How to Clean and Maintain Your Grinder

No matter what type of grinder you have - they all need regular cleaning to ensure that the coffee grinds are in top condition to provide you a perfect cup of joe. And when we say cleaning we don’t mean washing with soap and water kind of cleaning.

You absolutely do not need water to clean your grinder especially if you want your grinder functioning well for a long period of time. Only certain parts of the machine can be washed with water. Parts such as the burr, motor and any electrical parts cannot be washed with water.

When you grind coffee beans, oil gets released from the beans which will remain on the burr or blade of the grinder. Coffee oils can stain your burr and make it sticky. The worst part is, these oils can go stale, so when you grind a new batch of beans, the grinds you get will get a tainted cup of coffee. On top of that that, residue from your previous grind session and coffee dust, which if left for too a long time, lead to decreased performance and a shorter lifespan of your grinder.

Before we get started, here’s a diagram of a grinder displaying all the basic parts you need to know.

There are two ways to clean up your grinder:

The Brush or Vacuum Method

All you need to clean your grinder is a dry soft brush or a handheld vacuum cleaner (such as a Dyson V6 Trigger). You can opt to clean it regularly or once a week. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Make sure your grinder is unplugged for your safety.
2. Close the bean hopper to prevent beans in the hopper from falling into the burr.
3. Remove the hopper and ungrinded beans from the burr. Just be sure to put the beans in an airtight container so they remain fresh.
4. Brush off the remaining grinds or simply vacuum the burr to remove them and any dust present and you’re done!  

Cleaning Tablets

However for a more thorough clean up of your grinder, which is needed at least once or twice a month, use cleaning tablets. But if your grinder is used heavily, it’s better to use the tablets to clean your burrs everyday. We recommend Grinder Clean which effectively removes coffee oils, deposits and odours from grinder burrs and casings. All you need to do is:

1. Empty out your coffee hopper
2. Grind any extra beans remaining in the burr
3. Add in a capful of Grinder Clean tablets
4. Grind and purge till there’s none left
5. Add in some beans before you next grind session to remove any traces of the Grinder cleaner.

Sometimes the resin released by leftover grinds can alter the taste of your coffee very much. So if you feel that your cuppa tastes a lot better after cleaning, give yourself a pat because you’ve cleaned up really well!