I started my grinder this morning and the locking ring jumped up, and the burrs then promptly seized. I don't know how the locking ring could have jumped like this... I used the grinder yesterday and haven't touched it since. But it happened.

How does one get out of this? I found this thread but it seems started by someone a bit more qualified than me, and is unfinished somehow. I dropped the inner burr, and coffee dropped. The ring still doesn't move to adjust the upper burr. Why is that by the way? Is the suggestion in that other thread to use a strap wrench around the lock ring (with the numbers) and wrench until the burrs move? Has someone done it and know which direction to go?

I'd loosen the cone burr retaining bolt (the bolt you remove to switch install/remove the paper clip of the magic tumbler).

Then tap the adjustment collar (not the outer ring) with a wooden mallet or similar to shock it, and then a strap wrench (coarser, counterclockwise) to loosen it.

A switch to make the grinder run backwards would be really useful here. I did this on my old Mono Flat 2 days ago, but luckily it spins looser so I just wasted a shot of coffee.

ira wrote:A switch to make the grinder run backwards would be really useful here. I did thins oy my old Mono Flat 2 days ago, but luckily it spins looser so I just wasted a shot of coffee.

Spinning looser didn't happen by luck; it is good engineering design.

The Key has a good-looking design; I had wished that its engineering was commensurate.

I think that Weber design combined with Kafatek engineering would yield an awesome grinder.

baldheadracing wrote:Then tap the adjustment collar (not the outer ring) with a wooden mallet or similar to shock it, and then a strap wrench (coarser, counterclockwise) to loosen it.

What's the adjustment collar? The piece that actually has the pins in it?

And to ira's comment: Would certainly have been nice if Weber's design worked like that. I dislike the pin and ring thing enough. but that failure mode of being seized isn't good.

I'm referring to the part that the ring (the ring with the numbers) slides over and has depressions that the ring slots into. The part that the funnel sits on. The part that you have to un-stick. The part that this wrench fits:

Nice wrench! I guess the pins are not on that collar, they're on the supporting arm. I tapped that with a mallet and that was enough to free the collar, no wrench needed. Now to recalibrate the grinder...

Thanks for the responses!

I watched James Hoffman's Weber key review when it came out and when he mentioned that the burrs could seize I thought "what idiot would that happen to?". Well I guess I'm the idiot because I too have seized the burrs because I didn't lock it in properly. How did James know that was even possible?

rfleming944 wrote:How did James know that was even possible?

We're all "idiots" at times? I wasn't a big fan of the steps on the Weber (it's ~ a 3 seconds difference from one step to the next for me, which I think is pretty big, regardless of what Weber says about 5 microns being a minute difference), and even less of a fan of the heavy lifting involved to change settings... but now I really wish they went stepless / a different way than this crazy pin and ring system. That was the biggest surprise when I received the Key. I certainly didn' expect such an adjustment mechanism. (For reference my grinder then was a Mazzer Mini that I used single dosing.)

Happened to me a couple of days back. The source of the problem was the bean feeder. The middle part collapsed and pushed the adjustment ring out. Now the adjustment ring is not seating right, and the same thing keeps happening. Asked Weber if they would fix under warranty but not holding my breath. Not impressed, clearly bad design. Very Apple like, flashy on the surface but dig a little and all kinds of bugs crawl out.