New Breville BCG820 "Smart Grinder Pro"

[ms1]

Hi Everyone, I have had my 820 for a couple of years and its never missed a beat. Then yesterday it seemed to make a brief crunch like sound (wasn't overly loud of destructive sounding but still quite noticeable) that I have not heard before and it sounded like it might have had a harder bean or something else that its laboured to grind. However from that point the coffee grind and flow has been totally different. I have given the machine a huge clean and can't see any damage but the coffee flow has stayed really slow and I have had to move the grind setting to be able to get any flow.

I took the impeller out and it looks ok but I can't compare if its worn. It is the new metal type and I'm suspecting and its maybe not turning fast enough.

My original settings that have worked forever are grind on 9 and 17sec to fill the double basket. After the sound and with the same beans I now am on grind of 16 and 36 seconds to fill the double basket. The coffee is also coming out at a far more inconsistent rate and much more clumped than before. The grind fineness though at the now higher setting seems to be the same as before the event when it was on 9. If I set it to 9 no ground coffee flows.

I'll call a service centre tomorrow but is this likely to be repairable or am I up for a new grinder as looking online they don't seem to be sold as seperate items any longer? At least not in the Red like I have.

My last repair experience with Breviile was terrible so I'm hoping not to have to have a repeat. If it does need to be replaced has anyone got any suggestions for another alternative as I'm not going to be buying the same again.

Thanks

EDITED - Actually I just checked and I bought it March 2016 so its not as old as I thought and inside both the warranty period and 2yr consumer law warranty period. I'll investigate those options first.

The problem I see though is going to be convincing anyone there is a problem. To all intensive purposes to a shop employee its going to appear as though its working. But its at a extremely limited capacity to how it has been working.

[artman]

Pretty sure the warranty on the smart grinder is 2 years duration with replacement as remedy.

Cheers

[ms1]

Well as assumed it was not straight forward to get a response on this issue and involved far more effort on my behalf than should be required. Firstly due to an insistence from the store that it only had 12month warranty. After several phone calls to Breville that was resolved and it agreed that the unit would be replaced. It's sounding like a 10 day wait now for another Smart Grinder but the really disappointing thing is the Cranberry is no longer available so my lovely BES820 Cranberry combo is now going to have a stainless grinder. Better a working grinder than a broken one however after only 16 mths its pretty poor in my mind to not be able to replace or repair with like for like.

[level3ninja]

Sad you can't swap the outer panels over to keep the red

[muddymoo]

Interestingly I got a replacement BES870 today, warranty job on my failed 2.5 year old one. Now has the same adjustable top burr fitted as the BCG820 grinder!

[stralto]

Hello everyone.

The Smart Grinder Pro is advertised on the Breville site to..:

"automatically adjust the dose whenever you change the grind".

My interpretation from this statement is that changing the "grind" would refer to incremental changes made to grind size. Which would imply that the dose seconds should change proportionally to the grind size. ie, when i rotate the grind size knob the dose should automatically change.

This doesn't happen at all on my machine.

My only indication of this feature even existing on the unit is the "program" function. Where you program a certain dose for the entire "espresso range" of grind, and then the entire "percolator range" of grind..etc. When you turn the grind knob enough so that the grind size lapses into the new range, the dose adjusts to the amount that you specified in the program.

Am I missing something, or is this all it is?

[level3ninja]

That's all it is

[jsunario]

Evening everyone.
Accidently managed to remove the bottom burr from my breville smartgrinder pro and am unable to secure it back in place - it seems to sit too high.
Anyone have any experience and tips on reinserting the bottom burr after removal?

Cheers, Julian

[level3ninja]

I'm going from memory here, but I think there is a specific orientation that it has to sit in in relation to the shaft, like a flat side or a bump that sticks up from below that goes into a hole in the burr. Also it's a left-hand thread, so lefty-tighty, rights-to-a-person.

[jsunario]

Yeah there is indeed a flat side but i can't seem to push the driveshaft deep enough for it to sit below the top burr.I think this has something to do with the screw thread at the bottom of the driveshaft which seems to rotate around but not bite on anything at the bottom of the driveshaft shaft

[HomeBrew]

... Accidentally managed to remove the bottom burr from my breville smartgrinder pro and am unable to secure it back in place - it seems to sit too high.

Anyone have any experience and tips on reinserting the bottom burr after removal?

Without wanting to sound silly, but did you line up the pins with the holes in the underside of the burr?

[jsunario]

Yes - all lined up, D (flat side of shaft) lined up still no cigar , perhaps its my caffeine deficiency?

[trungie]

I had a problem with mine today.

My normal settings is usually

17.8 sec
14 grind size

with this setting and local beans, i get 20g of grind coffee. However, this morning, the grind was clumpy and very fine for some reason and I can only get 11g out. I took the grinder apart and clean the top and bottom burrs. This did not fix the problem at all.

I had to change my settings to

22.8 sec
28 grind size

This seems to work now with the same beans. Has anyone experience this at all? I buy freshly roasted bean from my local roaster for the last 3 months.

[dandu]

I had a problem with mine today.

My normal settings is usually

17.8 sec
14 grind size

with this setting and local beans, i get 20g of grind coffee. However, this morning, the grind was clumpy and very fine for some reason and I can only get 11g out. I took the grinder apart and clean the top and bottom burrs. This did not fix the problem at all.

I had to change my settings to

22.8 sec
28 grind size

This seems to work now with the same beans. Has anyone experience this at all? I buy freshly roasted bean from my local roaster for the last 3 months.

That's strange. I would recommend to check again top burr alignment and if it is fully rotated to the red dot. If the top burr adjusting is on same number as before (1-6) Another tip could be that you have clogged way below burrs. Everytime I am cleaning I use hoover to clean way below burrs. Just put hoover perpendicularly onto bottom burr and try if air goes easily through the gringer. And then change the direction by moving hover to portafilter handle and try to do same and check if air is flowing in through bottom burr.

[trungie]

That's strange. I would recommend to check again top burr alignment and if it is fully rotated to the red dot. If the top burr adjusting is on same number as before (1-6) Another tip could be that you have clogged way below burrs. Everytime I am cleaning I use hoover to clean way below burrs. Just put hoover perpendicularly onto bottom burr and try if air goes easily through the gringer. And then change the direction by moving hover to portafilter handle and try to do same and check if air is flowing in through bottom burr.

I cleaned everything and made sure the top burr clicked in, however, it's still doing the same thing. The top burr is currently set to 5.

I'm now using the new settings.

23 sec
28 grind size

This is getting me 18g and the shot is consistent again. If anything happens again, I will call up Breville and get someone to have a look at it.