# Barista Express - Full Grinder Clean



## THR_Crema (May 20, 2019)

I finally got round to cleaning the internal grinder fully with a full strip. It's 2years old and felt bad I've not done it sooner.

I'd recommend doing this for anyone with the Barista Express as I was shocked by how much ground coffee was retained within.

I weighed what was retained and came out at 5.5grams.

I've attached some photographs that may be of interest - I just need to order a new fibre washer for the bottom of the setup (it's fragile and contained a lot of fine coffee grounds/oils).


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## THR_Crema (May 20, 2019)




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## THR_Crema (May 20, 2019)

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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

I had mixed feelings about cleaning the grinder on mine and yes people should get a fibre washer before attempting it as it's rather easy to damage as well.

The reason for being reluctant to clean it was using the timer and getting it to produce a precise dose every time. Once it's thoroughly clean it wont until several grams of coffee have thoroughly compacted in certain places. Sage a have a good reason for the grinders doing this - they use a plastic grind chamber which would wear out pretty quickly if they didn't and swept it clean with the fan instead. It's a clever feature of the design really. They used to use plastic for the fan as well. Those did wear out so added the metal.

Carry over from the compacted stuff when the bean is changed is miniscule and a couple of shots will get rid of it completely. I found that approach preferable to cleaning but at some point that may have to be done.  I just drank the contaminated shots. The only objectionable ones followed the use of some vanilla flavoured beans - I'll never ever grind those again in any grinder but again a couple of shots got rid of the taste. So a bean change just meant running the grinder empty to get rid of the loose stuff in the grind chamber and a bit of brushing to get rid of bits of beans on top of the burs.

No timed grinder produces constant accurate doses for ever. Keeping it on track needs really tiny changes to the time setting.

John

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## THR_Crema (May 20, 2019)

ajohn said:


> I had mixed feelings about cleaning the grinder on mine and yes people should get a fibre washer before attempting it as it's rather easy to damage as well.
> 
> The reason for being reluctant to clean it was using the timer and getting it to produce a precise dose every time. Once it's thoroughly clean it wont until several grams of coffee have thoroughly compacted in certain places. Sage a have a good reason for the grinders doing this - they use a plastic grind chamber which would wear out pretty quickly if they didn't and swept it clean with the fan instead. It's a clever feature of the design really. They used to use plastic for the fan as well. Those did wear out so added the metal.
> 
> ...


 I started off using the grinder to try and get the exact, or nearest, dose figure. I've moved away from that now and keep the hopper empty and have my single dose setup now. I find the grinder is fairly accurate considering it's built in.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

I used the BE grinder for what I usually drink with hopper and timer. I reckoned to hold the grinds weight to better than 0.2g but had an odd way of doing it with the bean I used that way. I found that lots of adjustments were needed initially and the slowed down to once or twice a week. Almost daily initially. At the time I was making around 5 drinks a day. I don't think it would be feasible to work this way unless the same bean is always used and it takes some really tiny adjustments and time for the grinder to settle down.

I weighed other beans in on a smart grinder pro. Once it had settled as previously described it would hold to 0.1g using 0.1g scales. A fair proportion of what went in also came out. The variation seemed to be down to small bits of beans sitting on top of the burs. Some beans eventually blocked the exit from the grind chamber which then needed a thorough clean and starting all over again.

John

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