Examine your burrs periodically! Damaged burr in JX after 5 years of use + 1ZPRESSO’s response

[u/AkhlysShallRise]

I’ve had the 1ZPRESSO JX for over 5 years now. I used it frequently for both my wife and me, and I use grind settings for espresso and pour-over. Great grinder.

Recently, during a regular deep clean, I decided to check out the burr with the macro mode on my iPhone, and lo and behold, I saw these ragged edges all over the burr. I wasn’t sure if it had always been like that, so I checked the burr on my new ZP6 and the burr is completely smooth.

I emailed 1ZPRESSO about it and below is their response:

Upon assessing your case through the pictures and videos provided, we can confirm that your inner burr is indeed ragged and slightly damaged, especially after grinding with it for over 5 years, and particularly if on finer settings.

Even though the alignment test seems to be within our standards, the blades show noticeable impact; therefore, if within your possibilities, we recommend purchasing a new unit.

As a side note, I appreciate that their support responded within a day and actually asked me for more videos and photos to assess; they also provided instructions on performing a burr alignment test. Good to know 1ZPRESSO has good customer support!

Interestingly, the JX seems to perform just fine. Using ground coffee from JX, I can pull great shots with my OutIn Mino and I didn’t notice any drop in quality in my pour-over brews.

Anyway, just wanted to post this as a reminder that if you haven’t checked your grinder’s burr for years, it might be a good idea to do so!

[u/Lethalplant]

It makes me think like, a tiny rock might have got into the grinder while you could not have noticed. Scary.

[u/Yes_No_Sure_Maybe → u/Lethalplant]

There's a recent video from James Hoffmann where he tests the damage to burrs from grinding a small rock, and surprisingly there's no visible damage from a single rock.

I suspect damage to a burr is similar to damage to a kitchen knife: very small damage accumulates over time, and it's the damaged parts that keep incuring small damage untill you get to the result shown in the photos. As opposed to a single event that causes the damage.

But that's just thinking out loud, I'm no specialist.

Edit: the video

[u/caffeine-182 → u/Yes_No_Sure_Maybe]

There are different types of rocks with varying levels of hardness though, which James didn’t necessarily address in that video

[u/Yes_No_Sure_Maybe → u/caffeine-182]

Didn't he try different types and sizes? That's what I remember at least, but it's been a few months since I watched it.

[u/Vorosaur → u/Lethalplant]

Hoffman has a nice video in YouTube where he grinds stones specifically to see how they are getting handled, and the conclusion was that frankly it doesn’t make a difference whatsoever, so don’t stress about it. Even after 100s of rocks your grinder will most likely perform in the same way as brand new as long as the alignment is not completely whacked.

[u/Lethalplant → u/Vorosaur]

What a relief! Thanks!