My Rocky does this as do many many others:



I can't seem to find a consensus anywhere whether this is normal sounding for the rocky. This scraping to me makes it sound like the burrs are misaligned or the unit is defective. I had a mazzer mini and approaching zero point on that the scraping was completely uniform a continuous tone, not this Rocky scrape..,scrape..,scrape..,scrape..,scrape...

Should the Rocky also be a uniform sound when the burrs near touch?

I watched the video and that sounds about right. Keep in mind that you have no beans in the grinder. If there were beans in the the action of grinding forces beans between the burrs and forces the burrs apart so that sound is not heard because it is not there. I suggest doing the teflon tape mod to Rocky. You put your hands on the hopper and the noise stopped. This is because of the thread slop. The tape does away with that.

Within reason, who cares what the zero point sounds like? The grinder is not used at that point. If the grinder must be used at zero, there is a problem that no amount of teflon can fix.

Since pushing on the left side of the hopper stops the sound, the alignment between the upper carrier and the body maybe suspect. I've seen more than one Rocky that could not grind fine enough to stop a gusher regardless of how much coffee, so much that the filter could barely lock, was packed in the basket.

Greetings,

How did you arrive at that number (9 out of 10)? Please reference the study that supports your statement.

Cliff

I got curious, since i have both...
Rocky is unused, but i saw it has same issue...the scraping sounds pretty even (on your video too IMO), but touching the hopper does change it. With the hopper off you can just feel how much play there is when rocking the upper burr.... definitely no high tension springs in this design

I added the teflon tape as Randy suggested and it really helps... still not as solid as the Mazzer... but much better, perhaps with more layers (though with 3 it was getting hard to screw it back on).

I have not owned all that many grinders, but I can compare two I have owned - the Rocky and a Mazzer Kony. Now these are two VERY different classes of grinders, but the Kony shares the same upper burr adjustment and mounting design with the other Mazzers I have owned. The Rocky was my first grinder, and back when I bought it, the Rocky was about all there was to choose from in the entry level league. It was highly regarded back then because without having to spend substantially more it was about all there was to choose from. It was also highly regarded by a number of the knowledgeable folks who frequented alt.coffee, which at the time was THE place to go for coffee info and assistance. I used it for about 6½ or 7 years. So like so many others, I was quite pleased with the Rocky. It is no wonder that with all the support it got, the Rocky drew a good percentage of folks setting out to start making espresso at home, and those who were moving up from whirley blade and cuisinart grinders.

But like shock absorbers, until you switch you don't realize how bad the old ones were. Comparing the simplicity and rock-solid performance of a Mazzer to a Rocky exposes the Rocky for what it is. A nice grinder, but one which could have been a lot better. And while Rancilio changed the original plastic case to stainless, they did nothing to improve the precision of the way the hopper/upper burr system works and the adjustment design. When you consider that one click on Rocky is about a 0.001" distance between the burrs (if I remember my math), then the amount of rocking motion experienced in the upper carrier is, to me, unacceptable. We can talk about burr quality as well, but that is for another thread.

So that is why, for the last year or two I have been responding that, for the money, a used Mazzer is a better investment than a new Rocky. If Rancilio would address the issue by spring loading the upper carrier and making the Rocky stepless it would be another matter. Then, for the money, it would be a much better investment than it is now. But I think they would have to tighten up the tolerances and maybe use a better design which would eliminate the wobble and play in the upper burr carrier. And with one click on Rocky being about three to four seconds of extraction, it makes me appreciate my stepless grinder all the more.

So the wobble of the upper carrier is normal, and the whirr.. whirr.. whirr.. cyclical sound is normal for a Rocky. The teflon tape mod takes care of that, and also makes the Rocky a better grinder for espresso.

I suppose I am a little bitter from the disappointment to have found out so late that for all those years that I could have been making better espresso and had better control over the grind if I would have gotten a better grinder right off.

I've used my Rocky almost daily for 9 years and its still running strong..even after grinding the occasional rock. Longevity, easy to use, easy to work on and change burrs, and easy to clean are its positive points from my experience....well worth the $225 I spent for it...maybe less so at today's prices but there are not so many options at that level. I wouldn't call it a lemon and I wouldn't consider it a fair comparison to evaluate it against grinders that cost two to four times its current market price. As with any lower end gear there are some issues that have been previously discussed. The slop in the carrier is not optimal but the tape improves things quite a bit. Mine makes the same noise as yours and I can stop/change the noise by fingering the hopper as you did even with the tape in place and no visible or "feelable" play in the carrier. This may contribute to a lack of precision in the grind but overall once I dial it in I don't need to change the grind setting for a given batch of beans and the shots are generally consistent within a tolerable range (some great shots some just good, most are within a reasonable ballpark based on my personal preferences and usage (mostly milk drinks)...YMMV).

You do get what you pay for....Vario is probably the next step up and from reading the comments on this site...probably a major improvement in grind but it appears we'll have to wait and see how long they last. Going up from there.....just open your wallet and listen for the loud sucking sound

Pat

Yeah, my Rocky is the same way. It got me started, but I agree with what Randy said about seeing it differently after having something better. On my Rocky, no amount of teflon tape, WDT, other mods and techniques, or new burrs got me reliable espresso. Most coffees resulted in gushers even at that scraping zero setting with a full hopper. I got a Pede hand grinder about a year ago and making good espresso now is so easy it's ridiculous. I just use the Rocky for my Chemex now when I'm too lazy to use my old Zassenhaus. I'd sell it, but I have trouble knowing that someone else's money would be better spent on a hand grinder, used Mazzer, or one of the Baratzas.

kupe wrote:Yeah, my Rocky is the same way. It got me started, but I agree with what Scrutinizer said about seeing it differently after having something better. On my Rocky, no amount of teflon tape, WDT, other mods and techniques, or new burrs got me reliable espresso. Most coffees resulted in gushers even at that scraping zero setting with a full hopper. I got a Pede hand grinder about a year ago and making good espresso now is so easy it's ridiculous. I just use the Rocky for my Chemex now when I'm too lazy to use my old Zassenhaus. I'd sell it, but I have trouble knowing that someone else's money would be better spent on a hand grinder, used Mazzer, or one of the Baratzas.

Ditto.

Kinda makes one wonder, what with all these dud Rockys, what the cheerleaders class as 'exceptional espresso'