Hi guys,

This past Friday, I was grinding my husband's pour over on my trusty Baratza Forte and all was as usual, but in the middle of the grinding session the sound changed to really soft and the grinder stopped!!!

I thought that there might have been a rock in the bean hopper along with beans. I took off the hopper, removed and cleaned the burrs (very little retention, by the way). The burrs and the grinder looked pristine, no damage from a possible rock. Assembled the burrs again and still low humming noise and the burrs won't move. There is a sound inside the grinder as if there is a part that came loose. There is actually something rattling inside the grinder.

I immediately emailed Baratza on Friday morning, but of course with the weekend, I didn't expect a response and hoping to hear Monday or Tuesday. I also heard that the Baratza service is not what it used to be, now that it has been bought by Breville.

Any thoughts on what might be wrong with my grinder..

Thanks.

The belt came off the motor. You can open the back up and reinstall it adjusting the tension. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... jd_Ybd9Ax4.
The procedure on vario and forte is the same.
Jeff

Thanks Jeff, off to watch the video.

Opened up the grinder and here is what I found. The belt is loose because the tip connector that is suppose to have the mounting screw which is not there,
and the part fell off.

Put a 2 mm wrench in and make sure the screw is truly missing. It hides deep inside it and might just need tightened.

From the 2nd image it looks like the grub screw is in there

Actually had that very issue repeatedly... tightening did no good, not even threadlocker. Only real fix and that it did was cleaning/applying 5 min epoxy to the shaft, get the pinion gear tightened in place and let it cure. A garbage design no doubt!

sounds like you have a bad grub screw, didn't tighten the screw properly or didn't use the right thread locker. Coffee grinders are relatively low power and only run for seconds or at most a few minutes at a time. It's overkill to epoxy the pinion.

Had would be a more fitting word as I gave the thing away once more parts failed and clearly it's a weak design under a fair amount of friction. I'm quite mechanically inclined, have quality tools and tried blue and red Loctite after having thoroughly cleaned the shaft/threads... Bonding with epoxy worked flawlessly and nothing is overkill if it gets the job done that the lame design/factory simply couldn't. Very subpar build quality for the cost any way you look at it, but to each their own.

Same issue here. Baratza support recommended replacing the motor and drive gear --
1094 Forte D-Shaft Motor Drive Pulley w/ Set Screw
1036 120 V Motor D-Shaft

The new parts are improved, and Baratza offered me a discount code that made the total cost very reasonable:
Subtotal $44.50
Discount (keepongrinding) -$28.00
Tax $3.17
Shipping & Handling $15.95
Grand Total $35.62

Considering my grinder was 7 years old (in 2021), I was pleased with this.

Jack