I am now using my Vario Home for several month. When I started to delve into the area of coffees with a higher density, I quite often faced various inconsistencies when pulling one shot after the other which I attributed to bad methodology, weather change or the coffee becoming older.

However, now it appears to me that the Vario Home after several shots moves to coarser grind by itself (possibly due to heating). I was using Square Mile Coffee's last Summer Espresso at a 19gram dose in a double basket (that coffee easily fits in at this weight, even with quite some headroom left. Already the beans are denser by 20% or so compared to a typical old-style roast). I started to doubt the grinder when shots became faster and faster but turned back to normal the next day. I weight the dose as well as the shot on a 0.01gram scale.

So its quite clear that this coffee puts the grinder under stress. Since I was pulling at around 1 pull / 2 minutes or so it is pretty clear that this is above the grinders spec. Did anybody else see such a behaviour? Of course, it just might be my fault (which is perfectly possible, though).

Regards, Jan

My Vario has the exact same behaviour.It shows the most when I have guests and grind 3 baskets in a row.Very frustrating.With normal day to day usage it's not that bad on mine.

I've never had this problem with my Vario. You should get in touch with Baratza or Mahlkonig.

Mahlkönig is quite defensive in their FAQ:

Was ist die maximal empfohlene Tagesleistung der VARIO?

Mit der VARIO sollten nicht mehr als 50 doppelte Espressi pro Tag gemahlen werden.

Da es sich um eine Haushaltsmühle handelt, sollte eine schnelle Abfolge von Vermahlungen vermieden werden, um die Erwärmung minimal zu halten.

The translation roughly is:

What is the suggested daily usage of the Vario?

One shouldn't pull more than 50 doubles per day

Because it is a home grinder in order to keep heating minimal, one should not pull shots fastly one after the other

Fair enough, I'd say.

Bob_McBob wrote:I've never had this problem with my Vario. You should get in touch with Baratza or Mahlkonig.

Chris, what Coffee were you using? My grinder returned from Mahlkönig support a month or so.