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Australian coffee accessories maker Madkat Coffee recently introduced a kit called the SkopeX, the company’s third generation of equipment designed to motorize hand grinders.
Preorders for the next production round of the SkopeX Motorizer Kit are available for AUD$309 (US$203 as of this writing) with shipments slated for July. The retail price of the new base motorizer will later rise to AUD$399 (US$262), with bayonet-style attachment collars made to fit specific manual grinders sold separately.
The SkopeX models feature a more streamlined appearance, a new spring-loaded residual grinds knocker and higher torque than previous versions. Designed for easy compatibility with a broad range of manual grinders, the SkopeX also introduces an adjustable RPM module.
The SkopeX is one of multiple motorization solutions recently introduced to the market, reflecting broader interest in manual grinders from home consumers and coffee professionals alike.
“Hand grinding is inherently low RPM and puts you in a better position for higher clarity brews than most electric grinders,” Madkat Founder Shauvik Gayen recently told Daily Coffee News. “However, the RPM at which people grind can vary between 60 RPM to as high as 180 RPM, so standardizing that variable would definitely help.”
Gayen had 15 years of experience as a mechanical and mechatronics engineer when he began developing grinder motorization solutions in 2019.
“All of this started with a [Comandante] C40 and a drill, or rather after the drill fell onto my wife’s foot one morning. That was the last day I used the drill-and-hand grinder combo,” Gayen told DCN. “The latest version of the SkopeX is all the things I’ve learned over the past few years about working with a motorized hand grinder every morning. It includes all the features I thought were needed to provide a truly versatile solution.”
While convenience may be the primary attraction to a motorizer, Gayen argues that the Skope kits are equally geared toward improving performance through steadier RPM and more consistent vertical orientation, particularly for conical burr grinders in the SkopeX stand.
“The theory is that a concentrically even load means a more even particle distribution,” said Gayen. “As the importance of RPM and orientation become more and more established, I think this will become a defining trend for home grinders to come.”
Gayen said that he is also currently developing a slow automatic bean-feeding device, which follows other emerging theories regarding grinder performance and particle uniformity.
Said Gayen, “A number of people have reached out about adding feeders to other grinders, so we’re exploring this concept, but probably only after we’ve got it up and running for the SkopeX.”
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here.
Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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