Breville Conical Burr Grinder

Breville Conical Burr Grinder

The unit is easy to clean, except that I'd like to have a way to remove the lower section of the Conical Burr for weekly cleaning. If you use oily dark roast beans as we do you'll definitely want to clean regularly as oil builds up in the bottom of the hopper making beans stick. Gently rocking the grinder while it runs will dislodge any recalcitrant beans. This is not really a big problem and from the reviews I've read this is an issue with all grinders.

Breville Conical Burr Grinder

The instructions don't mention cleaning the removable section of the Burr Grinder but it will build up an almost greasy deposit on the inside and a small streak of dark deposit on the outside and bottom of the removable section. Breville Conical Burr Grinder After taking out the bean hopper just lift the top of the burr by it's plastic holder and clean with a tooth brush. When reassembling be sure to line up the burr housing the same way it came out or you will not be able to reinstall the hopper. This is easier to do than to type, it's just part of the weekly cleaning, but it should have been covered in the manual.

The other thing the manual doesn't cover on cleaning is that I have to invert the unit and gently tap it to dislodge the slight buildup of old grinds from the bottom burr section before reinstalling the top half of the burr. I then tap the unit with it held upright to make any remaining grounds fall from the shoot. Doing this over the sink saves any cleanup hassles. If not careful one could drop or damage the unit doing this. I should point out that I've never seen any significant buildup of grounds in the shoot - Breville Conical Burr Grinder nothing to affect the great tasting coffee this unit grinds.

Breville Conical Burr Grinder

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but it's really not much trouble. I clean the unit this way once a week and it take about 15 min. to do. Bear in mind that this machine grinds two pots a day of French roast and Tanzanian peaberry. Those are both very oily beans and from what I've read most grinders have major issues with the dark roasts.

Breville Conical Burr Grinder