E8 grounds spraying

George Tzircotis

Hello E8 owners,

I wonder if anyone can help out - after a about 5 months of flawless operation, my E8 has started to spray ground coffee everywhere. Adjusting the grind doesn't seem to make make any difference, and I've tried cleaning by running Grindz through the machine with no effect. This started with the occasional grind a few weeks ago but is now happening all the time, with a lot of wasted coffee and very inconsistent dosing.

I haven't purchased the grinder from Reiss but hopefully he won't mind me posting here. Has anyone else experienced this and any thoughts on a solution? Here's a clip of the grind:



Many thanks for your help,

George

Frans Goddijn

Have you emptied the machine thoroughly, using a vacuum cleaner to suck any loose grinds out that are maybe stuck?

Most importantly, is the little white flap at the top of the chute intact?

George Tzircotis

Hi Frans,

Thanks for the response, I emptied and ran Grindz through, but I didn't think about the vacuum cleaner. I'll try that later on. The flap looks fine to me although I'm not really sure what it's supposed to look like?




Best,

George

Attached files

George Tzircotis

Update: after a thorough clean and vacuum the grinder seems to have gone back to normal, at least 15 x 15g doses later. It would never have occurred to me this would clear up the problem, I guess a buildup in the path of the freshly ground coffee may have been causing the spray.

Thanks once again for your help Frans!

George

Frans Goddijn

Very glad to hear it helped!

Reiss Gunson

hi george, good to hear from you again

thank you for answering this frans. did a dark roast initiate the problem george?

George Tzircotis

I don't think so (I haven't bought a really dark roast for a long time now), if anything I first noticed it with a particularly light roast. Very hard to say though.

George

George Tzircotis

One more post for completeness. Although the vacuuming trick helped it didn't completely resolve the spraying, which happened again a couple of days later. I was sent a new curtain (there is a slightly thicker version that might be more suitable for certain environments) and on opening the grinder to replace the old curtain I found some accumulated coffee in the entrance to the chute. I think this was pushing the curtain up and causing the problem. No issues at all since the replacement around 10 days ago.

George

Reiss Gunson

hi george!

thanks for posting - always good to hear the end of the story

great to hear that you have an E8, i think they are a superb grinder

kind regards

reiss.

Reiss Gunson

hi george

I'm not sure what your experience has been since your last post, but i have been pondering this

when you posted i hadn't experienced the spraying that you report, but since then i have

this got me thinking about what has changed in my setup as it wasnt the beans and as much as i wanted to blame the weather i don't believe it was that either as it wasnt extreme in any way

what i think it is down to, and i will have to report back at a later date when more time has passed to be sure of the theory, is the result of placing a damp, steaming hot portafilter under the spout of the E8, which obviously results in moisture heading upwards into the grinder, with the results reported above

so, i recommend that you wipe the portafilter dry before you place it under the grinder spout and i think that will solve the issue

you will of course have to clear out the damp coffee that is stuck up the chute, just as George had to, but if you keep the moisture out the problem should not re-occur

hope this helps

reiss.

Ben B

George,

Another point... It doesn't appear from your posts that you had fully removed the top burr, disassembled and thoroughly accessed the chute & burrs to clean/vacuum. In my experience with various grinders, "GRINDZ" is worthless. The idea of grindz is not unlike eating sand to get the almond meal out of your molars.

No better job than a manual one. I have a E10 and had to learn disassembly route was the best.

George Tzircotis

Hi Reiss, Ben,

I haven't had any further problems with spraying since changing to the thicker curtain, nearly three months ago now. I generally wipe the portafilter dry before setting it under the chute, but my kitchen is warmer and more humid than most so a source of moisture could certainly be the issue.

Ben, I think you're right about Grindz, I've noticed very limited effects (if any) when I've used them. For the first round of vacuuming I didn't actually disassemble the grinder, just took the hopper off and vacuumed through the top. This helped a bit but clearly didn't remove the compacted grounds. I then removed the grind adjustment wheel, front of the grinder and chute to get to the curtain - as you say this is definitely the way to go for a thorough clean. It was also surprisingly easy, although I wasn't brave enough to attempt to take out the burrs. Leaving that for the next time.

Best,

George

Reiss Gunson

i have been spending more time investigating this

during the summer when the windows were open all of the time, and in particular during the evening during cooking i never once saw spraying

now that we are in winter in new zealand and the windows are usually closed once the sun goes down, there is more moisture present in the kitchen

i think it goes without saying that it is helpful if you are able to place your grinder away from the from the steam wand and the hot water tap if you use either of them frequently

but this alone won't rectify the issue

however, i seem to have made a discovery: if you start by using the 'pulse' button on the E8, only momentarily, and observe whether the grinds are spraying wide, or whether the coffee is trickling down the very centre of the exit tube, i think you can avoid the spraying

if when pulsing the grinder on momentarily you observe the grinders being thrown wide from the spout then simply pulse the grinder a second time, and perhaps even a third until the grounds are tumbling down the centre of the exit chute

the pulsing nature of this function seems to clear any moist coffee grounds causing a partial obstruction at the exit flap, thus avoiding coffee spraying everywhere. you are now free to push the pre-select button for the dose that you desire, or indeed flush about 10g of stale coffee out if the grinder has not been used for a few hours

i think the use of the pulse button will eliminate the spraying coffee issue if you are operating the grinder in a humid environment

if in contrast you simply keep hitting one of the preset buttons that you have set to deliver 18g of coffee and spraying is an issue for you, you will have coffee everywhere

let me know if using the pulse button rectifies the issue for you

reiss.