Rancilio Rocky Grinder Not Working (Fix)

Hey there!  I am glad you made your way here to COFFEE GRUMP. Full disclaimer – I am a tech guy, not a sales guy.  I love coffee and I service the equipment that grinds and brews it for you.  If you are looking for a ‘right fix’ not a ‘quick fix’ this is the spot for you.  So, grab your cuppa’ Joe and read on…Cheers!

Rancilio rocky grinder not working and general troubleshooting

There could be a few things preventing your Rancilio Rocky grinder from not working. It can be from a jam in the grind area or there could be a part that needs to be replaced. First off, we need to determine whether it is a part needing to be replaced mechanically or something that you can unjam to fix. so, with that being said let’s figure out what the problem is.

You’ll first want to find out if there’s any electricity getting into the grinder so we can determine if there is a jam in your grinder. With your grinder plugged in press the grind/start switch and listen to your grinder for humming, or if it starts and stops or lastly, goes through the motions but doesn’t grind.

Any of these scenarios tells you that there is most likely a jam in the grinder. If your grinder has no electricity and is not humming, then you will be looking at replacing possible parts addressed further down in this article. 

Problem: Rancilio Rocky grinder is stuck/jammed and won’t turn

Always unplug your grinder before you start any service on your grinder and empty the bean hopper. You can dump the beans out or use a vacuum. 

If your grinder is humming, it’s a good indication that your grinder has a jam and what you’ll first need to do is turn your hopper to the extreme course setting.

By doing this, you’ll open the gap between the burrs and any debris in there so it can be dislodged and free the grinder motor to operate. Before turning on the grinder to test it, take the unit and shake it upside down to let the debris fall out.

Once free of debris, give it some power. A quick turn on and off to see if this has unjammed the unit. In some cases, this will cure the jam, in the case that it didn’t we’ll have to go a little deeper and take the unit apart.

Taking the rocky ranicilio grinder apart to unjam

Unplug your grinder before you start. Turn your (hopper) grind coarseness to the course setting all the way (counterclockwise). A Flathead screwdriver will fit in the finger guard screw holes inside the hopper. Undo and pull out the three screws and the finger guard. The finger guard and the screws out will release your hopper and you can pull it out.

With your hopper out, you exposed the top burr holder. The next step is to take the top burr holder out to clean and inspect it. Using your fingers, grab the bronze holder and turn it counterclockwise.  The holder has quite a few threads to it, so you’ll need to turn that quite a few times before this part is fully out. 

Once the top burr is out it will expose the grind area and the bottom burr, and you can inspect inside your grinder at the bottom. You can see if there’s any sort of jam now and clear the debris.

In the past, I’ve found glass, wood, nails, metal, plastic all sorts of goodies that have been inside the beans and have jammed in the grinder, it’s not that unusual to find something that isn’t a bean. Usually, the machines catch most of the debris but sometimes it gets by and ends up in your roasted beans.

Clean out this area well (including the screw threads) of any grinds. Then reassemble with the top burr and give it a quick test with electricity. Plug it in and turn it on for a quick test to see if the motor turns freely. If it runs like it wants to grind then we know that we’ve cleared that issue. 

At this point, you have cleared the obstruction and can put the unit back together. Go to “Calibrating the Rancilio Rocky Grinder” for the proper reassembly of the burr and hopper. 

Problem: Rancilio rocky not grinding fine enough 

There are two versions of the hopper, one that’s a complete molded unit and the newer version that is in two parts. You’ll notice this right away with the hopper out; the complete unit is all tinted blue including the stop post.

The second version with the two parts is where you can make better adjustments for calibrating. It has a black stop post with two screws you can just adjust it and slide it either way which can do some fine adjusting.

The new hopper can be found and bought off of the ECS Coffee website.

The newer hopper can be fitted to an older grinder if you wanted to purchase the part. Go to “Calibrating the Rancilio Rocky Grinder” lower in this post for the proper reassembly of the burr and hopper.

Problem: Rancilio grinder not working no power to the unit

If you have no power going to the grinder (and it’s apparent that it’s a power issue) I’ve only experienced two issues that could be causing this in my service history:

1. There’s a lot of vibration inside these grinders so sometimes a wire will come off. Nice and easy. Simply find the wire and reattach it to get it working again.
2. The rocker switches on the outside of the grinder failed and burnt out. In most cases it can be visual to see which switch is the problematic one. You can also use a multimeter to confirm the dead switch from the good ones if its not apparent. Once it is replaced you can do a quick run test plugged in.

Let’s jump into how to do the repairs for the problems above:

How to take the grinder apart 

To do these repairs you’re going to take more of the grinder apart. Rancilio makes a great product that is intended to last for a long time and so you will be able to take it apart with ease and put it back together again relatively easily.

1. Take the Blues hopper off the grinder by unscrewing the 3 flathead screws in the finger guard.
2. You will find two nut heads on top attaching the black front facing frame, undo those two nut screws. 
3. Take out the two Phillips that are directly beside each one of those nut screws this will release the back silver panel.
4. Turn the grinder over or on its side. I usually put a bath towel or a beach towel down just to make sure I’m not scratching up the grinder or damaging any surface that I’m working on. Turn the grinder over and you’ll see three screws on the bottom – take out all 3 screws and it will release the black and silver casing.
5. At this point, you can inspect for a wire off the switch/failed rocker switch.

Once you have your black casing free from your silver casing your grinder motor will float other than the wiring (don’t touch the wiring if you don’t need to).

You can undo the ground wire connected to your front black casing. One screw and now you have your front black casing free.

Replacing the broken outer black shell

The black casing is made of cast metal so it can easily break if a grinder is dropped even from a short height.

After taking the grinder apart (in the above section) you can replace your broken casing and can move your hardware from your broken black casing to your new black casing.

You can find nozzle or “dispensing break” replacement specifically for this model on Amazon.

To do so replace the outer black shell, follow these steps:

1. There is a small little bumper on the inside of the black casing which is just a used as a vibration dampener peel it off and apply it in the same spot

2. The second part to change over is your release button for your hopper which is very easy. You push down on the silver post slightly and it will show a small collar get your fingernail on the collar and push down. Work your black button off and with that off you can slowly bring up your silver post with your fingernail, pull the post out and the small spring that follows.  Reverse the action to install on the new casing. Give it a couple push downs to check it is working fine.

3. Removing the front support for your portafilter will just pull out and remove the two nuts from the back which are very easy to get off just undo it with an adjustable wrench apply just as easy to the new framework (make sure you install on the new casing before you reassemble)
4. (Do this as the last part to replace after the casing is reassembled it will help to set the rectangular gasket) The last part is the exit spout for your grinds. Take out two screws from the front. There is a rectangular gasket to mate up with the grinder and the spout. Set aside.
5. Reassemble the new casing. Make sure that the ground screw is tightened to the new black casing to the back. I will set the grinder motor to the black casing first and then the silver casing to the motor and the front black casing second
6. Install the exit spout; I will put the spout on last and second last I will put the gasket in place and then the spout and tighten it up snug. Careful not to crack the spout by tightening too hard

How do I replace the burrs?

Before replacing the burrs consider what Rancilio says, “The burr lifetime is 10 years“, but if your burrs are damaged or 10 years old you can replace them.

You can find replacement burrs on Amazon to make your grinder work as good as new.

How to replace your burr on your Rocky Rancilio:

1. Unplug your grinder
2. Take out the screws holding the hopper and finger guard on and remove
3. Unscrew the brass burr holder this will expose both upper and lower burr
4. Each burr is held in by 3 screws, undo them clean the areas before reassembly
5. Use a dry brush to clean. Never put the burrs in water and never let the water touch your grinder on the inside grind area.
6. Reassemble

Calibrating the Rancilio Rocky Grinder

1. Press and hold the locking button, turn the bean hopper as far as it will go (If you took your burr out you will need to turn the brass upper burr holder in until it meets with the lower burr and then back off slightly and attach your hopper and finger guard – keep the hopper black post to the right and behind the hopper release button- find the closest screw holes and attach hopper)
2. Turn the bean hopper approximately 6 to 7 notches in the opposite direction
3. Release the locking button
4. Connect to main power
5. Switch on main switch
6. Check that the grinder blades are not touching
7. Switch on main switch, also press the grinding button
8. If the grinder blades touch, immediately turn off the grinder and turn the bean hopper 2 to 3 notches

If you find you can’t get a fine grind from your calibration, you can adjust the black post underside of your hopper by loosening off the two screws and retighten. You won’t need to move this far, around 1-2mm. Keep in mind you don’t want your burrs touching on reassembly.

Make sure that you’re not testing at zero, but you want to take it back 6-7 notches and then you can set your grind from there to the machine that you are using the grinder to brew.

How to clean the Rocky Rancilio

If you want to change your beans just turn your grinder over to empty it. There isn’t a lot to clean your grinder other than a general wipe down daily.

Urnex Grindz are a great product found cheap on Amazon to remove residue and oils without disassembling the burrs in the Rocky grinder if you want to.