# Iberital MC2 weirdness... sudden change of grind!!



## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

ive had my hopper full to the brim with Allpress redchurch over the last couple of days. I dialed in on monday and was getting great coffee. So it continued on tuesday and wednesday.

However today... for no reason I can work out, the MC2 started producing serious chokers. Not a single drip was coming out of the portafilter. Same dose amount, same tamp.

I had to back off the grind almost 4 full turns to get the coffee back to where it was!

a sign of a problem? is something in the MC2 slipping (perhaps the worm drive skipped a tooth or two?)

i didnt want to waste any more coffee, so just before i made the final adjustment, i'd pulled a 32 second ristretto. 18g in, and what looked like about 1oz out. It was very tasty, with tons of fruit flavours, but lacked some of the richer chocolate notes that come through in redchurch.


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

No ideas anyone?


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## mookielagoo (Dec 12, 2012)

Just a thought (coz ive experienced the same problem now and again with my grinder) but could it be atmospheric changes? Ive found any residual grind retention in the iberital (and lets face it, it does retain a fair bit) can be affected by changes in weather (our kitchen is often cooler than the rest of the house and we've had a dry cold spell followed by wet weather)..You're in Scotland Shrink (i think) - Mother in law texted me yesterday and said it was snowing!!...

Mark


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## bubbajvegas (Jan 26, 2013)

Any reason you keep the beans in the hopper instead of single dosing?just wondering if it could be beans going stale but I suppose that would probably cause gushers rather than chokers,can't imagine the worm would jump really


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

Because I use a bag up within a couple of days, and single dosing just doesn't work on the iberital. I prefer to just put some beans in, and flush out stale grinds at the start of a day.i usually put enough beans in the hopper to last a day, and just top up as necessary. The iberital grinder has an air tight hopper lid, and the bottom is pretty much sealed by the grinds in the burrs. So I'm yet to be convinced that keeping my beans in a different plastic tub in a cupboard is any better









Just odd that on Wednesday I had two great coffees that extracted perfectly. And then today, not only was the grinder chucking out grinds rather messily, it also generated a complete choker. It was miles off on the adjustment.


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## bubbajvegas (Jan 26, 2013)

Fair enough on the hopper front 

Is the grinder back to normal workings now or still playing up?


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

All seems ok now.. But I ran out of beans.. So who knows. I really don't know what happened. Will test more tomorrow.

It's not the first time this grinder freaked out a little. Although it can produce good tasty results, I am considering its replacement. It's a bit noisy, and adjusting takes flippin ages









Just not sure what id replace it with. For all it's little foibles, it's a low hassle grinder. A mazzer mini e would clump more and not necessarily give me a better grind. A super jolly is just big and too much fuss, I'm not really into the whole doser thing.

I may go the vario route!


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

4 full turns of the MC2 is like 5mm move of collar on my Royal. Ive had extreme swings of humidity due to weather / oven / washing machine being on in kitchen which have caused such a change.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

I would go with moisture/humidity/temperature change , I have had the same problem on odd ocaisions particularly with temperature changes.

With regard to worm/ gear slipping it does not happen,having taken my grinder apart quite often for total cleaning I can tell you the gear and worm are very positive with no backlash (free play)


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## frustin (Feb 10, 2013)

i find that every so often as the beans get a bit older then i have to dial back half a turn (more coarse) to keep the water coming through after 4-5 seconds.

Out of interest: you say you get through a whole pack every couple of days. Presumably it's not just you drinking it? are you drinking americanos or espressos?


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

only getting through that much just now because im throwing so many away in frustration!!









the iberital is annoying me a lot at the moment, was playing yesterday and went from a choker, to a gusher, with one fairly small change of grind!

not convinced my mc2 is working quite right!

i find in the cherub, that i tend to get better drinks if the first drop comes out at round the 8-9 second mark. I aim for around 27 seconds total depending on coffee


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## frustin (Feb 10, 2013)

i'm finding that i only need to adjust a few turns for new coffee and then half a turn for open coffee. i was getting 9 secs, then adjusted by half a turn and i'm down to 5 again.


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

i find that if it starts pouring at 5 seconds, then i end up with a lot of early blonding.


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## origmarm (Mar 7, 2012)

Presumably your adjusting while grinding? I found with the MC2 if you did not sometimes it would take a shot or two to settle. Also if you haven't cleaned for a while and you are going dark like red church I found it to get 'sticky burrs' on occasion. HD Italian did this also.


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

yeah i alwaus grind while adjusting.

I had it tasting great about a week ago, then i put in the londinium beans i had. It took a while to dial them in, but doing so, got me miles away from where my usual blend wants to be. So its about fine tuning.

I might pick up an espro tamper as a way of taking one element out of the equation


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## frustin (Feb 10, 2013)

whats blonding?


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

when the pour turns from dark and thick, to very light tan and becomes watery.


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## origmarm (Mar 7, 2012)

shrink said:


> yeah i alwaus grind while adjusting.
> 
> I had it tasting great about a week ago, then i put in the londinium beans i had. It took a while to dial them in, but doing so, got me miles away from where my usual blend wants to be. So its about fine tuning.
> 
> I might pick up an espro tamper as a way of taking one element out of the equation


Brazil Rainha by any chance? Biggest grind adjustment I've made in 5yrs. Has taken my grinder a good 10 or so shots to settle back and find that spot again with new beans and even now I'm still 'narrowing in'.


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

no it wasnt the brazil funilly enough, but it did take me a huge amount away from my grind.

as you say, i've wasted nearly a whole bag of allpress redchurch and i'm still not 100% happy with the shot consistency yet. Its enough to make you give up and go back to tea


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

What I've done with my MC2 is to make a mark with a silver sharpie on both burr housings, marking my ideal starting point, then if i have to make a large adjustment its a lot easier to just whip the top off and unscrew the worm gear and then put it back by hand.


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