Urnex Grindz Espresso Grinder Cleaner (before/after photos) - Page 2

#11: Post by **koffeekev** » May 17th, 2005, 6:00 pm

I used rice once but was left with a gooey, sticky mess. No one said it wasn't supposed to be cooked rice.

Okay, okay, yes I used this response a couple years ago on CG but felt it was appropriate again.

#12: Post by HB » May 24th, 2005, 8:09 pm

Below is an offline reply from Josh answering some of the questions posed earlier. I am posting it on his behalf:

I did want to offer a few insights into our development process if you are interested... I noticed a lot of people talking about using rice or oatmeal or other organic products. Believe me, as the mad wizard behind Grindz, I personally tried (or oversaw the testing of) hundreds of items and formulations to get what we have now... The problem with some of the more traditionally mentioned items came down to three issues:
Dust and ability to be purged,

Chance of locking up motors,

Ability to absorb oily residue.
We found rice to leave huge starchy/dusty residues that just could not be removed easily. It also had a tendency to lock up the burrs if the setting was too fine or the relative humidity was too high. What I'm saying is that the small particles fell between the burrs and never left. As more piled up you got a cake of rice that was strong enough to hold up the revolutions of the burrs. Of course, this causes a major risk to burning out a motor. We saw similar results with oatmeal and many other similar textured products.

Looking to avoid this problem, we found some other products that were just way too hard. They were natural and safe, but a few even chewed up some lesser quality burrs.

The goal with Grindz Grinder Cleaner was to find the right combination of hardness and oil absorbing properties from a number of different ingredients that all did good things when passed through a grinder. We needed something hard enough to mechanically push coffee grounds out of the crevasses, but spongy enough to absorb oily residue. Of course, it all had to fit into the grinder AND could not carry the risk of locking the burrs with the motor running.

Hope that helps you a little in your travels and discussions. All feedback is always welcome. It helps us to make better products. We try to incorporate everything we hear back into our development process. Thanks again.

Josh

P.S. I noticed someone mentioning the size of the jar was too large for the home user. Partially in response, we are already in development on a consumer package that will be somewhere around 2-4 uses per jar. It might serve as both corporate sampling and a consumer resale item through some of our distributor partners (bricks and mortar or web based).

#13: Post by **framey** » May 25th, 2005, 8:45 am

You've gotta love it when companies are responsive and willing to listen to consumer feedback.

The product R&D seems to put to bed the 'rice as a cleaner' debate.

#14: Post by **Compass Coffee** » June 10th, 2005, 1:56 am

framey wrote:The product R&D seems to put to bed the 'rice as a cleaner' debate.

Not in my opinion. Been running a double shot load of Minute Rice through Rocky every month or so for about 3 years. Just because a company marketing a grinder cleaners says some other method doesn't work and/or may kill my grinder doesn't mean it will. When Rocky dies from a Minute Rice overdose I'll be sure and post his Memorial Service notice on the forum.

#15: Post by HB » July 14th, 2005, 9:39 pm

FYI... Randy Glass' "Espresso! My Espresso!" includes a review of Urnex Grindz. He was quite impressed.

#16: Post by **Compass Coffee** » July 15th, 2005, 1:26 am

I have great respect for Randys' site. But must also say I don't hold or go by all information on his site. For instance, I followed his sites advice for backflushing in <1sec multiple hits for a couple years until talking to a professional at EPNW who told me that is actually harder on Miss Silvia than using a normal backflushing routine. (ie on 'till pump labors then off, wait 10-15sec and repeat five times) And it made total sense and been doing regular backflushing ever since. Does a better & faster job with zero ill effect on Missy. And as far as Urnex Grindz goes I'm sure it works great, and at $2.38 PER usage I'll definitely stick to Minute Rice and would wager it does just as good a job.

#17: Post by **cannonfodder** » July 16th, 2005, 8:15 pm

I have used minute rice, a handful every few months. It is amazing how much brown comes out with the rice even after I cleaned the grinder (without disassembling). I vacuum it out then dump in a handful of stale beans and grind them to make sure the remaining rice powder is purged. No ill effects yet but I have only done this twice and that was with my KitchenAid a9 that I use for FP. Nothing but coffee as run through my Mazzer. Looks like I should stop doing that.

#18: Post by HB » October 31st, 2005, 8:47 am

Before cleaning:

Upper burrs

Lower burrs

After cleaning with Urnex Grindz:

Upper burrs

Lower burrs

See the rest of the story in Cleaning a Mazzer Mini.

#19: Post by **jrtatl** » January 22nd, 2006, 11:32 pm

I was one of the Grindz contest winners. I felt that I could "give back" by posting a pictorial before and after.

To give a little background, I have a Mazzer SJ that I haven't cleaned thoroughly in about 4 months. By "thorough," I mean unscrew the burr carrier and brush all surfaces; followed by a vac with my dust buster.

Before I used the Grindz, I thought it would be a good idea to do a light brushing of all surfaces. I wanted to remove most of the sediment on my burrs before I ran the Grindz.

After brushing, I used the Grindz. I then pulled the burrs and looked again. To my delight, I felt that the Grindz got the burrs pretty darn clean. I swept out the Grindz remnants, and ran two doses of coffee through the grinder to clear out the Grindz.

My overall impression: I'm glad I won the Grindz. I would have been very reluctant to try them if they weren't for free. However, after only one use I can see the benefit.

The photos may not be demonstrative of my impressions. Upon review, the photos do not show the detail that I observed in person.

YMMV. Who knows; maybe my impression will change after the next use. If so, I'll update.

Jeremy

Before (after brushing, but before Grindz)

After (after running Grindz and brushing)

#20: Post by **mobleyfan** » May 24th, 2006, 11:31 am

I finally got around to trying some Grindz. It had been a while since I cleaned out the ole mazzer mini mostly because I never found much dirt in there when I did. After cleaning with Grindz I noticed an immediate and substantial improvement in the quality of my espresso. In fact I got the first satisfying shots out of my new Silvia. I have a feeling that the product removed some stale coffee oils that were dragging down my shots. They were flat and dull tasting, now the proper brightness is ringing through.
-Sam