Got the bean feeder in the hope that the stalling I experienced would be solved. Negative.

I had the bean feeder installed and was grinding a medium roasted Costa Rica for a V60 pour over. RPM about halfway up. The device stalled. Ugh. I cleaned everything out and finished the grind. I just went to grind for another cup and the grinder is dead. WTF. I went to start the grinder before starting to pour the beans because I normally do that and can't get the grinder to start. It's on and there are NO beans in the device. I've double and triple checked. I can also move the burrs manually so there is no material stopping the burr from spinning. I have the RPM at max to try to get it to turn but no dice.

In short, this grinder is complete garbage and Weber should be ashamed of themselves.

Tennantscoffee wrote:
I cleaned everything out and finished the grind. I just went to grind for another cup and the grinder is dead.

Is the back switch on?

Of course. When it happened before I needed to turn the power off to the unit...maybe something needs to be reset when it happens? Don't know. Anyhow, that solved the problem the first time...it's not working this time.

And let's be honest here...should a $1700-2000 grinder ever stall when grinding a medium roasted bean on a V60 setting?

I wouldn't recommend this grinder to anyone. Does it make great coffee? Yes...but so do a lot of other grinders that don't stall.

Tennantscoffee wrote:...it's not working this time.

If it's dead, you can pull the back plate off (2 Allen screws), tap the plate up off the forks to see if you have a steady green light (or some other or none) indication on the motor drive board.

Sorry...my mistake, by dead I meant that the motor wasn't turning. The lights are on when I push the switch but nothing happens. I'll take the back off and see. But again...this was an expensive grinder and it is inexcusable for it to stall.

Hello All,

I have had my Key for about a week now. The most challenging change has been grinding into a container as opposed to grinding directly into the basket as I did with my old grinder. It definitely adds more steps to my flow, as well as possibilities to disturb the distribution. I am trying to avoid adding a WDT step and have re-watched the James Hoffmann video several times to try to imitate the little swish he does in lieu of WDT. So far, my results have been spotty at best.

For those of you avoiding a WDT step:

1. What are you doing?
2. How consistent are the results?
3. How are you liking the results?
I also recall somewhere back in the almost 900 replies of this thread (yes, I read it all) that some people were experimenting with some adaptations (3D printed?) to allow for grinding directly into the basket. Has anyone found a satisfactory solution?

Thank you.

Welcome to the club, the Key is a special piece, in more ways than one, its quirks included
I got the additional 'standard tumbler' alongside the stock magic tumbler and have experimented with both when it comes to WDT and its importance and levels required.

When using Key - use the tumbler, it works It takes few days to get used to it, but it's all worth it, believe me.

With tumbler, I had similar success with a spinning paperclip WDT wire when using magic tumbler and when grinding directly into the standard tumbler without the paperclip wire but followed by my own WDT after transferring the grounds into the portafilter. What I'm trying to say is the paperclip WW wire based WDT works, at least for me...and the pull results are pretty much identical to the ones when I use manual WDT.

I also tried sans WDT altogether and depending on your own technique of transferring the grind from the tumbler into the p/f, you might not even need it. I found very little difference with and without the WDT when using tumbler as a transport mechanism.

That said, for grinding directly into the p/f, you will need an add-on dosing funnel installed on the bottom and the p/f will have to be positioned very high, almost touching the funnel exit hole as the way this grinder works (blame massive 83mm conicals) is that it creates a major mess on the output, actually much wider than the bottom exit hole on the add-on funnel would lead you to believe.
Not sure grinding directly into the p/f would be worth the effort, TBH.

Kafana Nick wrote:Hello All,

I have had my Key for about a week now. The most challenging change has been grinding into a container as opposed to grinding directly into the basket as I did with my old grinder. It definitely adds more steps to my flow, as well as possibilities to disturb the distribution. I am trying to avoid adding a WDT step and have re-watched the James Hoffmann video several times to try to imitate the little swish he does in lieu of WDT. So far, my results have been spotty at best.

For those of you avoiding a WDT step:

1. What are you doing?
2. How consistent are the results?
3. How are you liking the results?
I also recall somewhere back in the almost 900 replies of this thread (yes, I read it all) that some people were experimenting with some adaptations (3D printed?) to allow for grinding directly into the basket. Has anyone found a satisfactory solution?

Thank you.

Here is one example:
3-D printed portafilter holder for Weber Workshops Key grinder

Decent makes one specific to the Key.

Many more; search on "portafilter holder stand".