OK the Forte' Came Today
- Thread starter LMichaels
- Start date
LMichaels
TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
Update on my newfound treasure. At first, all I did was deep clean the burrs and chute blowing everything out and brushing the burrs clean. But, I was a little "worried" about a couple things. One the little lever that shuts the bean flow off arrived broken. Luckily I have another one of the bean hoppers I'd bought brand new to try on the Virtuoso+. So it came off of it and a standard hopper back on that one (BTW both the brand new one and the one I rebuilt are up on EBay now). Another minor "issue?" I noticed is a slight ozone or electric motor smell when running after about 20 seconds or so. I wrote to the seller BTW re the broken bean lever and the general state of how dirty the machine arrived. I'll finish that in a bit.
So I decided to go further in deep cleaning. Going ahead and actually removing the back of the case and all. Talk about "impressive". This thing is a "tank". Everything in and on it is solid metal (even the case). The motor is a VERY powerful DC brush style permanent magnet motor. As large as what is in my KitchenAid Commercial mixer! It's a low RPM high torque motor and has copious ventilation and a very large cooling fan in it as well. Which explained the little ozone type smell. I think the KA motor would do the same but it's a sealed housing with external fan as opposed to this one having a ventilated housing with internal fan. And it REALLY is high torque. When it starts the machine actually wants to "twist" from torque reaction. It drives the burrs through a belt as well. and as noted every piece in this thing and outside it is solid metal. No wonder it costs $900! After seeing it I now understand.
Getting back to the EBay seller. She was apologetic, re the lack of cleanliness (said her husband thought I'd like it better if it was still dirty so I could clean it myself) and in re to the broken bean chute handle. Asked what she could do. I told her all was fine and not worry. I gave them good scores and called it a day. Next thing I know, they've refunded me $50! So IMO this thing was a TOTAL bargain.
FWIW, it's called the "BG" for "Brew Grinder" as opposed to the other Forte' (AP for All Purpose). BG has stainless steel burrs, AP has ceramic (they're interchangeable BTW). Supposedly the AP is made to be espresso centric and able to do drip and pour over grinds. The BG is "brew centric" geared more to brew styles i.e. drip, pour over, French press and such. But "able" to grind espresso. So far I've not tried it on, espresso so IDK how it will perform.
Anyway a long write up but, I think I may have found my "one and done" "keeper" unless it fails at espresso. In which case I may hang on to my Vario-W and dial it into espresso and leave it on the espresso cart next to that machine.
Suffice to say, I now understand why this thing is expen$ive and why it's rated for commercial use
So I decided to go further in deep cleaning. Going ahead and actually removing the back of the case and all. Talk about "impressive". This thing is a "tank". Everything in and on it is solid metal (even the case). The motor is a VERY powerful DC brush style permanent magnet motor. As large as what is in my KitchenAid Commercial mixer! It's a low RPM high torque motor and has copious ventilation and a very large cooling fan in it as well. Which explained the little ozone type smell. I think the KA motor would do the same but it's a sealed housing with external fan as opposed to this one having a ventilated housing with internal fan. And it REALLY is high torque. When it starts the machine actually wants to "twist" from torque reaction. It drives the burrs through a belt as well. and as noted every piece in this thing and outside it is solid metal. No wonder it costs $900! After seeing it I now understand.
Getting back to the EBay seller. She was apologetic, re the lack of cleanliness (said her husband thought I'd like it better if it was still dirty so I could clean it myself) and in re to the broken bean chute handle. Asked what she could do. I told her all was fine and not worry. I gave them good scores and called it a day. Next thing I know, they've refunded me $50! So IMO this thing was a TOTAL bargain.
FWIW, it's called the "BG" for "Brew Grinder" as opposed to the other Forte' (AP for All Purpose). BG has stainless steel burrs, AP has ceramic (they're interchangeable BTW). Supposedly the AP is made to be espresso centric and able to do drip and pour over grinds. The BG is "brew centric" geared more to brew styles i.e. drip, pour over, French press and such. But "able" to grind espresso. So far I've not tried it on, espresso so IDK how it will perform.
Anyway a long write up but, I think I may have found my "one and done" "keeper" unless it fails at espresso. In which case I may hang on to my Vario-W and dial it into espresso and leave it on the espresso cart next to that machine.
Suffice to say, I now understand why this thing is expen$ive and why it's rated for commercial use