Techniques for seasoning burrs - Page 2

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
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nickw
Posts: 559
Joined: 11 years ago

#11: Post by nickw »

Ellejaycafe wrote:I never, not once, thought about power being a factor in variance. How would I check my power source for fluctuations? Or is there a way around it... Would simply plugging into a high dollar surge protector going to combat a variance in power to the grinder?
Unless you're having a problem, I would't worry about it. The power at my house is often between a volt. That's a very small difference (less than a percent). Which would only make about a .2g difference between the high to the low. How quickly the coffee feeds can make a .2g difference.

luisgarcia137
Posts: 70
Joined: 9 years ago

#12: Post by luisgarcia137 »

nickw wrote:I heard back from Kyle from Mahlkonig.

He said with all WBC grinders (K30, Peak and Ek43) the burrs come pre seasoned.

New burrs it can take a while to settle down. He didn't say how long (as it varies) but said it should happen pretty quick.

He also mentioned if the dose is off (which you didn't) it's likely power, not the burrs (sometimes people think it's the burrs).
As the grind by time depends on the speed of the motor, which depends on the voltage of your power. So if you voltage isn't stable, the amount of coffee your grinder doses given a certain time will change.

Hope this helps.

I guess we'll be plugging our grinders to variacs now to get the correct timing (weight) :D
Maybe some entrepreneurial person here will make them in different colors to match decor!

Bret
Posts: 611
Joined: 8 years ago

#13: Post by Bret »

Ellejaycafe wrote:I never, not once, thought about power being a factor in variance. How would I check my power source for fluctuations? Or is there a way around it... Would simply plugging into a high dollar surge protector going to combat a variance in power to the grinder?
Something like this might be an inexpensive way to simply see if your line voltage and frequency is stable or not:
http://www.amazon.com/P3-International- ... 000RGF29Q/

I wouldn't expect a surge protector to stabilize your line voltage if you did find it was varying. The surge protectors are designed to suppress very short duration but large spikes in voltage that can damage electronic, rather than sustained variations in AC voltage levels. As the electric motors within the grinders will generate a lot of voltage spiking by their nature, your grinder design should have protection circuitry for any of its internal electronics.

If you did find that the line voltage is varying, you would probably want to contact the grinder manufacturer first: they may do some regulation inside the grinder to eliminate that concern. If they indicate that the variation exceeds their acceptable parameters, and it also means you will have resulting variations in dose that are significant, then I would contact your power company first, so they can investigate, and then perhaps an electrician who answers to you and not the power company: there are some regulator devices that can be installed, but you probably don't want to dabble in that. And with a shop's worth of grinders, brewers, machines, well, you want to be sure it is all done properly and up to code for safety.

On the other hand, one of the regulators I just looked at for reference would regulate 110 to within +/- 3%, so super tight tolerance regulation is not apparently available on amazon :-)

It may not be that big of an influence on grind output, unless the voltage is varying well outside that range: Grinder specs should address that, if not in the user manual, then they should be able to tell you what range is acceptable, will leave grind dose unaffected or minimally affected.

Maybe Socratic Coffee should stop worrying about particle size distribution and and test line voltage to dose variances! :D

GlennV
Posts: 106
Joined: 13 years ago

#14: Post by GlennV »

Ellejaycafe wrote:I never, not once, thought about power being a factor in variance.
To be honest, that's precisely the correct number of times to think about it! It's the frequency, not voltage, that primarily determines grinder speed (voltage has a small, second order, effect). Frequency is tightly regulated, and any variations are seen across the whole country.

day
Posts: 1316
Joined: 9 years ago

#15: Post by day »

We have really strayed from the main concept here though it is awesome information...I tested the claims I read about going Turkish and it getting easier but taking longer...NOT my experience. Next time I might try spinning at top speed and have my daughter dump the beans in...might break my mounts if not the Pharos though. (Didn't finish fc on these beans)

Do you guys concur? Light roasted beans ground as fine as you feel the Motor is comfortable would work beast to break-in the burrs fastest?
Yes, i you per this on an iPhone

Marcelnl
Posts: 3831
Joined: 10 years ago

#16: Post by Marcelnl »

Difficult to say, I would hate to go thrpugh pounds of light roast drinking acidic espresso just because my burr set is seasoned a bit quicker...unless we know what seasoning does and what the difference in mechanical properties between roast levels a head to head comparison would give the answer.
I'd feed some minute rice, then old or baked beans to a new burr set and then stick with an enjoyable coffee until seasoning is done and then break out the really good stuff to celebrate this milestone.
LMWDP #483

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