I did a review of using Grindz years ago when they were still fairly new. It was with Rocky. They work fairly well. If I had a coffee shop I would be a lot more comfortable having the employees using Grindz then taking apart my grinders and possibly breaking hoppers or cross-threading burr carriers.

Do they have vlaue in a home environment? I suppose it depends on the grinder, the amount of use it gets as well as how you use the grinder. If you always grind at one specific grind setting (or very close to it) then the value of Grindz is probably less, but if you use one grinder for various methods of coffee preparation then going from one grind level to another has greater potential of knocking off that built-up, stale coffee and having it end up in the cup.

Hmmm.

We've had our LCMH for about 8 months. It grinds espresso only, and, as you'd expect, only in a very narrow range of settings. In a typical week, we go through roughly 2-1/2 HotTop roaster loads of coffee -- each roughly 190g

The LCMH is something of a pain to disassemble. Hell! Just emptying the hopper is a pain. And because of the doser's guard, even disassembly doesn't provide fantastic access to the entire path.

I occasionally used Grindz with my previous grinder. and thought it was pretty good.

Now, I'm using it regularly, after every fifth load -- i.e., every two weeks -- and disassembling every three or four months. That seems to be working out pretty well.

My coffee tastes very clean and uncontaminated by anything unwanted. Considering how much I do to keep things clean, it damn well better. But one can always do more, can't one? I thought I'd ask around here and see what the smart kids were up to. Partly for reassurance, and partly just to satisfy a prurient interest.

Feeble minds want to know,
BDL

Coffee grinder burrs are designed to break coffee beans.

"Regular application can lengthen the lifespan of the grinding discs.

Ingredients:
Proprietary formulation containing grains, cereals (including wheat products) and pharmaceutical grade binders.
from GRINDZ Grinder Cleaner - Ditting

The reason it works is because it doesn't break up like coffee and flies around 'sand blasting' the old coffee out.

Machinists will tell you to use the proper tool for the job. Improper tool @ the wrong speed can ruin the tool and the job.

The coffee that's packed in the chamber stays put. The surface is 'refreshed' every shot.

Until someone GRINDZ 100kg on one grinder and 100kg of coffee on another showing the burrs are indistinguishable or better on the GRINDZ machine, infrequent burr check tear downs are fine.

heavyduty wrote:Why not?...Just asking.

As others have said, because compressed air, fine particles and bearings don't mix well. But i agree that low pressure compressed air should be fine. Vacuum just seems less messy.

+1

cafeIKE wrote:The coffee that's packed in the chamber stays put. The surface is 'refreshed' every shot.

Until someone GRINDZ 100kg on one grinder and 100kg of coffee on another showing the burrs are indistinguishable or better on the GRINDZ machine, infrequent burr check tear downs are fine.

I'm not completely sure what you're saying, Ike. But I agree with Ken Fox that there's not a lot of reason to tear down one's grinder for cleaning, and some good reasons to avoid it.

I've owned my Compak K10 for a year and haven't opened the burr chamber yet. I think it's still pretty early for a burr inspection, given my low daily volume. I'm sure there's coffee caked in there, but I see and taste no evidence that rancid dust or oils are mixing with fresh grounds. I'm sure that as soon as I clean out the caked-on coffee, new coffee will accumulate in exactly the same place and will become stale and rancid very quickly. I don't see what will have been accomplished by tearing down the grinder and cleaning it.

I do wonder whether, over time, the amount of caked-on coffee increases, and at some point may interfere with rotation of the mechanism. Any chance of that?

Since grinders that have NEVER been cleaned still operate, the chance of build up interfering seems slim.

Peppersass wrote:I do wonder whether, over time, the amount of caked-on coffee increases, and at some point may interfere with rotation of the mechanism. Any chance of that?

I've had a Rocky for almost 10 years that I've never cleaned...it still seems to rotate just fine (grinds OK too).