Charlie Senior Member Joined: 28 Dec 2001 Posts: 14 Location: Central Florida Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Saeco Maestro Grinder: Mazzer Mini Drip: Bodum French press Roaster: Fresh Roast +
Posted Mon Jun 9, 2003, 2:11pm Subject: Innova hopper issues?
Maybe I missed it (alright, I'm sure I did), but was there any conclusion to the Innova self-ingesting hopper issue?
I'm finally getting 'round to buying a good grinder and have been seriously considering the Cunill, but just wanted to check the Innova situation first.
Maybe I missed it (alright, I'm sure I did), but was there any conclusion to the Innova self-ingesting hopper issue?
I'm finally getting 'round to buying a good grinder and have been seriously considering the Cunill, but just wanted to check the Innova situation first.
The new conical ones sold will have a redesigned hopper. As far as I know, there wasn't a problem with the flat burr ones. Whether the redesign works is unknown.
As far as I know, the final word on these hoppers is yet to come. Mine (conical) finally pretty much chewed itself down to the point where the taped neck could no longer support the weight of the hopper, even empty. This resulted in a toilet paper roll being taped in place...classy! actually, it worked better than the 'real' hopper and the grinder was noticeably quieter, too! In the end,I bought a Mazzer, so the problem has pretty much been fixed, but at a cost. I designed a machined, small-capacity aluminum bean chute that I'll have made when enough good graces built up with my machinist, then retrofit it to the Innova. Everyone concentrates on the hopper, but the problem is also related to the molded top that surrounds the hopper neck. The fit is so bad (off-center) that the base of the hopper neck was being forced into the burrs. My plan is to have the aluminum chute sit on the upper burr holder snugly, and dremel the top plastic piece so it doesn't push against the chute. I bet my hopper would still be alive if I'd noticed the problem earlier.
I do not know of the hopper issue being fixed by Innova, but I did come up with a hopper fix for my Innova doserless conical I-2.
Since I prefer having no doser and I only make 1-2 espressos at a time, the very large hopper shipped with the unit was not very useful to me.
I have made my own hopper from a "Blitz / Super Funnel". This is an automotive funnel I purchased from an autopart store for $1.99. From memory , I believe it was about 24" in length with approx 5" top opening, and 1/2" bottom opening. It is black and made of thick flexible plastic. Because of the “Super Funnel” slight opening over 24" it was easy to shape it with a belt sander to fit my I-2.
After shaping the "Blitz / Super Funnel, it fits my conical I-2 better than the hopper supplied with the unit. More important, the I-2 is now much shorter overall, fits under kitchen cabinets, and allows me to fill it with beans every morning with out moving the unit.
I have also made a lid from a clear plastic disposable drinking cup. The bottom 1/3 portion of this cup fits into my modified “Super Funnel” hopper. I simply trimmed the top portion of the drinking cup so only 1/4" extends above the top of the hopper.
I have received and replaced most all hoppers that were damaged under warranty. It still seems that there are some issues though. The plastoc is much more durable, but it is still capable of being chewed up by the burrs. We curtailed the sale of the conical version becuase of this issue as it was becoming a full time job in warranty work. We have faith that Innova will adress the troble, but we have been informed by Jose Luis Ascaso (the owner of Innova) That out of some 22,000 grinders built and sold, our firm is the only one to report troubles. Whats more troubling about this, is that we have engineered a resolve and have not seen it in production as of yet. So in short the flat burr grinder is fantastic, the conical is troublesome for some users. I say some as not all conical grinders have had the issue according to Ascaso.
What vendor are you with? I called espresso parts about my hopper right after i bought my conical and was denied another hopper. I purchased one from espresso parts about two weeks ago and had to pay for it out of pocket :-(
What vendor are you with? I called espresso parts about my hopper right after i bought my conical and was denied another hopper. I purchased one from espresso parts about two weeks ago and had to pay for it out of pocket :-(
Well best I can tell I still work at Espresso Parts (My desk was still there when I came back from vacation ;-) We were allocated hoppers for grinders purchased and built by Innova during a set time frame. This should have covered those with the old style hoppers. Your grinder is (according to Ascaso) supplied with the new material. As I stated in my earlier post we note that there is still an issue. The hoppers may not break, but they still slip into the burrs. I apologize that my staff was diligent in having you pay for a replacement. However, if you would like to call me direct I will be happy to help you out.
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
= No New Posts since last visit 