tompoland wrote:That's interesting. I have a couple of hand grinders and a couple of electric ones but I've never thought about grinding from a wear and tear point of view. I'd certainly prefer an electric car to a self-propelled one (not having a dig at you, just having visions of me on the freeway pedalling really fast).

On the basis that you prefer not to have an electric engine because it will wear out, do you also have a preference for non electric appliances in the kitchen such as food processors, egg beaters and cake mixers?

For me, the hand grinding can become tedious if I was using it for three or four pours a day, but at one pour a day I quite enjoy it.

I guess too it depends on the electric grinder and the volume. The EG-1 will probably see me out at two grinds a day.

The beast I have is the Helor 106 and top to bottom it's a true lifetime grinder. The Robur burrs in it are rated around 1,700 lbs and that is in a high volume scenario with heat involved, etc. Being in a hand grinder at rather low RPM and no real possible heat generated I imagine those burrs will easily hit 20 yrs or more with my current grinding of about 2 lbs weekly. Even at that point I'm sure the cutting efficiency will still easily be 90+%, but who's counting... The ceramic ball bearings might eventually wear out and lose a bit of tolerance, but I will have a backup set onhand and I take care of the set in it now as is.

For things around the house I do take a manual approach when possible and within practical reason. Don't do much baking, but would gladly whip eggs, batter, brownie mix, even cookie dough by hand. A body in motion will indeed stay in motion.

letchhausen wrote:I'm having a similar problem. Today I grind at 13, tomorrow it will be 12. Now it's at 11. Have tried re-calibration several times to no avail. It was great until the first time I cleaned it. That was when things went awry. I'm considering getting a grinder that is sold locally so I can at least take it in somewhere to be checked out. Now to figure out what's comparable. I guess Eureka.

You are having to change the grind each day, that's perfectly normal as coffee ages, humidity changes and especially if you frequently "recalibrate". Changing espresso grind can be something that is even required during the day and is required more often the older the coffee is.

There seems to be this complete misunderstanding about calibration on the Zero. you do it once, you don't ever need to do it again unless you move the black indicator ring, or buy new burrs. If you grind the same coffee as someone else, your espresso might be at 12, theirs might be at 14 if they are stronger than you, or 9 if they are very gentle. When you open the Niche for cleaning, unless you moved the black ring accidentally don't recalibrate. Don't worry if your 12 is someone else's 15 or 10...it's only relevant to your grinder.

This post was about the hopper moving by itself gradually to a coarser setting, which can happen (quite rarely) if there is a lack of friction, but the hopper never moves by itself to a finer setting.

Thanks. I typically drink one blend and one single origin per day so I'm moving the dot since the two coffees are never the same grind setting. When I first got the Niche, it was stable, but not forever. I've been recalibrating because when it drifts, I figure something is wrong. Perhaps that's just making things worse. Niche said it's normal to drift.

By shifting the pointer every day, it seems like you're making the scale close to useless.

The "dot" indicates the relative position of the burrs. Different coffees will often require different settings on the scale, assuming that you don't move the dot. This is normal and expected of any grinder. Across a range of coffees, the "right" grind setting for me varies over a range of about 10 numbers on the Niche. The number itself is meaningless. However, since I haven't moved the pointer relative to the collar, if a batch of coffee X was around a 13 (to pick a number out of the air) 13 would be where I would start dialing it in with a different batch a month later. If most of my coffees from region Y were somewhere in the 10-15 range once I dialed them in, I might start an unfamiliar bag of coffee from region X somewhere around 12 or 13.

I have no expectations that a coffee I dial in at 13 on my Niche will dial in at 13 on your Niche and with your machine.

As the burrs settle in over the first 5-10 kg or so, where you set the dial may change with time. However, the pointer doesn't need to be "recalibrated" unless you accidentally shifted it. Mine is still on the same "click" it was the day it was delivered.

What is being talked about here is that some people, without intentionally rotating the collar or moving the pointer, find that the setting changes with time, as if the process of grinding causes the collar to rotate slightly.

letchhausen wrote:Thanks. I typically drink one blend and one single origin per day so I'm moving the dot since the two coffees are never the same grind setting. When I first got the Niche, it was stable, but not forever. I've been recalibrating because when it drifts, I figure something is wrong. Perhaps that's just making things worse. Niche said it's normal to drift.

your burrs will now be run in and producing less fines, this means the grinder will be more sensitive to grind adjustment and will require more frequent adjustments, do to humidity, temperature and coffee aging. When it drifts, you meaning is you don't get the same shot results (not that the adjustment moves by itself), then you are having to teak the grind fineness, is very normal.

Thanks! The thing was rock solid for months and the drifting is just in the last month or two. My first grinder was a Mazzer Robur that someone gave to me to get the huge beast out of their storage locker. That grinder was very consistent but I wasn't experimenting with different coffees back then. That came when I bought the Profitec 600 last year.