Hi all,

My first post in my favorite coffee forum, and I'm sorry it has to start with a troubleshooting question.

I recently bought a Macap M7D after eons of research and favorable reviews. I've had it about 2 months, it's had about 10-12 lbs of coffee through it, and was just starting to settle in and deliver consistent grind/weight per dose until a few days ago, when it started jamming unexplainably. Following advice that I found online, I backed the grind off considerably coarser until it ran, but as soon as adjust finer (with grinder running while doing so) when it approaches espresso grind, it jams without fail. On my machine, espresso grind was about 5.5 on the collar, although I know these numbers are not necessarily consistent from machine to machine.

When I first encountered the problem, I took out all the beans and discovered there were beans stuck under each of the "propeller" blades on top of the burrs. When I removed these it ran for a a few days more, then jammed again at an even coarser setting. And of course I never ran the grinder for more than a second while it was jammed to avoid damaging the motor. Has anyone had a similar experience? From what I understand a commercial level grinder like this shouldn't be jamming so easily, so guessing it could be a faulty starter capacitor. I'm also not totally understanding the safety mechanisms built in to the collar, I'm not sure if these could be locking up the burrs or not

I bought the grinder online from espressocoffeeshop, so the warranty/repair procedure is obviously a bit complicated, and I would expect such a process to run at an italian pace - this was the risk in buying internationally that I was well aware of. So before I go down that road I'd love to know if anyone has any advice, for this grinder or for conicals in general, that are behaving this way. The only thing I can imagine is that it's due to the very light use the machine receives (~6 shots a day) and that it hasn't had a chance to settle in fully. I should mention that once it stabilized after about 8 lbs, it was producing wonderful shots with my Lucca, leagues above what I'd achieved with my super jolly. So while I'm a bit disappointed that this is happening, I still believe in the grinder, and the fact that I haven't read one review of this grinder that mentioned faults or quality control issues leads me to think that this this an issue that will eventually be resolved. I have of course written to the dealer and await their response, but if anyone could shed some light on the problem in the meantime I'd be extremely grateful. Below is a link to a very short video that demonstrates the problem.

Thank you all for reading !

Desmond

I am a fellow owner of a Macap M7d and I have loved the grinder very much. I'm sorry to hear you are having problems with it. I have never had this happen to my grinder; however, on a K30/Peak I messed around on I noted that if adjusting from coarse to a lot finer that a jam would occur. When your grinder has jammed did it happen after a large adjustment? On a second not, I have noticed that the stuck beans between the three little off shoots do not make a bit of difference in performance.

I would suggest removing clearing the grinder and running some grinder cleaning tablets or rice through it to try and remove any built up coffee.

Let us know how it goes.

Sorry that i cant be any more help than the above poster but I have never seen this on my m7d. Agree that a good step would be to remove top burr and vacuum/clean everywhere, but knowing the high power of the m7d motor, seeing it in the state depicted by the video you have provided leaves me concerned that there is something mechanically wrong with that grinder that wont be rectified by a simple clean. Overall if it was me i would unplug, clean, and then wait for an inspection by a suitably trained tech

Thank both you for the replies!

zapa it isn't after adjustments that it jammed, just happened quite randomly. I have been in touch with dealer who in turn has been sending my videos to Macap, they are first advising me to remove the "star" part on the top burr and see if that solves the problem. But as you said I can't imagine those stuck beans really causing a problem.

When I do that I'll also remove the top burr and vacuum just in case. Since it's had so little use I'd be surprised if there is a lot of build-up but will check and see. I'm really hoping it isn't a problem with the motor; the capacitor I could replace myself but wouldn't really want to do the motor.

anyway, will keep you posted as it develops!

I'm considering the M7D and curious if you got this sorted out or not?

I am actually having the exact same problem. I just did a search for "Macap M7D jamming" and that's how I found this thread. Would love to know if there's a solution. I have not had the grinder for very long at all, and considering how expensive it is, I am really concerned that I just wasted my money. If I take the hopper off and vacuum/poke the beans around to clean it, it will work for 1-2 shots before jamming again. I have barely used it in the time I've had it so I can't imagine it's related to wear & tear.

Maybe the problem with the capacitor?

Any luck getting this resolved Desmond?

I hadn't had mine jam in a few weeks so I thought it had resolved itself, but it happened yesterday during a very high end event I was catering, and I absolutely panicked.

I have another catering in a few days and I absolutely need to have it fixed by then. I've been in touch with Clive Coffee for months about it and they have been providing wonderful customer service as always, but we still haven't gotten to the bottom of it.

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in the response.

Unfortunately I'm still having problems, replaced the capacitor and didn't make any difference.

The only thing that I've discovered is that there is one brand of coffee (Caffe Vita) which never jams the machine. Obviously this is not a solution, but it does indicate that with harder beans, the motor is just not generating sufficient torque. Which is of course ludicrous with a commercial grinder at this price point. My dealer in Italy has also been doing their best in suggesting things to try, but as yet it has not been fixed.

At this point I'm sad to say that I couldn't in good faith advocate buying this grinder, especially now knowing that I'm not the only one experiencing problems. To their credit, Macap has at least been responsive in sending videos and information to the dealer, but considering what this grinder costs, these issues should seldom arise after years of use, let alone the 6 months of light home use that mine has seen.

Will update if there's any progress though !

Hi all. Are your M7Ds set for timed grinding or single dosing? For timed grinding, how many seconds is the grinder taking to dispense 20 grams (should take approximately 3-3.5 seconds)? Have you been experimenting with different roast levels of coffee?

We've found that any grinder can jam when being adjusted too fine (especially when beans get crushed in between the burrs), and the solution is to coarsen the grind significantly to correct the grind time, then to adjust finer to correct the brew time.

@BP