Urnex Grindz Espresso Grinder Cleaner (before/after photos)

[beta14ok]

Dan came walkin' in the door of the Counter Culture Coffee Espresso Lab on Friday with a bottle of URNEX....we immediately got on his case that it was about time he pitched-in and helped the gang with the machine cleaning. He stopped us right then-&-there saying..."this ain't what you think it is"...."this is for grinders"! Huh??? Closer examination showed a bottle of this stuff:



Since I had the opening "Slam-on-Dan" I got the commission to try the stuff. So here goes.....

Inside the bottle are cute little pellets that look like very uniform, very bleached-out, coffee beans.



I opened-up the grinder chamber of my Faema grinder, (can't remember when I did that last...couple years I guess!), to see how dirty it was. Really...not bad at all, but all of the burr teeth had a little bit of brown coffee "munge" caked down in them. I re-assembled the grinder and then ran a shot glass full of the Urnex Grindz pellets through the grinder using the same setting I usually use for espresso. The resultant powder that entered my doser looked exactly like corn-meal-flour. I dosed-out the "flour" to the trash, brushed down the insides of the doser and then pulled the burrs apart again. The caked-on coffee "munge" was gone and the burrs were covered with a light white powder that I easily brushed-off. Cleaner than before?....Yeah, I'd say so...not dramatic, but certainly cleaner....and the brushing helped also. The cool thing is that the brownish coffee oil seemed to transfer from grinder/doser surfaces to the Grindz powder.....sorta like those oil absorbing powders you use on the garage floor to clean-up auto oil stains....I liked that! I needed to run a shot glass of real coffee beans through the grinder to thoroughly clean the residual white powder out of the grinder path to the doser, then dosed to waste. My take-on this stuff is that it does what it claims and loosens-up the caked-on "munge" so that you can more easily remove it with a brush. Would I buy some.....sure, but for the home user like me, one bottle will probably last a fair portion of my life-time in the same fashion that my partially used, 20oz bottle of Urnex's Cafiza has been under my sink "forever". I don't think that this stuff is nearly as amazing as Cafiza, (which is indeed a great product!), but it should be worth having some around for the periodic "complete" grinder cleaning.


Here's the burr teeth before using Grindz:

Bottom Burr and Top Burr

Here's the burr teeth after using Grindz:

Bottom Burr and Top Burr

Not a huge change......but my grinder is clean now!

Oh yeah....Urnex claims that the Grindz pellets are "completely food safe". Just in case you were wondering..........they taste sorta like corn meal and paper mixed together! Very bland, but perhaps with a little bernaise sauce, some salt & pepper, and a nice glass of Sangiovese..........

Regards,
dmm

[NewEnglandCliff]

Where'dja getit?

[HB]

Funny you should ask. I requested a sample at the SCAA conference but they were out. So the company rep offered to send me some later. According to the flyer, it will be available in June.

Tell you what, HB members. Send me a private message with your address and I'll mail you enough for two cleanings. In return, please post your thoughts on it. I'm curious if this is better than more pedestrian choices (rice, oatmeal, etc.). Does HB love you or what?

I will update this as soon as the supply is exhausted with the names of the testers. I only have enough for five, so don't delay.

Update: All the samples are spoken for!

[framey]

Kind of a grinder cleaning question while we are on the topic. I have El Cafe Tranquilo doserless. When cleaning it I take the top burr off and then I unscrew the plate with the thread that holds the top burr. This gives me much better access to the bottom burr and allows me to clean out what seems like a lot of residual coffee grounds and some of that dry pastey stuff held together by coffee oils. My concern is that the plate I remove to gain greater access would have to be replaced exactly level or otherwise wouldn't the burrs have an uneven gap? What I'm worried about is how fine the tolerances are. If I tighten one of the four screws more than another then the plate may be slightly out, resulting in an unenven grind.
Any thoughts?
Should I never remove this base plate?
I suppose the horse has already bolted on this one because I've had the plate on and off 3 or 4 times in the last 10 months, but perhaps others may benefit from my mistake... presuming it is a problem.

[OlywaDave]

Well I saw this at SCAA and I know we'll be getting it. However it brought up the grinder cleaning discussion at our booth. Well somebody, and I can't remember who now, said "You can use plain white rice to clean your grinder.". Anybody heard of this? If so how does it work? I know they did say do not use Minute Rice.

[framey]

Hmm I've always read that you should only use minute rice...?

I picked up an old Gino Rossi RR45 a while back and it was in need of a thorough cleaning, and had a distinct stale coffee smell. I sought the wisdom of Alan Frew and he told me to try using minute rice. I guess the rice is physically abrasive and is able to absorb the old stale oils and carry them away as they pass through. I assumed that standard rice was too hard and might damage the burrs.

Before I ever got to try the rice theory I traded the Rossi in on my Tranquilo, so using minute rice is just something I've read about, but not something I know works through practical experience.

The rice mystery remains.

[HB]

Jim's Espresso Guide says

Once a year, grind through some white rice to clear out the coffee oils accumulating on the burrs. After doing this, grind through some sacrificial coffee to clear out the rice powder.

I've read the same thing about "hard" rice and the recommendation to use Minute Rice because it's softer, or even oatmeal. I'm sure Jim has an opinion on the best choice and will clarify for the final review of his opus...

[koffeekev]

Josh and Jason of URNEX fame are very savvy when discussing their products. Do you think I should invite them in to talk?

[HB]

Josh is the gentleman who sent me the samples and I invited him to join. I'd like to hear his thoughts on Jim's comments in the Espresso Guide and this product. I added a caveat in my invitation about commercial posts -- maybe a little too strongly?

[jtconte]

I'll chime in that I tried the oatmeal method on my Rocky and although it did get the coffee grime out, it left quite a bit of its own residue behind. I used coffee to remove the whitish, powdery residue. Maybe a vacuum cleaner would do better?

John

[koffeekev]

I used rice once but was left with a gooey, sticky mess. No one said it wasn't supposed to be cooked rice.


Okay, okay, yes I used this response a couple years ago on CG but felt it was appropriate again.

[HB]

Below is an offline reply from Josh answering some of the questions posed earlier. I am posting it on his behalf:

I did want to offer a few insights into our development process if you are interested... I noticed a lot of people talking about using rice or oatmeal or other organic products. Believe me, as the mad wizard behind Grindz, I personally tried (or oversaw the testing of) hundreds of items and formulations to get what we have now... The problem with some of the more traditionally mentioned items came down to three issues:

1. Dust and ability to be purged,
2. Chance of locking up motors,
3. Ability to absorb oily residue.

We found rice to leave huge starchy/dusty residues that just could not be removed easily. It also had a tendency to lock up the burrs if the setting was too fine or the relative humidity was too high. What I'm saying is that the small particles fell between the burrs and never left. As more piled up you got a cake of rice that was strong enough to hold up the revolutions of the burrs. Of course, this causes a major risk to burning out a motor. We saw similar results with oatmeal and many other similar textured products.

Looking to avoid this problem, we found some other products that were just way too hard. They were natural and safe, but a few even chewed up some lesser quality burrs.

The goal with Grindz Grinder Cleaner was to find the right combination of hardness and oil absorbing properties from a number of different ingredients that all did good things when passed through a grinder. We needed something hard enough to mechanically push coffee grounds out of the crevasses, but spongy enough to absorb oily residue. Of course, it all had to fit into the grinder AND could not carry the risk of locking the burrs with the motor running.

Hope that helps you a little in your travels and discussions. All feedback is always welcome. It helps us to make better products. We try to incorporate everything we hear back into our development process. Thanks again.

Josh

P.S. I noticed someone mentioning the size of the jar was too large for the home user. Partially in response, we are already in development on a consumer package that will be somewhere around 2-4 uses per jar. It might serve as both corporate sampling and a consumer resale item through some of our distributor partners (bricks and mortar or web based).

[framey]

You've gotta love it when companies are responsive and willing to listen to consumer feedback.

The product R&D seems to put to bed the 'rice as a cleaner' debate.

[miKe mcKoffee]

The product R&D seems to put to bed the 'rice as a cleaner' debate.

Not in my opinion. Been running a double shot load of Minute Rice through Rocky every month or so for about 3 years. Just because a company marketing a grinder cleaners says some other method doesn't work and/or may kill my grinder doesn't mean it will. When Rocky dies from a Minute Rice overdose I'll be sure and post his Memorial Service notice on the forum.

[HB]

FYI... Randy Glass' "Espresso! My Espresso!" includes a review of Urnex Grindz. He was quite impressed.

[miKe mcKoffee]

FYI... Randy Glass' "Espresso! My Espresso!" includes a review of Urnex Grindz. He was quite impressed.

I have great respect for Randys' site. But must also say I don't hold or go by all information on his site. For instance, I followed his sites advice for backflushing in <1sec multiple hits for a couple years until talking to a professional at EPNW who told me that is actually harder on Miss Silvia than using a normal backflushing routine. (ie on 'till pump labors then off, wait 10-15sec and repeat five times) And it made total sense and been doing regular backflushing ever since. Does a better & faster job with zero ill effect on Missy. And as far as Urnex Grindz goes I'm sure it works great, and at $2.38 PER usage I'll definitely stick to Minute Rice and would wager it does just as good a job.

[cannonfodder]

I have used minute rice, a handful every few months. It is amazing how much brown comes out with the rice even after I cleaned the grinder (without disassembling). I vacuum it out then dump in a handful of stale beans and grind them to make sure the remaining rice powder is purged. No ill effects yet but I have only done this twice and that was with my KitchenAid a9 that I use for FP. Nothing but coffee as run through my Mazzer. Looks like I should stop doing that.

[HB]

Before cleaning:


Upper burrs


Lower burrs

After cleaning with Urnex Grindz:


Upper burrs


Lower burrs

See the rest of the story in Cleaning a Mazzer Mini.

[jrtatl]

I was one of the Grindz contest winners. I felt that I could "give back" by posting a pictorial before and after.

To give a little background, I have a Mazzer SJ that I haven't cleaned thoroughly in about 4 months. By "thorough," I mean unscrew the burr carrier and brush all surfaces; followed by a vac with my dust buster.

Before I used the Grindz, I thought it would be a good idea to do a light brushing of all surfaces. I wanted to remove most of the sediment on my burrs before I ran the Grindz.

After brushing, I used the Grindz. I then pulled the burrs and looked again. To my delight, I felt that the Grindz got the burrs pretty darn clean. I swept out the Grindz remnants, and ran two doses of coffee through the grinder to clear out the Grindz.

My overall impression: I'm glad I won the Grindz. I would have been very reluctant to try them if they weren't for free. However, after only one use I can see the benefit.

The photos may not be demonstrative of my impressions. Upon review, the photos do not show the detail that I observed in person.

YMMV. Who knows; maybe my impression will change after the next use. If so, I'll update.

Jeremy



Before (after brushing, but before Grindz)



After (after running Grindz and brushing)

[mobleyfan]

I finally got around to trying some Grindz. It had been a while since I cleaned out the ole mazzer mini mostly because I never found much dirt in there when I did. After cleaning with Grindz I noticed an immediate and substantial improvement in the quality of my espresso. In fact I got the first satisfying shots out of my new Silvia. I have a feeling that the product removed some stale coffee oils that were dragging down my shots. They were flat and dull tasting, now the proper brightness is ringing through.
-Sam