# Burr cleaning frequency?



## tAClue (Jul 6, 2017)

What dictates how often people clean the burrs on their machines?

Time or weight of beans having gone through?


----------



## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

Not sure what the 'rule' is, but I tend to do it every 1-2kg. This coincides for me with a change of bean, every month (ish). In other words, I do it when the hopper is empty it's convenient and the next bean probably different. Both my current grinders keep their settings even after the top burr is taken out, but if I still had a Mazzer I'd be even more tempted to wait until a bean change.


----------



## Obnic (Jan 14, 2014)

^ that's about what I do too.


----------



## Scotford (Apr 24, 2014)

Daily. About 8kg weekdays, 12-16kg weekends.

Commercial setting though.


----------



## Scotford (Apr 24, 2014)

Home, every 500g ish


----------



## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

To a certain extent burr cleaning frequency depends on a couple of things, usage and retention. The more of either, requires more frequent cleaning.


----------



## Onescoop (Aug 29, 2017)

This is making me feel slightly guilty about never having cleaned mine in about three or so years. Do you just give them a scrub?


----------



## Obnic (Jan 14, 2014)

Onescoop said:


> This is making me feel slightly guilty about never having cleaned mine in about three or so years. Do you just give them a scrub?


Remove top burr. Vacuum loose grinds from burr chamber. Use small stiff paintbrush to brush all remaining grinds from burrs, sweep arms, nooks and crannies. Revaccuum. Wipe chamber with microfiber cloth. Reinstall top burr.


----------



## Obnic (Jan 14, 2014)

Obnic said:


> Remove top burr. Vacuum loose grinds from burr chamber. Use small stiff paintbrush to brush all remaining grinds from burrs, sweep arms, nooks and crannies. Revaccuum. Wipe chamber with microfiber cloth. Reinstall top burr.


Take care to keep grounds out of collar thread if you have a mazzer. Consider a little molykote lubricant in thread to ensure collar moves smoothly.


----------



## Stanic (Dec 12, 2015)

Scotford said:


> Daily. About 8kg weekdays, 12-16kg weekends.
> 
> Commercial setting though.


Wonderful!

As for me, I clean the Kinu thoroughly once a month. I don't take the Feldgrind apart, just set it rather open and brush and blow the stuff away.


----------



## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

Onescoop said:


> This is making me feel slightly guilty about never having cleaned mine in about three or so years. Do you just give them a scrub?


Ahhhhhhh... seems that Onescoop and I are guilty of sacrilege.


----------



## Onescoop (Aug 29, 2017)

Obnic said:


> Remove top burr. Vacuum loose grinds from burr chamber. Use small stiff paintbrush to brush all remaining grinds from burrs, sweep arms, nooks and crannies. Revaccuum. Wipe chamber with microfiber cloth. Reinstall top burr.


ah I manage that every so often, feel slightly less bad now. I wasn't sure if I should be doing something more deep clean/ washing the burrs


----------



## MildredM (Feb 13, 2017)

DaveP said:


> Ahhhhhhh... seems that Onescoop and I are guilty of sacrilege.


I'm just trying to keep a grinder in my possession long enough to need cleaning . . . .


----------



## coffeyanan (Sep 1, 2017)

Would it be wise to unscrew the burrs and soak them in pully caff once a year?


----------



## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

I would not soak them in pulycaff as it is quite aggressive . If you use oily beans it is worth occasionally removing them and scrubbing them in hot soapy water, then rinse in very hot water which helps to dry them off.


----------



## RDC8 (Dec 6, 2016)

Was browsing the Bella Barista website and saw they had grinder cleaning tablets.

https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/puly-caff-grinder-cleaner-box-of-10.html

Has anyone used these?

Do they work?

Would you recommend them?

Cheers


----------



## coffeyanan (Sep 1, 2017)

I know puly caff also has cleaning crystals (which you apparently just put in the grinder machine and grind them if I understand correctly, link below) for burrs but unfortunately I can't get them to my country.

https://a1coffee.net/puly-caff-grinder-cleaner.html

I was wondering if the puly caff would be OK, since according to the instrucitons on the label you can soak also the portafilters in the solution of 10g in 1L of water for 15 minutes.


----------



## u2jewel (Aug 17, 2017)

I personally have never felt the need to soak my burrs and clean. Every Sunday I take off my burr carrier, sweep out the old stuff, brush the burrs to remove caked-on grinds (inside screw slot etc)

I single dose on my profitec pro- t64, and every time I open it up, I have a habit of weighing what the retention is inside. On a good day, it's about 0.5g, Max 1g. This is including those dead spaces found between the burrs and the burr carrier. Apart from this design flaw, it's perfect, this grinder.

Anyway, back to the point, I'm not sure if degreasing the burrs are at all necessary, or beneficial. If it's Ti N coasted or whatever, I have no idea. But for majority of us with carbon steel burrs, corrosion and rust is an issue, so whatever the cleaning method, make sure it is super dry as soon as possible. Otherwise you'd get patina (or worse rust) which doesn't help anyone. Having and leaving a thin layer of coffee oil I think protects the burrs..


----------



## coffeyanan (Sep 1, 2017)

Thanks all for your input! I'll see how things look in the grinder since I did not open it for quite some time and it was used when I bought it.

I'm a bit affraid of unscrewing burrs and that I won't be able to put them back together (it's just a fear, "don't fix what....", and the fact that I'm not even 1% MacGuyver).


----------



## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

There is an abundance of help and advice on the forum, if you get stuck / unsure just ask.Generally removing / replacing burrs is fairly simple / straightforward procedure. What is your grinder ?


----------



## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

The grinders I actually have and use are timed so I only ever clean them for changes of bean type as the grinders take so long to settle down. Otherwise I'd need to make fine adjustments rather often each time I cleaned it. Leaving as is just needs the odd occasional time setting tweak. This is for 3 to 8 shots a day. Just 3 is unusual, not cleaned for some time now. I did once on a new batch of my regular beans but never again. Too much trouble due to having to make regular initial small adjustments to the time setting. The grinders leave very little behind.

I also have a massive thing with a doser to see if big flat burrs do make much difference. It arrived in a very dirty state but am too busy with other things to clean it at the moment. The doser on that does seem to empty pretty cleanly leaving hardly any behind at all. Not sure about the machine itself. I wont be keeping it as a doser isn't really suitable for my use.

John

-


----------



## coffeyanan (Sep 1, 2017)

El carajillo said:


> There is an abundance of help and advice on the forum, if you get stuck / unsure just ask.Generally removing / replacing burrs is fairly simple / straightforward procedure. What is your grinder ?


I have an old san marco SM90/A. I like it and as far as I can tell it grinds good (although I must admit I don't really know what good grinding should look like).


----------

