Ok, first I'm a newbie here. I've been searching and reading the archives and I seem to have a unique problem. I have a Cunill Tranquilo grinder (4-5 years old) and it has been a good grinder, all said. There has been one problem that drives me nuts. Typically, I grind 4 to 5 pulses (the Tranquilo limits each grind) for 2 double shots of espresso. 30 minutes later (or so) I do this whole procedure again. Typically the 2 round of grinding produces a grind that is noticeably coarser and produces inferior espresso. This a stepped grinder and I need to go down a whole step (or sometimes a tweener half click) to produce a good second pull. Does anyone have this problem with this grinder? I would love to "fix" it and short of that buy a new grinder... which is spendy to get what I want!!

Are you loading two shots worth of beans into an otherwise empty hopper? if you are, that's the problem -- as the hopper empties, the grinder needs to be set finer to get the same pour time.

No, I usually load enough beans for that day plus a fair bit more. It's not ideal but the beans are not in there for very long. Hmmm. I could check and see if that changes things. Thanks.

That means, at the same grind setting, each shot will flow a but faster than the previous one. If you use the hoper, make sure it stays over 1/3 full, so the beans that are grind are weighed down by the beans over it.

The stock hopper is so flat, it takes a lot of beans to get it 1/3 full, and they exert very little downforce. I'd suggest making a tube-shaped hopper out of PVC pipe or better, some sort of clear material. I use a barbecue sauce bottle that I've cut down. I'm still grinding by the dose, but it's working very consistently for me, in spite of posts I've seen about this not being good. But my mini-hopper is about as deep as the stock hopper, yet it would hold about a cup of beans at most.

Jack

Thanks for the heads up on the hopper issue. I put extra coffee beans in this morning and the second grind was excellent! Whoohooo. I will check out making a small homemade hopper for the grinder. Hmmm We have this place called Tap Plastics which has every conceivable plastic and acrylic tubing and they cut to order. That might work. This is welcome news since I was looking at the Super Jolly or Major which is a wee bit spendy, esp since I have too many expensive hobbies other than coffee... lol Thanks again.

The Tranquilo is an excellent QPR grinder, but at half the price of other commercial grinders, it does have these ergonomic issues.

I agree with Jim and Jack - the Tranquilo is a great grinder that has some acceptable "issues". For the hopper, I fashioned one out of a spray bottle that I chopped down. Works great, and I can fill it with a cup of beans to get adequate downward pressure on the beans being ground. Also, you can see my fancy hopper lid off to the right. It's a lid from a Tupperware-like container by Anchor Hocking (I think that's how it's spelled); it fits perfectly.



You may also notice another mod I did to my Tranquilo - I replaced the timer switch with a toggle switch. When I need a timer that's actually accurate, and easily changed, I plug the grinder into a GraLab darkroom timer.

Hi, I am a newbie here, so I am not sure it this is where I ask a question.

Raz mentioned he replaced is timer button with a toggle switch. My time is acting badly. When its time is up, the motor goes into 1/3 speed and continues grinding... Since the timer was not really doing a good job anyway, I am interested in how Rax modified the grinder.

Thanks.

Toma

Grinder motors don't run at 1/3 speed in normal circumstances; and an arcing switch (which is what this sounds like) might damage the grinder. Don't use it until you've replaced the timer. If you bought the grinder from Sovrana, get in touch with them. There may be a regular switch used by Cunill that fits into the same cutout as the timer switch.