Had a Baratza Encore burr seize up on me mid-pull last Tuesday.

I was grinding some Ethiopian beans for my morning v60 and the motor just started making this awful screech then stopped completely. Took it apart and found a tiny rock stuck between the burrs. Never thought to check my beans for rocks before. Spent 2 hours cleaning everything out and reassembling. Runs fine now but I'm paranoid. Anyone else ever find random stuff in their beans?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora8135d ago

Oh man, that is literally my worst nightmare! Ngl, I found a weird piece of plastic in a bag of beans once, no idea how it got in there. Scared me so bad I started picking through every single bean before grinding, which takes forever. Tbh, I still don't trust any bag that isn't from a roaster I know personally now. Glad you got it fixed though, that's the real win.

flores.mark4d ago

Jump right into taking apart my grinder after that happened. I found a small nail once, like a finishing nail. @cora813 you're lucky it was just plastic. A nail will wreck your burrs fast. I now do a quick visual check over a light colored plate before dumping anything in the hopper. Learned that lesson the hard way.

beng514d ago

Got a strong magnet from an old hard drive and taped it to the inside of the hopper lid. Catches tiny nails and metal bits before they ever reach the burrs. Had a bag of Ethiopian beans once that had what looked like a tiny screw in it, the magnet grabbed it right before the drop. Also started ordering beans in smaller batches so I go through them faster and inspect each batch more carefully. No more month old mystery beans sitting around getting stale and hiding surprises!