[benamcg]

I just used my Barley Crusher for the first time.  What an amazing tool!  I want to make sure that it works for as long as possible.  How should I go about cleaning it?  I just took the Shop Vac to it.  Anything further required.  My old Corona mill seemed to rust over a decade of use- rinsing with water it and drying after each use (probably not wise) .  This new mill is the bees knees.  I cant believe I ever used anything else. 

[sparkleberry]

i got a stiff bristled paint brush and use that to clean the bottom and rollers after every grind. i haven't had mine long enough yet but it's supposed to get a little oil once a year.

[mabrungard]

I'm not sure that a mill needs to be cleaned after each use.  I just leave my rollers dusty.  I suppose that blowing them off with compressed air would be nice, but I haven't seen the need yet.  You definitely don't want to get anything wet.  That will foster the corrosion process. 

[klickitat jim]

No clean mill for me

[Jeff M]

Water will also lead to bacterial issues as i have read.  keeping it dry and well aired with most of the dust out of it is all you can really hope for.  Monstermills suggested oiling their mills once a year.  i dont have a barley crusher, so i dont know how easy they are to take apart to oil, but the monster mills are very easy to disassemble.

[erockrph]

Gravity and time seem to work remarkably well on my Barley Crusher. No matter how much I bang/spin it after I mill a batch of grain, there's a mysterious pile of dust underneath the mill after a week or two. I'm not overly concerned about the last little bit of grain remnants that stick to the rollers after that.

I suppose if the last thing you milled was a whole lot of Black Patent all by itself, and you are brewing a helles as your next brew, that may be more of a concern. I tend to mix in my specialty grains with my base malt in the hopper specifically to avoid this scenario.

[Slowbrew]

I don't do much beyond vacuuming up the obvious dust.  My BC is likely due to be disassembled and oiled a bit (its been about 3 years) but it is still working fine.

You don't really need to stress over maintenance unless you are crushing huge volumes.

Paul

[jjflash]

I condition my grain with water before I mill to get finer crush - .026.  The water makes the grain a bit sticky to the roller mill.  I take a wire brush and clean the rollers as needed. Occasionally need to spray the rollers with fine mist water to get a stubborn spot. Then clean and lube the bushing.

[euge]

It's not a bad idea to disassemble and clean your BC periodically. I also replace the roller o-ring each time it breaks since the knurl on my rollers have worn and reluctantly grab the grain at best of times.