Mahlkonig Ek43 Vs Peak: Which is Better?

Do you want to provide the best-tasting coffee and espresso to your customers every time they visit your business?

Whether you’re a coffee shop, restaurant, or hotel, if you sell coffee or espresso drinks to customers, then you need to be able provide it freshly ground. That means you need a grinder that’s up to the task.

The Mahlkonig EK43 and the Mahlkonig Peak are two outstanding grinders which will shine in a commercial setting.

That leaves the question: Which grinder is perfect for your business?

In this guide, we’ll review both these grinders in detail so you can choose the one that’s perfect for your specific needs.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Similar features the EK43 and the Peak share
• Differences between these grinders
• How to choose the grinder that will best support your business requirements

Let’s get started.

SIMILAR FEATURES

FLAT BURRS

Flat burrs are particularly popular in commercial settings.

The reason behind this is that they’re excellent for ensuring uniform particle sizes in coffee grounds, which grants a balanced extraction when it’s brewed.

Another reason why they’re so popular is that with flat burrs, deeper chocolatey flavors are brought out of the coffee.

The alternative burr type, conical burrs, tend to highlight bright and fruity flavors in coffee.

If you or your customers have a sweet tooth or you just like deeper flavors, the flat burrs used in the EK43 and Peak make them enticing choices.

CAST STEEL BURRS

No one likes having to constantly replace parts in any machine they invest in.

This is why the extremely durable cast steel burrs in the EK43 and Peak are so desirable. These burrs are long-lived and can take a beating – they’re not likely to be damaged from heavy use.

In addition, cast steel burrs are resistant to corrosion, so they’ll stay in tip-top shape for a long time even if they go for extended periods without use.

STEPLESS GRIND ADJUSTMENT

Do your customers enjoy many different kinds of coffee or espresso flavor profiles?

Then you grinder will be able to better accommodate this range of tastes when it has more fineness settings to choose from.

These grinders use a stepless grind adjustment mechanism, which allows users to access a virtually unlimited array of fineness settings rather than having to use specific notched settings like in a stepped grinder.

With the EK43, you’ll choose any setting between fine and course by twisting a dial. This dial includes numbers, so if you find yourself using a particular setting frequently, it will be easy to remember.

In the Peak, fineness is adjusted by rotating a collar located at the top of the grinder. Turning it to the left or right will change it from fine to coarse.

DIFFERENT FEATURES

COFFEE AND ESPRESSO APPLICATIONS

By far the biggest difference between the EK43 and the Peak is what each grinder was made to grind.

For example, if part of your business is grinding coffee into retail bags for customers, your grinder will need to be adept at grinding all kinds of coffee.

The EK43 is outstanding for just this purpose. It has an espresso setting, but it doesn’t specialize in grinding espresso only.

Coffee shops, restaurants, or other businesses with a large volume of espresso sales will prefer a grinder that’s exceptional when it comes to espresso.

That’s where the Peak comes in. It was designed with espresso in mind, and comes with the range of fineness settings you’ll need to grind perfect doses of espresso.

BURR SIZE

Burr size can be just as important as type when it comes to grinding, because larger burrs are faster.

The larger a burr’s diameter, the less it needs to rotate to grind more coffee. An extra benefit to bigger burrs is that fewer rotations means they don’t generate as much heat from friction, keeping coffee beans from unpleasant-tasting burns.

At 98 mm, the burrs in the EK43 are humongous. This makes grinding huge amounts of coffee quickly a simple matter for the EK43.

The Peak also has big burrs, measuring 80 mm in diameter. Since they’re smaller than the EK43’s, the Peak is a bit slower, but still sufficient to meet the demands of a busy coffee shop.

GRINDING CAPACITY

The Peak has a low RPM that ranges from 900 to 1,100. This might sound like a bad thing initially but it isn’t – it means heat generation is cut down and beans are protected from burning.

With its low RPM, it’s pretty fast and grind up to three grams of espresso a second. That means you can have enough espresso for one shot ground in three seconds.

The EK43 is superior when it comes to speed. It has an RPM that ranges from 1,450 to 1,760 and can grind up to 25 grams per second.

With that kind of speed, your customers won’t have to wait more than 20 seconds for you to fill a one-pound bag of coffee.

Newest Mahlkonig Grinder: Mahlkonig X54

HOPPER CAPACITY

When there’s a line of customers forming, it’s important to be able to serve each one as quickly as possible to keep them happy.

This can be a little more difficult to do when you constantly have to stop to refill the beans in your grinder’s hopper.

The solution is a larger hopper capacity – which both the EK43 and the Peak come equipped with.

Able to hold up to 3.3 pounds of coffee, the Peak’s hopper is huge. With a hopper that size, you won’t be interrupted often in the middle of a rush by the need to refill it.

On the EK43, the hopper is a little bit smaller and is able to hold up to 2.2 pounds. This is still a substantial size, and allows you to grind batches of coffee into retail bags rapidly.

MAHLKONIG PEAK PROGRAMMABLE DOSING

During busy times, customers aren’t happy when baristas delay orders by fussing with settings on machines.

Programmable dosing on the Peak makes messing with dosing settings unnecessary, as single or double doses can be programmed in advance.

This means during a rush, your baristas can get the amount of grounds they need just by choosing from one of the programmed settings.

MAHLKONIG PEAK DOUBLE VENTILATION SYSTEM

In businesses with a high volume of espresso orders, your espresso grinder is integral and needs to be up to the task of grinding continuously.

The problem with nonstop grinding is the potential for heat generation. If it gets too hot and the beans are burnt, your customers will be dissatisfied by the bitter drinks as a result.

This calls for a heavy-duty cooling system, like the Peak’s dual ventilation system.

The Peak uses an extra fan that can operate unceasingly rather than turning on or off along with the motor, which keeps the grinder and your beans cool.

On top of that, the Peak’s OLED display aids in grinding by telling users at a glance what the temperature is in the grinder, granting more control over temperature.

MAHLKONIG PEAK ADJUSTABLE SPOUT AND LIT SPOUT AREA

One of the factors that contributes to an enticing espresso is minimal oxidation.

This is why it’s often preferable to grind directly into a portafilter rather than grinding into containers that are later used to fill the portafilter.

So if you use portafilters of different sizes, you’ll want an espresso grinder that can accommodate each of them.

The Peak’s adjustable spout is the answer to this problem. Users can easily reposition the spout so that it grinds right into the center of any portafilter, ensuring a more even distribution of grounds and minimizing oxidation.

Additionally, the Peak makes watching the grounds for quality painless. Baristas won’t need to hunch over to inspect the grounds coming out because the spout is illuminated with built-in lights.

That means that if there are any issues with the quality of the grounds, the baristas will be able to see and address them right away.

MAHLKONIG EK43 BAG CLAMP

Holding up retail bags to grind into can soon become a hindrance when you have a lot of customers buying bags of ground coffee.

The EK43 eliminates this issue entirely with a bag clamp. The bag clamp will hold the bag for you throughout grinding, so you can handle other duties rather than stand in front of your grinder and hold a bag open.

The bag clamp also comes with a knock-off device that cuts down on waste by shaking out any leftover coffee grounds.

MAHLKONIG EK43 VERTICALLY MOUNTED BURRS

Wouldn’t it be great if your customers never got a stale cup of coffee from you again?

With the EK43’s unique vertically mounted burrs, this becomes possible.

Typically, in flat burr grinders, you see horizontally mounted burrs. But the upward path created by the EK43’s vertical burrs means there’s incredibly low grind retention.

Grind retention is when grounds are left behind naturally in the burr chamber after grinding. Some grinders are purposefully built to retain grounds because it can lower any static affecting them.

But the issue with grind retention is that the grounds resting in the burr chamber become stale quickly, and can get mixed in with fresh grounds when the grinder is used at a later time.

Another disadvantage to this is that retained grounds may be a different fineness from your later batches if you changed the fineness settings in between grinding. Obviously, if you’re grinding retail bags for customers, tweaking fineness settings will occur often.

Not only will the EK43’s low grind retention promote freshness and uniform texture, but it also reduces waste as you won’t need to purge the grinder as much in between uses.

MAHLKONIG EK43 MULTIFUNCTIONAL GRINDING

In some commercial settings, it’s possible you may need to grind more than just coffee.

Businesses that need to freshly grind grains or spices will be able to use the EK43 to do just that.

This kind of flexibility can save you from having to make additional expenditures to purchase grinders for different purposes.

PRICING INFORMATION

At Majesty Coffee, we make it our goal to offer our customers the best prices online.

We offer the Mahlkonig Peak in Black or White for $2,375. The EK43 is available in our store in Black, White, or Red for $2,700. For all color options of the EK43, you’ll also be able to choose the standard size or short hopper.

WHICH GRINDER IS PERFECT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

Although these are both superb grinders, it’s true that they’re built for different purposes.

Because of this, most likely the main factor in your decision will be how you plan to use your grinder.

Are you a coffee shop or restaurant with a high volume of espresso orders? Then you’ll want a grinder like the Mahlkonig Peak, which has all the fineness settings you’ll need for espresso.

Do you need a flexible grinder that grind more than just coffee? Or do you frequently sell retail bags of ground coffee to customers? In those cases, the Mahlkonig EK43 will be perfect.

Consider carefully what you need your grinder to do before your purchase, and you’ll end up with the one that’s perfect for your business.

For more information on the Mahlkonig EK43 and the Mahlkonig Peak, as well as the best deals online, look at our store here:

EK43: https://majestycoffee.com/products/mahlkonig-ek43-filter-grinder

Peak: https://majestycoffee.com/products/mahlkonig-peak-espresso-grinder