I used my 1Zpresso for the first time. Ground some beans, took the handle off, set it down and it rolled off the counter to our wood floor. No evident surface damage but the burrs are seized (handle will not turn the burrs). Has anyone had this kind of experience? Any tried and true solution suggestions?
1ZPresso JMax Burr Siezed After Dropping It :(
I would have thought it should pull apart fairly easily, perhaps try and dismantle it to see if there are any issues
Are you not able to push the ‘disc’ from underneath that allows you to turn (loosen) the top nut? That’s the first thing I would try. I’ve owned a J-Max and currently a K-Max for my travels.
Can’t see how that would size the burrs, disassemble (I have done videos years ago) and see if that sorts it.
19 days later
Just thought I’d let everyone know that dropping the 1Zpresso, even a short fall onto a forgiving floor, can indeed cause the burr to seize, to the extent that disassembly will not unseize it. The burr would not drop out, even with the top but unbolted. 1zpresso then directed me to use a plastic hammer on the top bolt (where the handle fastens), with the grinder sitting on a folded towel. A rubber mallet will not work. As I did not have a plastic hammer head, I used a standard hammer onto a towel placed on the top nut. A few sharp taps and voila, the burr dropped out and I was then able to reassemble and recalibrate. All good.
Try to not unscrew the top grind setting cylinder, as reassembly of that is a pain. And they don’t like you to do that, I suppose due to the risk of thread stripping, misalignment or lubricant loss. But I may at some point carefully unscrew it to very lightly lubricate it.
I did email both 1ZPresso and my retailer for direction and permission, before I tried the hammer approach, even though I had read about it online. I did not wish to void the warranty.
Lesson learned: This is not as robust a grinder as it appears to be. Take care and don’t drop it. Mine had just rolled off the counter. I now treat it with kid gloves. I keep it in its case and will use that case for travel. Perhaps that’s over cautious, but once bitten, twice shy.
10 days later
Put the 1Zpresso through further paces, using a Kruve to calibrate it against my Niche. If I dial my NZ to 11.0, which works for my go to decaf bean, it’s 3.4% passing through a 400 Kruve sieve. A 7.0 dial setting on my 1Zpresso JMax is just about as fine as I can grind (barely lets the beans into the burrs and takes forever to grind) is a 4.4% Kruve 400. So I’ll probably be grinding at 7.5.
So, the 1Zpresso doesn’t seem to grind espresso as fine as I’d like it. The only solution is to grind twice, once at a very coarse grind, and then at a finer grind, as the coarse grounds would then pass into the burrs. Otherwise the underground beans will not penetrate the burrs, if set at less than about 7. Not sure if grinding twice is a good thing?
Am I missing something hear? It’s supposed to be an espresso oriented hand grinder.
Will actually taste a shot with it tomorrow.
- Edited
Sifting for espresso isn’t as easy as for filter, static with very fine grinds becomes an issue.
Your figures sound wrong, 3 to 4% passing through 400Kruve would be a very coarse grind and 4.4% passing through 400 Kruve would indicate a finer grind than 3.4% passing through. Did you mean 3.4% retained on 400Kruve (in which case +/-1% would not be significantly different), or 34% passing through perhaps?
Regrinding the beans isn’t likely to make the grinds significantly finer, I haven’t seen regrinding make any measurable change to grind size.
Have you made any shots at 7.5 on the JMax?
I have a J-Max S for my travel grinder and mostly grinding medium/light and it does a great job. I can’t recall grinding light beans but I have plently of scope left on the dial so I can’t imagine it being a problem.
- Edited
MWJB Your figures sound wrong, 3 to 4% passing through 400Kruve would be a very coarse grind and 4.4% passing through 400 Kruve would indicate a finer grind than 3.4% passing through. Did you mean 3.4% retained on 400Kruve (in which case +/-1% would not be significantly different), or 34% passing through perhaps?
I’m completely new to this Kruve thing, so please excuse my ignorance. I used a fine (11.0) espresso grind on my NZ. I tried progressively finer and finer sieves, starting at 800, to see what passes through each. Everything (100%) passed through using each of the 800, 700, 600 and 500 sieves. The 400 held back most of the grind, letting only a fraction pass through. I measured the total weight of the dose (T), and the weight of what passed through (P). The 3 to 4% is P / T.
I also completed a test for a coarser grind (55 on my NZ), which I like for v60 (don’t shoot the writer, I know that this is a lot finer than the 95 you suggest). Anyway at that grind about 12% passed through.
It’s weird:
- One would have thought that less would pass through a 400 kruve with a coarser grind and more would pass through with a finer grind. Why 12% pass through at 55 on the Niche vs 3.5% at 11?
- At 55 on my NZ, 12% passes through yet on yours 8 to 9% passes through at 95. I know that you can’t compare grind settings on different NZs, but that’s a big difference.
- On my IZ set at 8.5, I get 9.1% passing through a 400 Kruve. At 1 full turn + 0 (slightly coarser) I get slightly less passing through (8.3%), which makes sense. But why at a fairly fine IZ setting of 7, do I only get 3.4% passing through. It should be a lot more, certainly well above 9.1%
I will test various sieve sizes with my coarser grind (55), just to see what it is on the Kruve.
Anyway what am I doing wrong here? Maybe this whole sifting thing (% passing through at 400 Kruve) is not as accurate as we think.
FYI, I have the sieve positioned with the lettering facing down (the black edge of the sieve facing up), as it seems to stay in place better that way. That should not make a difference, right?
JHCCoffee Put the 1Zpresso through further paces, using a Kruve to calibrate it against my Niche. If I dial my NZ to 11.0, which works for my go to decaf bean, it’s 3.4% passing through a 400 Kruve sieve. A 7.0 dial setting on my 1Zpresso JMax is just about as fine as I can grind (barely lets the beans into the burrs and takes forever to grind) is a 4.4% Kruve 400. So I’ll probably be grinding at 7.5.
My mistake on this particular aspect of my Kruve calibration. If 3.4% passes through a 400 sieve with my NZ set at 11.0, then 4.4% passing through on my IZpresso at 7.0 is even finer. So I can probably grind my IZ at a courser setting than 7.0. So all good with the IZ.
JHCCoffee I’m completely new to this Kruve thing, so please excuse my ignorance. I used a fine (11.0) espresso grind on my NZ. I tried progressively finer and finer sieves, starting at 800, to see what passes through each. Everything (100%) passed through using each of the 800, 700, 600 and 500 sieves.
There is no real need to use loads of different sized sieves, pick 2 that are the most useful to you - I’d just use 400 and a larger one, like 1000/1100/1200/1400/1600 etc. for brewed (or 300 & the largest size that holds say 5-20% back if you really want to sift espresso - but I don’t really advise this and I don’t know who you would share data with).
Did you sift a fresh grind sample when you tried the different sieve sizes? You can’t re-sift sifted grinds.
I only recommend 90-94 (drip grind) for specific pour regimes with V60, 55 is finer than my preference, but if you can make it work for you, with faster pours, fair play.
@MWJB Re “300 & the largest size that holds say 5-20% back if you really want to sift espresso - but I don’t really advise this and I don’t know who you would share data with)”
I was only trying to calibrate my IZ to the NZ espresso grind settings I like. But as per my post of a few moments ago, I was getting weird calibration results. Any ideas why?