Have you tried to clean the grinder on your Breville machine but the top burr was stuck? It can be frustrating because the grinder usually still works but you just can’t get it loose.
In this article, I’ll explain the possible causes and solutions to this problem.
How To Fix The Breville Grinder If It’s Jammed?
The most common cause of the grinder jamming is coffee beans getting stuck between the inner and outer burr, as you can see in the photo below. This prevents the outer burr from moving when you try to unlock it.
Fortunately, it’s very easy to fix this.
- Take the bean hopper off and empty it, then make sure to lock it back in again, or the light will keep flashing.
- Put your portafilter under the coffee dispenser and let the grinder run for about 15 seconds. This way the grinder will just grind out all the remaining coffee beans in it and basically unstuck itself.
- The Grinder should be unstuck now and you should be able to unlock the outer burr.
If this doesn’t work right away, try the same thing but with the grind on the coarsest setting.
Breville Grind Size Control Disc Stuck
When the outside control disc is stuck, it’s probably, again, caused by beans blocking it inside the machine. To get the grind size setting disc unstuck, all you have to do is clean the coffee grinder.
How To Clean The Coffee Grinder
Not only can cleaning the coffee grinder unstuck the control disc. By cleaning the grinder regularly you’re making sure that it always works properly. Cleaning the grinder regularly also prevents it from breaking and makes it last a little longer. Especially if you use flavored or moist coffee beans.
Unplug And Remove The Container
To begin, unplug the espresso machine and remove the coffee container that sits on top of the grinder. Remove the cap from the container and turn the little handle inside the bean reservoir to the left to take it off.
Vacuum The Coffee Beans Out
After you remove the container, you can see the grinder inside. There are probably some coffee beans left in it. You can vacuum those out.
Then take the metal pin and turn it counterclockwise to get the top part of the grinder out. You can clean this part with a brush.
Remove The Hexagon Bold
Underneath this part, you will see a hexagonal socket head. It’s counterintuitive, but turn this socket to the right to loosen it. Then you can get the bolt out and there are some washers on it. Make sure you remember what order it’s placed in. Then you can take out another grinding part and clean that with a brush.
When you put the part with the hexagon socket back, make sure that you don’t tighten it too firmly. Once the grinder starts spinning with it and you can’t screw it any tighter give it a little wack and it should be good.
Then there is a lot of ground coffee in the machine again. You can also vacuum this out with the vacuum cleaner.
Remove The Wheel
Then you’ll see a wheel down there. You can lift that up with a pair of pliers. You don’t have to unscrew it or anything. It just comes up when you pull it. You can also clean that part with a brush.
Remove The Cloth Ring
At the bottom is a small fabric ring. Take the fabric ring out. Now there is nothing on the bottom except more coffee grind. This too you can suck up with the vacuum.
There is a hole in the bottom where the ground coffee goes through to the portafilter. Coffee can get stuck down there. Make sure to unjam this hole with something like a toothpick.
Put Grinder Back Together
Now put the grinder back together in reverse order and it should be good to go again.
Conclusion
In summary, all you need to do to get the grinder loose is to run it for a while without beans in the hopper. To get the grind size control disc unstuck you need to clean the grinder on the inside.
I hope that this article helped you to get the grinder unstuck. If you have any other problems with your Breville espresso machine, don’t hesitate to check out this Breville troubleshooting article I wrote.
Thanks for reading!