GRINDER SETUP
- Place the grinder on a level surface.
- Hand wash the hopper (2), hopper lid (1) and grounds bin (13) with warm soapy water. Let air dry or dry with a clean cloth.
- To install the hopper: With the hopper upright and the shut-off knob (3) pointing toward the back left of the grinder, place the hopper on top of the grinder and find the point where it settles into place. Push down and rotate the hopper clockwise to center the shut-off knob and lock the hopper into place. The hopper must be locked into place to engage the microswitch so that the grinder can operate.
- The grinder will come with the PortaHolder (10) installed. To use the grinder with the included grounds bin instead, pull the PortaHolder straight out and replace it with the grounds bin. The PortaHolder arms can be adjusted up or down to accommodate different sizes of portafilters. To adjust the PortaHolder arms: Pull the PortaHolder out of the grinder. With a Phillips head screwdriver, loosen the two screws in the back of the PortaHolder. Move the PortaHolder arms up or down so that the portafilter fits. If the arms are difficult to move, loosen the screws further. While holding the arms in position, tighten the two screws to lock the arms into place.
- Plug in the grinder. The display should illuminate and go through its startup process.
- Reference the grind settings chart on page 7 and use the micro adjustment (5) and macro adjustment (6) arms to select a grind setting.
- Add beans to the hopper. Ensure bean shut-off knob is turned open. ‘OPEN’ should be facing up on the knob.
GRINDING OPERATION
After setting up the grinder as outlined in the previous section, press a preset button (9). The screen will show the corresponding programmed grind time in seconds. Press START/STOP (7) to begin grinding. While grinding, the screen will count down the seconds to 0.0. When the screen reaches 0.0 seconds, the motor will stop, and the display will reset again to the programmed time.
ADJUSTING THE GRIND SETTING
The Vario+ has a micro adjustment lever knob (5) to the left of the display and a macro adjustment lever knob (6) to the right. The Micro adjustment arm is used to make smaller changes to the grind size, while the macro adjustment arm is used to make larger changes. Twelve micro adjustment clicks are equivalent to one macro adjustment click. The grind setting is adjusted by moving the micro and/or macro adjustment lever knobs up or down. Moving a lever arm up will result in a finer grind, whereas moving a lever arm down will result in a coarser grind. When making a finer grind adjustment with coffee in the hopper, the motor must be running.
At setting 2Q and settings finer, the burrs (15) will audibly contact each other. The grinder is calibrated for the burrs to touch at this point, and it will not damage the burrs to grind at their contact point or finer if there is coffee being ground. However, running the grinder without coffee while the burrs are touching for extended periods of time will reduce the lifespan of the burrs.
CHOOSING A GRIND SETTING FOR A BREW METHOD
The settings shown in the table below should be used as a general starting point. The actual grind size needed for a particular brew method will vary depending on many factors, such as: degree of roast (light vs. dark), freshness, environmental humidity, variety of bean, oil content, etc. Practice and personal preference will ultimately determine which setting is right for the desired taste, brewing style, and the particular beans used.
Some recipes use visual descriptions to describe the grind size required, such as “ground to the consistency of kosher salt.” To visually determine the necessary grind setting, grind a small amount of coffee into the grounds bin (13) by pressing the START/STOP button, then press it again to stop the grinding. Check the grind size. If the grind size is close to what is desired use the micro adjustment lever to fine-tune the grind size. If the grind size needs a large adjustment, adjust the macro adjustment lever to a new position.
TIME PRESET PROGRAMMING
The Vario+ is equipped with three programmable buttons labeled 1, 2, and 3. Each button comes standard with the following time presets (in seconds): 1 = 10s, 2 = 15s, 3 = 30s. The time saved under each preset can be adjusted by doing the following:
- Select either preset 1, 2, or 3 (9).
- Press the up or down arrow buttons (4) to adjust the time preset. Once the desired time value is reached, press and hold the numbered preset button for 3 seconds. The time value on the display will blink to indicate that the new preset setting is stored.
- To program the other presets, repeat steps 1 and 2. These grind time settings will still be saved even if the grinder is unplugged and then plugged back in.
