Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

[artman]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Is the horrible noise you describe the burrs clashing?

Why dont you try this: Insert all the shims, turn the grinder to full coarse, then turn to fine (while grinding) until you get the noise, then back off a smidge - to me this would be the finest setting you can use on your grinder without your burrs clashing. Then grind at this setting and see what your shot looks like and the shot duration.

Cheers

[Ausnadian]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Is the horrible noise you describe the burrs clashing?

More like a battery powered drill when you cant tighten a screw anymore, like the drill wants to turn but doesnt have enough power to force it further. I described it earlier as being like a stone or something in the burrs, they are trying to go but cant. There was never any stones, thats why my theory leans toward them catching on each other.

Why dont you try this:  Insert all the shims, turn the grinder to full coarse, then turn to fine (while grinding) until you get the noise, then back off a smidge

Once I hear back from Breville I will try this. Would love to get their thoughts on it first.

[Bames]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

That sound is when the burrs are stuck and not moving - not sure if Breville have installed something like a drill slip thing to protect the motor.
Be VERY careful if you do this, but you can get it to grind by pressing the little button at the back of the hopper housing with a cake tester so the grinder thinks the hopper is in - this will allow you to turn the grinder on and see whats happening - i think youll find the burrs are stuck somehow.

[dski]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I recently bought a Breville Smart Grinder, but I cant get a sufficiently fine grind for my Breville 800ES. Finest setting, overdosed, and packed hard gives a result approaching acceptable.

Latest on my smart grinder, though Im sure its been covered before:

Recieved shim kit in mail within a few days of me contacting Breville.

Fitted finally 1.0 mm, and a 0.4 mm shim - in addition to shim already in place (0.5 mm I believe).

Still on last stop on the grinder, but getting a pour time in the 25 - 30 secs area. Getting quite viscous acid pours with chocolaty flavours. No biterness now.

Hopefully I wont need to go finer...

[dabbler]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Hopefully I wont need to go finer...

Hi DSKi,
Glad to hear your pours are working out now your shimmed.

I wouldnt worry just yet. Im not sure what Breville have to say but my general interpretation is that just because youve used all the shims in your shim kit, doesnt mean you cant add more shims. After all, they are just spacers measured with accuracy and precision (hopefully). In fact some earlier posts show kits with 10 shims.

Remember shims can be removed and replaced until you get the tolerance you want reach or max. tolerance.

d.

[dski]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

DSKi wrote Today at 8:24pm:
Hopefully I wont need to go finer...

Smiley


Hi DSKi,
Glad to hear your pours are working out now your shimmed.

I wouldnt worry just yet. Im not sure what Breville have to say but my general interpretation is that just because youve used all the shims in your shim kit, doesnt mean you cant add more shims. After all, they are just spacers measured with accuracy and precision (hopefully). In fact some earlier posts show kits with 10 shims.

Remember shims can be removed and replaced until you get the tolerance you want reach or max. tolerance.

d.

Thanks Dabbler,

I still have a 0.4 mm shim, and another that seems even finer.

10 shims! I wasnt aware of that, its good to know I have some room to move.

The beans I used are very fresh, and I suspect require a finer grind than others I use. Ill see how she goes for a couple of days.

Thanks again,

D

[artman]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

The physical limit is the amount of thread left after adding the shims, so you can still tighten the nut. On mine the nut holding the burr is on by only 1 turn. I am usually grinding on the finest setting, so I dont think I can go any finer.

Cheers

[dabbler]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Artman - how many shims have you used , or how many mm have you shimmed to leave only one thread ?
And How many threads do you think you started with ?

[artman]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I will have to pull it apart and measure the total shim thickness, will do so in the next few days and report. From memory, it came with 2 shims from the factory, and I installed all 4 shims from the shim kit.

I was worried with the nut only being on by one thread, but Phil from Breville said it should be ok. I dont take the burr off very often as I think with time that one thread may strip?

The shims required is mainly due to the relative location of the motor shaft to the upper burrs, so one grinder might be quite different to another.

I wonder if one can lower the outer/upper burr by placing a shim on top of it, ie between the burr and the carrier.

Cheers

[dabbler]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

artman - theres certainly no need to start pulling things apart just to make a measurement. Why risk that last thread unnecessarily ?

I thought about the top burr too. Its actually mounted inside a plastic casing which locks in place above the bottom burr. Is that your carrier? That fitting and its placement are fixed vertically. So you would have to move the top burr *within* the carrier and not try to raise/lower the burr and carrier together. If so, youd also have to somehow shave plastic from inside the mount/carrier to allow a shimmed burr to move up/down.

I guess if youre desperate enough you could try.

I highly recommend anyone who hasnt already, should read the early posts in this thread. There some interesting manufacturing talk from Phil that sheds light on reasons for the differences between builds of the BCG800.

[artman]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I want to take it off to give it a decent clean anyway, havent done so since the shimming.

Yes I was calling the plastic piece that locks into the grinder body the burr carrier, as it carries the actual burr.

My thinking is that if you could remove the tob burr from the this plastic, and insert a large washer between the top of the burr and the plastic, this will lower the burr in relation to where it was before, and therefore tightening up the grind. Not sure if this is do-able.

My burrs also have the circumferential scoring that had been mentioned before in this thread.

Its still performing well so far. Really love the minimum mess this grinder generates.

Cheers

[dabbler]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

My top burr is held in the carrier by a couple of moulded clips. Presumably all builds have something like this. It looks too tight to shim as-is. But its academic for me at the moment as I havent used my shim kit yet.

My wife and I rarely make coffee for each other and we enjoy different styles and even brew types. So being able to change grind and dose, then have the current setting still displayed knowing the next user can cope with the change is a big point for me/us. I just have to adjust for bean/roast/age and let her know the setting.

[Flat_white]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Hello all,

Just thought I’d comment on the Breville Smart Grinder BCG 800, seeing as how I’ve frequently used this site as a source of information re. all things coffee. 

At $250.00 we’re really happy with the Breville Smart Grinder BCG 800.  For $250.00 less than the Compak K3 Push and $60.00 more than the deLonghi KG100.

To begin at the beginning of my grinder story:  For Christmas I was happy to be given a deLonghi  KG 100 by my very patient and understanding wife. However, the grind consistency from this $189.00 machine was appalling and with the $60.00 hand grinder it was bought to replace producing better results I decided to return the Delonghi.

Following the return of the KG100 I was toying with the idea of purchasing a ‘Compak K3 Push’ and went as far as phoning a local supplier to organise immediate pick up.  (Un?)fortunately I was unable to contact anyone from the store in question so I decided to do a little more surfing – which somehow led back here to coffeesnobs and to the Breville. 

We prefer our coffee milky and after one minor explosion and some fine tuning of the brewing process I’ve just made the first, best two coffees using the Breville that we’ve had since obtaining our Rancilio Silvia at the start of last year.


The Breville is easy to operate, grinds perfectly (in my brief experience), dosing is fine-tuneable, doses consistently and cleanly (unless grinding near French doors that act to funnel gale force gusts of wind onto the bench you’re testing the grinder on).  The machine comes with one 50-54mm and one 58mm portafiller removable cradle that work to hold the Silvia’s portafiller nicely.  The unit has a pleasing appearance, a nice small footprint, looks and feels nice and sturdy and has an auto power off feature that activates after 5 mins of non-use.  The grind catch tray is secured in position magnetically and removes and replaces very easily.  I recall seeing some comment on the noise the BCG800 makes while operating, for us this is a non-issue – no sleeping babies or old(er) people to worry about. 

On a related note:  I was using pre-ground supermarket coffee for the first couple of months after our first big coffee-related acquisition - the Silvia – and I was initially sceptical about the necessity to purchase freshly roasted beans (if possible) and grind said beans just before use.  If you’ve out-laid a few extra dollars on some half-decent brewing gear don’t make the same mistake I did and deprive yourself by using sub-standard ingredients!  I think the purchase of some reasonable equipment and the above epiphany, mean I can now be called a coffeesnob.

Thanks to everyone for posting information and experiences - you make these essential coffee-related decisions a little easier.

[Ilgattonero]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Scoring of the burs has been mentioned often in this thread.

Do you think this damage to the burs is ongoing due to the fine setting or did it only occur initially while getting the grind set?

[artman]

Re: Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

Not sure to be honest. I just noticed it one day after having a look at the upper burr when cleaning.

Cheers