# Grinder Cleaning



## sues1958 (Oct 14, 2016)

I'm new to coffee grinders. I have a Sage Grinder Pro arriving today...my first grinder. Im not sure at this moment which beans i will be using, thinking i need to try different ones. My question is do I need to clean the grinder out after I've used one type of bean before I try out a different one?

TIA Suex


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## Batian (Oct 23, 2017)

It depends on how much of a purist you are!

The grinder will always retain a smidgen of the previous grind which may or may not be chucked out with the next grind.

Taste is subjective, but I find that on the basis of a 21gm measure, any cross tastes are barely noticeable, if at all. It may become more noticeable if you are grinding a lightly roasted South American bean followed by a dark roasted Indonesian bean the next.

Best advice is to experiment and see if your palate detects a difference?

As a rule of thumb, I deep clean my SGP once a week and when a new (multi variety) roast batch starts. Additionally I also clean if I suspect that there may be a build up of stale coffee.

However, I rarely use dark roasted oily beans and that will make a significant difference to the cleaning requirements.


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## mmmatron (Jun 28, 2014)

sues1958 said:


> I'm new to coffee grinders. I have a Sage Grinder Pro arriving today...my first grinder. Im not sure at this moment which beans i will be using, thinking i need to try different ones. My question is do I need to clean the grinder out after I've used one type of bean before I try out a different one?
> 
> TIA Suex


I change my beans frequently so when a new bag goes in, I just do a quick purge. I have a regular cleaning regime but not based on bean change. Good luck!


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Just clean the grinder (burrs and grind chamber etc..) every 1-3 months depending on usage, the hopper can be cleaned a little more often.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

Going on a very recent experience I had with the grinder on a Barista Express which as far a burrs go is exactly the same as the others I would say only when you need to. I had already noticed that it could take a while for the grinder to settled down after cleaning so stopped even vac'ing it out as I was buying batches of the same bean. I decided to give it a decent clean. Net result was that it would no longer grind the beans I am using. The output dropped right off and I couldn't fill the filter basket any more even with the timer set to maximum. The grind was also a lot finer. So I did a more thorough cleans which involved removing the centre burr and getting every trace of the ground coffee out. Now I could fill the basket but the grinds were clumping badly and I had to use a coarser setting than I have ever used before. 2 shot's later and the clumping's gone and the drink is weaker but not as much as I would expect from the grind setting I am using. So given a few more shots I suspect it will be back where it was. I have been using the same batch of bean all the way through this.

What I would suggest is leave it alone and grind the beans trapped on top of the burrs out. Then put the new beans in the hopper and tune etc or waste say 20g of the new beans to be sure that there wont be any taste compromises. From time to time you might want to thoroughly clean it out but expect problems when you start using it again. The reason I hadn't noticed this when I had bought the machine and it was being used from new is that by the time I had set the grinder to give the correct grind and weight the burrs had been conditioned. Personally I don't see this as a problem because it's easily possible to buy a worse grinder. Just something people need to be aware of. IMHO anyway. People on here do all sorts of things such as using a needle to break up clumps. I've had none of that even though I have been using sticky beans.

The beans I am using are pretty oily. If I run 500g of beans through the hopper is likely to need a wash to stop the beans sticking to it when it's low. Once the grinder is settled though it makes an excellent job of grinding them. Prior to cleaning as above I had run over 1.5kg of the same beans through it without any problems at all other than the usual slight output weight drift. Also several 250g packs of different beans

One thing that may cause the need for a complete clean is flavoured beans. Shudder. Not my thing but I am having to grind some at times to keep others happy. Thankfully not for much longer though, coffee bean advent calander. Even that can disappear after say 6 shots of some other bean but if it happened to be the first bean that went into a clean grinder it would probably take a lot more.

John

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## sues1958 (Oct 14, 2016)

Thank you everyone for your replies. My grinder arrived today so I am reading through the instructions. I'm a pretty plain person so probably won't buy flavoured beans. I'm not sure at the moment which bean I will like but thanks to your replies I feel better at buying some different ones without causing too much cleaning work x


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