Green Coffee Buying Club
Coffee Discussion boards => Hardware & Equipment => Topic started by: Abqbomb on January 27, 2016, 10:27:15 AM
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I've got an older burr grinder that hasn't been used in ages and I want to clean up and give to a family member to replace their whirly-blade "grinder. The plastic bean hopper has a fair amount of coffee oil residue on it due to neglect and I'd like to clean that up before giving it to them. Any recommendations on how to efficiently remove the gunk? Other than that, the grinder is in great shape; new burrs, stepless conversion, etc.
Thanks in advance,
Chris
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I had purchased a well used La Cimbali grinder. Great grinder although it had seen a great deal of use and was under maintained. I took it apart piece by piece and cleaned as I went. There was a ton of stuff I was able to get off. Then once done I put some vegetable oil on it and re-assembled.
Quite an experience. I learned a lot.
Grinder is working well to this day.
If I can do it, I'm sure you certainly can. I did have help from the great members of this form.
:)
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TSP (tri sodium phosphate - essentially Spic-N-Span) is used to prep walls for wall papering and dissolves coffee gunk well. The only caution is it needs to be rinsed well as it will want to leave a residue. You find it at most home improvement and hardware stores.
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thanks for the replies! I have a box of TSP in the cleaning cabinet from a whole bunch of painting I did a few years back. Will give that a whirl.
Cheers,
Chris
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A couple other ideas would be citric acid solution or simple green....
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A couple other ideas would be citric acid solution or simple green....
Citric acid is food safe and is bought easily through Amazon bulk and has many many uses, especially for coffee cleaning i.e. boiler descale, dishwasher cleaning, Bonavita descaling, etc.. I personally would start there. Phosphoric Acid is another product that is also food safe and has multiple coffee equipment related uses.
I would avoid TSP in favor of these products personally.
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Simple green works great.
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Ahhh! Great tips. Thank you. I will save the tsp for the next paint job and give the other methods a try.
Chris
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I just cleaned a similarly gunked up grinder hopper this past week. Urnex Cafiza, the same stuff you use for back flushing, works absolute miracles for coffee oil. I left it to soak for about 30 min in a big bowl of warm mixture along with a few other pieces I had to clean.
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FYI, the primary ingredient in Urnex Cafiza is TSP. That's how I got started on it. I like it and use it but rinse super well. Choices.
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FYI, the primary ingredient in Urnex Cafiza is TSP. That's how I got started on it. I like it and use it but rinse super well. Choices.
I don't know that the TSP sold to prep walls for painting is anywhere near the purity of Cafiza that is marketed and certified for espresso machines, but that might not matter to some. In any case, it works well! :D
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Cafiza is for metal, do not use on plastic things. You might get by with 'wiping on' with a rag and rinsing but for a hopper with coffee oils; a simple green soak will be just fine.
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Cafiza is for metal, do not use on plastic things. You might get by with 'wiping on' with a rag and rinsing but for a hopper with coffee oils; a simple green soak will be just fine.
Citric Acid FTW. Simple green smell makes me nauseous and that smell doesn't go away. It does work good though, it removes a lot of stuff that gets spilled on the car carpet and seat belts for instance.
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just don't soak chrome in TSP nor citric acid, unless you want to remove the chrome.
for plastic parts, dishwashing detergent should suffice.
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Simple green smell makes me nauseous and that smell doesn't go away.
I have the same response to SG. I think it is the solvent 2-Butoxyethanol found in SG which has a very characteristic smell and is often found in grease cutting cleaning products.
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When we had smoke damage in our house, a strong mixture of Simple Green and TSP was the bomb for removing nasty, greasy smoke residue. Since then I've used it to clean a lot of stuff to great effect.
Personally, I would use Cafiza on it as I know it cuts the coffee grime and I've never noticed any ill effects on the plastic items I've used it on.
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For what its worth, this is the hopper/doser combo I cleaned with Cafiza. I had no issues with any hazing. :D
TSP is a moderately strong base (pH=~12) which might not be tolerated by the (usually) polycarbonate hopper at high concentrations. However, at high concentrations, citric acid and phosphoric acid will not be any more tolerable, possibly less.
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I dissolve TSP and Cafiza, and then run about a cup through my grinder to clean the burrs. Is that bad? ;)
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I dissolve TSP and Cafiza, and then run about a cup through my grinder to clean the burrs. Is that bad?
How bad can it be? Unbelievably, TSP is still an FDA approved food additive! :P :'( Plus, Barista will love refurbishing your grinder when you get out of the hospital.
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I dissolve TSP and Cafiza, and then run about a cup through my grinder to clean the burrs. Is that bad? ;)
No way! Just make sure to pour about 5 cups of water through to rinse! ;P
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A bit late to the discussion, but I have a question: Why do you need to "clean" the grinder at all using soap or any chemicals? The best solution offered here seems to be to a) take it apart and brush off the coffee dust, and b) use vegetable oil for the rest. I assume that the oiled grinder will have a few rounds of throw-away beans run through it before use to suck up the oil (defeating the purpose of the oil?)
Here's what I do for your consideration:
1-Take it apart and wipe with a clean, dry cloth as much as possible.
2-Reassemble and run a couple batches of dry oats through it to collect stale oil.
3-Run one small batch of throw-away beans through to flush out the oats.
I don't remember where I read about this cleaning technique, but it works for freshening up the machine, eg, removing stale oils. Beyond that, it is a used grinder--who is expecting a factory new gift?