That 3am grinder jam almost cost me a week of prep

Last Tuesday I forgot to purge my grinder before switching from dark to light beans, and it seized at 3am right before a pop-up at the farmers market in Eugene. Took me 45 minutes to disassemble and clean out the chaff, but the burrs got slightly misaligned and now my shots run 6 seconds slower. Anyone else keep a backup hand grinder for emergency calibrations, or is that just my paranoia?

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1 Comment

emery_park9315d ago

That timing thing might not be the burr alignment. 6 seconds slower on shots usually comes from the grind setting shifting when you put it back together, not from misaligned burrs. Did you recalibrate the zero point after reassembly? Most grinders have a little play in the adjustment ring that throws everything off if you don't reset it. I've had the same panic before and it turned out I just needed to run a few grams through and dial back in. As for the backup hand grinder, I keep one around mostly for travel and power outages, not for emergency calibration. It's honestly more hassle than it's worth for matching your main grinder's output. Just get a cheap set of feeler gauges and check the burr alignment directly if you're worried. That'll tell you for sure if something's actually bent or just sitting wrong.