Grinder setting swing

MediumRoastSteam

tompoland - I think we went from very dry warm weather to typical British summer (20C max, drizzle, overcast).

tompoland

MediumRoastSteam spoke with a local barista last summer who works in a cafe that has a massive open front wall, so no air conditioning, just ceiling fans. She said that on some days in summer she has to change the grind setting up to 8 times to compensate for changing humidity. So that may be the answer. (Where I am in Australia we have long dry warm and sunny winters but hot wet and humid summers. Cos we’re upside down n all 😉)

LMSC

I have opened Crankhouse Kenyan roasted on 25 April from VacPac this morning. Ground at #5 on the Duo. The shot time was 38s. Let me see how it fares the next couple of days and come back. I would finish the coffee in 2-3 days though. 😊

thewelshvet

I’ve had this for the first time recently. Have had to radically alter grind on the Zero in the last week or so.

LMSC

Today, the same coffee from Crankhouse, same dose and grind reference ran a little faster and finished at 31s.

JahLaza

@MediumRoastSteam what beans are you using? Is it a blend? This happened to me a couple of times in the past, but it’s probably been about a year ago, and was in the summer when the weather was sticky and humid. I’m pretty sure it was a blend, and would not have been any more than 2-4 weeks post roast. I put it down to the relative humidity and the beans at the time. 🤔

MediumRoastSteam

JahLaza what beans are you using? Is it a blend?

It affected all the coffees I had on the go: all single origins, Kenyan, Brazilian, Colombian.

tompoland

MediumRoastSteam any chance your grinder is in a sunny spot?

JahLaza

🤷‍♂️

dfk41

This is simply related to temperature. It has been reasonable, now it is colder. Some might have popped the heating on for a bit. Nothing to worry about, shown by the fact it is happening to more than one person

LMSC

Generally, I don’t adjust the grind reference for the same coffee unless I see a big swing in pour times or taste. Ex: 40s shot becomes a turbo shot. Today, there was a swing of 7s, the coffee was still perfect. 😊

MediumRoastSteam

tompoland - The more I think about it, the more I think it’s related to the weather Tom. It was rather warm here in the UK a few weeks ago, and, in the last week or so, it’s been more humid and rainy. When it was sunny we had the french doors all wide open - But not now.

And yes, it’s in a sunny spot towards the end of the day, but it’s not direct sunlight.

JahLaza

MediumRoastSteam when oh when is someone going to design a grinder that automatically adjusts to the weather conditions resulting in consistent grinds no matter the weather?? Big hole in the market here folks!!

DavecUK

MediumRoastSteam The more I think about it, the more I think it’s related to the weather Tom. It was rather warm here in the UK a few weeks ago, and, in the last week or so, it’s been more humid and rainy. When it was sunny we had the french doors all wide open - But not now.

Funny enough, I’m going to agree. My house is pretty dry and I haven’t needed to open the windows much. A friend of mine has had his windows open a lot and mentioned how humid it was. My grind doesn’t vary much day to day, so I suspect humidity could be the culprit.

Doram

MediumRoastSteam Yesterday something very strange happened (again). I’ve been grinding this particular coffee - Kenyan - at setting 10 on the Niche. Yesterday the shot took 70 seconds for the usual 18g in, 36g out. I thought nothing of it, maybe some freak event, and just drank the coffee. This morning, guess what? Same thing again, but took it even longer, like 85 seconds.

Something similar and very strange happened to me: suddenly the grind setting that was perfect before completely choked the machine. I think I needed to go 2-3 steps coarser (on Niche Zero) to get the same flow. This happened on both coffees I have on the go (there is a 4-step difference between them: one on 11, the other on 14, and both needed much coarser settings at the same time).

At this stage I thought maybe the calibration ring moved. So I went all the way to the calibration point, and indeed the dot didn’t align with the arrow by about the right distance, so I thought I found the problem. I aligned the point to the arrow and thought all is good.

However – the calibration difference was in the wrong direction (meaning that now the grind was even finer, not coarser. In other words: a coffee that I was on 11 suddenly needed 14. After fixing the calibration, instead of going back to 11, it now needed 17).

Can the weather change explain such a dramatic shift? Did anyone else in the UK have this in the last few days (assuming I’m not the only one who experienced a change in the weather)?

DavecUK

Doram Check the lower burr carrier centre bolt has not come loose.

Doram

DavecUK Doram Check the lower burr carrier centre bolt has not come loose.

Thanks. Just checked and everything looks tight. Took the opportunity and cleaned again (it wasn’t dirty, last did it 3 weeks ago) - everything looks normal, and (new) calibration point didn’t move.

MediumRoastSteam

Doram - Interesting. I found myself to being quite consistent recently- Except a bean I was on 10 I’m now on 8.5 (Niche Duo) - but that I attributed to the beans ageing.

Doram

MediumRoastSteam Doram - Interesting. I found myself to being quite consistent recently- Except a bean I was on 10 I’m not on 8.5 (Niche Duo) - but that I attributed to the beans ageing.

What I had was similar to the issue you described in the opening post: an overnight shift in the setting across beans (and in the opposite direction to the normal “aging beans need a tighter grind”).

A move of the calibration ring is the easiest explanation, but what I found was that while my calibration indeed moved (for the first time, and I don’t think I moved it), - it was in the wrong direction (!). It’s a mystery.

Petre

Your shot is basically a choker, I would not expect a lot of consistency in that territory. Maybe a different recipe like blooming if you want more contact time and if the machine allows?

« Previous Page