How to clean the grinder on your Sage coffee machine

When is it worth cleaning the grinder?

A grinder clean is worth doing if:

• The grinder sounds as though it is labouring.
• The ground coffee is unusually lumpy.
• The grinder has stopped or jammed.
• Less coffee than normal is coming through.
• You are carrying out a wider clean or service of the machine.
• You are switching from caffeinated to decaffeinated beans and want to remove as much retained coffee as possible.

It is also a sensible first step before assuming the grinder has suffered an internal mechanical or electrical fault.

Part 1: a normal Sage grinder clean

1. Switch the machine off and unplug it

Turn the machine off and disconnect it from the mains before putting your hands or tools anywhere near the grinder.

The burrs are sharp and the machine should never be able to start while you are working inside it.

2. Remove the bean hopper

Unlock the bean hopper using the locking control inside the hopper, then lift the hopper away from the machine.

You can run the beans out beforehand if you want to save them, but it is not essential. Once the hopper is removed, vacuum out any remaining beans sitting above the upper burr.

3. Move the grind setting to coarse

Move the normal external grind adjustment towards its coarsest setting. This makes the upper burr easier to remove.

Using the metal handle on the upper burr, rotate the burr anti-clockwise into its unlocked position and lift it vertically out.

Do not force it.

4. Brush and vacuum the grinder chamber

Use the Sage grinder brush if you still have it. A clean, dry toothbrush also works very well.

Agitate coffee residue around the upper burr, visible lower burr, grinder chamber and grind outlet, then vacuum the loosened coffee away.

Do not use water, spray cleaner or a damp cloth inside the grinder.

Fine coffee dust is much easier to remove dry. Adding moisture can turn it into a sticky paste inside the grinder.

5. Clean the grind chute

Coffee still has to travel through the grind outlet after leaving the burrs, and compacted coffee here can make the grinder appear faulty.

A restricted chute can cause:

• The grinder to run but produce very little coffee.
• Inconsistent dosing.
• Lumpy grounds.
• The grinder to sound as though it is working harder than normal.

Use a dry toothbrush or grinder brush to loosen accessible coffee around the chute and vacuum it away.

Part 2: deep cleaning the lower burr

If the grinder is genuinely blocked, heavily contaminated with old coffee, or you want a more complete clean when changing from caffeinated to decaf, you can go further and remove the lower burr assembly.

Take a photo before removing anything and lay every component down in the exact order it comes out.

6. Remove the lower burr assembly

After removing the upper burr, locate the domed 10 mm nut at the centre of the lower burr.

Use a 10 mm spanner to loosen the dome nut clockwise.

Then remove the components carefully, keeping them laid out in order.

1. Dome nut
2. Spring washer
3. Flat washer
4. Lower burr
5. Grinder fan
6. Small lower washer where fitted
7. Felt washer

Oracle-family grinders do not use the small lower washer beneath the fan, so do not assume one is missing if you are cleaning an Oracle.

Do not accidentally vacuum up the tiny lower washer

This is one of the easiest mistakes to make during a Sage grinder clean.

On models that use it, there is a small washer underneath the grinder fan. It sits amongst coffee grounds and is incredibly easy to suck straight into the vacuum.

But it matters.

The washer contributes to the height of the lower burr assembly. If it disappears during cleaning, the relationship between the upper and lower burrs changes and the grinder may struggle to grind as finely afterwards.

So when you remove the grinder fan, identify and remove that washer deliberately before vacuuming the chamber.

7. Be gentle with the felt washer

Below the grinder assembly is a felt washer.

Do not scrub it aggressively. Its purpose is to help prevent very fine coffee particles travelling further into the grinder mechanism.

Simply dust it off gently.

Felt tears easily, so there is no benefit in trying to make it look brand new.

8. Clean the exposed grinder chamber

With the removable components out, vacuum the chamber thoroughly.

Use a dry toothbrush or grinder brush to disturb stubborn coffee deposits as you work, including around the route towards the grind outlet.

9. Reassemble everything in exactly the reverse order

Put every washer, the fan and the lower burr back exactly where they came from.

Then reinstall the flat washer, spring washer and dome nut.

Remember that the nut is reverse threaded, so it tightens anti-clockwise.

It should be secure, but do not overtighten the dome nut.

Finally, reinstall the upper burr and make sure it seats firmly and clicks back into its locked position.

If the upper burr is not properly locked, it can lift or flex upwards while grinding. That increases the gap between the burrs and can cause unexpectedly coarse coffee.

What about the adjustable upper burr?

Most Sage upper burrs have their own internal adjustment as well as the normal external grind-size control.

The default upper-burr position on many models is around 6.

Do not change this simply because you have removed the burr to clean it.

The internal adjustment is useful when the normal grind control no longer gives you enough range.

For example, if the machine is already close to its finest normal grind setting but genuinely fresh coffee is still grinding too coarsely, the internal upper burr can be adjusted finer so that the two burrs sit closer together.

Make small changes only.

Adjusting the burr too far can allow the upper and lower burrs to contact one another, potentially putting additional load on the internal grinder drive.

Before adjusting anything: are the beans actually fresh?

If your espresso is pouring far too quickly, the grinder is not automatically the problem.

Fresh beans are one of the first things we ask about in the workshop.

Stale coffee can make owners continually chase finer and finer grind settings when what the machine actually needs is freshly roasted coffee.

If your Sage is already close to its finest setting but coffee is still pouring too quickly:

1. Try genuinely fresh beans.
2. Clean the grinder thoroughly.
3. Confirm the upper burr is correctly seated and locked.
4. On machines that use one, check that the lower washer has not been lost during a previous clean.
5. Only then consider changing the internal upper-burr adjustment.

Foreign objects inside Sage grinders

Coffee is a natural agricultural product, so foreign material occasionally makes its way into a bag.

We have seen small stones and unusually hard material become trapped in grinders.

And sometimes it has nothing to do with the beans at all: we have even seen a machine where a screw was accidentally dropped into the bean hopper while somebody was fitting a shelf above it, before the grinder was subsequently run.

A foreign object can cause:

• A sudden horrible grinding noise.
• The grinder to jam.
• A repeated ratcheting noise.
• The grinder motor to sound heavily loaded.
• Damage to the burrs or internal grinder drive.

If this happens, stop the grinder rather than repeatedly pressing Grind to see whether it clears.

Empty and clean the grinder first. If the abnormal noise remains afterwards, the grinder may already have suffered internal damage.

Oracle, Oracle Touch and Oracle Jet: don’t forget the tamp fan

Machines with Sage’s automatic grinding and tamping system add another part to the diagnosis.

On an Oracle, Oracle Touch or Oracle Jet, poor dosing does not necessarily mean the grinder itself has failed.

Remove the tamp fan using the magnetic tool supplied with the machine and clean away accumulated coffee residue.

Inspect the tamping surface while it is removed.

A damaged or badly worn tamp fan can result in:

• A wavy or uneven coffee puck.
• Inconsistent tamping.
• The machine failing to tamp correctly.
• Apparently unusual grinding or basket-fill behaviour.

The tamp-fan height can also be adjusted to increase or decrease basket fill, but do not alter its position simply because you are cleaning it.

Clean it, inspect it, refit it correctly and test the machine first.

What if the grinder runs but no coffee comes out?

Start with the simple things:

1. Make sure there are beans in the hopper.
2. Confirm the hopper is properly locked.
3. Clean the grinder and grind chute.
4. Inspect for a foreign object or jam.
5. Confirm the upper burr is correctly seated and locked.
6. If the burrs have previously been adjusted unusually close together, return them towards their normal setting and test again.

If all of those checks are correct and the grinder still does not feed coffee, an internal part may need inspection.

Do oily beans really damage Sage grinders?

This gets exaggerated.

Normally roasted coffee, including darker beans with some visible oils, is not automatically going to damage a Sage grinder.

Oils and fine coffee can contribute to retention and residue over time, but in most cases the dry cleaning method above deals with that build-up perfectly well.

More important is using freshly roasted coffee and cleaning the grinder when it actually needs it.

After cleaning: just dial your coffee back in

Once everything is correctly reassembled, replace and lock the hopper and add your beans.

Use the grinder normally and dial your espresso back in.

There is no need to throw away a large amount of coffee simply because the grinder has been cleaned.

For the first second or two it may look like nothing is coming out while beans work their way back down through the freshly cleared grinder path. That is normal.

How often should you clean a Sage grinder?

There is no need to dismantle the grinder every week.

A sensible time to clean it is:

• As part of a wider machine clean or service.
• When the grinder develops one of the symptoms described above.
• When coffee retention has become noticeable.
• When making an important switch such as caffeinated to decaffeinated coffee.