Ryan,
I apologize for asking too simple of a question, but .... what part of Texas are you in and what's your humidity like?

What surprises me most in your posts is that the taste is similar to your Mini. Although I only had mine for 2 weeks due to electrical problems, I have to say the consistency of the grind and the resulting shots were outstanding. I was using Klatch's Belle Espresso at 15-16 grams BUT my grind setting was down to 0.75 after zeroing the grinder. All that now being said, the taste difference from my Mini was very noticeable in that there was a lack of bite to the after taste and a mellowing of the chocolate notes. Overall a smoother, thicker, and slightly milder double shot of espresso. Like you I bought the CMH to rid myself of the WDT and it did that hands down.

For what its worth, I noticed on the Macap MXKR, that I got in replacement, an ever so slight settling in after about 15 lbs. The question is will you have enough time in your return policy to see if it is a settling problem? Try other blends too and if you don't have enough time left to allow some bean rest time send me a PM and I'll mail you some.

Thank you Ed for the generous offer to mail some coffee. I think I have enough to work with for now.

Perhaps it was unfair to omit that the weather in Texas has been erratic. Oscillating temperatures and humidity, with a couple of rainy days. Today happens to be a gorgeous, sunny Spring day. That being said, I feel that the Cimbali's performance has not varied based on the indoor humidity. The density and frequency of clumps has been pretty consistent.

It is odd that some people in this thread report a grinder setting that I would consider to be extremely fine. 0.75 from zero is just 3 clicks away from burrs touching, correct? That's close to Turkish for me. It also implies a rather narrow range of valid adjustments. I have explored the finer settings on my grinder, but they tended to result in overextraction.

Jim, I'll run as much cheap coffee as I can through the CMH per your advice. I am hesitant to put really bad or stale coffee in since it is hard to completely flush previous grinds through this grinder. I did find 12 oz of Ethiopian Harrar for $5.69 last night at Target. It turned out to be medium-roasted with no surface oils, so I ran that through without any guilt. The biggest shocker is that it was pretty fresh, but that's a topic for another thread.

Ken, thanks for your coffee recommendations. As it turns out, I had some Klatch Ethiopian Aricha Lot 9 in the freezer. It's a great coffee with distinct red berries. I pulled some shots with the CMH and they did taste very nice. I have just a little left to sample on the Mazzer. I really should re-order that coffee before they run out.

Thanks all,
Ryan

What coffee are you using? Lots of discussion on other things but I have not seen anyone ask what brand coffee you are running through it.

For what it is worth, I have two Max's, the original not the hybrid Jr, and never had those issues unless the humidity was off the chart or the beans were a dark oily roast.

Hi Dave,

There are several mentions of coffee in previous posts. So far I have tried beans from Klatch Roasting, Terroir, Cuvee, and my local roaster. None were dark roast. None had surface oils.

I have run the same coffees through my Mazzer with nice fluffy results.

Can anyone think of an engineering reason that the Cimbali Max Hybrid would clump more than the original Cimbali Max? Maybe there's something wrong with the grinder chute, which I can't even get access to because of the darn non-removable finger guard. Is the grinder chute a different aperture or shape on the Max than the Max Hybrid? (Dave, you might be able to answer that by comparing the Junior to the Max).

You said this about your Cimbali Junior once:

cannonfodder wrote:I never cut the finger guard tabs off for a couple of reasons. One, she sprays grinds, those tabs deflect the flying grinds down. Otherwise the coffee would spray against the front of the doser.

Does your Max spray grinds as well? My Max Hybrid doesn't. It only sprays for the first second or two if I have done my best to clear the chute with a chopstick. Once the coffee starts piling up in the chute, it begins to fall straight down in clumps. If I could get a fine spray of coffee going into the doser, I bet my clumping issues would disappear.

Thanks,
Ryan

It does settle down a little but still throws grinds pretty good. I wonder if you have a voltage issue. Not enough juice to drive the motor at full speed. I also thwack the doser pretty good, one pull every 2 or 3 seconds which will also break up clumps. One of the reasons I like doser grinders.