Types of grinding burrs
Each coffee grinder manufacturer has their own type of preferences of types of grinding burrs. There are basically 2 types, a flat model and a conical version. you see with various brands that they have a mix of some coffee grinders which use flat grinding burrs and some use conical ones. And some brands do only use flat conical grinding burrs.
Flat grinding burrs
The flat grinding burrs are the most common type of grinding burrs, this might have something to do with the price. Seen they are a lot cheaper then conical grinding burrs.
These types are used on domestic as well on commercial coffee grinders. But seen the volume with commercial grinders is bigger the dimensions of the grinding burrs are also slightly bigger.
In most cases these parts are made from a harder type of steel, to increase the longevity of the grinding burrs it is possible to get them with a special coating such as Titanium. This makes the grinding burrs more expensive, but they will also last longer.
Conical grinding burrs
The conical grinding burrs are a less common type on coffee grinders. As mentioned above this mainly has to do with the price of them, seen they are 3-4 times the price of traditional grinding burrs.
These grinding burrs are made up out of 2 burrs. A outer stationary one and a internal one which is connected to the motor shaft. To adjust the coarseness of the ground coffee you could lower and raise the outer grinding burr.
The conical grinding burrs can be found on various brands such as Mazzer, Fiorenzato and Compak
Installing new coffee grinding burrs
When you are replacing your old coffee grinding burrs there are 3 points of attention.
Cleaning
clean out the coffee grinding chamber, lower and upper grinding burr holder. When you do this the chance of having alignment issues reduces a lot. A other thing is when the threads are clean you can install the parts a lot easier back. And the chance that you cross thread the upper burr holder reduces a lot.
Hardware
Always use the original hardware to install the grinding burrs. Seen it is not always clear if the manufacturer has used “standard” screws to install the grinding burrs.
Calibrating
When you have installed your new set of grinding burrs you can’t just use the old settings of your coffee grinder. Seen the old ones where worn down and in some cases the design was slightly different.
So you need to calibrate them to set your grinder on the correct setting again, this can take some time to do this properly and will cost some coffee beans. But the final result is a lot better then with the old grinding burrs.
Coffee grinding burrs from Brooks
At Brooks we have a variety of grinding burrs for coffee grinders. These can be OEM/original spare parts or aftermarket ones. This mainly depends on how much you want to spend in replacing your grinding burrs.
If you can’t find the part your looking for, don’t hesitate and just contact us so that we can help you out finding the correct set of grinding burrs.
FAQ
What kind of brand of coffee grinder do I have?
This might be one of the more important questions, what kind of brand coffee grinder do I have and also which model of espresso grinder. Seen parts of a Mahlkönig coffee grinder aren’t interchangeable with spare parts of a Mazzer coffee grinder.
Which materials are used for coffee grinding burrs?
In most cases coffee grinding burrs are made from steel or ceramic. You will find ceramic grinding burrs mainly on hand held grinders and domestic coffee grinders. Where you find the steel coffee grinding burrs on commercial espresso grinders, such as with brands likeCompak, Mazzer, Eureka and Nuova Simonelli. There is with, high end, coffee grinding burrs in some cases also a option for coated coffee grinding burrs. Like with a Nanotech, Titanium or a Red speed coating.
Which types of coffee grinding burrs are made on commercial espresso machines?
On commercial coffee grinders you will find 2 types of coffee grinding burrs, the most common size is the flat grinding burr is the most common model. The next type are the conical grinding burrs, in a rarity you do also have a semi conical model this can be found on La San Marco coffee grinders.
A flat grinding burr sat is relatively simple, you have a upper and lower grinding burr. The lower one is connected to the coffee grinder motor, so that one rotates. The upper burr is the stationary, one. Note: both grinding burrs are identical. With the upper grinding burr you adjust the distance between the grinding burrs, by turning the burr holder clock or counterclockwise.
In the case of conical grinding burrs you have a inner and outer grinding burr. In this case the inner disc is also the one which rotates, the outer grinding burr is the one which is the stationary. With the outer grinding burr you also change the distance between the inner and the outer one.
I have installed new coffee grinder burrs, but I can’t get my ground coffee fine enough?
This is a common issue when you install new grinding burrs on your coffee grinder. Seen you need to calibrate your new grinding blades, you can’t just 1:1 replace them and expect the same. A other issue can be that the coffee grinding burrs are out of alignment, mainly caused by old coffee on surfaces. It rarely happens that a coffee grinding burr has a production error which causes this, the same with optically different burrs then your current one.
