Burr coffee grinder clogged

I received a burr coffee grinder as a present over a year ago (or maybe two years ago?) and it has been reasonably good (biggest complaint being that the grounds get static and spew all over and then cling).

However-- I drink primarily French and Italian roast-- very oily. Realized recently that the grinder was producing less and less on each grinding, so -- brilliant idea-- took the thing apart to clean it. Don't have the instruction manual, but it came apart, got a little less than a tbs of old grounds out of it (used a brush, also pounded and thumped), thought all was well, put it back together, but ha, still not producing the right amount-- not grinding the beans efficiently.

Thinking of putting something dry through it like rice, or the dried beans I have baked over and over when I make a blind pie crust. Have the idea this might clean the thing out.

Am I crazy? Is there a better way?

It's a Starbucks grinder, with about a half pound bean reservoir on top, should grind enough coffee for about 10 cups at a time, but alas, I think it's only doing about five-- anyone have the same thing and still have the manual?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Same thing happened to mine a few months after I got it. I made some frustrating, time-consuming efforts to fix the problem, then gave up. For the past year, it's just been taking up space on the counter.

You hit the nail on the head: uncooked white rice is the perfect way to clean the burrs (it's what all the coffee geeks recommend). Just dump a handful in the hopper & let 'er rip. After that batch is done (it should look like salt & pepper when it comes out), throw in another handful. Repeat until the ground rice comes out nice & white.

If for some reason rice doesn't do the trick, you can pick up some of this stuff as a last resort (seems needlessly expensive to me though):
Coffee Grinder Cleaner

If your Starbucks grinder is the one I think it is, it's a rebranded Baratza (formerly Solis) Maestro, which is an excellent home burr grinder. I recently picked up a Maestro Plus (refurb...cost more than I was willing to pay new), and have since given up the nasty office breakroom coffee altogether

Forgot to add, after you finish grinding the rice & it's coming out white, run a handful of cheap, non-oily beans through it to get all the rice powder out. Don't want that stuff ending up in your french roast

Khaopaat, thanks! I had the instinct that rice was the thing, but it did seem a little weird, so I am happy to have confirmation before I do it! How bizarre that there is a product that you can buy that does the same thing... what is the world coming to.

Regarding the cheap dried beans: one of my favorite teas is Japanese tea with roasted rice-- perhaps my French roast would be great with the remnants of rice, too...

A friend of mine takes a French press coffee cup to work and makes fresh coffee that way to avoid the break room stuff. I've been thinking about this, but the water I would use is the stuff that comes out when you use the red knob on the water cooler-- it's pretty hot when I make tea, but I don't know if it would work for coffee.

I keep one of these at work: AeroPress Coffee Maker

This could work out for you, since the guy that came up with this doohickey actually recommends water temp in the 170-190 degree range. I fill it directly from the hot water tap on the front of the office coffee maker, which should be similar temp to the red tap on the water cooler (only yours is filtered, so you might get tastier coffee).

I like that it uses little paper filters (it comes with 300 of them, and 300 more cost like $3), so unlike a french press, there's no mesh screen to clean. This thing's actually the reason I bought the burr grinder - it works best with an espresso grind. The folks at work are all jealous, enough that a couple bought their own

Looks great. So it is not messy to clean up, which was the main thing holding me back from using the French press at work? Do you have to buy the filters by mail or can you get them locally?

Cleanup is pretty easy: pushing down the plunger to press the coffee through automatically squeegees the inside of the outer cylinder clean, so I just rinse the plunger, filter holder/screen & the stirring dealie, and wipe everything dry. Once a week I use a bit of dish soap to clean it more deeply.

I'm not sure if/where replacement filters are sold locally. As you can see from my links, I'm very lazy & try to get as many things as I can from Amazon.com...gotta free love home delivery

I've only had this thing for about 6-7 months, so I still have 150ish filters left. But when I run out, I'll order them online (link).

Judy, if I remember correctly, the Starbuck's grinders were made by Solis. If so, the mechanism ought to look like the one pictured here. The Solis (now Baratza?) is sensitive to replacing/seating the top ring burr. Make sure you've cleaned down inside the lower plastic housing well, then rotate the top burr back and forth while reseating it until the aligning tabs are completely engaged with the base. It should return to grinding the way it used to.

Choey, instructions online, what a concept! Thanks! That's not exactly the external housing I have, but that's what the innards look like. I had a heck of a time reseating the plastic ring, but I finally got it.

I love the suggestion that you are going to clean it weekly. Ha.

Khaopaat, I used the rice, it worked very well. I was actually impressed with how easily it ground rice, and kind of want to grind more things now....

In any case, grinder restored!

I bought an extra pack of filters when I bought my aeropress, so now I have enough to last me through a nuclear holocaust. (I didn't know it came with so many when I bought them)

They're cheap & can also be reused, if you fancy rinsing them out and letting them dry.

Does anyone know if using rice to clean a burr grinder helps to remove traces of flavored coffee? We had some guests run hazelnut-flavored beans through ours. The cleaner linked to above says it removes most traces of flavored coffee but, as Khaopaat noted, at $30 it seems expensive.

John, I don't see any harm in trying. I thought the rice did a good job, and I had no trouble getting rid of it (as Khaopaat says, run some cheap beans through after the rice - or even just a small quantity of your regular beans). You have my sympathy, I hate flavored coffee beans.