What to do when a coffee grinder gets stuck? Can you wash a coffee grinder with water? How to disassemble grinder burrs? How to clean and maintain an Ek43?

The Importance of Coffee Grinder Maintenance

Putting coffee beans aside, to brew a good cup of coffee, the grinder plays a crucial role. The uniformity of the ground coffee and whether there's excessive fine powder largely determine the final coffee performance.

While we cannot overlook the impact of the grinder's inherent quality, its cleaning and maintenance are equally important. Without timely cleaning, even the highest quality grinder can easily become damaged.

The Hidden Problem: Coffee Retention

Externally, the machine might appear normal, but once we disassemble the grinder, we can discover coffee powder hidden in every corner. As we all know, during the grinding process, grinders may experience what's known as "coffee retention" - when you put in 15 grams of beans for grinding, but only get 14.x grams of powder output.

This phenomenon is caused by several factors. First, there's a certain amount of space within the burr area where coffee powder may remain after grinding due to insufficient discharge or inertia. Second, static electricity generated during grinding causes coffee powder to adhere to nearby objects - either other coffee particles or corners of the grinder. This problem becomes more severe during dry weather. Additionally, lipids released from coffee beans during roasting - especially in darker roasts - leave traces on the burrs during grinding, which not only creates odors but also causes coffee powder to stick to surfaces.

If not cleaned promptly, these issues will not only affect the extraction and performance of subsequent coffee grounds but also pose potential risks to the burr's health. Therefore, we need to pay attention to grinder cleaning and maintenance to reduce the impact of residual powder and buildup.

Pre-Grinding Maintenance

Before grinding coffee beans, we should pay attention to two important points. First, when using electric grinders, we should start the grinder before adding beans. All machines need time to start up, including grinders. It takes approximately 0.5-1 seconds for the burrs to reach stable rotation from a stationary position. If we pre-load beans into the burr chamber, they become an obstacle during startup, increasing resistance.

While this may not cause immediate issues, over time, especially for small household grinders, it can easily lead to burr dullness or machine failure. Therefore, it's best to start the grinder first, then add beans. The second point is "purging"! Before grinding the coffee beans we intend to use, we typically pre-grind a few beans of the same variety to dislodge any coffee powder trapped in crevices and prevent flavor contamination.

However, this purging method only removes foreign particles from burr gaps. Dead corners in the grinder and oils adhering to burrs during grinding cannot be resolved this way. Therefore, we need to perform deep cleaning periodically to remove residual coffee powder and oils from inside the machine, extending the grinder's lifespan.

Deep Cleaning Methods

There are two approaches to deep cleaning: a simple version suitable for beginners or those less comfortable with disassembly, and a disassembly version for those more confident with hands-on work. The simple version, as the name suggests, is straightforward. Without disassembling the grinder, we only need specialized grinder cleaning tablets, which we grind in the machine! (Suitable for all electric and manual grinders)

During grinding, these tablets directly remove residual oils and coffee powder, so we don't need to go through the trouble of disassembling the grinder! The recommended usage is about 40g per session, adjusted according to your grinder model. However, one point to note is that after cleaning, these tablets, like coffee powder, leave some residue in the grinder. Therefore, after grinding the cleaning tablets, we need to add coffee beans for purging - approximately twice the amount of cleaning tablets, preferably divided into 2-3 batches.

Since this requires a considerable amount of coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee suggests preparing some older beans or less palatable medium-light roast beans as backup. Dark roast beans are not recommended, since we're trying to clean the stains left by dark roasts. Once the burrs are clean, use air blower (grinder-specific ones work better) and brushes to remove powder layers from the surface and interior of the machine body.

However, cleaning tablets often only reach the burr area, so those comfortable with hands-on work can try disassembling the grinder after tablet cleaning for deep cleaning of dead corners (or disassemble directly for cleaning). While disassembly isn't particularly difficult, reassembly can be challenging due to leftover parts. The process is generally similar across different grinder brands. FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate using the Ek43!

First, unplug the power cord to ensure personal safety.

Then unscrew the screws located in front of/above the burrs to remove them.

Remove all components and use brushes, cleaning cloths, and other tools to clean the parts, burrs, and surrounding areas.

Many wonder if burrs can be washed with water - it's possible but not recommended. Although most burrs are made of stainless steel and resist rust, they're not completely immune. Therefore, if they cannot be dried promptly, water washing is not advisable. Once completely dry, we can reassemble the burrs! Remember to follow the original assembly method to avoid having extra hardware leftover.

Cleaning Frequency

The above represents the general cleaning and maintenance process for coffee grinders. It's not too difficult. With low usage frequency, we can extend the cleaning interval to about once a month. With high frequency, cleaning every two weeks or so should suffice.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473