Cleaning and maintenance
Cleaning a grinder
Brush and blow regularly; use a cleaning product for oils. Do not wash burrs unless the maker says they are washable.
- Skill level
- Beginner
- How long it takes
- A minute routinely; twenty for a full strip
- Equipment needed
- Burr grinder, Grinder brush
- Steps
- 5
Safety
Unplug before any access to the burrs. Burr edges are sharp and some grinders can start unexpectedly if the hopper is refitted.
Your equipment’s instructions come first
How far a grinder may be dismantled, and whether cleaning products may be used in it, varies. Follow the manufacturer's instructions.
Why it works this way
Coffee oils accumulate on burrs and inside the grind path and eventually go rancid, which tastes exactly as it sounds. Cleaning has two levels. The routine one is dry: brush and a bellows, taking a minute, dealing with loose grounds and light residue. The occasional one deals with oil, and uses a purpose-made cleaning granule or tablet that is ground through the machine and then purged out. The one thing to avoid is water on steel burrs: one maker's manual says outright not to wash them with water, and steel can rust.
What you need
Required
Helpful, not essential
How to do it
Unplug the grinder before any burr access.
Not optional, and worth stating before anything else.
Brush the chute and the accessible burr surfaces dry.
A stiff, dry brush lifts most of what accumulates day to day.
For oil build-up, run a grinder-cleaning product through according to its instructions.
These are formulated to be ground like beans and to carry oils out with them. Purge afterwards with a small amount of coffee.
For a full clean, dismantle only as far as the manufacturer describes.
Many grinders lose their calibration when the burrs come out. Note the setting before you start.
Reassemble dry, and re-establish the setting from a known zero.
Follow the maker's own method for finding zero, then return to the setting you noted. Do not run the motor with the burrs touching unless the instructions say to.
How to tell it worked
Coffee that tastes of the coffee, with none of the flat rancid note a neglected grinder contributes.
If it did not work
What you saw, what to change, and why the change works.
Grinding is slower and noisier than it was
Change: Clean first, then consider burr wear.
Packed grounds and oil restrict the grind path before the burrs themselves are the problem.
Common mistakes
Washing burrs in water
Steel burrs can rust, and water carries coffee dust into places it does not dry out of.
Instead: Dry cleaning only, unless the manufacturer states the burrs are washable.
Dismantling without noting the setting
Dialling in from scratch afterwards.
Instead: Write the setting down, and follow the maker's method for finding zero on reassembly.
Diagnose a specific problem
Tools that help
Learn next
Where this is taught
Become a Barista · Level 8
Cleaning and descaling are different jobs, and your manual outranks every schedule.