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did old beans choke my grinder?

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  • did old beans choke my grinder?

    hello folks. newbie with a compak k3 touch advanced grinder. barely 1 month old into my home barista self training journey.

    been doing ok learning the grind etc but today, the grinder just wouldn’t output anything. the beans were marked jan 2021 - very old.

    i panicked and got a can of compressed air, sprayed everything, turned the burrs to coarsest grind, put fresh beans in (roast date only 2 weeks old) and it is working again.

    at the risk of sounding obvious, but was it that the beans were too old and somehow choked my grinder or did i do something else wrong?


  • #2
    My guess is you might’ve jammed the grinder while adjusting to a finer grind size.

    Some suggest ensuring your grinder is turned on when you’re adjusting to go finer to ensure no beans get stuck/trapped.

    I doubt stale beans has any effect on choking/jamming a grinder.

    Comment


    • #3
      As zuroy said make sure the grinder is running when you adjust the grind. Also never used compressed air, use a vacuum if needed. Sounds like what happened is indirectly due to the old beans. As beans age they need to be ground finer and finer to get the sake extraction and shot time. At some point they get beyond being able to get the same shot from, no matter how fine you grind. Also most domestic grinders have a point at which they'll clog because the grind is too fine and the sticks together better than it can get pushed through. I would guess that any coffee ground at the same setting would clog the grinder, its just that fresh coffee doesn't need to be ground anywhere near that fine.

      If ever you clog it (or feel like it's starting to struggle to push the coffee out) first thing to do is to adjust the grind coarser. If that doesn't clear it turn it off, close the gate on the hopper and remove it. Tip/vacuum the beans in the collar out. Adjust the grind approx. 1/4 turn coarser then turn the grinder on. With the grinder running, very slowly adjust the grind finer until close to your normal setting, but a bit coarser. If at any point the grinder shows signs of struggling to clear the beans, leave it running and adjust coarser 1/4 turn and slowly go finer again. Make sure your don't go all the way back to the setting that clogged it straight away.

      It may have been that you moved the grind setting finer too quickly, causing the grinds to build up inside the grinding chamber before they've had a chance to clear. This happens because burrs have two zones, there's the initial crush/breakdown zone, then the main grinding zone (they look a bit different, but flat burrs and conical burrs both have these 2 zones, except for a couple of grinders that have 2 sets of burrs, 1 for each zone). Each of these zones have a gradual decrease in opening size so that they gradually reduce the size of the chunk of bean. If you change the grind setting finer while there are beans being ground (always change it running), then you can make the two burrs move closer together faster than the gradual decrease in opening size the burrs have built in. If you have a completely empty grind chamber and you add beans to it, it will take a few seconds for anything to come out. If you're changing the grind setting finer faster than the grinder is pushing the beans through it causes a clog.

      Comment


      • andyss2003
        andyss2003 commented
        Editing a comment
        oh CRAP!! i hope i haven't ruined my grinder with compressed air. it is grinding OK now. why is compressed air bad?

      • saeco_user
        saeco_user commented
        Editing a comment
        it'll force grinds through any small oroffice into the grinders internals

    • #4
      andyss2003 It's probably fine. It doesn't cause problems every time, but you run the risk every time.

      Comment


      • Brewster
        Brewster commented
        Editing a comment
        Not to mention, probably blowing beans and grinds all over the place

    • #5
      Originally posted by level3ninja View Post
      As zuroy said never used compressed air, use a vacuum if needed..
      There have been posts over the years stating using compressed air in grinders and other cleaning of coffee equipment.

      Personally I use compressed air in my old >10yr old semi automatic machine as the fine end of the gun gets into many of the crevices in the machine. But saying that not much air is aimed in the top of the grinder as its pretty clean anyway.

      Any thoughts on the dangers of compressed air on expensive grinders may be a different story.

      Comment


      • #6
        Far better (and just as easy) to use a vacuum cleaner with various attachments to allow access into tight corners, etc.
        If you have the grinder completely disassembled down to component level then it's probably Ok to use 'dry' compressed air, since you would be able to access all crevices from many directions.

        Mal.

        Comment


        • #7
          So here's a question: if compressed air potentially puts grinds into places they are not meant to be, does that also mean that bellows are a flawed concept?

          Comment


          • Dimal
            Dimal commented
            Editing a comment
            The grinder would have to be designed to accommodate the use of Bellows, ie the grind path right through to the exit at the discharge chute must be a Closed Circuit. If not, coffee grinds will find their way into and through any orifice to places where ground coffee has no right to be...

          • tompoland
            tompoland commented
            Editing a comment
            That makes sense tx Mal.

        • #8
          Originally posted by tompoland View Post
          So here's a question: if compressed air potentially puts grinds into places they are not meant to be, does that also mean that bellows are a flawed concept?
          Are you able to achieve the same blast-power of compressed air with your bellows?

          Comment


          • tompoland
            tompoland commented
            Editing a comment
            I don't have a bellows so for me it's hypothetical but I would imagine the big difference is the ability of a compressed air blower to maintain the blast versus a bellows where it is simply one or two short blasts.

        • #9
          Originally posted by hedonist222 View Post

          Are you able to achieve the same blast-power of compressed air with your bellows?
          If you can generate that much power with bellows, then yeah, it's an issue.

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