# EK43 - Grinding for espresso



## Stevie (Nov 18, 2015)

Hello!

I'm using my EK for primarily filter coffee, and it seems to be working fine - but i've noticed theres not a 'huge' amount of variation between a grind at finest and coarsest settings - well not as much as I would have thought.

I'm literally grinding espresso on the finest setting the grinder has, and i'd like it to go a little coarser ideally to keep my doses down. I don't think this is normal? For reference, the grinder has had less than 2 or 3kg through it, so maybe there is a seasoning issue.

I'm wondering if this is normal? Or if i specifically need better burrs, or there is an alignment issue?

Thanks


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## cambosheff (Jan 1, 2016)

From my limited experience with the EK43 I found I was almost on zero (or its finest) setting all the time when using it for espresso. There was a little difference when I'd change beans, but on the whole (and assuming your on coffee burrs from what you've mentioned) I wouldn't expect to be moving more than a few notches from finest.

The thing that made the biggest difference for me was actually reducing the pressure on my machine (SDB at the time) to 6bar, but I realise that might not be an option all the time.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Stevie said:


> Hello!
> 
> I'm using my EK for primarily filter coffee, and it seems to be working fine - but i've noticed theres not a 'huge' amount of variation between a grind at finest and coarsest settings - well not as much as I would have thought.
> 
> ...


Have you checked your zero point (i.e. the burrs slightly touching when as fine as the dial will go) ?


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

Also what's the serial number or how old is it? Might be old coffee burrs.


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## dan1502 (Sep 8, 2012)

I'm on old coffee burrs and have zeroed my burrs so that at the lowest setting they just start chirping and I've also aligned them. I'm currently at 2.2 on an 3FE scale but have gone as low as 1.6 (scale starts at 1)


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## Phobic (Aug 17, 2016)

if it tastes good then being on the finest setting isn't an issue, but if you find that you can't hit the sweet spot with that dial setting because you want to grind finer then you'll have to increase the dose which means you can grind coarser giving you more room to play with on grind.

if larger doses are a problem you can always use a double spouted PF or cut out 1 cup of coffee a day to compensate.

when you say you want to grind coarser why is that? what's stopping you? what beans are you using and what are you tasting that makes you want to change things?


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## Phobic (Aug 17, 2016)

cambosheff said:


> From my limited experience with the EK43 I found I was almost on zero (or its finest) setting all the time when using it for espresso. There was a little difference when I'd change beans, but on the whole (and assuming your on coffee burrs from what you've mentioned) I wouldn't expect to be moving more than a few notches from finest.
> 
> The thing that made the biggest difference for me was actually reducing the pressure on my machine (SDB at the time) to 6bar, but I realise that might not be an option all the time.


just out of interest given I've got your old EK










I found I was close to the zero point when using 18g doses, but I've increased to 20g and have been able to move quite far away now, using the 3FE dial I'm between 1.7 to 2.5 so plenty of space to play with and don't find I can't grind fine enough


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## Stevie (Nov 18, 2015)

Phobic said:


> if it tastes good then being on the finest setting isn't an issue, but if you find that you can't hit the sweet spot with that dial setting because you want to grind finer then you'll have to increase the dose which means you can grind coarser giving you more room to play with on grind.
> 
> if larger doses are a problem you can always use a double spouted PF or cut out 1 cup of coffee a day to compensate.
> 
> when you say you want to grind coarser why is that? what's stopping you? what beans are you using and what are you tasting that makes you want to change things?


I want to grind finer, not coarser.

The grinder is also just a few months old, and only had a couple of kilos through it. As to whether the burrs are aligned - i don't know, i'm not confident enough to take it apart without worrying about breaking it or getting lost


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## dan1502 (Sep 8, 2012)

I'm actually finding myself backing off further still dialling in my current beans and am currently around 2.4 on the 3FE scale (I may need to go coarser still).

I would suggest the first thing you should do is zero the burrs. You can do this without removing anything. See this video (there are plenty of others):






It only takes a minute. The instructions suggest backing of 10 degrees (IIRC) from where they begin to chirp but I believe most (including me) set it so the zero point is at the point they chirp. Just don't go quite to zero when grinding.

Gary showed me a Matt Perger video which suggests you can tell how well aligned the burrs are from the different sounds they make but I can't find that. Aligning is more complicated but not all that difficult, it just requires patience.


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## Coffeejon (Oct 10, 2014)

Stevie said:


> I want to grind finer, not coarser.
> 
> The grinder is also just a few months old, and only had a couple of kilos through it. As to whether the burrs are aligned - i don't know, i'm not confident enough to take it apart without worrying about breaking it or getting lost


Hi Stevie

Just to encourage you to align & then zero your burrs. I've just got a EK43 and it's really not hard. I'd align (just a case of adding tin foil under the burrs) the burrs first, and then zero the burrs. (Though if your burrs don't churp, you'll need to zero them first so you can do the alignment)

It took me about 45mins to do it, just buy a new white board marker, as you'll need to apply lot's of pen.

I've got new Coffee burrs and now they are aligned and zero'd (Just off chirping) I'm at about 2.5 (on a Retina Dial) for a fine espresso grind, So still 1.5 to go for even finer)

Give it a go


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

> I'm actually finding myself backing off further still dialling in my current beans and am currently around 2.4 on the 3FE scale (I may need to go coarser still).
> 
> I would suggest the first thing you should do is zero the burrs. You can do this without removing anything. See this video (there are plenty of others):


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## dan1502 (Sep 8, 2012)

How long it takes depends how lucky you are and how close you want to get them. One took me very little time but the other a lot longer. It might take less than an hour but allow yourself plenty of time just in case. Of course after zeroing and testing with the pen you might find they're spot on from the factory. I think I'm probably still tending to grind a bit fine really probably mainly as I had become used to being so much lower on the scale and it's taken me a bit of time to adjust to how much difference it's made.

Here's the video:






I used small pieces of 90gsm paper to centralise the static burr and three thin shirt collar siffeners to centalise the moving burr with either unfolded or folded bits of foil as shown.

One thing to note though, it is helpful to mark the end of one 'prong' of the shaft and the same side of the burr carrier before taking it out so you always put it back in the same orientation.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

If you want to drop the dose , then drop the pressure also


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