I am told the K3 was a grinder that had some shortcomings when it was first released to market some years ago

Several iterations of the K3 have been released since then, and this latest model has no such quality issues - it is a very nice grinder that i strongly recommend (for the price point - i.e. dont buy it thinking it does what a K10 does - it doesnt)

The most welcome feature is moving the electronic timer from under the grinder (daft) to the front face of the casing - great!

The shoulder on the front of the microswitch allows you to hook the front of your portafilter basket under it to hold the portafilter handle level, allowing unattended operation of the grinder whilst it is grinding

We paid the GBP85 premium for copper paint and this was something of a risk as in my experience the colour copper can mean anything from salmon pink to signal orange, depending on the product.  As you can see from the image, the colour is a decent representation of what you might expect when you order a copper coloured product, thank you Compak

That said, I think the copper paint is an expensive indulgence - the only reason we went for it is it is a demonstration grinder and i think it is nice to have the grinder in a colour that people may not ordinarily see.  i.e. 99.9% of these grinders are going to be black, polished, or perhaps chrome finished; seldom copper coloured

Under the hood improvements see the burr carriers upgraded from aluminium to brass

If you wanted to be sniffy you could take points off for the timer not delivering much more than 10-11g of coffee when set to an espresso grind.  The answer is to simply set the timer for a single dose, eg 9g, then hit the microswitch a second time to get the second lot of 9g delivered - a minor inconvenience

Can it convey all the subtle nuances into the cup that the titan class grinders can?  No, but then you get what you pay for of course - this is a 58mm flat burr turning at about 1400rpm on 240V/50Hz supply

If you are pondering your first decent burr grinder for the home, or even a small office, hairdressers, small restaurant, then you would not be disappointed with this grinder

While all grinders make noise, some have a resonance that is a good deal more irritating than others.  I can say that this K3 touch advanced has a pleasant smooth grinding noise, rather than the rock crushing tones that some grinders seem to eminate

We have the Compak K3 touch advanced available here