So I'm in the midst of grinding and watch as the vibration causes the lever or the right side of the Vario to slip down a notch! What is up with this? Common problem? Happens every so often...slips from second finest to the one big notch coarser.

See Baratza Vario grind settings fluctuate:

PictureThyme wrote:When I was first using it, I seemed to have a lot of trouble getting a good shot on my rebuilt Linea. Then, I happened to look at the settings and the macro setting had dropped two levels, making my grind very coarse. I found I had to hold the macro button up at the espresso setting while grinding to keep the burrs at the set level.

After doing this for a few days, I finally emailed Baratza and they responded that they would send me some small shims to tighten the hold of the levers. The shims are small 1mm X 1mm X 5mm pieces of silicone that slip behind the detent that holds the levers at their settings.

Since installing the shims I've not had any issues with the settings fluctuating. I sure hope new machines coming off the line have these shims installed before they're shipped to customers.

And The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread (CoffeeGeek):

Grimfell wrote:Baratza sent a PDF to me with instructions how to install the shims, it was detailed and the process was easy. I put everything back together and the first thing I noticed was how much the slider arms had 'firmed up'. They really click into place now and hold that position. The shims make a BIG difference. If anyone needs the instructions, just ask.

Tested the grinder dry, all good, added some beans and voilà - back in action. Grinder is working perfectly. No more sliding macro arm.

It is common, and easy to fix. You don't need any "official" shims, but almost any piece of plastic will do.

akallio wrote:It is common, and easy to fix. You don't need any "official" shims, but almost any piece of plastic will do.

No kidding. The shims were so small, I thought the envelope from Baratza was empty. I think the only necessity is that the shim have some stickiness to keep it in place.

Another little thing to keep in mind, the safety micro-switch (the little switch that prevents the grinder from starting if the hopper isn't attached) is very sensitive to location of the bean hopper when it's installed. I was just getting to use the Vario this morning after installing a new gear and belt (rocks are bad, really bad for rubber and nylon) and came face to face with a bit of frustration when the grinder didn't start. I resorted to a gifted SJ, brush for cleaning the doser, and thwacking this morning. Picture tilting the Vario into the throat of the SJ to dump in beans (free SJs often don't come with hoppers.). Anyway, after I got all the beans out of the Vario, I found that the Vario hopper wasn't completely locked in and once I heard the click, it ran fine.

Thanks. Amazes me that a high quality grinder has little in the way of quality control in the manufacturing process. Translation: Dear Baratza, For nearly 500 buck retail, couldn't you test the freekin thing before selling it??

innermusic wrote:So I'm in the midst of grinding and watch as the vibration causes the lever or the right side of the Vario to slip down a notch! What is up with this? Common problem? Happens every so often...slips from second finest to the one big notch coarser.

Sorry to hear of the slippage problem on your Vario. What is your serial No. (on the bottom of the Vario)? The shims we send are a retrofit for earlier Varios. Later Varios have had the tooling changed to provide more resistance to keep the arms from moving during grinding. Changing the adjusting arms is a MAJOR undertaking, hence the shims were created for in-field slippage. Reports of newer Varios (after Ser No. 4500) having slipping arms has stopped. If your Vario is after 4500 I would like to know. Only a small percentage of earlier Varios suffered from the arm slippage, but it was still too many for us, that is why we changed the tool. We test all Varios for the correct "feel" on the arms, but not with coffee. We have tested with coffee in the past but, it is all but impossible to eliminate all coffee residue and people then think they got a "used" grinder. Please feel free to contact me directly (kyle@baratza.com) or support@baratza.com so that we can make sure this problem is resolved quickly and to your satisfaction.
Regards,
Kyle

akallio wrote:It is common, and easy to fix. You don't need any "official" shims, but almost any piece of plastic will do.

Are the instructions available online? I've had my macro slider shift a few times. If I can install a shim myself, I may do so, else I'll contact Baratza.

I fixed my grinder by following instructions posted here. Do a search and you should find them.

Thanks Kyle. I appreciate the response. I will in fact contact you directly. FYI this is a newly purchased Vario, although the SN is in the 2600 series, so perhaps it was sitting in inventory for awhile.

akallio wrote:I fixed my grinder by following instructions posted here. Do a search and you should find them.

Did a search but could not seem to find those instructions. Can someone please post a link?