Barley Crusher settings and efficiency

I brewed my first two beers today with my new Barley Crusher instead of the LHBS crush and saw a drop in efficiency. Everything else being equal I went from 74-75% efficiency with multiple LHBS batches to 70-71% on the default factory settings for Barley Crusher. The dial settings for my crusher have one at 11:00 and the other at 12:00. Is this normal? I was assuming I would get better efficiency crushing my own grain. Obviously not the case here today.

If it is recommended that I use a specific gap setting I can pick up a gauge at Lowe's what are everyone else's default or custom BC settings or gap?

Side Note, there is a black rubber band looking thing about 25% onto one of the rollers. Looks out of place. Is this normal? I'm going to post this in the equipment forum as well.

EDIT: Found plenty of info on the black band / O-Ring. Looks like it's a non-issue and wll eventually fall off.

The o-ring is there to keep the slave roller from rolling during shipping. It often breaks lose pretty quick. It is not needed for the unit to function.

My setting is the default, and I'm getting ~77% efficiency.

Thanks AZ. Are your BC dials set at 11 and 12:00?

I played with my BC settings and found that 12 gave me the best crush. Having one at 11 and one at 12 is giving you an unequal gap. Nothing wrong with that other than its a coarser crush than 12/12 or even 1/1. CCW is more coarse, CW is finer on both dials. With mine at 12/12 I am getting ~80% efficiency using BIAB.

golphur said:

Thanks AZ. Are your BC dials set at 11 and 12:00?

Click to expand...

Just looked, and both ate set nearly to 12.

You should probably yet that feeler gage.

Mine are at 12 and 12 and my efficiencies are 80%