Burr coatings - any point for home users?

#1: Post by **jb-0101** » July 13th, 2022, 1:17 am

So SSP (and other grinder/burr manufacturers) are coating burrs now days in all sorts of fancy coatings. The main point I've seen is to extend the life of the burrs.

SSP estimate 1000kg uncoated or 5000kg coated, and their burrs cost (at least for 80mm) $50USD less if you ask for them uncoated.

Now for a cafe/roasters, it's a no-brained for the extra life of the burrs. But for home users?? If I was to grind 100g every day - so that's a double shot for my wife and me (20g each), plus a filter each at lunch time (15g each) plus an extra 30g worth of waste/buffer in testers, sink shots, etc (which is much more than I actually grind, but for the illustration...) that would be 27 years of coffee from that burr set!! And with the way things move and change I have no doubt I'd change burrs or grinders within that time.

Is there any additional benefit, other than lifespan, to burr coatings? And therefore is there really much point for the home user??

#2: Post by **baldheadracing** » July 13th, 2022, 1:50 am

The burrs are deburred before coating, e.g., by bead blasting, so you don't need to grind 50-100 lbs of coffee to break the burrs in.

The coated burrs will most likely benefit from seasoning, but that's typically 5-10lbs of coffee.

In rare cases, specific coatings also need to be broken in, but the burr manufacturer will give specific guidance in such cases.

July 13th, 2022, 1:57 am

Thanks for the info baldheadracing, but I was more trying to find out what benefit, aside from extended life of the burrs, that coating provides. Do you know any other benefits?
Thanks

#4: Post by **BlueWater** » July 13th, 2022, 2:20 am

He just gave you a big benefit-significantly less coffee required to season the burrs; the grind setting stabilized much faster. Beyond that...the colors are interesting? Maybe the cutting edges stay sharp longer?

July 13th, 2022, 2:50 am

Yeah I see where you're coming from re break-in, but the pre-coating blasting achieves that, then the coating needs some break in.

But then Jonathan Gagné showed on his blog "I went all the way to 24 pounds because I heard the SSP burrs were particularly hard to break in." (silver knight in his case). Maybe red speed is less?

But yes better than with out blasting

#6: Post by **Marcelnl** » July 13th, 2022, 3:56 am

my main reason to buy the red speed burrs was that SSP did not make 83mm burrs without any coating

#7: Post by **Giampiero** » July 13th, 2022, 5:42 am

I don't know if it can be applied to such case, but the coating should reduce the friction so it probably increase the time before to reach a critic temperature point for the beans?

#8: Post by **baldheadracing** » July 13th, 2022, 8:17 am

jb-0101 wrote:Thanks for the info baldheadracing, but I was more trying to find out what benefit, aside from extended life of the burrs, that coating provides. Do you know any other benefits?
Thanks

Not really.

Uncoated burrs tend to discolour with RDT. Surface rust from RDT seems to only happen on non-cutting surfaces. (Cutting surfaces have coffee oil on them.) So the coatings offer protection, but the protection may only be cosmetic.

Different coatings have different properties and some point to differing coefficients of friction. However, again, this difference would be most noticeable in a commercial or bulk grinding application, not home use.

So coating looks good and serves as proof and preservation of surface prep.

YMMV.

#9: Post by **truemagellen** » July 13th, 2022, 8:35 am

BlueWater wrote: Maybe the cutting edges stay sharp longer?

The leading edge of the cutting teeth on new coated burrs are not as sharp as uncoated. This is because the coating costs the leading edge and creates a microscopic radius. So this blunted edge is much harder but not as sharp. Uncoated will radius as well as they season, since the leading edge is the weakest point.

In milling aluminum and other non ferrous materials you want an ultra sharp edge and so you use uncoated tooling.