Baratza Vario Grinder, Jack Black

Takes a while to calibrate this thing because you can't (or shouldn't) adjust the levers while it's off or you will screw it all up completely.

Then you find the gears can slip spontaneously and unpredictably during use.

Then you get, and install, the little plastic shims that are supposed to keep the slippage from happening, but they fail sometimes as well and slippage can still occur.

Ultimately, you wind up never varying the grind coarseness, because it's such a pain to keep it calibrated properly.  This defeats the premise of a machine called the "Vario."

Then, at least in my case, the machine fails utterly in less than two years -- making a horrible noise halfway into a grind and emitting smoke from the calibration levers.  The primary (right) lever also slips visibly two notches, a kind of raised middle finger to complete your experience.

And, of course, the machine turns out to have only a one-year warranty.

So you go back to your Rocky, bought in 2006, which still works perfectly after seven years and never gave you any calibration hassles whatever... and which cost you much less to boot.

Bottom line: The Vario is just not a reliable grinder, due to calibration problems, lever slippage, and machine failure shortly outside the warranty.  It also has a plastic exterior, compared to the Rocky's stainless steel exterior.  

I can't recommend the Vario to anyone over the nearly-as-good and less expensive Rocky.