IMAWriter Senior Member Joined: 4 Jul 2002 Posts: 5,462 Location: Brentwood, TN Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Nothing at the moment Grinder: Vario-W,Preciso-Esatto/KyM... Vac Pot: Adcraft SS, Yama 8 cup Drip: Brazen.Chemex, Hario, Clever... Roaster: Behmor 1600, CO/UFO combo
Posted Thu Mar 14, 2013, 9:39am Subject: Re: The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread
They've exchanged grinders before when the problem has been traced to a defect. Yep, I'm CST, so the 2 hour difference is burned in my consciousness. Did you perform the thorough cleaning I've described, removing both upper and lower burrs? If stuff gets under the lower burr it can affect the grind size. It seems after the 1st lb , this ceases, which is why I recommend a thorough cleaning after the first few lbs if things change drastically. The other thing is if the user adjust the grinder finer without running the motor when the hopper has beans in it. This causes beans to lodge between the burrs. If none of this is your issue (after performing the cleaning, which includes shooting some compressed air in the slider grooves) then a call is in order. BTW, what does your grind feel like?
EDIT: please tell us what espresso machine you are using, how old, etc. That could also be a possible cause for your problems, you never know.
Posted Thu Mar 14, 2013, 9:52am Subject: Re: The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread
colin and pierce (2techs I have dealt with and have talked with many times) work very hard to diagnose and work out issues,not just with your grinder but many others over the coarse of a day. their request to check your tamp would be a correct 1st answer to your problem. human Inconsistancy on a new grinder is quite common given break in period and time to familiarise yourself with grind settings/particle size/how the grinder reacts to changed settings,ect,ect,ect. like several have said take the time and give them a call. I'm sure they will be more than happy to work with you to find a resolution or to replace grinder if it is defective.
jmdfd415 Senior Member Joined: 9 Feb 2012 Posts: 25 Location: NC Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu Mar 14, 2013, 9:57am Subject: Re: The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread
I bought the vario from amazon so an exchange would be very easy. I have not done the cleaning, but I have only ran a half pound through the grinder so far. I was having the problem right from the get go. My machine is the breville dual boiler and is only a year old at most. I had a rocky that I was using before the vario and never had any issues at all. I have only adjusted finer while the grinder was running, but I am also single dosing so there would be no beans in the hopper to affect it anyways. Grinds are coming out very nice and fluffy.
IMAWriter Senior Member Joined: 4 Jul 2002 Posts: 5,462 Location: Brentwood, TN Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Nothing at the moment Grinder: Vario-W,Preciso-Esatto/KyM... Vac Pot: Adcraft SS, Yama 8 cup Drip: Brazen.Chemex, Hario, Clever... Roaster: Behmor 1600, CO/UFO combo
Posted Thu Mar 14, 2013, 10:18am Subject: Re: The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread
Ah, single dosing, perhaps the issue. First, though the Vario is very good a keeping "popcorning" to a minimum, even a little bout of it could affect your results. However, I have to ask: as the Vario has a TIMER, why would feel the need to grind by the dose? Makes no sense to me. i've had a Vario for nearly 5 years. I found the timer to be very accurate, and when I would periodically weigh my grind at say, 13 seconds, the most it would vary would be maybe .4 grams, which would be negligible with the 18 gram shots you probably pull. So, please fill your hopper 1/3 full, do what we all did with our Vario (not the W), which is: set the timer to approx what you think gets you the amount of grind by weight you want at the grind fineness setting you seek. Weigh the grind to assure you are close. Remember that the finer you set the grind, the LONGER it will take to grind the same amount. Pull a shot. If you're to tight a grind, go down 2 micro notches, and take maybe .5 off the timer, or vice versa. The Vario is ALL about the time/grind setting relationship. IMO, there is NO NEED to grind by the dose in a Vario, as there is less than .3 grams retention, if that.
Posted Thu Mar 14, 2013, 10:19am Subject: Re: The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread
is your particle size the same? you say one dose would choke and one would gush, start dumping on a sheet of paper and inspect grind quickly before loading pf. if particle size is the same this will eliminate one or 2 factors . even single dosing will leave bean particles between burrs. also it takes sometimes several shots for the grinder to ajust grind. grinders will also act/grind differently when single dosing with no weight on beans.
Posted Thu Mar 14, 2013, 10:20am Subject: Re: The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread
IMAWriter Said:
Ah, single dosing, perhaps the issue. First, though the Vario is very good a keeping "popcorning" to a minimum, even a little bout of it could affect your results. However, I have to ask: as the Vario has a TIMER, why would feel the need to grind by the dose? Makes no sense to me. i've had a Vario for nearly 5 years. I found the timer to be very accurate, and when I would periodically weigh my grind at say, 13 seconds, the most it would vary would be maybe .4 grams, which would be negligible with the 18 gram shots you probably pull. So, please fill your hopper 1/3 full, do what we all did with our Vario (not the W), which is: set the timer to approx what you think gets you the amount of grind by weight you want at the grind fineness setting you seek. Weigh the grind to assure you are close. Remember that the finer you set the grind, the LONGER it will take to grind the same amount. Pull a shot. If you're to tight a grind, go down 2 micro notches, and take maybe .5 off the timer, or vice versa. The Vario is ALL about the time/grind setting relationship. IMO, there is NO NEED to grind by the dose in a Vario, as there is less than .3 grams retention, if that.
I agree, while single dosing makes it nice if you change blends/ beans every few shots, the grind is more consistant if your hopper is partially full. I (kind of) single dose alot so I bought another hopper and cut size down /the finger guard out and use a heavy short glass to put weight on beans. then change it out if I'm running 1 blend/varital for several days.
jmdfd415 Senior Member Joined: 9 Feb 2012 Posts: 25 Location: NC Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu Mar 14, 2013, 4:19pm Subject: Re: The Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread
Also, I just got an email back from baratza saying that the amount of beans in the hopper should not affect the grind at all......personally I feel like the only thing having beans in the hopper would affect is the amount of time it takes to grind and not the actual grind size, but all of you have much more experience with this grinder than I do so we will just have to see what happens tomorrow morning...
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