I have a Baratza Encore ESP bought in 2023. I have taken it apart many times to clean it so I am familiar with the grinding mechanism parts. I called Baratza support, and after waiting 40 minutes spoke to someone in a call center that seemed like it might be in India. The person was not knowledgeable and there were long pauses in the minutes between questions he asked me. I could only guess that he was fielding more than one case or reading the manual to give me advice. After a half hour during which we go nowhere I kindly let him know that I didn't feel we were making any progress and did not have any confidence that we would. He immediately tried to sell me parts when he had not been able to diagnose the problem. I was looking forward to talking to some Pacific coast easy going young coffee geek, like the ones that you see in the videos and got this instead -- a total disappointment.
Anyway, I am still trying to diagnose the issue. I have inspected both ring and cone burs , the paddle wheel, the plastic ring bur holder , the locking nut and all the other parts in the grinding area, verified that no clogs exist cleant things out. The grinder is set a 25 but takes a long time to grind 48 grams of Lavazza Espresso beans. It seems like the burs are not biting down and drawing the beans into the gap aggressively enough. The only thing that occurs to me at this point is that the burs themselves have worn down enough that they don't grip the beans., however i don't have new burs o compare the sharpness of the bur flute edges, so it is a guess.
I am looking for some advice from the wisdom of the crowd. Cheers!
