Static electricity and manual all-metal grinders

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pumpkinscastle
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#1: Post by pumpkinscastle »

Here's a thought, and maybe it won't work. But I am still curious if anyone has ever tried it. Wouldn't attaching one's manual grinder to a reliable grounding system (either the grounding conductor on one's electrical system or the water piping) eliminate all trouble with statics in freshly ground coffee?
To be more specific, all commercial grinders with metal housing come with a three-prong plug anyway. I never noticed static buildup in my Super Jolly, and if I did during coarser grinds (for the occasional Chemex brew), it would usually be between the doser's plastic insert and the coffee, i.e. where conduction to ground couldn't happen.

So, with a grinder like the HG One, since quasi all parts are conductive, I wonder if static could be eliminated that way. I plan to affix my HG One to the counter with this method:
http://hg-one.com/simple-surface-mounting/

It would be easy, then, to attach a thin copper wire and connect it to the water piping under the sink.

Static is likely more of a problem during the cold season in most areas. We do keep our house humidity above 40% at all times and I will probably never see extreme cases of static electricity. I still wonder, though, if it could be eliminated without the RDT method.

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TomC
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#2: Post by TomC »

It was tried by someone (maybe two people) here and it didn't help.

I seriously don't understand these machiavellian approaches to a solution that otherwise takes a split second mist of water to achieve.
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pumpkinscastle (original poster)
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#3: Post by pumpkinscastle (original poster) »

Do you remember their names? If you have a link to these posts, I'd be curious to read up on it.

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TomC
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#4: Post by TomC »

I can't remember if it was in the original HG-One thread or one of the subsequent -grinder/static threads that popped up. Several people discussed the physics of it not working well, others shared their unaffected results from what I recall. But I haven't searched for a link.
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pumpkinscastle (original poster)
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#5: Post by pumpkinscastle (original poster) »

Found a related link:
Tutorial on static electricity in grinders

I have some reading to do!

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Terranova
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#6: Post by Terranova »

pumpkinscastle wrote:If you have a link to these posts, I'd be curious to read up on it.
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Nate42
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#7: Post by Nate42 »

Grounding should help because it gives charge built up on the burrs somewhere to go. It doesn't solve the problem though because the coffee itself can still build up a net charge compared to the metal. Also, it can be logistically difficult to ground every metal surface in a grinder.

RDT is a nice elegant solution because it attacks the problem at the source, making the beans themselves weakly conductive (dissipative) so that charge never builds up in the first place.

I theorize that the reason electric grinders do better with static is a matter of not just grounding, but also speed. The high velocity with which the coffee exits the burrs can overcome the attractive force of static more easily. Haven't tried to prove this, but I do know that grounding a pharos isn't a be all solution.

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FotonDrv
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#8: Post by FotonDrv »

TomC wrote:It was tried by someone (maybe two people) here and it didn't help.

I seriously don't understand these machiavellian approaches to a solution that otherwise takes a split second mist of water to achieve.
Hey Tom, I have tried just about everything to cut the static and the RDT suggestion was the best. Fast, easy and you still have a grinder that has no changes done to it. It beats wires or anything else. I also found you do not need to fix the machine to the counter, just add the 4 pound bean loading funnel that I make and it stabilizes the grinder fairly well.

My Mazzer Kony has an anti-static screen that causes clumping and that takes more time to correct than RDT so the OP should not sweat the small stuff IMHO. Since I single dose the Kony I use RDT and took out the screen and have no clumping or static to worry about.
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erik82
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#9: Post by erik82 »

pumpkinscastle wrote:To be more specific, all commercial grinders with metal housing come with a three-prong plug anyway. I never noticed static buildup in my Super Jolly, and if I did during coarser grinds (for the occasional Chemex brew), it would usually be between the doser's plastic insert and the coffee, i.e. where conduction to ground couldn't happen.
Try grinding a Indian Monsooned Malabar and you'll have lots of static with every grinder. It was the only bean that didn't work with a GOD when I had the K30 because half of the shot would stick somewhere in the grindpath.

avanta
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#10: Post by avanta »



Hello everyone,

Wanted to share my anti-static solution costing me 1 cent. :D

Works very well.

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