Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Mahlkonig Vario Grinder - burr recommendations, and any suggested mods?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Mahlkonig Vario Grinder - burr recommendations, and any suggested mods?

    HI all! I picked up a Vario grinder on the forums here, and been rather enjoying it! I had a Rocky for ages, and I love now having the programmable times and finer settings to jiggle. I do note, however, that with some beans I've been flying pretty close to the finest possible settings. We mainly do medium roasts, and we'd like to play with lighter ones too. It still sports the original ceramic burrs. I recall some reviews talking about "upgrades" to steel or other options.

    I'm open to any recommendations on burr replacements, burr upgrades, and any other worthwhile upgrades whilst I'm mucking about!

    And I suppose whilst I'm at it, I can see that (as non-drip, sole espresso drinkers) we will again be only playing about at the fine end of grind settings. This unit has a gross adjuster from 1-10 (1=finest). I can't see us using anything other than 1 or 2 (out of 10). Should we look at grinders that only play in the finer grind regions instead??

    Cheers,
    Mat

  • #2
    You can adjust the calibration point so that your used range moves higher up the scale of needed.

    Comment


    • #3
      Vario burrs are not a common size - 54mm. The original (genuine) burrs are ceramic - best for fine grinding (espresso). There are also some steel burrs available which are recommended for coarser grinds - but these can be hard to find.

      Re range of grinder.... yes for espresso you need to grind at around 2 on the coarse setting and tweak the fine setting to get the correct grind. There is also a proceedure for setting the burrs at the correct initial setting... there is an adjustment near to where the grounds are ejected. You should find a user manual on the internet - best follow the correct proceedure especially with ceramic burrs.

      Generally users open up the burr spacing in an effort to get coarser grinds.... and you might have one of those..... But if espresso is around 2 then that's set for fine grinding.

      Most grinders (even the expensive ones) only use part of the range for espresso.... the rest is for other styles of coffee so just small adjustments are the go!

      Comment


      • #4
        The steel burrs are excellent — it’s a ditting-made burr that comes standard with the Forte BG. They cost about $150 new, perhaps slightly more, and if you reach out to your local distributor they’ll tell you what it costs for them to install and align too.

        I actually just bought a Vario with the ceramics for a friend, and I own the Forte with steel burrs, so I can confidently say that the steels seem basically better in every way except grind speed. At espresso settings they take about twice as long, but produce a sweeter espresso with better complexity without losing any texture at all.

        I use a lever with long pre-infusions (which require a finer grind than 9 bar pump machines). I sit on the finest macro click, and about halfway on the micro adjustments, but this is plenty of room for dialing espresso. No point calibrating it finer, since you can go much past burr touch anyway.

        A bit surplus to what you’re asking, but for anyone else reading along — i’ve used most of the top commercial “end game” grinders, and a well-aligned forte (or vario with the steel burrs + chassis if you’re being picky) compares very well to an EK with turkish burrs for both filter and espresso. I’ve tried a bit of coffee from the SSP casts, and they’re very close to that. I suspect you could pick it blind from the p64 with SSP MPs, but only because those burrs are so distinctive.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by mat-with-one-t View Post
          HI all! I picked up a Vario grinder on the forums here, and been rather enjoying it! I had a Rocky for ages, and I love now having the programmable times and finer settings to jiggle. I do note, however, that with some beans I've been flying pretty close to the finest possible settings. We mainly do medium roasts, and we'd like to play with lighter ones too. It still sports the original ceramic burrs. I recall some reviews talking about "upgrades" to steel or other options. I'm open to any recommendations on burr replacements, burr upgrades, and any other worthwhile upgrades whilst I'm mucking about! And I suppose whilst I'm at it, I can see that (as non-drip, sole espresso drinkers) we will again be only playing about at the fine end of grind settings. This unit has a gross adjuster from 1-10 (1=finest). I can't see us using anything other than 1 or 2 (out of 10). Should we look at grinders that only play in the finer grind regions instead?? Cheers, Mat
          You just need to recalibrate it using the calibration grub screw. As yours is a Mahlkonig it'll be under a little sticker that says 'do not remove' or something like that, but voiding warranty obviously isn't an issue so don't worry about it. There are very good instructions on the Baratza YouTube channel. Any video on there relating to the Baratza Vario can be applied to the Mahlkonig as they are functionally identical. It's possible the grinder needs a deep clean, but it certainly won't need new burrs as the ceramic ones should outlive all of us unless they've been damaged by a foreign object. If you are only using it for espresso the ceramic burrs are great, but if you want to use it for filter brewing as well then the best and only real option is to swap to the steel burrs from the Forte BG.

          Comment

          Working...
          X