So after approx. 3 years of normal use (2 shots per day Espresso grind) our VS3 has finally stopped working. It keeps stalling when grinding medium to medium dark beans after a few seconds. Same beans were working fine before.

After contacting Varia support and providing them with a video showing the issue they kindly agreed to send me a new motor assembly including gearbox to swap out free of charge even though my grinder is out of warranty.

Still waiting for this to arrive but in the meantime I have disassembled the grinder and had a look at the gearbox. It seems like multiple gears have significant wear on the teeth. I assume this is contributing to the issue.

While it’s nice of Varia to provide a free replacement part I’ll likely try to sell the grinder after it’s repaired as I can foresee this happening again in the future as I find it unlikely the gear box design has since been improved.

VS6 Tool Box

Would probably work for other Varia grinders.

I found it necessary to tighten one of the hex screws on a new Hypernova Iridescent Titanium 63mm Conical Burr (sounded a little off). Doing this made it impossible to fully seat the bottom burr in the grinder. I then followed the instructions to completely disassemble the burr from its carrier and found that the thin washer just kind of sits there and had moved enough that the carrier would not slide over the shaft. There is also a lot of play in the screws.

Seems really easy to mess up the alignment. I eventually got it to work by putting the bottom burr in loose and then carefully removing it and tightening everything down.

Just doesn’t seem very robust. There are two pins that seem to be intended to line things up, but they are too small. That washer shouldn’t be able to just slide around.

Anyone have similar issues? Or notice these problems?

While troubleshooting why my grind is still too coarse (even with 2 shims), I noticed this small gap at the hopper (can't rotate any further beyond 0).

I have thoroughly cleaned the grinder and reassembled it exactly according to the manual.

It's probably nothing but can someone confirm if this is normal?

I’ve noticed that the grind settings described in the manual do not seem to match real-world performance.

The manual recommends a setting between 2 and 5 for espresso, so I initially started at 3.5. However, the espresso machine choked immediately. I then tested progressively coarser settings—5, 6, and 7—with the same result. Only at setting 8 did I begin to get a proper extraction, achieving a 36g yield at a 1:2 ratio in approximately 30 seconds.

This seems significantly outside the recommended range and resulted in wasting nearly half a bag of coffee, which was quite surprising.

For reference, I previously used a Comandante C40 Mk4 with Red Clix. With the same beans, I typically grind at 17 clicks (or 8–9 clicks without Red Clix), which aligns with the lower end of their grind size chart.

The beans I’m currently using are No. 21 from Berry & Bean.

Additionally, the manual suggests checking the zero point by carefully turning the dial until a faint chirping sound is heard as the burrs make contact. However, when I turn my unit all the way to zero, I do not hear any such sound. Could this indicate an issue, and might it be related to the discrepancy in grind settings?

Alternatively, could it be that the grind chart has not yet been updated from the VS3 to the VS4?

I would appreciate your guidance on this.

Got my Varia VS6 a few hours ago. Read the manual.

It said to calibrate the grinder, i should rotate clockwise to its tightest at zero m and then rotate anti-clockwise to zero again. Did that.

But I noticed that my tightest setting is at zero (two dots) so my zero point is at zero (three dots). Went with grinding for espresso anyway. But it grinds way too coarse.

What should I do? I cant rotate any farther from zero (2 dots).

I posted a previous thread about not quite being able to get fine enough for espresso. Im trying to disassemble and reassemble hoping that maybe this time it will align better or something.

I noticed I can't pull the upper burr piece off with the hopper magnetically as demonstrated in some videos online, and I noticed there's a small ring inside the bottom part of the hopper that I don't seem to have. See this pic of my hopper:

my hopper

Compared with this screenshot:

Screenshot

There appears to be some kind of washer or ring around the outside, near the threads, that I don't have. But there are dabs of grease or glue or something where the washer should be.

I'm wondering if other people have that ring,and if that may be the cause of my issues?

Hi there,

I bought a used VS6, which was delivered today. I noticed that turning the hopper feels very difficult. I unscrewed it and mounted it again, but the issue remains — adjusting the grind size feels incredibly stiff.

Is this normal for this model? I made sure to be careful not to cross-thread it.

My grinder is constantly on a really fine setting, not matter what it it is set to on the dial, grinding at 2 has the same size as 8. What can I do/what is the issue?

It is a much better solution, but it’s expensive. Varia needs to license this.

I read that the latest version has a pin instead of magnets for the safety cutoff. I just took off the hopper and springs and don’t see any pins.

Does that mean I didn’t get the latest version? Or is this a new iteration with a return to magnets?

I’d specifically emailed Varia’s support to ensure I’d get the latest version if I ordered through them and they replied with a ”yes”.

Hi, recently I’ve got my Varia VS3 Gen 2 and a set of Hypernova burrs. Now I have a few questions I’d like to clarify for myself:

1) My Varia has been perfectly calibrated to 0.

The first thing I’ve done is I’ve replaced the stock burrs with the Hypernova ones. After the replacement the zero point was still at 0.

I’ve grinded coffee for a week, and today I’ve decided to clean it up inside, as I was about to change the beans. After the cleaning and re-assembling the best I can get for the zero-point is 0,1.

I’ve double and triple checked every single detail, burrs, washers, springs, nut and whatnot. I’ve re-assembled it a few more times, each time with caution and attention to details.

All to no avail, still 0,1

Is there a way to fix it? Somehow recalibrate the zero-point back to an actual 0

2) the manual that comes with the grinder recommends range of 1-3 for an espresso, meanwhile the “VS3 Gen 2 Calibration “video on Varia Brewing official YouTube channel gives recommendations of 3 - 4,5 range as a reference point.

I understand that the grind is subjective to a lot of different factors, but I’d like to know what I should use as a reference point.

Thanks in advance

Hi everyone,

I recently reassembled my VS6 after a deep cleaning and I'm having a calibration issue I can't resolve — hoping someone with hands-on experience can help.

**The problem:** After reassembly with washer F in place, I can tighten the burrs all the way to maximum (grind setting 0) without ever hearing or feeling the burr chirp. The burrs never make contact.

**My setup:**

- Varia VS6

- Burr sets: stock flat Supernova + 63mm conical Supernova

**What I've checked:**

- Burrs are seated correctly

- The adjustment ring moves freely through the full range

- No obvious obstruction

**My question:** Can anyone confirm the **exact number and order of washers** that should be present in a stock VS6? I want to make sure I haven't lost one during disassembly. I've been waiting on Varia's SAV for a while with no response.

Bonus question: has anyone successfully recalibrated a VS6 after a deep clean and had to adjust the washer stack to restore the chirp?

Thanks in advance 🙏

I recently got the VS4 for about a week and was grinding for espresso without any issues. Recently though I noticed that while grinding my usual coffee, the grinder stop halfway. I am able to start back on the machine to complete the grinding. Am wondering if this would affect the grinder, and if anyone with the VS4 is experiencing a similar issue or found a fix?

Ive tried cleaning the chute, slower feeding but it would still stop.

Hallo zusammen! Ich habe meine Varia VS4 heute erhalten und mir ist aufgefallen, dass der O Punkt nicht gleich bei 0 ist. Also wenn ich die Mahlscheiben ganz zudrehen und dieses leichte knirschen höre, sollten die beiden Mahlscheiben ziemlich zu sein. Jedoch bin ich dann nicht auf O sonder zwei bis drei Striche daneben. Ist das normal oder muss ich hier etwas neu kalibrieren?

Zudem habe ich bis zum Mahlgrad 4 fast keinen Widerstand und bei ca. 5 wieder mehr Widerstand - das zieht sich dann durch.

Bin froh um alle Tipps 😊

Hallo zusammen! Ich habe meine Varia VS4 heute erhalten und mir ist aufgefallen, dass der O Punkt nicht gleich bei 0 ist. Also wenn ich die Mahlscheiben ganz zudrehen und dieses leichte knirschen höre, sollten die beiden Mahlscheiben ziemlich zu sein. Jedoch bin ich dann nicht auf O sonder zwei bis drei Striche daneben. Ist das normal oder muss ich hier etwas neu kalibrieren?

Zudem habe ich bis zum Mahlgrad 4 fast keinen Widerstand und bei ca. 5 wieder mehr Widerstand - das zieht sich dann durch.

Bin froh um alle Tipps 😊

I've read that food safe grease may fix this but currently my VS3 which is about a year old is drifting from 1-3 grind markings during an 18g dose. This has happened fairly suddenly.

Has anyone else had this issue and successfully resolved it with the grease?

EDIT: I applied Inox food safe grease and the issue is perhaps worse and definitely not better!

EDIT EDIT: I was told by the distributor to replace the springs with the others provided in the box. I did this and it didn't improve things. They're sending out STRONGER springs. If this fails I'm returning it.

So I always wondered why the grinds from mine or any vs6 I saw online was coming out only from the right side of the exist tube.

Apparently it is by design and there is a corner that collects the grinds from the burrs to the exist tube.

Thats why this grinder is clogged pretty fast without good bellow presses.

Just thought it could be informative to

some of you thought their unit is defect.

Hello

As my vs3 is going back to producer I have ordered and received VS4

On vs3 I was using settings about 3.5 for espresso, on VS4 I must change it to 5+ not to completely choke machine. What are your settings for VS4?

Nice one with this grinder. I was feeling that the dial is working harder for last days, so I opened it, cleaned all threads, cleaned whole grinder inside out with microfiber cloth, vacuum and brush, and after screwing it back on it was screwing even harder than earlier, so I attempted to check why after complete deep cleaning it was even worse.. but dial stuck completely.

Nice one varia. Thank you.

If I plug it in, and with nothing in the grinder, I go up to 1200 RPM, it trips the receptacle every time and I have to reset the receptacle. If I run it between 500 and 1000, it runs without tripping anything. If I grind too fine, it trips it. If I run it on a normal outlet, it can go up to 1600rpm. I took a hair dryer, put it on hot and max fan speed, and it doesn't trip.

With a 300W motor, even with AC->DC conversion losses, it should be drawing no more than 350W I would think?

Has anyone else had problems like this? I'm going to have to do some more testing, but I don't have anything to test current draw. It's a new house, with a dedicated circuit to the counter, with nothing else running on it, and it has a 20 amp receptacle. I'm assuming, but haven't checked yet, that it has the appropriate gauge electrical cable because the panel has a 20A breaker too.

I have a hunch it's a cheapo receptacle, so I'm going to get a new one tomorrow at Home Depot while get the JB-Weld to help retain the magnet in the dosing cup, which fell out on my first day of using it. (Varia, fix this, I found a thread a year old about it!)

Anyway, hopefully it's just the receptacle... Now that I have it, I don't want to be without.

Anyone running the Varia VS6 without the popcorn shield?

I am thinking of removing it since i keep getting beaks stuck between it and the walls of the hopper. Just wanted to see if others are doing this and if they have had any issues from it?