I finally coughed up $200 for a Baratza Encore grinder and it still jams on medium roasts

Been using a blade grinder for years and figured it was time to upgrade. Read all the reviews, everyone swore by this thing. Second week in, it clogged up on a bag of Ethiopian beans from a local roaster. Took me 20 minutes to tear it apart and clean out the burrs. For $200 I expected it to handle anything. Has anyone else had this issue or did I just get a dud?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_thomas2mo ago

Built to handle perfect scenario is dead on. @daniel593 hit it. I had the exact same thing happen with my Encore on a bag of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Those beans are super dense and oily, they jammed my burrs up in week one. What fixed mine was running a few grams of uncooked rice through it once a month to clean out the oils. Also, if you're grinding for pour over try dropping the dose down to like 15g at a time and let it run without pushing the hopper. The motor can't take a full load on sticky beans. Took me three tear downs to figure that out.

reesemoore29d ago

Right there with you man. My Encore did the same exact thing with a batch of dark roast Colombian I got from a local roaster, seized up completely on day four. Running rice through it helped but I also found that tapping the side of the grinder while it's running keeps the static cling from gumming everything up in the chute. @daniel593 hit it on the head, feels like half the gear we buy now needs you to work around its quirks just to get a decent grind.

daniel5932mo ago

Dude that sucks. Honestly it feels like a lot of stuff these days is built for the perfect scenario not real life. I swear half the things I buy new are more finicky than the old stuff they replace. Like you pay more and expect it to just work but nope you have to baby it or tweak it just to get normal results.

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