add cold brew coffee to your menu?
You can select an optional cold brew gear with your purchase of the Ditting KR1203.
Extending the grinder's range from 100 to 1,200 microns, this gear will allow you to perform coarser grinding for standard cold brew coffee.
Note: This upgrade is only available for the Black KR1203 (not the Stainless Steel version).
Comparable Alternatives
Though its different in overall design, the Mahlkonig EK43 is perhaps the closest model to the Ditting KR1203 in terms of functionality.
Like the Ditting, the Mahlkonig comes with the following:
- Turkish and espresso grinding
- Bag clamp
- Hopper magnet
With a similar output capacity to the Ditting's, the Mahlkonig produces 2.8 to 3.4 pounds of ground coffee per minute. I's fast, just like the Ditting.
The Mahlkonig comes with a 2.2 pound hopper (and optional 6.6 pound hopper) and can grind an assortment of goods with specialized blades, from grains to spices. Like the Ditting, this is a powerful grinder that can handle continuous grinding with ease.
Though the Ditting has the unique advantage of blade durability that's quite unmatched in the industry, the Mahlkonig is an excellent runner-up for medium to large cafes.
For a fraction of the price of the Ditting, you can get the Mahlkonig GH-2, as well. It has a few features in common with the Ditting, like the following:
- Large and flat burrs.
- Stepless grind adjustment.
- Bag holder.
With the lower cost comes a lower grinding speed, however. Rather than producing anywhere from 2-4 pounds of coffee grounds per minute, this Mahlkonig is able to grind a single pound per minute.
It does come with some benefits that make up for the slower grinding speed, though. It has a significantly larger 4.4-pound hopper, for instance, which makes it possible for you to grind for extended periods of time.
The GH-2 also has innovative vertically mounted burrs. This helps reduce grind retention, ensuring as few grounds as possible are left behind in the grinder.
About the Brand
Ditting is a Swiss company that was founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1928. Originally, Ditting was in the automobile manufacturing industry. In 1954 the company made the transition to commercial grinders.
Your Ditting retail grinder will come with an ETL Sanitation Seal to satisfy NSF-8 requirements in the U.S.
If you've heard of Ditting, you've probably heard about the durability and longevity of its products. These grinders are built for heavy-duty use as well as remarkable precision.
Ideal Machine Applications
The Ditting KR1203 was created for large cafes with medium traffic. It could also support a smaller coffee shop in need of a grinder to keep up with a demanding pace.
It supports coffee bag and filter grinding, so it can be used for both retail bags and your shop's filter coffee brewing needs. The KR1203 can grind your drip coffee, cold brew, and other filter coffee menu offerings as needed.
Grinding 45 to 60 pounds of coffee per day, this model is incredibly powerful. It does well in coffee shops with large-batch brewing requirements.
What Customers Say
We're pleased to have Ditting join our commercial grinder family. As our Ditting models are brand new, we're patiently awaiting feedback.
However, we trust Ditting's excellent reputation. We're confident that our Ditting models will go beyond our customers' expectations.
Price
All budgets are different. Our coffee equipment is carefully assessed and priced to fit a wide range of budgets.
We offer the Ditting KR1203 in Black for $4,495 and Stainless Steel for $4,695.
For expert service and the best prices, check out the Ditting KR1203 and (Mahlkonig EK43) on Majesty Coffee...
