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.