# x54 Issues - Gushers on finest setting



## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

So despite good impressions initially, my experience with the Mahlkönig x54 has soured (literally) pretty quickly.

On the finest setting, even after re-adjusting the dial, I'm struggling to get an extraction that takes longer than 20 seconds. With the Mazzer I had before I'd comfortably get a great tasting 30 sec shot with 17.5g in an 18g VST basket.

Even updosing I'm still not getting even close to a 1:2 in 30 seconds. What's surprising is that it's not even a particularly light roast.

I know not many of these grinders have shipped yet but before I contact Mahlkönig direct, am I doing something wrong?

https://streamable.com/8dn6wy

https://streamable.com/avrmpx


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## Chriss29 (Oct 21, 2020)

Any chance it's caused by the bean do you think? Do you have another grinder to test?


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## Denis S (Jul 31, 2020)

Get a more forgiving basket, that will let you grind much coarser (gaggia 14g, synesso/slayer basket, hq14 basket or something like that, even the curved ims).

This will let you grind coarser and the grinder will perform better and not with that many clumps. Clumps are really bad and create channeling, in your shot the flow starts really really slow but after you get a massive channeling rush with major blinding and weak water extracted.

About the grinders, as already knew from 2-3 months ago, you will have to :

a. retake the touch point zero where the burrs chirp (this changes after some time or from factory it's not perfect-

b. do a small alignment following a youtube tutorial with shims/aluminium foil and marker) this will improve the consistency and you will grind much coarser without clumps-

If you do not want to do any of these, send the grinder back and get something else.


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

Thanks, I definitely had better results with the previous bean, but I was still right at the lowest adjustment.

Regarding the clumping, I actually emailed the retailer already who confirmed they had the same clumping on their shop x54. I figured it wasn't helping the shots but they've said it's 'working as intended'.

I'm reluctant to mess with the burr alignment too much because I think, as per your final suggestion, I'm tempted to consider my other options. I bought it knowing it's 'expensive' for a home-user targeted grinder, but also hoping it would adequately do what it suggests.

The timer function and ability to switch easily between brew methods are great, but only if I can actually make a decent espresso as well as a decent filter.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Has the hopper got a decent amount of coffee in it

did you purge between grind settings and or changing to filter ?

it is in the finest setting , or just near it


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

Mrboots2u said:


> Has the hopper got a decent amount of coffee in it
> 
> did you purge between grind settings and or changing to filter ?
> 
> it is in the finest setting , or just near it


 Yeah the hopper has about 400g in, and I've run four shots through this evening with the same results so the grinder should be well purged.

It's at the very finest setting, the dial doesn't move any further.


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## Denis S (Jul 31, 2020)

Retake the zero you should hear the burr touch at 0 or close when applying a bit of force.

But the grinder is a flat and it's missaligned 100% because they build only crap, and this is their cheapest chinese made model. Send it back and dont look back.


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

How are you breaking up the clumps after grinding and before pulling the shot?


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

Denis S said:


> Retake the zero you should hear the burr touch at 0 or close when applying a bit of force.
> 
> But the grinder is a flat and it's missaligned 100% because they build only crap, and this is their cheapest chinese made model. Send it back and dont look back.


 Yeah I've emailed them to request just that.


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## newdent (Feb 20, 2021)

I thought you were getting good results with espresso initially?

Is the bean fresh?

Do you have a bottomless portafilter, would be useful to see the extraction. You could be grinding too finely and the puck could be cracking as channelling. I've only ever seen clumping like that when grinding extremely fine, which shouldn't be necessary if it's not particularly dark. Unless it's stale.


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

newdent said:


> I thought you were getting good results with espresso initially?
> 
> Is the bean fresh?
> 
> Do you have a bottomless portafilter, would be useful to see the extraction. You could be grinding too finely and the puck could be cracking as channelling. I've only ever seen clumping like that when grinding extremely fine, which shouldn't be necessary if it's not particularly dark. Unless it's stale.


 Things were going pretty smoothly at first, although I was using a roast that was as dark as I'd typically go and the setting was still almost at the bottom. The manual suggests '1-5' for espresso but I was basically on '1' (which is where the dial bottoms out).

The new beans were roasted two weeks ago, and are lighter but certainly not 'light'.

It's disappointing since I really like the look of the grinder and the ease of multiple timed programs but the majority of my coffee drinking is espresso drinks so if it can't do that well then I don't really want a £600 brew grinder.

I've requested the return with Clumsy Goat as I'm at the tail end of their 30-day window. Hopefully they're understanding!


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

Update-

Clumsy Goat replied quickly with the advice to calibrate as per the Mahlkönig YouTube video.

I'm not sure how I'd gotten such good results initially but the factory calibration was way out, and now even going down to 2 chokes my machine.

I'm now getting consistent 30-32 second extractions at 17g which is actually a slightly lower dose than I'd been using previously so calibrating has clearly helped a lot.

Not ideal I suppose to have to calibrate out the box but not unheard of.


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

Back again!

Really disappointing results from the x54 and I'm not totally sure what's happening.

In short, I'm just getting inconsistencies every day.

I gave up on the timer function as I was getting a different dose each day, I thought that was down to the coffee ageing but now with other inconsistencies I'm not sure. Also gave up on switching brew methods with the huge amount of waste due to the massive purges required when switching.

So&#8230; just doing espresso -Weighing out doses each time I'm still getting hugely differing results on each shot. Same grind setting, same dose, same (as far as I can tell) tamp pressure&#8230; different extraction times, varying from 16 secs through to 35 seconds.

Even in the same day I'm getting different extractions.

I've tried three different coffees with the same inconsistencies, one of which I'm very familiar with and would get consistent results with a hopper full on my Mazzer.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Is it possible it's related to the grinder in some way? I'm probably unable to return it (Clumsy Goat don't take returns on machines/grinders) and I'll lose way too much reselling it so trying to work with it rather than give up entirely.

Thanks


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

creationtwentytwo said:


> Update-
> 
> Clumsy Goat replied quickly with the advice to calibrate as per the Mahlkönig YouTube video.
> 
> ...


 Here goes , did you buy online, I struggle to see how your are not at least covered by online distance selling laws.

secondly use the grinder as intended , fill hopper. Yes the dose may vary 0.5 g or so , that's faulty standard for any hopper fed grinder. 
It some coffee, rest it , 10 days .

make sure you dose , is appropriate to basket , clean and calibrate grinder .


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

Mrboots2u said:


> Here goes , did you buy online, I struggle to see how your are not at least covered by online distance selling laws.
> 
> secondly use the grinder as intended , fill hopper. Yes the dose may vary 0.5 g or so , that's faulty standard for any hopper fed grinder.
> It some coffee, rest it , 10 days .
> ...


 I must admit I haven't gone down the distance selling route but conscious there could be the argument of 'it is sold as a coffee grinder, it grinds coffee'.

I don't mind so much the variation in dose, it's more that I'm seemingly unable to get a consistent extraction, even pulling two shots sequentially.

Weighing an exact 18g at the same grind setting, tamping the same, the extractions are bizarrely inconsistent. Even if the timing is close, the flow from the PF is different making me think there's an issue with the grind itself.

There is a LOT of clumping, and after calibrating I'm at setting '5' so not too close to the finest. I've tried dosing into a cup first and even after shaking the clumps remain.

I emailed the retailer about this who contacted their supplier who confirmed they had the same results so it was 'normal'.


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## HVL87 (Dec 17, 2019)

It's not working as intended if your shots are so inconsistent and you're otherwise preparing your shots correctly. I would probably request a refund once again, otherwise go the distance selling route. Does it not say 30 days returns are available on the grinder product page?

Quite honestly I don't see the appeal of the x54. Seems like a Niche or Solo would better suit your workflow.


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

HVL87 said:


> It's not working as intended if your shots are so inconsistent and you're otherwise preparing your shots correctly. I would probably request a refund once again, otherwise go the distance selling route. Does it not say 30 days returns are available on the grinder product page?
> 
> Quite honestly I don't see the appeal of the x54. Seems like a Niche or Solo would better suit your workflow.


 I'm just slightly outside the 30 days although I had contacted them about these issues within the 30 days and they'd suggested a few fixes (to no avail!).

The Niche is admittedly growing more appealing and arguably the grinder I should've purchased. I suppose I'd written it off as I don't currently single dose, mainly due to only really having one coffee on the go and making multiple coffees for family members. Although I've come to realise just dosing out beans prior to starting adds very little time to the current hopper workflow.


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## HVL87 (Dec 17, 2019)

creationtwentytwo said:


> I'm just slightly outside the 30 days although I had contacted them about these issues within the 30 days and they'd suggested a few fixes (to no avail!).


 I believe having contacted them within the 30 day period to request a refund is sufficient as the subsequent fixes they recommended did not work for you.



creationtwentytwo said:


> and making multiple coffees for family members. Although I've come to realise just dosing out beans prior to starting adds very little time to the current hopper workflow.


 I do make multiple drinks with the Niche and it's not an issue. Like you say I have small dosing pots, so can pre-weigh the dose beforehand if needed. Also as you're grinding into a dosing cup you can let it grind and do other things such as cleaning out the PF from the previous coffee.


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

Embarrassingly I might've made a bit of a discovery&#8230;

I think the inconsistencies are linked to using a dosing cup now I'm measuring rather than timing (where I was grinding into the basket).

I realised the grinds are getting heaped on one side due to gravity when flipping the cup, and tamping that is obviously causing issues with flow.

By distributing the grinds more carefully before tamping I'm getting much more consistent results ~32 seconds for 18/36g.


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

@creationtwentytwo - forget about the timing. Can you actually do a 60s shot, 18g in, 36g out (I.e.: can you grinder grind fine enough)?

if so, then I'd say the grinder is not the problem.

I don't know much about that grinder, but presumably it's an espresso grinder right?

edit: just googled up. It's an all rounder. So yeah, maybe check the calibration and go from there.

it does look like a really nice grinder btw!


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

MediumRoastSteam said:


> @creationtwentytwo - forget about the timing. Can you actually do a 60s shot, 18g in, 36g out (I.e.: can you grinder grind fine enough)?
> 
> if so, then I'd say the grinder is not the problem.
> 
> ...


 Before I'd calibrated it I was struggling to get anything much slower than 10 seconds. However after following the YouTube calibration video mentioned earlier that Mahlkönig put out, things are much much better. I can choke the machine pretty easily with lower settings.

I agree it looks good too, feels like a mini E65 in my kitchen!


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## 1984FXSB (Mar 13, 2009)

I wanted to update this again having used the x54 daily for the past few months.

Overall I'm really happy with it. Most importantly, in the cup, the results are fantastic and it's enjoyable to use. I also still really like how it looks. Controversially I'm not actually using most of the selling-point features...

However, it's not without its quirks and I've had to tailor my coffee making workflow a bit to get the best out of it.

I've given up trying to grind for multiple brew methods with it for three reasons- firstly the amount of purging required between settings was just such a huge waste of coffee. I was having to run ~20g through every time I went from brew to espresso.

Second is that the dial on the side, whilst stepless, seems to be tricky to dial espresso back in when you're moving down from a much coarser grind. Setting a '5' (for example) after coming 'down' from 15, might be slightly different to a '5' if you've gone 'up' from a '3', say.

Lastly, it's *not *ideal for single-dosing so having to choose coffees that work well for espresso and filter is limiting.

The other slight annoyance is that the timer seems to be rendered useless by the affect of gravity and age of bean. 20 seconds might grind 18g on one day, and 16g on the next as the coffee ages and the hopper empties.

I also found the grinds using the PF holder were much too clumpy at finer settings to go straight to tamping. I also found using a 58mm dosing cup and the flip-method resulted in the classic sloping bed of coffee. Neither insurmountable issues but again, affected how I use the grinder.

So my workflow is - Eyeball about 100g coffee to the hopper every morning. Use the untimed setting and weigh out 18g into the included dosing cup (not PF sized). Then I use a funnel to dose into the PF and tap down on the mat. Tamp, extract.

Another controversial point is that I can't taste a distinguishable difference between single-dosing and using beans from an air-tight source and beans that have sat in the hopper for 24 hours. I think with the 54mm flat burrs the x54 is a happy medium between single-dosing and full hopper on-demand.

For the sake of kitchen-counter space I'll still hope for a multi-brew-method, zero retention flat burr grinder with accurate timer designed for home use. In the meantime, however, the x54 and Bianca is a really really enjoyable combo.


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