5 tips for checking conical burr coffee grinder
By Melody
August 19th, 2022
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Identifying the right manufacturing company for a conical burr coffee grinder is challenging if only the picture and the price are checked. To get a better idea about the performance of the burr coffee grinder, we list below five tips for checking the conical burr coffee grinder when you discuss with a manufacturing company, based on the technical testing performance, so that you should know which company is the right one that you try to find.
1. Grinding Consistency Test
Grinding consistency is an essential factor in evaluating a good coffee grinder. Uniformity in grinding will always be an issue to a varying extent. Ground coffee contains a mixture of larger and smaller grind particles, which extract at different rates due to the difference in surface area. The amount of these larger particles and smaller particles and their difference in size are determined by the quality of the grinder you use. Some professional companies will use particle analysis machines to evaluate consistency. If you do not have the particle analysis machine to check, you can use the No. 40 sieve (425μm) to sift the particle and calculate the pass rate. The highest the pass rate, the more consistently the grinder performs.
2. Overload Protection Test
There will be a gearbox inside for most of the conical burr coffee grinders to reduce the revolutions. However, in the market, there are complaints of broken gears. That’s because there is no protection of the inner gear. If there is a clutch, it can prevent damage to the grinding gear of the burr grinder in the event of a small hard bean in your beans. We will put some small bamboo or wooden parts into the coffee beans to stimulate the hard beans and grind them together. If the grinding force is under the designed range, the clutch is engaged, and the gear will work. If the grinding force is out of the designed range, the clutch will be disengaged, and the machine will have strange, rattling noise, reminding the consumer to stop the unit and clean the grinding mechanism. If there is no clutch, it’s effortless to make the gear break once the grinding force is too large.
3. Jammed Test
The jammed issue is a comment issue after some time of use for the coffee grinder. The machine’s motor is running, but it’s no longer dispensing coffee into the burr chamber. Or the coffee beans aren’t feeding down into the burrs. So this is another critical factor for you to check the machine.
Grind coffee until it’s complete in the ground coffee container and funnel; keep the coffee grinder for one or two days in the corner of a table. Let the ground coffee damp during this moment. Then change to the empty ground coffee container and turn on the machine to check if it can work and the ground coffee flows easily through the unit.
4. Residue Test
Coffee beans are a naturally oily and sticky substance. So when coffee passes through a grinder’s hopper, burrs, and chamber, it leaves behind a pasty residue. It’s normal to have some residue after each time’s grind. But it also concerns if too much residue stays inside, then coffee gunk will grow over time, and some other issue like jammed will occur. So this is another factor to check the coffee grinder.
Measure 18g of coffee beans and check how much ground coffee gets after grinding; then, we can calculate how much coffee residue is inside the machine.
5. Over Heating Protection Test
For most electric appliances, there will be overheating protection to prevent damage to the motor or heater, etc., to protect the machine. The coffee grinder should also have overheat protection to prevent overheating after prolonged use.
Grind a whole box of coffee beans continuously until the coffee grinder stops. Then wait for the coffee grinder to cool down to room temperature, and check if the machine will work usually. If it works, that means the overheating protection works; this will ensure the extended lifetime use of the product.
With the above five testing points, you will evaluate the structure design and the technical performance of the conical burr grinder. A good conical burr coffee grinder can lead to a low product return rate, which is also essential to consider when choosing the right coffee grinder supplier.
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