HOW DO I CLEAN MY GRINDER AND HOW OFTEN?
Regular cleaning of your Comandante grinder burrs every few weeks will keep your grinder running smoothly and will ensure a great-tasting cup of coffee. To clean the grinder body, we recommend wiping down the outside with a damp cloth and ensuring it is completely dry. To clean the grinder burrs, we recommend using a grinder brush to thoroughly clean all of the components. You can follow the disassembly and reassembly instructions below.
Tips: Keep your grinder dry, avoid scratches, and care for any wood elements with a natural beeswax polish.
Important Note: Please do not soak your grinder in water or wash it in the dishwasher. Water should not be used to clean Ironheart burrs.
HOW DO I DISASSEMBLE AND REASSEMBLE MY GRINDER?
Disassembly and reassembly of your grinder for cleaning purposes is relatively quick and simple. We recommend doing this over a table or a flat surface so you don’t misplace any parts. You can follow these steps:
- Begin disassembling your grinder by removing the crank handle and unscrewing the grind catch.
- Turn the dial anti-clockwise all the way (as if you were making the grind coarser and coarser) until the dial comes off.
- Remove the inner burr, spring, two washers, and axle and clean these parts thoroughly using a grinder brush (you can find the Comandante range here).
- To clean the grinder chamber, you’ll also need a long, slim grinder brush to ensure no fines are caught within the chamber.
- To reassemble, replace one washer (with the flat side facing outwards and the raised edge facing inwards towards the bearing) onto the axle support, insert the axle through the washer into the grinder chamber, and replace the crank handle. The crank helps to hold the axle in place while you replace the burr. Flip the grinder over and hold the crank and grinder steady.
- Place the second washer (again, with the flat side facing outwards and the raised edge facing inwards towards the bearing) onto the axle and then insert the inner burr with the spring back onto the axle.
- Push the inner burr down into the chamber and hold down while you screw the dial back on.
- Replace the grind catch, and you’re ready to reset your grind settings so you can brew.
Important Note: Please do not unscrew the three mounting screws around the inner burr. These have been precisely tightened by hand during the manufacturing process to ensure correct calibration of your hand grinder.
I’VE LOST THE RED O-RING. DO I NEED TO GET A REPLACEMENT?
If you have an earlier production model of the MK3, your grinder may have come with a red o-ring. This o-ring would normally have sat between the washer and the spring and was initially designed to hold the lower washer in place during disassembly. Later productions of Comandante grinders have not included this o-ring in their design, so if you have misplaced the o-ring, there is no need to replace it – your grinder will still work wonderfully without it. If you’d prefer to still use the o-ring, you can find a replacement here.
CAN I USE MY COMANDANTE FOR ESPRESSO? WHAT ABOUT FRENCH PRESS?
Your Comandante hand grinder will manage both a very fine grind and a very coarse grind – and everything in between. Please remember that the perfect grind setting will vary depending on your coffee and recipe, but for some good starting points for different brewing methods, please see the list below:
- 5-10 clicks for Ibrik
- 10-15 clicks for espresso
- 15-20 clicks for stovetop
- 22-32 clicks for pour over
- 25-30 clicks for cupping or French Press
WHERE IS ZERO?
‘Click Zero’ is the starting point for your grind setting, where the grinder burrs are fully closed. You will need to know this point to then be able to dial-in and recreate your grind settings for your favourite recipes. To find ‘Click Zero’, you can follow these simple steps:
- Hold your grinder horizontally. When the burrs are open, the handle will turn and fall down to the 6 o’clock position.
- Gradually tighten the burrs by turning the dial clockwise. Click Zero is the first available setting where the handle will no longer fall – the burrs hold the handle still.
- As you open the burrs from Click Zero, you can count the number of clicks to track your grind setting.
Note: Once you reach Click Zero, there is no need to keep tightening the burrs. Simply open the burrs and count the clicks.
CAN I BUY ACCESSORIES AND EXTRAS FOR MY GRINDER?
You absolutely can buy accessories and spare parts so you can customise your Comandante grinder. At Bombora, we stock a range of brushes, knobs, bean jars, felt sleeves, travel bags, and replacement parts for your grinder. The 100% natural wood knobs are available in a range of different colours and pair perfectly with the various colours of the felt sleeves. Grab a 100% natural wood and hair barista brush to keep your equipment clean, and a pack of extra bean jars to make pre-portioning for travelling super easy. The wood care balm kit comes with a 15ml wood care balm, soft cotton cloth and natural wood and horsehair brush. The burr care kit includes 30 ml Burr Care Fluid, soft cotton cloth and a natural wood and horsehair brush.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NITRO BLADE AND THE IRONHEART MODELS?
While the Nitro Blade and C40 Ironheart models both deliver an incredible grind consistency across all brew methods, their burr sets are made from different materials. The Nitro Blade burrs are made from high-alloyed, high-nitrogen stainless steel. These burrs do not react with the acid in coffee, so are completely neutral in chemical taste, making them perfect for coffee brewing methods where the flavours are more delicate. The Ironheart burrs are made from ultra-hard carbon steel, which makes it extremely easy to achieve a very fine grind size for an espresso.
MY COMANDANTE GRINDER IS SQUEAKING – WHAT CAN I DO?
If your grinder is squeaking, it is most likely only the wooden knob on the crank handle. This is due to the 100% natural wood crank being in contact with the crank. To resolve the squeak, you can follow these steps:
- Remove the knob from the crank.
- Put a little bit of olive oil or a clean mineral oil onto a cloth and simply rub it onto the end of the crank.
- Click the wooden knob back onto the crank.
HOW DOES THE WOODEN KNOB ATTACH TO THE CRANK?
The wooden knob (handle) attaches to the end of the crank with a simple push-click button. When reassembling after cleaning or travelling, simply push the knob onto the crank until it clicks.
WHY AM I SEEING FINES AND BOULDERS IN MY COFFEE?
Due to the brittle nature of roasted coffee beans, coffee will always break and shatter unevenly during the grinding process. This creates both super fine coffee dust called ‘fines’ and larger, irregular-shaped particles called ‘boulders’, especially when grinding on coarser grind settings. Both fines and boulders are somewhat inevitable, however, some grinders do a better job at reducing them, leaving you with more consistent and even coffee particles.
Comandante burr sets have been designed and tested to ensure you achieve great particle distribution, so you can enjoy high quality coffees. But if you do see fines and boulders in your coffee, don’t worry too much; simply check that your grinder is clean, assembled correctly, and set to a grind setting that makes a great tasting cup.
MY BURRS LOOK OFF-CENTRE OR ARE TOUCHING – IS THIS NORMAL?
Each Comandante grinder burr set has been calibrated precisely using three custom mounting screws on the bottom of the grinder. These screws ensure that the outer burr ring is aligned perfectly with the grinder axle. The inner burr – or the ‘cone’ – in the Comandante grinders has been designed to have some flexibility on the axle. This means that when the grinder is empty, the burr is actually able to move on the axle, causing it to sit slightly off-centre or even rub together on finer settings. This is totally normal, and as soon as you put load onto the axle by grinding coffee, the inner burr aligns with the axle and the burr ring. If you see (or hear) your grinder burrs rubbing together, it might be time to give your grinder a good clean. You can follow our cleaning instructions further up the page.
MY CRANK ‘WOBBLES’ ON THE AXLE – IS THIS NORMAL?
If you feel like the connection between the crank and the axle is quite loose and wobbly, you can be assured that this is part of the design of the grinder. Comandante deliberately used this design to ensure that it is easy to remove and reattach the crank and lid to the grinder. The looser connection has absolutely no effect on the axle and the burr mechanism, and no effect on grind performance.
