What if I stop cleaning my grinder? - Page 3

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
opother
Posts: 401
Joined: 13 years ago

#21: Post by opother »

Most commercial grinders as well as home grinders are not designed well enough to keep grinds from gradually accumulating in various dead spots. They need to be cleaned before things get out of hand. How often may depend on how much you use the grinder as well as the type of coffee being ground (oily vs dry.)

In grinders that have a straight down grinding path, open visualization, and easy open access to the burrs such as a versalab (versalab is also self cleaning via wipers) this is not too much of a problem on the other hand cleaning out a regular grinder once a month is no big deal either.

Some cafes never clean their grinder and have no cares whatsoever about the fact that their espresso literally tastes horrible and bitter, they probably won't even bother to change out their burrs others actually take time to thoroughly clean up their equipment including their grinders at the end of the day.

Try restoring an ebay special that is filled with crusty gunk and you will realize that grinders need some care and maintenance.

jwCrema
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#22: Post by jwCrema »

My sense of smell is ridiculously high compared to all others in the family. I single dose. I am unable to taste the difference between the first grind & second grind. The first grind has ~2g of yesterday's grinds. So, I stopped the dusting of each day's grinds.

FWIW, Espressopart.com reports that Mazzer has redesigned the static screen. They know Mazzer grinders and a call to their tech support might be worthwhile

I clean the grinder every six months - for the wife and I, with friend provisioning, I'm doing less than 20 lbs of beans in that timeframe. I do not detect any scent of rancid. I do not remove coffee oil, but it is present, along with some quantities of bean fragments & powder grinds. My last cleaning was just this weekend and couldn't taste a difference, but I'd swear I do at other cleaning occasions.

I always check burrs and add a thin coat of lube to the collar. I have yet to see or detect any wear after close inspection. But at my rate of processing it will be years before something should appear. However, my collar springs were not the same length - as measured by calipers.- one was 5mm shorter than the others. So I'm replacing them since they're cheap. And, we've seen a mystery or two here solved by spring replacement.

I have no idea what would cause an impact to the springs on this chunk of metal that sustains my habit. It is possible they were hosed when they went in. I am going to measure the lengths/location of each new spring and compare on next cleaning.

While I have formerly been burr focused, it can't be good for alignment when the springs are not right on a Mazzer.

kize
Posts: 271
Joined: 13 years ago

#23: Post by kize »

What ? You're supposed to clean the grinder ?

Bossman
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Joined: 10 years ago

#24: Post by Bossman »

If you use Grindz (or a similar product) once a month do you still think you should take the grind chamber apart and clean it? I did it with my Pro M Espresso but it was super easy. I have not tried it on my K10, its a bit intimidating to me. Even though when I bought it there was obviously 5 year old rancid oils (it sat in storage for years) in it and it smelled very bad. I ran grindz through, then stale coffee, then more grindz and stale coffee again. Then I just took apart the doser to clean it and do the sweeper mod and I have been using it for over a month now. I do vacuum out the top of the grind chamber and chute along with the doser at least once once a week.

I just don't want to risk damaging something. For the same reason I have not opened up the boilers on my Mini Vivaldi, I am just to worried I will screw it up. I can take a computer part or build one from scratch no problem, other than that I am all thumbs when it comes to household repairs....

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aecletec
Posts: 1997
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#25: Post by aecletec »

Bossman wrote:If you use Grindz (or a similar product) once a month do you still think you should take the grind chamber apart and clean it?
I suggest you take a look at this thread Using rice to clean grinder? it seems likely Grindz will build up somewhere.

wkmok1
Posts: 272
Joined: 10 years ago

#26: Post by wkmok1 »

What a timely thread. I haven't cleaned my grinder for months. Last few days, my pulls have had a ton of spritzers. The whole side of my cup is covered in coffee droplets. After running ~50g of Minute Rice through the grinder, no more spritzers. :D
Winston

tonythewonderful (original poster)
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Joined: 8 years ago

#27: Post by tonythewonderful (original poster) »

Hi guys, here is a follow up.

So, for a while I have been cleaning the grinder with a vacuum cleaner without removing the burrs at all, without even changing the setting of the grinder. And I as said before I started hoping that I might just get away with this.

However, this week I started noticing some bitter taste in my coffee, even though I was using the same beans and the same grinder settings, the same brewing temperature.

So, will-nilly the cleaning call had to be accepted, the top burr was removed. Here is what I found (the grinder was vacuumed before I removed the top burr).

Apart from the coffee grinds, there was some soot-like stuff on the side of the top burr, on the expellers (or whatever they are called), and a crust like build up of coffee grinds between the burrs.










After cleaning (this time I removed the undercarriage too) and putting everything together, the bitter taste was gone.


The conclusion is that, unfortunately, vacuuming is not enough for my Mazzer-mini.

Even though my coffee is not dark roasted, it certainly not visibly oily, grinding necessarily releases the oils. And as a result grinds will clump, small fines will collect into soot-like goo (a humid climate here increases the chance of all this, even though I ran aircon almost all the time), and I will have to open my grinder once in a while and give it a proper cleaning. And... loving it!

opother
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Joined: 13 years ago

#28: Post by opother »

You have to also consider the possibility that some people may actually cherish the type of flavors uncleaned coffee equipment imparts into their cup. I knew this person who swore that the coffee got better and better as the rancid (rancid may be just a point of view) oils built up on a stove top moka pot over time and suggested that it never be cleaned because you won't experience the "better" flavor anymore.

Different strokes for different folks however not cleaning a grinder may impede burr changes, needed repairs, or any kind of service that requires disassembly down the road. Any kind of threading can become caked with tough hardened coffee oils binding them in place not to mention making life hard and unpleasant for the repairman who has to service it.

If I may suggest an alternative for those who like these flavors perhaps painting the inside of your grind chute or dosing chamber with espresso using an artist paint brush on a routine basis avoiding any screws, preferably with the most "robust" robusta you can find, but then this is an area that I not well versed in maybe someone experienced in relishing the taste of different vintage grinds build up can chime in.

I would also suggest saving what you clean out in a little spice jar if you prefer to have dry crusty oils infusing the grinds while your shot is being pulled. This will enable you better control the amount of nostalgia, (sorry I meant to say vintage) taste being introduced to the cup. Leaving your portafilter basket uncleaned is another idea but remember to clean the outside and the portafilter (basket holder) to allow you remove it when the holes eventually get clogged then you will have to clean the basket but no worry just have 2 baskets you can paint the inside of that too with espresso and let it sit after you finish swapping in your other previously pre "seasoned" filter basket and rotate.

If you are very laid back hate cleaning, don't really mind the tastes of a decent espresso (decent depends on point of view vintage loving experts chime in) and love the taste of vintage crust keep 2 grinders use one till the insides look as if there is a solid cake of black mud covering everything then send it out to be serviced and rotate in your second grinder. Do the same to your second grinder while your first grinder is out getting a massive time consuming difficult cleaning in a service center. Take pride in the fact you are contributing to our economy by having your equipment serviced regularly.

If they do a half hearted cleaning job to begin with or just get plain sick of thoroughly cleaning your grinders and decide that lackluster cleaning is good enough as long as your grinder still spins then you will have it made.

PS make sure to always insist your burrs not be changed.

Otherwise in the long run cleaning the grinder just has more advantages than drawbacks.

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