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Okay all, I am not in a position to write such a guide as the amazing thread on the Feldgrind that exists here. If there was such a thing to help us new Aergrind users that would be cool though wouldn't it?
I hope I'm not doing anything wrong - if I am then it's unintentional and the thread can be edited/deleted. But I've just had an email via Kickstarter where Peter himself has provided the instructions that one might normally expect to receive with the grinder. So hopefully it's of some help to reproduce those here, as a pro-active start, and see what other tips can be added. (There may be some commonality with tips already shared on the original Aergrind thread, maybe they can also go here?)
************** From Peter: **************
..., below is a fulsome description of how to use your grinder. The "learning by doing" ethos seemed to have worked well but for those who want to know a bit more about the grinder this should cover most things.
As ever thanks for the support.
Peter and the Knock team.
Welcome to your Aergrind!
Fitting the crank/ handle arm
This is deceptively simple - grip it so that your thumb is on the crank arm behind the flat side of the D shaped hole.
Look at the shaft for the side with the machined black line and fit the crank arm over it so that your thumb is pointing at the black line - done!
The crank arm needs to be in place in order to adjust the dial, otherwise when you turn the dial you will only be rotating the burrs and not adjusting them. Dial adjustment The dial lid of your Aergrind is numbered to help you register and record what grind setting you are on.
When the crank/ handle arm is in place, the bottle-opener pointer will indicate the setting number. With the crank arm in place, turning the dial to the right (clockwise) will tighten the burrs, making the particles finer; turning to the left (anti-clockwise) will loosen the burrs grind, making the particles coarser. Turn the dial left until you can turn no more, and you have locked the burrs.
When the burrs are locked, the pointer will be at or very near 1 - this will vary slightly between users, depending on how hard the dial is tightened. No need to over-tighten the dial to prove this as we set them at a reasonable tightness when building and use small shims under the bearings to bring the numbers into line with the pointer.
We suggest you tighten the grinder to where you are comfortable and then rotate the grinder lid dial by 1 full turn - with the crank arm in place otherwise you are merely rotating the burr not adjusting it.
Grind a little coffee and see how fine it is compared to your normal grind for your preferred brew method - it is extremely doubtful that anyone even an ibriik / cevze brewer would want to go any finer than this for the first grind. Certainly do not use this for espresso!
**********
Everyone's method and kit will vary, so for grind settings the following are really only guides to where you should start. You can expect espresso grinds to be around one full turn from locked plus another 3/4s of a turn - or as we put in Knock grinder referencing 1:10.
We would encourage you to refer to the settings using this formula - 1[turn]:10 [dial number]. It helps everyone comparing grinds to get in roughly the same position.
Bialetti/ Stovetop and Aeropress are c 2:4;
Kalita Wave/ V60s around 2:10;
French press etc 3:0-4:0. Grind a little and compare with what you know works for you.
**********
Over the first week or so, depending on use, the burrs will wear in comparatively quickly and you may need to tighten your grind a little to achieve the same grind size. You can grind a few grams of (uncooked!) rice through the burrs to aid this but it is generally better to do this with coffee and learn as you go along.
Cleaning
1. Don't put it in the dishwasher (=death by chemical reactions with the cleaning products) and don't run it under the tap- it isn't going to rust (anodized aluminium and stainless steel or black steel parts) but it's not guaranteed against fire or flood. Manual cleaning, brush dry or lightly wipe with damp cloth only.
2. First remove the crank arm but leave the dial lid in place. Use this to unscrew the metal part that it grips, the dial nut. Doing this lowers the inner burr for access. Eventually the dial nut and lid will lift off and the shaft will remain with a small black o-ring preventing it from dropping out completely through the bearings.
3. We solidly recommend that you DO NOT REMOVE THE SHAFT O-RING!
4. Why? well it is very small and tricky to remove without damaging - also once out, it will require a rebuild of the bearings and shims (see above) which whilst not that difficult could potentially leave your grinder with the zero point out of sync with the dial ( not the end of the world but an annoyance).
5. That aside, access should be enough to dry brush clean the burrs - use an old tooth brush or a small stiff artist's paint brush to get in and around the burrs. 6. If you wish to take things further than a brush clean, use Urnex Grindz / Puly Verde so the wear on the burrs is minimized. You could grind a small amount of dry rice through the system occasionally as an emergency / cheaper alternative but long term the rice is harder on the burrs than either Grindz / Puly Verde (or beans!).
Servicing
Unlike the Hausgrind and the Feldgrind, the Aergrind uses a press fit for the outer burr, so it is not easily user removable / servicable. Burrs can be replaced by us but the rated life expectancy is such that you'd need to grind 500g - 1000g of coffee a week for 5- 10 years or more before they should need replacing.
Burrs will wear in very slowly over time so do expect to be at a slightly different grind for a given draw down time on identical roasts by next year.
For those who have experience with Feld- or Hausgrinds, please note that adjusting / aligning an Aer's burrs is more difficult, not least due to the slimmer shaft - we take time to have the burrs aligned before the Aergrind leaves the Shed, and as such attempting to remove either burr from their setting (eg unscrewing the silver, hex-headed bolt from the inner burr) will leave the grinder potentially unaligned and void your warranty in that regard.
Replacing bearings shouldn't need to be done for quite some time - as yet it is hard to say how long as none of our grinders that we have in daily use have needed it. If you suspect this is needed contact us first. They are commercially available bearings of a standard size so there are plenty of sources aside from us.
A few words about shims There are between 0-3 (but most commonly 0 or 2) very thin metal shims under the top bearing. These adjust the distance between the inner burr and the dial nut to allow the dial pointer to show 1 when the burrs are closed. . Without these the grinder functions perfectly well but the dial will simply be a couple of number places out of sync when 'zero'ed - ie it will read +/- 2 or 3 numbers from 1.
The shims are very slim (0.1mm in some cases) and the bearing protects them from getting bent. Their placement and flatness need to be protected (to ensure that the dial zeros correctly) - 95% of the time you won't even see them but it could be that when cleaning they slip out of the bearing recess with the bearing - nothing to panic about here, just ensure that you jiggle them back in and that bearing is seated in the recess fully before dialling down the dial nut. Then forget about them until the next brush clean.
************** End of official instructions **************
I hope I'm not doing anything wrong - if I am then it's unintentional and the thread can be edited/deleted. But I've just had an email via Kickstarter where Peter himself has provided the instructions that one might normally expect to receive with the grinder. So hopefully it's of some help to reproduce those here, as a pro-active start, and see what other tips can be added. (There may be some commonality with tips already shared on the original Aergrind thread, maybe they can also go here?)
************** From Peter: **************
..., below is a fulsome description of how to use your grinder. The "learning by doing" ethos seemed to have worked well but for those who want to know a bit more about the grinder this should cover most things.
As ever thanks for the support.
Peter and the Knock team.
Welcome to your Aergrind!
Fitting the crank/ handle arm
This is deceptively simple - grip it so that your thumb is on the crank arm behind the flat side of the D shaped hole.
Look at the shaft for the side with the machined black line and fit the crank arm over it so that your thumb is pointing at the black line - done!
The crank arm needs to be in place in order to adjust the dial, otherwise when you turn the dial you will only be rotating the burrs and not adjusting them. Dial adjustment The dial lid of your Aergrind is numbered to help you register and record what grind setting you are on.
When the crank/ handle arm is in place, the bottle-opener pointer will indicate the setting number. With the crank arm in place, turning the dial to the right (clockwise) will tighten the burrs, making the particles finer; turning to the left (anti-clockwise) will loosen the burrs grind, making the particles coarser. Turn the dial left until you can turn no more, and you have locked the burrs.
When the burrs are locked, the pointer will be at or very near 1 - this will vary slightly between users, depending on how hard the dial is tightened. No need to over-tighten the dial to prove this as we set them at a reasonable tightness when building and use small shims under the bearings to bring the numbers into line with the pointer.
We suggest you tighten the grinder to where you are comfortable and then rotate the grinder lid dial by 1 full turn - with the crank arm in place otherwise you are merely rotating the burr not adjusting it.
Grind a little coffee and see how fine it is compared to your normal grind for your preferred brew method - it is extremely doubtful that anyone even an ibriik / cevze brewer would want to go any finer than this for the first grind. Certainly do not use this for espresso!
**********
Everyone's method and kit will vary, so for grind settings the following are really only guides to where you should start. You can expect espresso grinds to be around one full turn from locked plus another 3/4s of a turn - or as we put in Knock grinder referencing 1:10.
We would encourage you to refer to the settings using this formula - 1[turn]:10 [dial number]. It helps everyone comparing grinds to get in roughly the same position.
Bialetti/ Stovetop and Aeropress are c 2:4;
Kalita Wave/ V60s around 2:10;
French press etc 3:0-4:0. Grind a little and compare with what you know works for you.
**********
Over the first week or so, depending on use, the burrs will wear in comparatively quickly and you may need to tighten your grind a little to achieve the same grind size. You can grind a few grams of (uncooked!) rice through the burrs to aid this but it is generally better to do this with coffee and learn as you go along.
Cleaning
1. Don't put it in the dishwasher (=death by chemical reactions with the cleaning products) and don't run it under the tap- it isn't going to rust (anodized aluminium and stainless steel or black steel parts) but it's not guaranteed against fire or flood. Manual cleaning, brush dry or lightly wipe with damp cloth only.
2. First remove the crank arm but leave the dial lid in place. Use this to unscrew the metal part that it grips, the dial nut. Doing this lowers the inner burr for access. Eventually the dial nut and lid will lift off and the shaft will remain with a small black o-ring preventing it from dropping out completely through the bearings.
3. We solidly recommend that you DO NOT REMOVE THE SHAFT O-RING!
4. Why? well it is very small and tricky to remove without damaging - also once out, it will require a rebuild of the bearings and shims (see above) which whilst not that difficult could potentially leave your grinder with the zero point out of sync with the dial ( not the end of the world but an annoyance).
5. That aside, access should be enough to dry brush clean the burrs - use an old tooth brush or a small stiff artist's paint brush to get in and around the burrs. 6. If you wish to take things further than a brush clean, use Urnex Grindz / Puly Verde so the wear on the burrs is minimized. You could grind a small amount of dry rice through the system occasionally as an emergency / cheaper alternative but long term the rice is harder on the burrs than either Grindz / Puly Verde (or beans!).
Servicing
Unlike the Hausgrind and the Feldgrind, the Aergrind uses a press fit for the outer burr, so it is not easily user removable / servicable. Burrs can be replaced by us but the rated life expectancy is such that you'd need to grind 500g - 1000g of coffee a week for 5- 10 years or more before they should need replacing.
Burrs will wear in very slowly over time so do expect to be at a slightly different grind for a given draw down time on identical roasts by next year.
For those who have experience with Feld- or Hausgrinds, please note that adjusting / aligning an Aer's burrs is more difficult, not least due to the slimmer shaft - we take time to have the burrs aligned before the Aergrind leaves the Shed, and as such attempting to remove either burr from their setting (eg unscrewing the silver, hex-headed bolt from the inner burr) will leave the grinder potentially unaligned and void your warranty in that regard.
Replacing bearings shouldn't need to be done for quite some time - as yet it is hard to say how long as none of our grinders that we have in daily use have needed it. If you suspect this is needed contact us first. They are commercially available bearings of a standard size so there are plenty of sources aside from us.
A few words about shims There are between 0-3 (but most commonly 0 or 2) very thin metal shims under the top bearing. These adjust the distance between the inner burr and the dial nut to allow the dial pointer to show 1 when the burrs are closed. . Without these the grinder functions perfectly well but the dial will simply be a couple of number places out of sync when 'zero'ed - ie it will read +/- 2 or 3 numbers from 1.
The shims are very slim (0.1mm in some cases) and the bearing protects them from getting bent. Their placement and flatness need to be protected (to ensure that the dial zeros correctly) - 95% of the time you won't even see them but it could be that when cleaning they slip out of the bearing recess with the bearing - nothing to panic about here, just ensure that you jiggle them back in and that bearing is seated in the recess fully before dialling down the dial nut. Then forget about them until the next brush clean.
************** End of official instructions **************
