# Baratza encore



## A_moose (Jan 3, 2021)

So, I bought myself a second hand encore for £112 shipped.

I bought it mainly due to the amount of rave reviews about it, but im struggling with it.

I know its a fairly split debate about using the encore for espresso. But nethetheless im here in need.

The first thing I did was recalibrate the machine to its finest setting, and I set it up for the 80 step adjustment mod (which I've just undone writing this) but the grind even at 0 is still quite coarse.

Whats going on? Am I missing something?


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## Pete4eyes (Oct 10, 2020)

Hi @A_moose, Baratza virtuoso owner here. Both are pretty much the same I believe.

not only can you adjust the collar on the adjustment ring, you can calibrate the height of the centre burr. This is normally done at factory but if someone has carried out a gearbox repair or even the gearbox 2.0 update then they may have altered the height of the centre burr by accident. Or even on purpose to achieve a coarser grind.

I emailed Baratza about this and they gave the following info regarding washers either side of the gear and gearbox housing (shimming), to either raise or lower the centre burr. They said to go to https://baratza.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/GB2.0-Installation-v1.2.pdf and review the final page for shimming guide. It doesn't mention the encore but I guess it would be the same as the virtuoso.

If yours wasn't set right, it could either be too high or too low. In this case it sounds like it's too low. They told me this as well after I'd calibrated the shims and noticed a strange noise when no coffee was present:

"That noise you are hearing at the sub-10 settings is burr to burr contact. This is totally normal on our conical grinders. We calibrate the grinders at the factory to have a touch time between setting 8 and 12. When grinding coffee, the coffee acts as a spacer so the burrs so not touch when coffee is being ground. No damage will be done to the burrs due to this touch time as long as the grinder is not run excessively at the sub-12 settings when there is not coffee in the grinder."

I'm currently pulling an espresso in 25 seconds from a grind at setting 10/11. So it should definitely be possible. I'd review the instructions and if you're comfortable doing it, check inside the gearbox. But please don't do it if you aren't confident, there are plastic threads that are easily cracked or damaged. I take no liability for any damages you may experience - sorry I have to say that...

could you tell me about this 80 step adjustment mod? I'd love to read up on that!


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## Pete4eyes (Oct 10, 2020)

And sorry that was such a long post...


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## A_moose (Jan 3, 2021)

Pete4eyes said:


> And sorry that was such a long post...


 Hah! No worries at all!

I ended up taking it apart and looking around a bit more and noticed one of the flanges on the ring burr holder was broken as well as one on the adjustment ring.

I ended up talking to an engineer at coffeehit and they said it shouldn't affect the burrs to keep using it, just replace the parts when I can.

The 80 step adjustment is pretty simple, just cut a notch in the detent pointer and the notch allows for an extra step.

Heres a link to the first guy who did it: https://biturl.top/bamYry


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