# Oracle - stiff and vague grinder adjust knob?



## woodbar (Aug 28, 2020)

I have been meaning to ask this question for ages but kept forgetting!

The grinder knob on my Oracle is quite stiff to adjust and is very vague - it almost feels like it is connected to a rubber linkage. You start to turn it and nothing happens on the display then all of a sudden it can often jump by 2 digits (either up or down) so you have to tweak it back again a bit.

Does not make much difference if you adjust when the grinder is running or stationary (Sage don't actually tell you to only adjust when it is running, surprisingly).

Is this normal or should it be a little more concise? It has been like this from new, about 8 months old now.


----------



## strutsinaction (Jun 18, 2020)

My Oracle Touch is similar - stiff and vague is a great description! The coffee (CoffeeCompass) is great, though, so I'm not too concerned.


----------



## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

Sounds like a call to Sage if under warrantee to me. Or lid off and look to see how it works and what's gone wrong. It should be possible to see the adjustment mechanism. I think there are some videos on the Grinder Pro which uses the same approach. If taken apart note comments about what the little wheels do. One determines the displayed setting. I'd be inclined to set it to it's finest setting before doing anything like this. It can be calibrated to that by screwing the big wheel in until the burrs touch and then reversing a touch to leaves some burr clearance. Then that needs the display to show the min setting. This assume the outer burr is at it's default setting


----------



## woodbar (Aug 28, 2020)

strutsinaction said:


> My Oracle Touch is similar - stiff and vague is a great description! The coffee (CoffeeCompass) is great, though, so I'm not too concerned.


 OK, thanks for the reply. Of course it could just mean we both have a faulty grinder mech OR they might all be like it.

Was hoping to have a few more replies to get a feel for it!


----------



## woodbar (Aug 28, 2020)

ajohn said:


> Sounds like a call to Sage if under warrantee to me. Or lid off and look to see how it works and what's gone wrong. It should be possible to see the adjustment mechanism. I think there are some videos on the Grinder Pro which uses the same approach. If taken apart note comments about what the little wheels do. One determines the displayed setting. I'd be inclined to set it to it's finest setting before doing anything like this. It can be calibrated to that by screwing the big wheel in until the burrs touch and then reversing a touch to leaves some burr clearance. Then that needs the display to show the min setting. This assume the outer burr is at it's default setting


 Hmm, I did think about taking the lid off but as it is under warranty I thought better of it.

I am not wanting to re-calibrate it as my grind setting ranges from 19 -23 depending on the beans so I am roughly in the middle of the adjustment range anyway.

It just not feel well engineered to my technical mind! More to the point I think it could do with a finer setting range with an extra setting in between each of the 45 set points - giving 90 in total.

It is usable though so I will leave as is for a bit - I have over 2 years warranty left so no worries (Lakeland supplied it)


----------



## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

The only reason I mentioned how to calibrate it is if some one did set it to the min setting opened it up and dismantled etc is it's what they would need to do if they messed up. All of the Sage grinders are more or less the same apart from how they turn a rather large worm wheel that carries the burrs. Warrantees are there to be used anyway. Not sure what their engineers are doing with covid around.

The steps are only really a pain if some one is pedantic about time and shot volume - blame the web if not Xg grinds in and 2Xg shot out people are double dammed as it will either be over or under extracted. A range of ratios need to be tried and variations in time can be used as well but small ones generally do not make a lot of difference.

Where these grinders are woolly is setting coarser. There is a bit of play. It's best to go too coarse and then fine. Not unusual really even on ones without steps and some of those need such miniscule changes to be exact that they are rather difficult to make. There should only be need to waste a few grams of grinds when the setting is changed. One step finer without running them doesn't appear to cause harm. Several might.


----------

