# Which grinder cleaner?



## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

\Should I shouldn't I? And which cleaner should I use.


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Urnex Grindz does the job at around £1.60 per dose. Comes in 430grm packs at around £19-£20. Cleans oil residue off burrs very well.


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## DavidBondy (Aug 17, 2010)

+1 for Urnex Grindz. Looks like polystyrene coffee beans and works very well.

David


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## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

Cool will get a tub next week with my coffee order from hasbean


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## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

Sorry I meant to add thank you


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## ahirsty (Jan 9, 2014)

Just wanted to confirm Urnex Grindz have worked well for me in the past. I usually try and save some older beans to run through after.


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

You can get it from Amazon for £17.50 delivered if you have Amazon prime.


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

Also for anyone offering to send a sample of Grindz through the post for people to try just as I did on another thread don't simply put the sample in a small clear plastic ziploc bag it looks rather suspicious.

  

2014-01-31 14.34.02 by charliejeal, on Flickr


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## Pompeyexile (Dec 2, 2013)

I've just found a box of as it is advertised 'Accessories CLGRINDZ1 Urnex Grindz Cleaner' had a picture of a Baratza Grinder on the box (says it weighs 1.4kg) for £8.58 plus just £5.10 delivery that's under £14 from a seller called STAFCO who has a 96%positive feedback and when you lok at the other stuff they sell seems all italian. Considering other tubs advertised by different sellers at £19.17 weigh only 430g it seems a good deal. So I've given it a try and as I've said before, my money is protected with Amazon so if it isn't what it perports to be, i'll get my money back.

*DO NOT BUT THIS IT IS A RIP OFF!*



*
The box of Grindz arrived today.......1.4 kg My Arse! A small box with three sachets of 35g each. I have written to the seller and will be letting Amazon know and other schmucks like me via a review if I don't get an appropriate response.*



*
You live and learn.*


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## Phil104 (Apr 15, 2014)

Having just taken delivery of a tub of Grindz and thinking it's pretty expensive - is there a viable home made alternative or is anything else simply a false economy?


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

£1.50 a month isn't a lot to keep your grinder burrs happy.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

I would recommend cleaning the burrs by hand, grindz a re not the be all and end all and I feel quite frankly are a bit of a rio off.


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## Iwwstriker (Dec 6, 2013)

Hey guys, don't think it's appropriate for me to budge into this thread and ask a question. But here goes nothing. Sorry if it's inappropriate. How often is good enough to clean the grinder with the urnex grindz? Do I have to do it every time I finished one hooper full of beans or when I swap beans? And how much is needed for each cleaning session? Could anyone please help me out? I have been trying to figure this out myself but it turns out I needed help. Please please and thank you so much =D


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Do not use grindz, wast of time, just dismantle and clean by hand.


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## Phil104 (Apr 15, 2014)

Okay - thank you all - looks like I'm goin' to get intimate with my grinder....


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## Jonathan007 (Aug 15, 2012)

Dave is this an easy thing to do with a Major?

Cheers

Jon


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## gman147 (Jul 7, 2012)

A hard bristled brush


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Jonathan007 said:


> Dave is this an easy thing to do with a Major?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Jon


Yes Jon, if you are careful just unwind the burr carrier and brush everything out, be careful replacing the carrier as you can thread them, alternatively you can unwind it most of the way giving you enough room to get a toothbrush into the burrs and a small brush as well.


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## Jonathan007 (Aug 15, 2012)

coffeechap said:


> Yes Jon, if you are careful just unwind the burr carrier and brush everything out, be careful replacing the carrier as you can thread them, alternatively you can unwind it most of the way giving you enough room to get a toothbrush into the burrs and a small brush as well.


Thanks Dave I'll give it a shot.


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## Wando64 (Feb 28, 2011)

I figured that new beans clean up the old stuff and my grinder has not complained loudly so far.

What is the actual logic behind cleaning a grinder?

If the problem is "oils" then surely the best and only way would be to soak the burrs in Puli Caff.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

The actual logic is like most things in life, the better you look after them the longer they last and the better they perform, over time a grinder will build up residue, this sticky substance causes friction against the body and burr carrier, which places extra load on the motor of the grinder and is a contributing factor to bearing wear. So keeping it clean helps it last longer. You also have the added side of basic cleanliness, old caked on stale coffee remaining in the grinder effectively for its life( if you don't clean it) will have an effect on the taste of the coffee, however marginal, but if you don't mind that old stuff and you don't mind the extra ( avoidable ) wear and tear, don't bother just keep using your manky grinder.


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## Wando64 (Feb 28, 2011)

I shall be cleaning it at once.

No really, I will.

It looks clean already (I do clean the hopper from time to time) but I will dismount the top burr to check the inner works.


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## Olliehulla (Feb 26, 2013)

I am lucky (and unlucky I suppose....) and have a Rocky doserless which is a piece of pish to clean. Hopper off, 3 screws. Front shute, 2 screws. Unwind the top burr and then brush, vaccum out. It's a once a month thing for me but then I only use about 1kg a month so not a heavy user. I have grindz but rarely use them now.


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## Wando64 (Feb 28, 2011)

Yep. done the cleaning. It wasn't too bad but I admit it was probably needed.

I didn't realise how much ground coffee can hide under the bottom burr.

Almost no retention in the chute though.

Easy peasy to clean on the Mignon too. Top burr comes off and no need to re-dial afterwards.


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## Scotford (Apr 24, 2014)

Dismantle and use a toothbrush. I do my main grinder every couple of weeks.


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## Phil104 (Apr 15, 2014)

Iwwstriker said:


> How often is good enough to clean the grinder with the urnex grindz? Do I have to do it every time I finished one hooper full of beans or when I swap beans? And how much is needed for each cleaning session? Could anyone please help me out? I have been trying to figure this out myself but it turns out I needed help. Please please and thank you so much =D


An advantage of not being able to get to sleep (nothing to do with coffee), after I sorted out my train tickets for a trip to Birmingham next week avoiding London and the tube strike is that I start idling on the forum and this is one of the threads that I have been returning to. I also, idly, googled cleaning a mignon and was interested to read on the coffee snobs site this:

'Despite what is written all over internet sites about cleaning grinders, everything else is unnecessary madness.

There is a difference between your HOME USE and general CAFE USE.

In home use, you dont keep the grinder full of oily beans & grinds for 5 to 10 years at a time, and you have a much smaller throughput.....That is where the the differences lies in necessity for overall cleaning of your grinder. *

In home use we generally only put enough beans in there for a sitting, keeping the bulk of the beans instead, in a separate airtight container. *The grinding chamber is often spun out & empty of grinds, while in cafe use the grinding chamber is never empty. These grinders also dont have a grinds dispenser only an exit shute. And in the end, they get much much much much much much less use and throughput that a cafe grinder. And in general our coffee beans are more likely to be fresher & less oily....

Ergo, other than a sweep with a common paint brush, and a suck with a vacuum cleaner........Leave it alone and let it do its job for you...it DOESNT NEED what many topics in internet forums eroneously tell you it needs, and most home coffee equipment owners are not coffee equipment mechanics and should not be encouraged to tinker with stuff they usually dont know anything about. As AM commented above "...dont play...you will break it..." '

(http://coffeesnobs.com.au/grinders/29468-cleaning-eureka-mignon.html)

Is this basically right - and as a non-volume, domestic user I shouldn't be obsessing too much about cleaning (or obsessing just the right amount)?


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

All coffee beans have oils in them - over roasted beans the oils have migrated from within the bean to the surface. Beans also contain sugars which caramelize during roasting. So it is inevitable, over time, burrs will get some build up. Cleaning them occasionally makes good sense to keep them in peak grinding condition. Question is, how often and how.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Why don't you just look at a the post a couple above yours, I would like to do it like the ozzies do so shall try and sway you by placing emphasis on certain words with capitalisation.

Grinders WILLget a build up of coffee over time, this STALEcoffee WILL affect the taste of your coffee (although marginally) over time, a simple cleaning regime will PREVENT this.NO you don't need to be a coffee engineer to clean a grinder and in MOST cases you will just need to loosen the burrs and get a brush in there coupled to a Hoover.

I hope I haven't shouted too much


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

no you haven't


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

coffeechap said:


> Why don't you just look at a the post a couple above yours, I would like to do it like the ozzies do so shall try and sway you by placing emphasis on certain words with capitalisation.
> 
> Grinders WILLget a build up of coffee over time, this STALEcoffee WILL affect the taste of your coffee (although marginally) over time, a simple cleaning regime will PREVENT this.NO you don't need to be a coffee engineer to clean a grinder and in MOST cases you will just need to loosen the burrs and get a brush in there coupled to a Hoover.
> 
> I hope I haven't shouted too much


This man above has cleaned , owned and used nearly every grinder you can think off, and probably a few you can't think off ( domestic and commercial )

I would take his word re cleaning and maintenance over any Ozzie







ANY OZZIE...


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Back to the topic - been thinking about comments on this thread that using Urnex Grindz is a waste of time and all you need to do is use a brush - maybe a bit of vacuuming too. Brushing won't remove the buildup of oils and sugar/caramels from the bean. Grindz is designed to do this. OK, we're talking marginals here but as we obsess about grinder quality, surely doing everything to keep the burrs in optimum condition is a good idea. Guess, in the end, everyone will have their own view but the following quote is interesting. Comes from the 'mad wizard' behind the development of Grindz and, yes, he's not impartial. Thanks to Home Barista where this originated.

"I did want to offer a few insights into our development process if you are interested... I noticed a lot of people talking about using rice or oatmeal or other organic products. Believe me, as the mad wizard behind Grindz, I personally tried (or oversaw the testing of) hundreds of items and formulations to get what we have now... The problem with some of the more traditionally mentioned items came down to three issues:

Dust and ability to be purged,

Chance of locking up motors,

Ability to absorb oily residue.

We found rice to leave huge starchy/dusty residues that just could not be removed easily. It also had a tendency to lock up the burrs if the setting was too fine or the relative humidity was too high. What I'm saying is that the small particles fell between the burrs and never left. As more piled up you got a cake of rice that was strong enough to hold up the revolutions of the burrs. Of course, this causes a major risk to burning out a motor. We saw similar results with oatmeal and many other similar textured products.

Looking to avoid this problem, we found some other products that were just way too hard. They were natural and safe, but a few even chewed up some lesser quality burrs.

The goal with Grindz Grinder Cleaner was to find the right combination of hardness and oil absorbing properties from a number of different ingredients that all did good things when passed through a grinder. We needed something hard enough to mechanically push coffee grounds out of the crevasses, but spongy enough to absorb oily residue. Of course, it all had to fit into the grinder AND could not carry the risk of locking the burrs with the motor running.

Hope that helps you a little in your travels and discussions. All feedback is always welcome. It helps us to make better products. We try to incorporate everything we hear back into our development process. Thanks again.

Josh"


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

My take on grinder/ burr cleaning is that grounds and oily residue does build up including under the burrs, I do not think passing granules/rice etc will move this.

For me grinder cleaning is removing burrs, brushing out any residue, hard tooth brush on burrs then wash in HOT soapy water,rinse in very hot water, pat dry and let heat complete drying. Wipe out grinder body with a meths damped tissue and allow to dry /evaporate.

Reinstall and reset burrs.

You do not need to be a "mechanic" for most M/ch's and there is enough help and advice on this forum to achieve this.


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