When To Clean The Coffee Grinder?
My first coffee grinder is the hand grinder before I upgraded to an electric burr grinder. Both serve me well. The grind is consistent and delivers delicious aromatic, and enjoyable brews.
Then one time when I about to unwind with my cup of coffee and it tastes rancid and unpleasant smell of oxidize oils decomposition. This post gives you a guideline when to clean the coffee grinder.
As a general rule, clean your coffee grinder every two weeks. However, if you’re grinding every day, or using oily beans, you’ll want to clean your grinder about once a week. When your coffee grinder is clean and dry, it will stay fresher, longer, and it will keep your coffee tasting delicious.
Coffee grinders’ burrs and blade can get greasy, particularly if you use coffee beans with a high oil content. The oils seep into the burr and gunk up the burr surface. The gunky grinds can become so hard they sound like marbles rolling around in the machine. While the grinder is still working, if you do not do consistent maintenance, it will affect the lifespan and also compromise the coffee taste.
Daily use of coffee grinder will invariably result in a buildup of residue in the nooks and crannies of the machine, and some recommend cleaning the grinder after every use. However, who wants to clean a grinder? If you’re anything like me, you’d much rather be relaxing with a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. But cleaning your grinder regularly will ensure that you’re getting the best grinds possible.
You can also refer to this table on the recommendation maintenance and type of cleaning required for your coffee grinder.
| Description | How often you should clean | Cleaning types to use |
| Grind everyday | Everyday | Dust off excess grounds. |
| Grind everyday | 1 to 2 weeks | Wipe out the coffee bean hopper and grind a capful of Grindz tablets. Use Supergrindz for an automatic machine. |
| Grind every day (light to medium roast) | 3 to 6 Months | Deep cleaning |
| Using dark roast, oily coffee bean and flavoured coffee bean | 2 weeks | Deep cleaning |
| Detected change of taste in coffee | Immediate | Deep cleaning |
| Switching coffee bean | Each switching | Deep cleaning |
How to clean coffee grinder?
So, what’s the best way to clean a coffee grinder?
In the coffee world, there are 3 kinds of coffee grinders: manual, electric, and blade. It should take less than five minutes for simple cleaning and a couple minutes more for deep cleaning.
Daily Maintenance By Dusting Off The Excess Grounds
Use a brush to dust off the excess ground powder from the coffee grinders. This will prevent unnecessary problems like accumulated powder in the motor or fans of the electric coffee grinder.
Wipe Out the Coffee Bean Hopper and Clean The Grind Chamber
Every week or two, take out the bean hopper. This will expose the grind chamber. Use a vacuum to clean the inner part. Other than that, use a brush to sweep and scrape the coffee grounds in the chamber that usually found in between the grind. Please ensure you remove the coffee grinder plug first. This is very important to prevent accident as you are cleaning the grind. After cleaning, just reassemble the bean hopper back.
Dark Roast and Flavoured Coffee Bean Can Clogged Your Grinder.
During the roasting process, the roaster added flavour oils to give the beans their flavors. A glimpse of the beans would reveal that they are glossy and slippery. The reason for this is the present of these flavor oils.
When the beans are ground to espresso fineness, in your Automatic espresso machine or at home grinder, the oils turn the grounds into a paste-like form instead of powder.
Over time, you’ll notice a much slower brew or a clogged machine.
Because of this, you should regularly clean your coffee grinder to avoid it becoming clogged.
Cleaning The Coffee Grinder With Grindz Tablets
Alternatively, you can just grind some Grindz tablets through every 2 weeks. The ground Grindz will absorb the coffee oil and eliminate the odor. This is relatively effective and easy.
You will brew the perfect cup of coffee every time without having to go through the hassle to disassemble the grind chamber for deep cleaning.
If you do deep cleaning once a month, a bottle of Grindz will last you up to a year. Each cleaning you need a capful which is about 1.2-1.4 oz (35g-40g).
Cleaning The Coffee Grinder With Instant Rice Or Oat
Many user has used minute rice to keep grinders clean for a while, but is it the best tool for the job? Most use it for cost saving and for being easily available. Minute rice or oat can also absorb a lot of the oils and odor.
However, minute rice can clog your grinder, and you’ll have to shake out the residue more often. You also risk damage to the burrs of the grinder and worst it may render your grinder warranty void. It is best to check your manufacturer’s manual.
A word of caution, if you decide to use rice, use only minute rice. Non-minute rice grain is harder compare to coffee bean and may damage the burrs of the grinder.
Using oats no danger in damaging the burrs as it is softer compare minute rice.
To use the minute rice for cleaning the coffee grinder, put a three tablespoons of minute rice in it and grind the rice like you would coffee beans. After that, grind some coffee beans to season the grinder.
Deep Cleaning The Coffee Grinder and Coffee Bean Hopper
For deep cleaning, we need a few tools, but it’s not very complicated.
We need the following items:
- A cleaning brush and vacuum
- A piece of cloth for wiping
- Soap or Vinegar
- Cleaning pellet (i.e. Grindz)
- Coffee beans
Step By Step Cleaning A Manual Grinder
- Step 1: Remove the bean hopper, handle and the burr grinder.
- Step 2: A quick wipe down with a vinegar (optional) soaked cloth or coffee filter is usually enough to remove the most obvious residue on the hopper.
- Step 3: Use a brush to clean out the burr grinder.
- Step 4: Soak the small brush with warm water or vinegar to remove any persistent oil residue.
- Step 5: Air dry all the parts and assemble it back.
-
a. Take out the handle -
b. Remove the upper lid -
c. Remove the hopper -
d. Carefully unscrew the nut -
e. Pinch inwards as shown above -
f. Remove the inner part of the burr -
g. Soak all parts in warm water with vinegar or soap -
h. Rinse all parts thoroughly under the tap to remove all residue soap or vinegar -
i. Wipe and air dried the parts -
j. Brush the grind chamber -
k. Gently knock the grinder to remove any stubborn coffee residue -
l. Assemble the parts. Start with the outer burr (1) and then the conical burr (2) -
m. Tighten back the nut -
n. The grinder is ready for action
Step By Step Cleaning A Electric Grinder
- Step 1: Unplug the coffee grinder to prevent any accidental switching on during the cleaning.
- Step 2: Remove the bean hopper and the burr grinder. For instructions, consult the manual. Each model may differ slightly but it should be straightforward.
- Step 3: Clean your hopper with a soft cloth dipped in water to remove most of the obvious residue.
- Step 4: Clean out the burr grinder with a brush.
- Step 5: If necessary, wash the hopper wall with warm water and soak it in soap to remove any persistent oil. After soaking, gently scrub any stubborn bits that remain on the surface.
- Step 6: Dry all the parts and reassemble it.
-
a. Remove the upper bean hopper carefully. -
b. Brush off the excess grind. -
c. Tap the sides of the machine against your palm to get rid of any excess grounds. -
d. Remove the outer burr -
e. Brush the outer and inner burrs. -
f. Put back the outer burrs. -
g. Put back the bean hopper. -
h. Weight about 35-40g of Grindz -
i. Set the grindz size to medium and let it grind the Grindz tablets. -
Step By Step Cleaning A Blade Coffee Grinder
- Step 1: Unplug the blade grinder.
- Step 2: Put in a a cup (1.5oz) of minute rice and grind it. It will remove all the oil and coffee residue.
- Step 3: Use a a brush to remove as much leftover residue as possible.
- Step 4: Cleaning your grinder chamber with water-dampened cloth should remove most of the obvious residue.
When and How to Clean A Built In Grinder In Fully Automatic Coffee Machine
Coffee grounds are difficult to remove from coffee machine with built-in coffee grinder. This is because they are hard to reach and you will need to dismantle more components before you can get to the grinder. Therefore it is important to do regular cleaning maintenance.
I myself had an horror experience with my fully automatic coffee machine at my office. I was using it for a year plus without doing any maintenance. Never cross my mine at that time.
One day after a a short vacation, when I back to office and looking forward to a cup of coffee. Somehow no ground comes out. Upon troubleshooting, I discovered that the coffee oil and coffee powder had solidified and adhered to the grinder.
The whole grinder was jammed. The coffee grinder was beyond repair and had to be replaced. I am sharing this to spare you the trouble of going through it.
What Is The Best Way To Clean A Coffee Grinder Built Into A Superautomatic Coffee Machine?
The best way is to clean the Superautomatics coffee machine grinders is by using the Supergrindz.
First of its kind with hydrophobic formula makes it ideal for the safe and convenient use.
With its ability to absorb oil residue from coffee grinder burrs and remove stuck coffee particles, it makes cleaning automatic coffee machine grinders quick and easy.
Top 3 Reasons To Clean Your Grinders Regularly.
Well, if you’re grinding coffee every day, there are a couple reasons you should get in the habit of cleaning your grinder regularly:
- Reason 1: Coffee grinders have multiple parts, each with a different part to play in the coffee grinding process. If you do not clean your coffee grinder on regular basis, oil will gather and make it gunky. The results is the unpleasant rancid oil taste.
- Reason 2: When your coffee grinder is clean and dry, it will stay fresher, longer, and it will keep your coffee tasting delicious.
- Reason 3: If you do not clean your coffee grinder on a regular basis, it will be harder to clean. Coffee grinds are very hard and as they build up in your grinder they will turn into a solid mass that is difficult to remove. This usually occurred when you using a darker roast like French roast, Italian roast, continental roast where the beans are very oily on the surface.
