First Night With My Niche Girlfriend (and a couple of questions)

DavecUK

One other item that I have noticed. The grind speed is quite slow, with the control disc in place. I have not timed it (I will), but it seems like a solid minute. This being said, I understand that there is benefit to slower RPMs, due to lower heat generation.

I understand that the disk is there to reduce popcorning and to provide a steady grind pace/flow. In actuality I notice that very little gets ground in first 20 or 30 seconds, and then the pace significantly picks up. Definitely not an even flow. Not sure why this happens or if it is a good thing or not?

Should I remove the disk or just be patient? I’m fine with this for just my 2 shots in the AM. But if I had guests, the slow grinding pace would slow the overall production pace down.

BTW, this mornings cappuccino coffee tasted pretty good, with good body and mouthfeel, and good length of taste. It also had the chocolate and caramel notes that I like. And a couple of notes that I didn’t like, which is the bean. But great that I can finally extract these flavours 😋

I will shoot a video, with a timer next to it, tomorrow AM, and post it.

dfk41 Does not sound right, unless it is down to the burrs being new. Mine grinds at the same rate from start to finish. I do not think the flow control disc adds anything to the time spent grinding. This was tested by our host ages ago and I am sure that was the conclusion.

DavecUK Problem solved. Thank-both. The nut was a tad loose. It must have loosened during my initial tests, as the grind time got progressively slower. I tightened the nut, and now the bean grind is consistent and constant, with 16.5 grams of fine grind ground in 35 seconds. Does that speed sound about right?

Also, interestingly the static grounds cling has dissipated. I’m wondering whether the slippage of either the nut or the disk (due to insufficient nut tightness) was generating static.

And while this may or may not have had any impact on the above, I was not using frozen beans.

Thanks all. What a Forum!!🙂

DavecUK The grind seems a tad slow, usually it’s around 20 - 25s for 18g of Espresso grind, if memory serves me right

Hi Dave. Thanks for offering to help.

The 16.5g frozen decaf bean grind ran 30 seconds to empty the hopper and then another 15 seconds (total 45) until the last of the grounds flowed out (with no remaining retention). It was a medium dark decaf of unknown origin, that was frozen after 2 weeks rest. The grind setting was 4.75. Here is a link to the grind video: NZ Grind. It should become active in 1 hour.

My shot was 16.5 in, 24.3 out. 10 BAR. 95C. 8 seconds bloom pre-infusion. I didn’t see the shot time, but the flow seemed neither slow or fast. I am guessing that it ran about 30 seconds. I accidentally deleted the shot video, and its a pain to recover. The shot was balanced but didn’t have significant body/mouthfeel, strength, flavour or length. As per my recent post, I think the coffee is stale.

Irrespectively the grind should not take so long.

Thoughts? Possible solutions?

Thanks Dave!

ken0062 ust food for thought, are niche sending out a batch of NFC discs with smaller holes than original, my niche is one of the originals without NFC disc, I had been using my own 3d printed one, about 6 months ago I decided to buy an original one and was not that impressed, found the flow was much slower than my printed one and grinding times and grind consistency would vary from shot to shot, in the end went back to my 3d printed one.

Thanks for sharing that experience, ken0062. And yes, aside from s l o w grind speed, I’ve also been experiencing unexplainable shot time variation, from shot to shot with the same bean, recipe, etc. Ofcourse, this could be the operator 🤪 (me).

Might you email me the 3D printing file, the 3D printer model name/# and whatever else I’d need to send this to my local 3D printing shop. Email address is Julian Colman with a dot in between at gmail dot com.

My disk is brand new (came with my brand new NZ). It’s worth a test, just for the heck if it.