I've had Intelligentsia's website open in my browser for a few weeks now. Honestly its not that far, once work lightens up a bit I plan on taking a trip there. I found a posting that spoke about the best roasters in the US, I was looking at places near me and skipped over Intelligentsia because on that list it says Chicago. I think I found out they have LA locations when read over and over people speaking the wonders of their Black Cat espresso. Rest assure when I get some time I'll be over there... and on the same note, I plan to spend some quality time with my new Classic. I have many questions about that machine... but haven't had enough time to spend with it to really know what to ask.

I do have a wish to learn and understand better... it seems that all the training course available are crazy expensive ($500 for a day). That makes sense for someone training their coffee bar employees, but that's an impossible sell for me personally. Jones Roaster in Pasadena is a pretty popular place locally and they offer a much more reasonable class. I have thought about taking this: http://www.thebestcoffee.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95&products_id=769
Other classes here: http://www.thebestcoffee.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=95&zenid=34eb2673de04f571bba7593d93ba45d9
The nice thing about those is you get to learn on your own equipment.

Thanks for the advice and push to get educated. Its something I want to do.

This just happened to my Mahlkonig Vario! My normal espresso position is Macro one click down and Micro about 5 or 6 clicks down. Today I found this position is not giving me the normal grind size. I adjusted it finer to Macro all the the way up. No change in the grind size. Both Macro and Micro all the way up - still no change to the grind size!

Is this time to clean the grinder? Does the grinder setting get loosen over time? Or should I recalibrate the grinder?

I have the same problem all of a sudden. My Vario is only a few weeks old (ground about 2kg of coffee) and I've been able to choke my machine no problem at all so far. But today I found myself at the absolute finest setting and still getting 6s pulls, without having opened the machine or anything. So I took the top burr of and noticed a lot of very fine coffee stuck everywhere. Brushed it, cleaned it, but the adjustment still has no effect. The bottom burr does move when adjusting, though so I'm a bit puzzled as to why it doesn't work. I can't imagine that it's debris on the 'reference surface', since the coffee is not really coarse either.. it's more of a filter grind.

I'll try cleaning it again tomorrow.. let's hope it helps.

get2brad wrote:I do have a wish to learn and understand better... it seems that all the training course available are crazy expensive ($500 for a day). That makes sense for someone training their coffee bar employees, but that's an impossible sell for me personally. Jones Roaster in Pasadena is a pretty popular place locally and they offer a much more reasonable class. I have thought about taking this: http://www.thebestcoffee.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95&products_id=769
Other classes here: http://www.thebestcoffee.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=95&zenid=34eb2673de04f571bba7593d93ba45d9
The nice thing about those is you get to learn on your own equipment.

Thanks for the advice and push to get educated. Its something I want to do.

I've thought about taking some of the Jone's classes, but have not made it there yet.

Seems like the Silverlake Intelly isn't that far from you, but traffic could be bad.

There's also Lamill in silverlake, but I haven't made it there.

Randy

Bigs wrote:[..]

I'll try cleaning it again tomorrow.. let's hope it helps.

Solved it! A thorough manual cleaning didn't really seem to help, but then I tried using the supplied packet of Grindz. That did the trick, I'm getting my usual grinds again. It does concern me that this happened so soon, this really made me wish I bought a more conventional grinder, like a Rocky or something.

Bigs wrote:I have the same problem all of a sudden. My Vario is only a few weeks old (ground about 2kg of coffee) and I've been able to choke my machine no problem at all so far. But today I found myself at the absolute finest setting and still getting 6s pulls, without having opened the machine or anything. So I took the top burr of and noticed a lot of very fine coffee stuck everywhere. Brushed it, cleaned it, but the adjustment still has no effect. The bottom burr does move when adjusting, though so I'm a bit puzzled as to why it doesn't work. I can't imagine that it's debris on the 'reference surface', since the coffee is not really coarse either.. it's more of a filter grind.

I'll try cleaning it again tomorrow.. let's hope it helps.

Hmm, now I have the same problem with the same description... Got the grinder in April. I gave it a thorough clean and used Grindz as well, but nothing has changed. Happened kind of out of the blue. Freaks me out as I'm in Germany and my German is nowhere good enough to call Mahlkönig up. Hmmm. Any suggestions?

Edit: I can only feel a slight movement to the burrs with my fingers when I move the Macro slider from the second finest setting to the finest. I should feel every step, or what?

I thought mine was fixed, but alas, the problem's back. I'm pretty sure this is a defect on my unit, so I'm returning it under warranty.

bragur wrote:Edit: I can only feel a slight movement to the burrs with my fingers when I move the Macro slider from the second finest setting to the finest. I should feel every step, or what?

I can feel the burrs moving up slightly when operating the macro slider, but not when using the micro slider. Also, the bottom burr doesn't move down when I push the macro slider down, but only after I push on it Can't imagine that's how it's supposed to be.

Did you ever get this issue fixed? I have this same issue right out of the box. The grind is much too fine and the adjustment settings do NOTHING. I feel like I own a 500$ paperweight. So frustrating!

If you have the issue right out of the box it probably just needs to be calibrated. There are threads on here on how to do it (although you should look up underneath and see if there is a visible hole an allen wrench can go in. If so you follow the directions for the newer grinders (very easy) and if not follow the directions by DDR for the older grinders (not too hard, but not quite as easy).

For those who had it working and then it stopped, I had this happen to me one time when I'd cleaned it with Grindz. I think a particle just was stuck between the burrs not letting the settings adjust. I tried making it coarse as possible and then brushing out the burrs and flipping the grinder over and dumping whatever came out and either that or just time eventually fixed the problem - I've never been sure which, but it has now been functioning correctly for a couple months. I've used Grindz many times and this problem only happened one of those times.

I don't think it makes sense to choose between a Vario and a Rocky because they are so different in grind quality (at least conventional wisdom seems to be that the order is the Rocky is not as good as a Mazzer Mini or Macap M4, which is not as good as the Vario or the Super Jolly for grind quality, but I haven't used the Rocky to know that first hand).

A Vario vs a Super Jolly is a harder choice. A used SJ is usually cheaper than a new Vario and the SJ will last forever if not abused and has a comparable grind. It is, however, bigger, and you lose the timer, etc.


Hugh

Talked to customer service. What a great company. They are sending a replacement grinder ASAP. Great service is so hard to find these days.