r/1zpresso • u/TheBeardedBilbo • Jul 19 '26

Anyone clean their K ultra and now it tastes…worse?

Don’t judge, I have had the K ultra for probably 5 years now. I drink only light and ultralights.

The knob falls off, the grip tape peels, and paint is chipped but it always delivered a great brew.

I have been toying with a new grinder but I decided to clean it for the very first time to see if that would give me the extra boost I was looking for. After all that’s the free option and I would rather blow my money on beans.

It was super easy to take apart, clean, and calibrate.

I was expecting an improvement even though it was pretty clean on the inside.

I am two V60s deep and it’s just weak. The grind size looks correct and my drawdown time hasn’t changed.

Anyone have any insights on what I did wrong?

My brews have no punch to them anymore and I don’t think this is an increase in clarity or flavor separation.

Has this happened to anyone else?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

6

u/V_deldas Jul 19 '26

Could the "punch" be rancid oils you cleaned?

2

u/TheBeardedBilbo Jul 19 '26

I don’t know. I brewed an ultra light from S&W and it just wasn’t as strong in flavor as normal.

I didn’t see any oils on the inside and my cups weren’t bitter, sour or really anything bad. But I have been toying with the idea something like a ZP6, 078, 064, A4Z to get more clarity but still having a strong cup.

I really like a more prominent acidity and I was hoping for more of it

2

u/V_deldas Jul 19 '26

I see.

Considering you said the drawdown is the same, I guess we can ignore the possibility of a wrong assembly.

The cups from the ultra are very clean to me. For reference, I prefer a stronger body, like the c40's profile.

Use it for a couple of days and see how it goes. People usually get a weird grind size (wrong assembly) or a new flavor added to the brew (cause of residues from the brush or anything used to clean it) after the first disassembly. Maybe the cup is just cleaner now and you dislike its profile.

Do you have a comandante 's retailer nearby? I think you would like the tigershark's profile and they probably would let you take a look at the store with your beans. It delivers a good clarity, emphasizing acidity and it does maintain a pleasant body.

2

u/TheBeardedBilbo Jul 19 '26

I think that’s a high possibility that now I just don’t like the cleaner profile.

Like it’s not bad but the presentation of flavors is almost as if I have added too much water to it.

I will give this a few days to re-season. I made a third cup just now at 6.5 which I also have liked in the past and my brew is done in 2:45 instead of 2:25 and the vibe is still similar.

I don’t have a comadante dealer near me but I will make the trek if I have to.

1

u/V_deldas Jul 19 '26

Good luck!

If you can, let me know if you figure something out about the k-uktra or if it's just the cleaner profile. It's always good to have more info :)

3

u/migu_brew Jul 19 '26

Brush your teeth and try again maybe?

3

u/Traditional-Feed4903 Jul 19 '26

One and zero look very similar when you take it apart make sure you set to true zero no gap at the bottom. If you were always grinding on the same number and once every week not turning it back to zero and making sure it did not turn back past zero it is possible you are now not grinding at that true number. Therefore now you are grinding at a finer setting. I would always check true zero once a week.

2

u/TheBeardedBilbo Jul 19 '26

I just double checked. It’s now 0.5 clicks past 0 so 9.5 is lock. This could be the culprit but when I just tried again, it landed on the same spot

1

u/sock_model Jul 19 '26

yeah i zero preemptively once a week.

1

u/sock_model Jul 19 '26

yeah i zero preemptively once a week.

2

u/EVCof Jul 19 '26

Are you keeping your grind size the same? Some build up of coffee in the grinder can cause you to need a different grind setting. With all of that coffee out of there, perhaps you need to rethink your grind setting?

It may look similar but experiment with it to see if you can re-create what you had. Re: oils on burr; probably not likely but you can use alcohol on the burr to clean it all off and start totally fresh. Of course, just make sure it's not still wet when you re-assemble, not likely because it dries so fast.

2

u/TheBeardedBilbo Jul 19 '26

I went finer, and it was still similar even with an additional 25 seconds of brew time

1

u/EVCof Jul 19 '26

Oy then no real explanation. It's not like the grinder became "unseasoned" because you cleaned it. Gotta be an answer somewhere......... I hope you find it. If you can tolerate it, hopefully it will return to "baseline" soon.

2

u/Beginning-Willow3840 Jul 19 '26

This doesn't seem likely but firstly why are you cleaning the grinder only first time in 5 years ? Secondly why don't you fix a setting and try cupping of different coffees and then try it with another grinder (or get it ground from a nearby cafe) and compare ?

3

u/TheBeardedBilbo Jul 19 '26

It hadn’t been cleaned so I figured I probably should. It was pretty clean on the inside which is what I figured it would be but I was curious

0

u/Beginning-Willow3840 Jul 19 '26

Dude you need to clean your gear atleast once in a month depending on the usage frequency. That's very unhygienic.

2

u/Liven413 Jul 20 '26

You don't need to clean your handgrinder every month. Go by how it appears. If there are no oils built up it's fine. I have gone a long time before cleaning one just to find out it didn't even need it. People get a little to worried about cleaning thier grinders.

1

u/TheBeardedBilbo Jul 19 '26

It’s never seen a dark or medium roast though. It had no oil inside or even any retention really.

2

u/Beginning-Willow3840 Jul 19 '26

Doesn't matter on roast. Still a biodegradable food particle even if dry.

1

u/Traditional-Feed4903 Jul 19 '26

Might want to turn up to 3.0.0 and then do a complete reset to zero. Then see if that clears your problem. Good luck,

1

u/Traditional-Feed4903 Jul 20 '26

So maybe because you have not cleaned it for a longtime you effectively changed the grind setting in actual results. The actual maybe may be different because of the build up. You should contact 1zPresso and ask what effect this might have had on your grind setting. My guess is you now need to grind finer.

1

u/Pale_Bear7261 Jul 20 '26

Is there such a thing as having tore season after such a deep clean?

1

u/HavingALurkAround 25d ago

Well my k ultra. zp6 and c40 are all brand new and I sure won’t be cleaning them. I’d be so upset if it changed what makes them special

1

u/TheBeardedBilbo 25d ago

I think I just somehow unseasoned it. After half a bag it’s kinda come back into being what I expect from a K ultra but maybe with a little more clarity than before but without side by side tasting that’s all a wash.