# New Titanium Mythos Burrs - are these of an acceptable quality ?



## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

As an upgrade to my existing Brasilia RR55OD I bought a Simonelli Mythos grinder from a fellow forum member a few months ago. It's quite high mileage and after stripping it down for a deep clean I found the current Ti burrs to feel quite blunt so decided to buy a new set of Ti burrs for it. The best price I could find for these was Bella Barista (£119inc Vat) but they had none in stock so I've been patiently waiting for the past month or two still using the RR55OD.

Three sets of burrs arrived in stock last Friday so I quickly ordered a set and with the usual great service Bella Barista sent them out the same day and they arrived at work yesterday morning. The Royal Mail managed to wreck the packaging while delivering them and they actually arrived in ripped cardboard envelope inside a plastic with an apology printed on it. The burrs themselves are packaged in a vacuum sealed bag burr faces touching inside a small jiffy bag so I doubt the rough handling by Royal Mail could have caused any damage. I didn't have time to actually inspect until I got them home last night.










Now that I've opened them and inspected them I'm feeling a little disappointed (after all these burrs have cost me more than my first grinder cost!). Maybe I'm being too much of a perfectionist but to my untrained eye, apart from the sharpness the burrs actually look in worse condition than the burrs I'm removing! There seems to be many numerous dents and chips in the cutting faces of these new burrs which I'm assuming will affect the quality of the grind?

Just to make sure I'm being reasonable in my expectations and before I talk to BB about returning these I'd value the opinion of others on the forum.


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

photobucket seems to have resized those images so it's difficult to see ; I'll try adding a link direct to my google photos which should hopefully be at a higher resolution..

https://goo.gl/photos/pc4SWVdCJk3zcA2AA


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

I would have thought if the burrs were OEM then it would have had a factory style label on somewhere. IS Mythos printed around the edge?


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

Hi dfk, yes they are stamped on the edge with the word Mythos just like shown on BB's website https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/eureka-mythos-75mm-titanium-burr-set.html

Packaging was simply in a vacuum bag so label or anything.


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

I've blown up a section of one of the full res photos to show an example of the chips more clearly;


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Nothing wrong with the Burrs, they all have little nicks here and there in the zones that crush the beans down to their final size. it won't affect the grind at all. The Burrs take about 15kg to being to bed in and you start seeing the best grind quality. If you don't feel happy about what I've said, look at grinder burrs both small and large on the internet and the 3 dirty great holes in the burrs for the hold down screws. if you're cool with those, it's not really reasonable to worry about some little manufacturing nicks. Also just seen your image after posting this, those Nicks are in the bean breaker zone, again will have 0 effect on grind quality.

I mean look at the genuine Mazzer Mini E 64mm burrs on the right, those big holes go right up to the little triangles, where final sizing takes place. on smaller Burrs, they actually are into the triangle area itself! Still all these grinders grind fine.












> Now that I've opened them and inspected them I'm feeling a little disappointed (after all these burrs have cost me more than my first grinder cost!). Maybe I'm being too much of a perfectionist but to my untrained eye, apart from the sharpness the burrs actually look in worse condition than the burrs I'm removing! There seems to be many numerous dents and chips in the cutting faces of these new burrs which I'm assuming will affect the quality of the grind?


Don't think of them as cutting faces, because their not really. Burrs are not worn when those faces are not sharp, they're worn when the depth is well reduced. Again to prove my point a brand new Mahlkonig Vario ceramic burr. These are not sharp at all and again look where the big screw holes are. Now I personally think it's not a great grinder, but so many people so happy, no complaints with a certain US coffee forum comparing grind quality to "Titan" grinders back in the day...people will believe any hype when they own the grinder.


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

Thanks for the advice DavecUK. Previous posts I've read regarding testing for worn burrs suggested dragging a finger nail across them yet your advice seems to contradict this as even if they didn't shave the nail you seem to suggest they could still be perfectly fine. So how do you know if your burrs are worn?


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

trust your judgement on grind quality. A worn burr gives an inconsistent grind and usually starts to take a fair bit longer


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Those burrs are fine, as Dave has said the outer edge does all the important work, the edge moving towards that area basically reduce the beans in size, if there was damage to the outer edge then that would be a problem. We as coffee perfectionists believe that thins should be perfect or look perfect however most burrs will have small defects in the pre grind zone, including the holes for the retaining screws.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

marcuswar said:


> Thanks for the advice DavecUK. Previous posts I've read regarding testing for worn burrs suggested dragging a finger nail across them yet your advice seems to contradict this as even if they didn't shave the nail you seem to suggest they could still be perfectly fine. So how do you know if your burrs are worn?


Well that's an old myth from the US forums, keeps doing the rounds....that sharp manufacturing "burr" edge, gets knocked off within 30 or 40kg. If you look at your burrs and your not sure they're worn, they're probably not. 90% of coffee forum people replace burrs that are less than 30% worn, in the belief that they are worn when they are not. Most home use only grinder burrs, mini, mini e and upwards are good for 300+kg of coffee, so that's around 6 years if your grinding 1kg per week. Or 12 years if your doing 500g per week. In reality, you would probably want to change at 5 and 10 years. Also these estimates are conservative, depend on how careful you are, type of beans etc..

Basically when the burr can no longer do it's job properly e.g. there is not a clear break zone and then a size reduction zone with some depth and reasonable gradation, when it all looks like its lost depth and rounded off...change em., the fingernail thing, really means nothing. I used to have a photo of a worn set to the point of changing now required, but can't find it, possible @coffeechap has one.

If the grinders from a Coffeeshop, then change the burrs, they will usually be Knackered. The grinder will most likely be 2 or 3 years old and have done easily 1000 to 1500kg, some without a burr change, or only a single burr change!


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

Thanks for the advice Dave & Dave..

The existing burrs don't look particularly worn (or chipped!) but they do feel smooth when stroked with a finger which together with the long grind time (8 secs+) and clumpy output made me thing they needed replacing. Maybe they didn't really need replacing but as you said it's an ex coffee shop machine and is high mileage (shot count is 201,754) so probably best to replace anyway.


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

Yikes! After removing the old burrs and having a closer look I think it's safe to say the definitely NEEDED replacing!


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Would probably agree there, especially given no TiN coating left on the edges! ( could the even be the original set?)

John


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

Yes I think they could well have been the originals as looking at t the larger bean crushing faces look as if they've actually been worn into a concave curve!

I haven't actually tried the new burrs just yet as I'm trying to recalibrate the zero point. My adjustment knob doesn't seem to have an adjustable dial face like most posts on the internet suggest?


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

marcuswar said:


> Yikes! After removing the old burrs and having a closer look I think it's safe to say the definitely NEEDED replacing!


Totally Knackered:rolleyes:


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

When setting the zero point I'm assuming that if the burrs are perfectly parallel to each other the point at which they touch should be instant and throughout the whole 360 degree turn of the burr. When I'm trying to set mine I'm finding that as I manually turn the burrs it initially touches just at one point in the revolution of the burrs (for ~ 45 degrees of the turn). If I then adjust them closer by one small mark on the (stepless) dial then they lock up completely. Is this acceptable or should I be persevering with trying to get them absolutely parallel to each other?


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

marcuswar said:


> When setting the zero point I'm assuming that if the burrs are perfectly parallel to each other the point at which they touch should be instant and throughout the whole 360 degree turn of the burr. When I'm trying to set mine I'm finding that as I manually turn the burrs it initially touches just at one point in the revolution of the burrs (for ~ 45 degrees of the turn). If I then adjust them closer by one small mark on the (stepless) dial then they lock up completely. Is this acceptable or should I be persevering with trying to get them absolutely parallel to each other?


That's fine....unless your going to use engineers blue and rizla blue *** papers over 3 hours or more, then it's good enough. Even then your likely to ger just a larger area first touch point.


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

Thanks Dave... I was hoping that was going to be the answer


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