Setting below "touching" on Baratza Vario - Page 2

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
Mauro (original poster)
Posts: 10
Joined: 8 years ago

#11: Post by Mauro (original poster) »

This makes sense. I also think the post showing the alignment method with the marker is really interesting. If im seeing this all correctly, the "touching" at one point at 2Q does not allow the finest grind possible, and for that we need to get the burrs closer together at all points - or basically set the grind for less than 2Q. So 2 things going on? - compensation for the lack of flatness and compensation for the "give" in the components. I'll buy that.


So - once i get a new motor for my Vario I can squeeze the burrs together until the whole thing gives up and cant make an espresso grind anymore.
Hopefully that's not for a few years.

this forum rocks.
Mauro


zimberto wrote:Due to the plastic construction of some key components in the Vario, the distance between the burrs set during calibration will not get respected while grinding. Even when new there is quite a bit of "give" in the plastic of the Vario, but over time the plastic gets even weaker, as does the tension between the burrs. The lighter the roast the more pronounced the effect will be since the lighter the roast the harder the beans are to grind. The only remediation is to rebuild the grinder with new parts, but the remedy is at best temporary since the new parts are still plastic.

The fact that Baratza recommends calibrating at 2Q (i.e. where the burrs begin to touch) indicates that they are allowing up to 1.7 ish of further tension (to 1A) to compensate for plasticity in the mechanism. If this were steel construction, you could expect to calibrate to 2Q and then back off to grind your espresso. Baratza used to recommend calibrating to about 1M, but that was before that setting stopped working for older Varios. A few years ago they bought themselves some time by recommending 2Q instead but now many of the original Varios (and even more recent ones) are unable to consistently grind espresso with any calibration.

Lauibly, Baratza rebuilt my Vario last year for free, but that isn't practical to do for every one they have sold. They had a good chance to fix this type of problem when designing their new Sette grinder, but given similar use of plastic there they appear to have chosen to hit a price point rather to address what is a fundamental and chronic issue. Hence my respect for Baratza has waned. I sold my (newly rebuilt) Vario and paid some more money for a grinder that uses metal for key components. Whatever grind I dial in is the grind I get day after day, and that sadly is something I could not say about my Vario.

bakafish
Posts: 629
Joined: 11 years ago

#12: Post by bakafish »

I just completed the realignment on my Forte BG. Before the realignment, burrs touch at 2Q, 18.5g light roast Yirgacheffe at 2H, can only use 6 bar to extract on my Rossa PG. After the realignment, burrs touch at 2Q, 18g the same light roast Yirgacheffe at 2N, my Rossa PG was choked.

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