How do you clean your grinder?

[Tex]

When I first got a big commercial grinder I was advised to use Urnex Grindz weekly to keep the grind chamber clean. A few years later I decided to check the burrs for sharpness, and couldn't get the upper burr carrier out of the machine.

Turns out that Grinds doesn't clean all that well, plus it does nothing about the accumulation of gunk on the burr carrier threads. When the threads get gunked up it's pretty-near impossible to unscrew the upper carrier. I had to jury rig a friends vise to hold the lower part of the body while I applied a 4 foot pipe wrench and a lot of penetrating oil before I could get it out. So I'd say Grindz sucks!

Now I do an semiannual partial disassembly of my grinder to clean out the grind chamber manually. I scrape and scour until all traces of coffee buildup is gone.

So, how do you clean your grinder?

[peter]

I've had my K10 for about two years now.  Last month I decided to buy some Grindz.  While I was waiting for the Grindz to arrive I got the bug to take things apart.  Once I got the burr carrier out and could see both burrs plainly, I asked myself why I even bothered.  Both burrs as well as the chamber were very clean w/ almost no crud on them, and what crud there was came off easily with a toothbrush.  It may have to do with almost zero beans darker than FC+.  I also don't know how many lbs. have gone through it; maybe on average a couple doubles per day.  But I'm comfortable going another two years before opening it up again, and may let the big jar of Grindz go to B|Java as a retirement gift.

[mp]

I opened up my La Cimbali pretty much as you did Robert.

There was some coffee stuck in there but I was able to loosen it and clean it out quite thoroughly.

I then put her back together like she was before.

Not that hard to do actually.

 

[dickcoffee]

I had the same experience with my K10.  Doesn't appear to need much.  I guess that makes sense as I'm only grinding about 100 grams a day at most.  When I got mine, I remember trying to decide what to do and there was much discussion on HB about keeping the grinder meticulously clean.  OTH, some well respected voices over there said such things as "what the heck are you guys putting through your grinder?" and "there's little likelihood that you could really taste the difference if there's a little coffee left in there".  These are paraphrases, but they're what I have decided to live by.  So, I'm not taking it apart again for some time and no Grindz.

[expy98]

when I had the SJ,I'd remove the burrs and clean the chamber but after a while, figured it didn't matter
as those spaces will end up accumulating again anyway and according to Newton's Grinder Constant,
whatever is stuck in those spaces tend to stay stuck. 
But when I did bother to clean it, I used uncle ben's rice as suggested elsewhere.

[BozemanEric]

I just buy a new grinder every 4-6 months.

[rgrosz78]

But when I did bother to clean it, I used uncle ben's rice as suggested elsewhere.

Yeah, that's exactly what I used, once or twice in three years.

[roastingnerd]

I have a Brevia from Australia and it is relatively easy to disassemble.  BUT that is only half the battle.  The burrs are the easy part.  The thing has a tortuous path to push fine grounds through.  Once, when I gound some oily espresso beans too fine, it plugged up solid.  I called tech help and nothing they suggested worked.  They finally shipped me a new grinder and I RMA'd the old one.  Since then I googled around and found some long surgical canula brushes that I force through the path.  Very difficult process indeed.  Maybe I should just grind rice.  Is there anything special about Uncle Ben's?

[expy98]

I buy generic instant rice from SmartFinal in a huge box for dirt cheap compared to the tiny
box of Uncle Ben.  Supposedly uncooked rice are too hard and brittle and can damage
the burrs, instant rice is much softer.  But using it won't rid of the retained muck in
hard to reach places, if it's not coming out regularly, just pretend it's not there...

[fore]

Well...I've been a Grindz user till I read this thread lol  But I too have found it not too necessary grinding up lighter roasts.  Which is all I drink now pretty much lol

Thanks for the informative read,
Chris

[GC7]

I got my K10 very recently and I did run a batch of grindz through it because it had a slight off coffee smell to it and I wanted it to accumulate MY off coffee smell  I purged it all and vacuumed it up out of the chute and doser with my handy Oreck shopvac and then ran a couple of hundred grams of older beans through it and repeated the vacuum cleaning. I've been good to go since. The K10 is very easy to keep clean.

The virtuoso I just take out the upper burr carrier every couple of months and clean out the chamber and burrs.

[SJM]

Take it all apart.
Pull out the picks and the vacuum cleaner fine attachments.
And dig and vac until it is all shiny.
Put it back together....

Not very often...

Susan

[fore]

GC7, I have a Virtuosa too.  Been using it for ?5yrs and never have taken it apart.  Can you tell me how you take it apart to clean it?  It's been awhile, but I don't think I remember seeing it in the owners manual.  It'd be nice to clean it at least once lol

[Tex]

Take it all apart.
Pull out the picks and the vacuum cleaner fine attachments.
And dig and vac until it is all shiny.
Put it back together....

Not very often...

Susan

You forgot the part about searching High & Low for the pieces you lose.

[GC7]

GC7, I have a Virtuosa too.  Been using it for ?5yrs and never have taken it apart.  Can you tell me how you take it apart to clean it?  It's been awhile, but I don't think I remember seeing it in the owners manual.  It'd be nice to clean it at least once lol

I just clean the burrs and the grind chamber and chute. Remove the hopper and then the rubber collar and top burr for cleaning as you wish. I use a brush and some compressed air.

Cleaning the Burrs in a Baratza Grinder