beansbeans Senior Member Joined: 1 May 2003 Posts: 1 Location: darwin australia Expertise: Professional
Posted Thu May 1, 2003, 9:13pm Subject: grinder cleaning
I have found that when cleaning grinders the best way to do it is pull it to pieces as stated in the article, losen all the particles with a brush and then use a vaccum cleaner. This enables you to remove all the stale coffee particles in the grinder
Posted Mon Apr 26, 2004, 5:26am Subject: Re: How to Clean a Rancilio Rocky
This is a great guide. Particularly if you caught yourself laughing at the "once a month" suggestion, cleaning the burrs is imperative, and will have a profound effect. Not as impressed with the Rocky as the day you bought it? It desperately needs a cleaning.
One step that is confusing the first time is keeping track of how it came apart so it can go together with the same calibration. There is a stop screw that prevents the dial from turning too fine, and the choices for reassembling are a third turn apart from each other. From my experiences with taking apart other grinders, I wouldn't assume that we all got the same choice, from the factory!
Clean as a whistle, I reassembled my Rocky so it could turn past zero, a bit into the "negative" range, before the stop screw catches. This might be a third turn off from factory, as the burrs can now catch in use, a risk I'm deliberately assuming. A grind at a dial setting of 8 or 12 with non-oily beans is now very fine, but still feasible for espresso without risking a stuck Pavoni lever or a blown pump. I'll now decide on the ideal "clean Rocky" grind setting over the coming days.
One can't decide where the screw catches with a Rocky that needs cleaning; the gunk catches first. Better to lift straight up when disassembling the first time, look for the stop screw and screw stop, and visualize for reassembly where on the dial this takes place. Failing this, come up with a rule for all future reassemblies as I did, and start from scratch on choosing a grind setting. If cleaning was overdue, recent experience will be of no help, anyway!
Everyone I know who owns one of these has had a ten cent part, the plastic "thumb on the ratchet" break on their doser. We twirl the innards by hand. I'd prefer not to have a doser at all, but the top of the doser doubles as a grind chute so the grinds don't all fall inside the motor, and the metal part of the doser holds up the plastic, "the leg bone's connected to the...". After completely disassembling my Rocky with intent to dismember it, I reassembled a cleaned, minimal hand-operated doser, and I'm quite happy to have tossed the missing parts. Cleaning the doser is now trivial (the surviving moving part lifts out) and grinding beans for other uses for guests is now much easier. This will do until I fabricate a custom wooden chute to replace the whole thing.
I'm very curious about the rice trick. I routinely use a different burr grinder for Indian spices as hard as dried turmeric (first broken up in a mortar), so I can't imagine that rice does permanent damage to the Rocky. Rather, ANY cleaning that is overdue will greatly affect the grind. Otherwise, why clean?
In defense of my compatriots who clean annually whether they need to or not, American beans look like Italian beans soaked in motor oil. As a tentative step toward the rice trick, one could try using some decent Italian beans for a month, and see if that cleans out the Rocky?
dblamericano Senior Member Joined: 4 Jun 2004 Posts: 3 Location: Seattle Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Silvia Grinder: Rocky
Posted Fri Jun 4, 2004, 12:57pm Subject: Re: How to Clean a Rancilio Rocky
I cleaned my Rocky grinder for the first time today. Howerver, I could not remove the top (brass) burr plate. It seems to unscrew to a certain point, but then stops. Am I really supposed to take it out? It looks like it has 3 weld points to the lower burr plate, so I wasn't sure it would really come out.
sether01 Senior Member Joined: 9 Jun 2004 Posts: 1 Location: St. Louis Expertise: Professional
Posted Wed Jun 9, 2004, 2:36pm Subject: Re: How to Clean a Rancilio Rocky
Yeah, it really comes out, though on mine it get's stuck every turn or so and takes some extra torque to get it loose again. One thing that helps me is to use a small hex wrench and put one in two of the holes that the hopper screws into and use that for leverage. Make sure you're careful too, I have kinda big hands and the plastic casing edge sure is sharp =(.
Posted Thu Aug 26, 2004, 12:03pm Subject: Re: How to Clean a Rancilio Rocky
Your very detailed description and good pictures will help me, as a new Rocky owner, to do this much needed, but PIA task much easier. Thanks for posting this.
nyc_crema Senior Member Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 1,602 Location: New York City Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alexia, Silvia Grinder: Mazzer Mini Roaster: Gorilla, Intelligentsia,...
Posted Mon Nov 15, 2004, 9:46am Subject: Re: How to Clean a Rancilio Rocky
Maybe I'm retarded, but I have a bunch of quesitons!!
"Remove the top hopper and set aside. Note the forward screw position on the brass burr assembly. This is roughly where it was when I was grinding "tuned in" for my Silvia."
What screw position? I'm unsure what you mean by this.
"Brush out the burr assembly in place (note the grinds in the doser, going through the chute), then remove the top 1lb burr plate and brass holder. Give it a BIG TIME scrubbing with your brush, bristle brush (toothbrush), can of compressed air, all away from the Rocky (I do it outside). "
What do you clean it with? I guess just a brush and compressed air (no cleaning solutions?)
"Once cleaned, clean out your doser well, and reasemble the vanes and plate. Screw your top burr back in, turn it until you feel resistance, then turn it back a couple of revolutions. Plug Rocky in, turn it on and gently turn your burr until you hear a whisper of the burrs touch (watch your fingers). This is your zero point. Note the screw position"
When you say "revolutions", you mean completel 360 degree turns? This part scares me the most, becuase I don't want to over tighten or under tighten and end up breaking Rocky.
Finally, "When you put your hopper back on, line it up (without moving the burr group) as closely to "0" pointing to the front arrow as possible. It may be off by a couple of numbers. Screw in the three flathead screws (note, in this picture, I'm doing the last screw, and rotated the hopper up to 9 to conveniently finish the job). "
So, I put the hopper back on onto the zero position (which should be zero since we lined it up in the previous step) and when all the screws are in place, I can rotate it back to where it was before cleaning (probably around 8 for espresso for rocky)??
Thanks for any input, I'm real nervous to break Rocky (cost $250!!!)
trictle Senior Member Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 37 Location: Seattle Expertise: I love coffee
Grinder: Rancilio Rocky
Posted Tue Mar 22, 2005, 1:55pm Subject: Re: How to Clean a Rancilio Rocky
I can't get the vanes to come apart. I've removed the nut but no matter how I tug it won't come loose. It's only 9 months old. Have they changed something since the article was written?
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