Lelit doesn't just build espresso machines, but also grinders. The Steve is one such grinder with 64-mm flat burrs, bean hopper, time dosing, starting at 469 euros (as of September 2026). And it is explicitly an espresso grinder and not intended for filter coffee.
It is the further development of the old Lelit William, which we already had on the table in our first grinder set. That's precisely what makes this test interesting: Between the two grinders and tests, roughly five years have passed. Has Lelit caught up to the state of the art in that time, or does the Steve remain a William with a new display? As grinder number 99 in our test field, it has plenty of comparisons alongside it.
As always, we also bought the Lelit Steve ourselves to guarantee independent testing.
The short version in a few minutes. The detailed test video with all measurements can be found at the end of the article.
Build quality: distinctive appearance, portafilter holder from yesteryear
6.5 kilos, 14 cm wide, 23 cm deep, 39 cm tall. The Steve stands narrow and tall on the work surface and has its own language: "Distinctive" is probably the best characterization, and so the appeal lies in the eye of the beholder. In terms of appearance, it fits well in white or black color options with the color variants of the Lelit Elisabeth or a Mara. Lelit supplies it in brushed and polished stainless steel as well as in black, white and gold, always with a polished stainless steel band on the side.
The portafilter holder, however, is a throwback to old times. Michel, our vice head barista, speaks of a flashback to the era when we started testing grinders: Two side rods hold the portafilter, and we release the grinding by pressing. The height adjustment is easy to change, and every portafilter we have in the house fit into it. We tested, among others, ECM, Rocket, Ascaso, Lelit Mara, La Marzocco. Proven, I would say, pragmatic and still fit for purpose.
The bean hopper holds 350 grams and is screwed on. You can't remove it, and there's no slider to close off the shaft. If you want to change beans, you tip the grinder and pour out what's left, including fragments.
Display and dosing: the Lelit Steve doses by time
The new display is the most visible advance. A seven-digit LED readout, two programmable dosings, a continuous mode, plus a button to grind more or cancel. Programming is simple: press once, set the time with plus and minus, wait a moment, done. Which of the two dosings runs is determined by you at the portafilter switch with a single or double press.
The Steve doses by time, not by weight. So you tell the grinder six seconds and figure out yourself how much coffee comes out. It's not very precise. With unchanged grind, we measure 18.5, 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, and 19.0 grams. That gives a standard deviation of 0.27 grams, and above 0.2 grams it becomes bothersome for precise recipes. Michel recalls this from his early years as an instructor, when he gave all participants a scale, cup, and spoon to grind into the cup, weigh it, and remove the excess. That's exactly how we work with the Lelit Steve.
Because the Steve doses by time and varies, you should weigh after. We grind into the KM stainless steel measuring cup, which fits the 58mm portafilter, and place it on the Timemore Black Mirror Mini. What's too much, you remove with the spoon; what's missing, you grind quickly. Two steps, and the dose is right.
Volume and speed: the Lelit Steve grinds fast and sounds full
Here the Steve is strong. With a full bean hopper, 30.3 grams come out in 10 seconds; 18 grams take 6.1 seconds. That's brisk, and in daily use, speed brings joy, especially when you have to grind again after a grind setting change.
In terms of volume, we measure 81.8 decibels, measured 20 cm in front of the grinder. That's in the middle range of our scale. But noise is not just about volume but also about "quality": The Lelit Steve sounds pleasant, without shrill grinding, and instead produces a full grinding noise. Compared to the original model, we are six to seven decibels quieter. Some of this is probably also because we measured less precisely back then and had worse shielding.
Thermally, the grinder remains unremarkable. The beans go in at 22.2 °C, the first sample is at 26.1 °C, after five consecutive grinds with 20 seconds pause we're at 31.0 °C, averaging 28.8 °C. This slight warming has no negative effect on taste. You'd have to make many shots in a row to taste the consequences. So no worries.
Retention of the Lelit Steve: 5.5 grams and no single dosing
The retention is 5.5 grams absolute, of which 5.2 grams temporarily and 0.3 grams permanently. Very little remains in the grinding chamber itself, which reduces cleaning needs. That's nice, because for a deep clean you'll need a screwdriver. The 5.2 grams temporarily are what shape daily use: With an 18-gram shot, nearly a third of the coffee in the basket is one grind older. If you make the next espresso the next morning, you start with coffee from yesterday that's already oxidized because it's no longer a whole bean.
Compared to single-dosing grinders, these 5.2 grams are enormous. In the range of grinders with bean hoppers, it's a mid-range value.
The real step backward is elsewhere. The old William also had a lot of retention but could grind empty: put in a portion, everything came back out. That doesn't work with the Steve anymore. In the single-dosing test, 5.2 grams remain in the grinder, and even if you patiently grind it empty, you don't get below two to two-and-a-half grams. Single dosing is therefore not an option, not even as a workaround. On the positive side, what comes out is notable: the ground coffee is very fluffy even in the fine range, so Lelit has been working on that.
If you want to change grind or beans, you first have to grind out these five grams before the new setting is even visible. And because the bean hopper is screwed on, changing beans itself is already a chore.
Setting the grind: one click shifts the espresso by five seconds
Lelit has reworked the grind adjustment ratio; the steps have become smaller. But they remain stepped, and one step makes about five seconds difference in espresso extraction time. Previously it was five to ten. A quality step that makes adjusting better, but still makes precise grinder setting difficult. If you land on 30 seconds extraction time at 18 grams but want 27.5, you won't get there with the coarse grind adjustment. The next step would be around 25 seconds. Michel had shots where one click went from 27 to 18 or 19 seconds.
Already the adjustment itself is tedious. At grind setting 6, we measure 26 and 29 seconds with identical recipe, at grind setting 6.5 twice 22 seconds. So you're not just looking for the right step; on the same step you sometimes get different results.
Behind this is the play in the mechanics. The upper burr sits in a fine thread, adjustment runs through it via a gear. Fine thread on one side, play on the other, and in espresso, hundredths of a millimeter of burr distance decide the outcome.
We see this in numbers in the adjustment test. We start at grind setting 6 with our espresso recipe, go to grind setting 3 for the ristretto, to grind setting 7 for the lungo, and click back to 6. The x50 afterward is 267.5 instead of 222.0 micrometers, the fine peak drops from 39.4 to 34.7 percent, the main peak grows from 243 to 268 micrometers. And in the cup it shows the same way: The same recipe that previously took 25 seconds now runs through in 14 to 15 seconds after returning. We start wanting to fine-tune, but end up with a different coffee, not the one we wanted.
You can manage this if you're using one bean and refilling it repeatedly. If you regularly switch between coffee A, B, and C, you're getting into a tedious battle and likely don't have the right grinder for it. And adjusting the amount instead of the grind setting doesn't help either; it changes brew ratio, taste, and recipe along with it.
Particle distribution of the Lelit Steve: lots of body, versatile
We measure particle distribution together with the Coffee Excellence Center of ZHAW on a Retsch Camsizer X2. We measured at our espresso setting with 18 grams in, 45 grams out, and around 25 seconds.
The fine peak is pronounced. This gives you body and weight in the cup and a bit less clarity. The main peak stays at 243 micrometers well below the threshold where espressos start to seem scattered; the ground coffee is nicely homogeneous. Together, this gives you a distribution you can do a lot with. The Lelit Steve works for dark roasts, the mid-range spectrum, and also lighter coffees. The ultimate complexity of a very light specialty coffee, the Lelit Steve can't quite bring into the cup, but rather a great deal of espresso with good quality. For many home baristas, this particle distribution profile is a really good range.
For comparison, the other two points from the adjustment test: On ristretto, the x50 is at 155.3 micrometers with 44.5 percent fine peak; on lungo at 304.1 micrometers with 31.6 percent. So the grinder covers a wide range; it just doesn't hit it reliably again.
Espresso from the Lelit Steve: solid and with body
We tasted with our reference coffee, the Apas Espresso, a dry-processed coffee from Brazil from the APAS cooperative. Michel chose it because a grinder that looks like a grinder from our early days also deserves the coffee from our early days. In the meantime, the Apas is organic and much sweeter than back then: nutty, marzipan-like, sweet. What's interesting about it is that the female and male coffee farmers of the cooperative who switched to organic had already achieved higher specialty grades beforehand. This is also evident in the cup.
The espresso from the Steve was solid, with around 25 seconds extraction and plenty of body. Properly set and with retention ground out, you get a good result here. That's the good news from this test: The grinder can do espresso. The path to get there is the problem.
Cleaning the Lelit Steve: seven screws and plastic threads
For regular grinder cleaning, the grinding chamber needs to be opened so the fat particles that stick there come out. With the Steve, that's a procedure. First the beans have to be emptied because there's no closure. Then four screws for the cover, then three more for the gear. The screws tighten into plastic threads; one already stripped on us. Care is needed here! If you're tightening them again, do it very carefully.
Plus: In theory, the design is well solved because adjustment goes through the gear and unscrewing shouldn't change the grind. In practice, after the gear you're not in the grinding chamber yet but need to unscrew the upper burr from its fine thread. You can mark the position, but you won't know how deep it was in the thread afterward. If you clean regularly, you recalibrate regularly. A good grinder cleaner is enough for the Lelit Steve to solve the low permanent retention, though.
Conclusion: who the Lelit Steve is right for
The Lelit Steve is a fast, pleasantly running espresso grinder that delivers good espresso once it's properly set. It's precisely this setting where its weakness lies.
Strengths: It's very quick at 30.3 grams in 10 seconds and 18 grams in 6.1 seconds. At 81.8 decibels with pleasant grinding noise, it's clearly quieter than the previous model. Thermally it stays unproblematic; 26.1 °C on the first and 31.0 °C on the fifth sample. The particle distribution provides lots of body and is versatile from dark to mid roasts. And a bean hopper with time dosing is rare in this price range. The ground coffee falls fluffy into the basket.
Weaknesses: The stepped grind adjustment shifts extraction per click by about five seconds, plus results vary on the same step. Due to play in the gear and thread, the same recipe runs through in 14 to 15 instead of 25 seconds after returning to the original grind setting. 5.5 grams retention, of which 5.2 grams temporary, and single dosing doesn't work anymore. The bean hopper is screwed on and has no closure; changing beans is awkward. For cleaning, you loosen seven screws in plastic threads, after which the grind is gone. And time dosing varies by 0.27 grams.
For whom? For you if you use one bean, refill it repeatedly, and want a hopper with two dosings. If you set it once and then make espresso in peace, you'll get along fine with the Steve and have a fast grinder on the counter.
Not for whom? For anyone who frequently changes beans, works with multiple coffees in parallel, or wants to set their recipe to the second. And for anyone with single dosing in mind.
Value for money: At around 469 euros, the Steve is not without competition. In this price range, you'll find in our grinder test field grinders with less retention and similar particle distribution, many of them single-dosing grinders where you can also choose the direction of distribution. What the Steve sets against that is the combination of bean hopper, time dosing, and speed. That is indeed rare in this class. For five years of development time since the William, it's too little for us: the new display and smaller grind steps are advances, but the screwed-on bean hopper was already a drawback five years ago.
Recently Lelit made a big step with espresso machines and clearly benefited from the knowledge of new parent Sage Breville. We don't see much of the same grinder know-how in the same family here. Michel's and my half-serious rule remains: With Lelit, look at the name. Elisabeth, Mara, Bianca have convinced us. Fred, William, and Steve haven't so far. So the women rock at Lelit and the men are a bit dated.
Technical specifications overview
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | from 469 euros (as of September 2026) |
| Burrs | 64 mm, flat (manufacturer specification) |
| Operating mode | Bean hopper, time dosing |
| Dosing | Two programmable times, continuous mode, 7-digit LED display |
| Grind adjustment | Stepped, fine adjustment via gear and fine thread, factory setting grind 3 |
| Grinding speed | 30.3 g / 10 sec; 18 g in 6.1 sec |
| Volume | 81.8 dB(A) |
| Grinding temperature | 26.1–31.0 °C (first to fifth sample), average 28.8 °C |
| Retention absolute | 5.5 g (5.2 g temporary, 0.3 g permanent) |
| Single-dosing deviation | 5.2 g |
| Consistency (std. dev.) | 0.27 g over 5 × 18 g |
| x50 (espresso, T4) | 222.0 µm |
| Fine peak (T4) | 39.4 % |
| Main peak (T4) | 243 µm |
| x50 after reset (T7) | 267.5 µm |
| RPM control | No |
| Bean hopper | 350 g, screwed on, no closure slider |
| Dimensions (W × D × H) | 14 × 23 × 39 cm |
| Weight | 6.5 kg |
| Power supply | 220–240 V, 50/60 Hz |
| Versions | Stainless steel brushed, stainless steel polished, black, white, gold |
All measured values according to the KM test protocol for espresso grinders, measured ourselves; particle distribution in cooperation with the Coffee Excellence Center of ZHAW.
The detailed test video for the Lelit Steve
The complete test with Michel: Retention, grind adjustment, particle distribution, and tasting.
As always, we bought this grinder ourselves. This test was not requested by Lelit.
