Posted Sun Jan 15, 2006, 5:06pm Subject: Re: KitchenAid ProLine Grinder First Look
Hi Kenny, and welcome.
Keep us posted on how things go. Do you prefer straight espresso or milk based drinks? I enjoy both, depending on my mood.
Be sure to have fresh roasted beans (within 7 - 10 days of roast) on hand and lots of milk, if you or your guests enjoy milk based drinks. It takes a lot of practice to froth milk and pull good shots, so enjoy the ride.
If you run into any snags, let us know.
You're about to become very popular with your friends. ;-)
jamuka Senior Member Joined: 24 Apr 2005 Posts: 67 Location: Orlando FL Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Kitchenaid Proline, Retro, &... Vac Pot: In search of... Drip: never again Roaster: 3 Poppery Mark I's
Posted Wed Jan 18, 2006, 2:59pm Subject: Re: KitchenAid ProLine Grinder First Look
I'm very pleased with this grinder. I use it exclusively for espresso with Silvia--I have the a9 for vac and moka pot. I want to encourage anyone who hasn't done the stepless mod to do it. (the one with teflon tape and reversing the pins.) I think that it improves the grind significantly in addition to making the grinder more adjustable. The amount of jostling of the carrier for the rotating burr is greatly reduced delivering a pretty sweet grind. Now if Kitchenaid would just make machined burrs available to replace the cast burrs we'd be sitting pretty.
Xyrium Senior Member Joined: 4 Feb 2006 Posts: 1 Location: USA Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Sat Feb 4, 2006, 4:45pm Subject: Re: KitchenAid ProLine Grinder First Look
I purchased this grinder shortly after this review, and returned it. It has tremendous potential, but falls short in quality. The grind isn't fine enough even after the factory-instructed adjustment, the hopper lid fits loosely and rattles incessantly during operation, the coffee grinds fall out after the receiving cup is removed, beans get caught in the machine that never get ground, and the burrs are clearly just not sharpenough because the grind is inconsistent.
It's a very nice machine in appearance, but it's merely potential unrealized. My venerable Solis 166 grinds finer and more consistently.
Posted Sat Feb 4, 2006, 5:56pm Subject: Re: KitchenAid ProLine Grinder First Look
I must have gotten one of the good ones then! I grind about a pound a day and have been very pleased , in fact i've just about worn the original burrs out :) I'll be ordering new burrs , and if they're any different i'll advise. regards Jorge
Thank you orinm42 for your splendid modification. For those who might be a bit more timid I have found another way to hold the grinder in a stepless fashion. One post i saw about the grinder on another site recommended using a 1/8 inch width 2.17 inch diameter rubber o-ring to keep grounds from entering the unit, although after purchasing the grinder i am not sure if they meant that this o-ring would go inside the hopper to provide an additional ridge to bridge the gap to keep beans from hanging on the inside of the poorly manufactured glass hopper, or to keep grounds out of the housing. i acquired a similar o-ring from a hardware store but after purchasing and examining the grinder i placed a thicker o-ring immediately outside the metal finger guard to prevent grinds from entering the housing around the hopper. This o-ring was about 2 1/4 inches in outer diameter and about 3/8 of an inch thick. This certainly prevented anything getting into the grinder and also allowed the hopper to screw down securely.
By placing the other o-ring, the one roughly 1/8 inch in thickness and around the 2 inch or so size in outer diameter, onto the grind adjustment nob from the outside, and snugging it into the gap between the dial and the facing surface of the body, i was able to produce a stepless grind. The o-ring acts as a "holding" mechanism to keep the grind dial from moving during the grinding process. I had tried to set the dial between steps before that but found that during the grind the dial would slip back into one of its "steps", altering the setting.
I have used it like this for about 3 weeks now and after carefully observing the grinding process, have not seen the dial move at all. The dial is a little more firm in its action, switching between grinds but not unpleasantly so. Some may even be heartened by its more robust action.
Most o-rings like this cost about $.50 each from a hardware store although to buy them individually you may need to go to an actual local hardware store rather than a "big box" which tend only sell multiple items in packages without much selection.
On a side note, i have found this particular o-ring, ( the thicker of the 2 mentioned here), to be useful as a replacement as a gasket for "antique" vac pots. I use one on my smaller Nicro stainless with great results and also on a "frankenpot" utilizing a glass cory upper and larger stainless nicro lower.
Seeking old vac pots with good gaskets it is often disheartening and to finally locate one with an ancient but pliable gasket only to find that the intended design of the pot leaves far too much water in the lower vessal during brewing than is desirable, is even worse. Using one of these o-rings on a "large gasket design" vac pot drops the upper chamber into at least the current bodum santos position, (very desirable), or even lower which = better, and leaves less water in the boiling chamber to dilute the brew.
Jen_Savage Senior Member Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 37 Location: CT Expertise: Just starting
Posted Sun Mar 26, 2006, 12:16pm Subject: Re: stepless grinding mod?, unsatisfied users?
Ok, just went out and bought one. Right now I'm experimenting with the best way to mod mine.
I have a question for those of you who are unsatisfied with the grinder: did you follow the portion of the instruction manual where it talks about calibrating the machine for espresso use?
For those of you who have sucessfully modded the machine to make it stepless: do you find that the vibration of the machine slowly adjusts the setting you've selected?
I "modded" mine by taking out the metal pieces that hold the clicker(the 1-8 settings) in their specified spaces...
If you unscrew the black knob with the 1-8 settings on it by using an alan wrench (size 5/32), you see that the only thing keeping these settings as they are is the fact that the white piece with the little indents (the white gear looking thing) has two pieces of metal keeping it in a specified location, depending on your adjustment. You can see this in the picture two pages earlier in this forum post. If you unscrew the whole front end like you would to get at the grinders(this is mentioned in the manual under how to clean the burrs): by unscrewing the two large flat-headed screws in the front of the grinder(using a flat-head screw driver... note that you need to unscrew both sides evenly: by turning one full turn on each side and alternating, in order to avoid threading the screws), then can get at the back of the assembly for the little metal pegs that hold the 1-8 settings in place. The back of these pegs look like two little alan wrench screws, which you can unscrew using the same alan wrench you used before. Unscrew them and save the two little screw pieces, two springs, and two pegs in a ziplock bag for safekeeping. I taped the plastic bag with the (now) extra pieces in it to the bottom of the machine in the little indent. Ok, now you can just put the whole assembly back in place(without the pieces you put in the ziplock bag). Keep in mind that the white gear looking piece is the thing that now "stepless"ly adjusts your setting. Notice that the white gear is attached to a large plastic screw-shaft? Well, adjusting the screw on the screw-shaft to the left or right is what now adjusts your grind settings to fine or large. You could, if you wanted to, leave the black plastic nobbin off the front and use your hands to adjust the white gear, but I put mine back on. The main issue is whether adjusting the white nobbin through the black nobbin is as effective as adjusting the white nobbin and leaving the black piece off. I assume this is why someone earlier in this forum post replaced the black nobbin with a copper nobbin and someone else replaced it with a plastic piece that reconnects to the black nobbin, and someone else used some sort of teflon tape(?)? I'm mostly concerned that adjusting the setting through the black nobbin is somehow less effective. I'm somewhat concerned with the fact that this machine vibrates so much... now that I've made it stepless, will the vibration somehow rotate my setting slowly?
Anyways, I can use my boyfriend's micrometer to measure the grinds if anyone wants me to; though now that I've made it stepless, I don't know how to mark what the ideal settings are so that I can always go back to them.
jamuka Senior Member Joined: 24 Apr 2005 Posts: 67 Location: Orlando FL Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Kitchenaid Proline, Retro, &... Vac Pot: In search of... Drip: never again Roaster: 3 Poppery Mark I's
Posted Sun Mar 26, 2006, 12:33pm Subject: Re: stepless grinding mod?, unsatisfied users?
I used teflon tape to immobilize the white "nobbin" then replaced the black one. Without the tape I would have had major slipping due to the vibration. The tape also gives a major benefit (imo) by stabilizing the burr carrier for the stationary burr. You can feel the difference with and without the tape in the black 'nobbin' which is just relaying the vibrations in the white one that adjusts the burr.
Jen_Savage Senior Member Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 37 Location: CT Expertise: Just starting
Posted Sun Mar 26, 2006, 12:37pm Subject: Re: KitchenAid ProLine Grinder First Look
Aaron,
Ok, so with your mod, the machine is stuck at one setting and can't be adjusted (unless you undo the screw, undo the tape, move the screw, and redo the tape)?
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