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Got an answer finally. You may have as well, Lyrebird.
As you suspected............
E04 means that there is a failure on the load cell and needs to be replaced. That being said, it is quite tricky to do yourself. We have our experienced technicians take on these repairs. If you would like to I can sell you a replacement snout and load cell but honestly, I would get this grinder sent in for repair since the repair is pretty easy to mess up.
Last edited by EZCFlair; 16 January 2019, 08:52 AM.
The local distributor (Five Senses) finally got back to me.
The part required is available but very expensive (over $200). Given that the grinder has seen about 21 months of very light use, I have decided to scrap it.
Last time I buy anything made by Baratza.
Edit: I realised I bought in in April 2017 so it's 21 months old not 18.
Last edited by Lyrebird; 19 January 2019, 10:21 AM.
Reason: Corrected age.
I would guess that this would be covered by the consumer guarantee, have you tried approaching them based on this? Its not unreasonable to expect a $600 dollar grinder to last longer than 18 months. I would be surprised if they dont come to the party in one way or another.
Reasonable quality Load Cells/Strain Gauges aren't that expensive and should be possible to translate them to work as required...
Mal.
Yes I thought about that, I have some experience with load cells / strain guage amps after instrumenting my frame fatigue load tester (the load cells ensure that each pedal "stroke" reaches he required force as per ISO4210).
My problem is that the two PCBs in the Baratza talk to each other in digital and Baratza warn that the firmware needs to be reflashed if the PCBs are changed. My digital skills are probably not up to sorting this out.
If I can get a second hand load cell and PCB from a dead Sette 270W I'll try replacing it myself, otherwise I'll try installing the front panel from a 270 (non-W) and go to grind by time.
My darling wife has just offered to buy me a Mahlkonig Vario for my birthday so things are looking up.
18 months lifespan on a $600 grinder used domestically is a joke. I would be contacting the ACCC if the supplier is not willing to repair it under warranty .
You have a very good case of the goods not being of "acceptable quality" look on ACCC website.
I was thinking about taking them to VCAT but with vintage coming up I can't follow it up until May (I have no spare time during vintage, it's not uncommon for me to work >90 hours in a week).
We have finally achieved a resolution to this problem. Baratza USA made Five Senses honour the warranty but in the end they couldn't fix the grinder so they replaced it with the current model (270Wi).
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