An early preview of my YT video as it’s unlisted at the moment

I think adding a motor is a great idea because as you say not everyone can grind by hand, forget injuries such as broken wrists or arms (or in my case a few years ago…elbow) just getting old and suffering from loss of grip or arthritis is common enough. What will be interesting is to see what quality the burrs are and how it compares with some of the established hand grinder manufacturers out there such as the Commandante or Zpresso to name just two. If all it takes to grind is as long as it takes to boil the kettle and it’s still too long for anyone, then they must be a right miserable so and so.

Pompeyexile I’ve done a new video, Oh and my friend had had a broken wrist a year or so before trying my hand grinder and was having trouble. Enjoy

Forget wrist injuries, age, arthritis…when I’d grind big brews at work, or at family get-togethers, a kindly female might occasionally offer to take over grinding duty…it’s something we might take for granted, but it’s a big ask for a lady. For me, a motor for a Hario, or Porlex transforms grinding to a reasonable part of the process, rather than a total chore (for bigger doses). So, what’s the anticipated price Dave? Hario Grind Stick is £80-£90 plus grinder (£110-£130 total), Timemore Go is £120-160. How does this fit in that landscape? By the way, you’re not getting 310g out from 500g water poured (24g dose) …there’s something amiss there?

MWJB So, what’s the anticipated price Dave? Hario Grind Stick is £80-£90 plus grinder (£110-£130 total), Timemore Go is £120-160. How does this fit in that landscape? By the way, you’re not getting 310g out from 500g water pour That was before I’d finished the pour I think. I’m not totally sure of the price , the burrs I’ve found out are 38mm, and I believe it will be £99 all in, including a brush and blower. I think they just forgot to repack them when they sent it to me. The spindle has 2 decent bearings with tight tolerances. I like the little grinder going coarser tomorrow.

I hear you say you have a JX Pro 1Zpresso hand grinder and I would be interested to hear your comments on a side by side comparison for tasting as the JX Pro at the moment is going for about £150-160 not including postage. Or would it be more comparible with the JX 1Zpresso which retails at just under £100. If so, same price and performance but with a motor would be a bargain.

Pompeyexile Or would it be more comparible with the JX 1Zpresso which retails at just under £100. If so, same price and performance but with a motor would be a bargain. It’s more comparable to the JX, the JX pro is a very capable grinder that can do espresso. This little grinder is surprisingly decent, hence me spending the time on what is a relatively inexpensive product. I’m more interested in decent products finding their way to consumers. If someone gave me this for my Birthday (V soon) or Christmas, I would not be disappointed, especially if I was just getting into coffee. If either of my student kids drank coffee, I would buy them this and a cheap pour over setup with no worries.

This really is the final video where I take it apart and other stuff.

For me a decent hand grinder is the final piece in my affordable coffee jigsaw that I’m hoping Santa might bring me and I was looking at the 1Zpresso (not sure which variant yet) but this, if it comes with coated burrs seems a real bargain and I think will have to be on my shortlist.

Pompeyexile if it comes with coated burrs seems a real bargain and I think will have to be on my shortlist. That’s what they are saying about the burrs, it sounds like a really good package….Also they are considering a special offer for people who view my YouTube (for which I don’t get a penny and it won’t be a paid referral link either) , just a genuine special offer. How this would work I have no idea, as I’ve never done anything like it before, also they may decide not to do it as the price is pretty low as it is. I am assuming I get a special discount code to put in the description of the video?? Hence, I would hang on from purchasing until I get more news … if I forget, check the video descriptions (probably check the last video first) before purchasing. P.S. I started using some really hard beans and so far it’s done at least 5 X 24g, I can see the charge is getting lower as 2 blue lights show when grinding…I will be doing a 6th lot of 24g later. Even 5 grinds, I consider excellent for such a small motor unit.. They are also considering having spare motor units available to previous purchasers at a discount, so when the lithium cell eventually dies, you can get another.

The Unknown Hand/Electric grinder

Norvin

Still testing mine so that I know what to expect when going off grid. I got ten 16g espresso grinds from the first charge. I’m assuming that there will be more for aeropress grinds when I get around to it, maybe not. It went to two LEDs very quickly but kept producing more grinds. Took less than 2.5 hours to recharge the second time.

PartySausage

DavecUK Thanks sharing your experience with the models you had & your further involvement in the improvements. It will be interesting to see how the manufacturer incorporates your suggestions.

I thought my initial charge was a good one but I’ll give the grinder a good long charge today & see how the motor stands up to today’s Pico’s

DavecUK

PartySausage I thought my initial charge was a good one but I’ll give the grinder a good long charge today & see how the motor stands up to today’s Pico’s

I hope it will be fine, because your experience doesn’t match mine at all?

PartySausage

DavecUK So I gave the grinder an extended charge overnight like before when grinding for my Pico it started with 4 led’s, which went to 2 by the end of the grind.
On the 2nd grind like before the grinder cut out part way through. I could restart it again but it maybe only lasted 15s before it cut out again subsequent restarts were possible but it was diminishing returns before it cut out so I finished of by hand

Snikom

I fully charged over night last week some time. It’s only been used twice since both times 15g for v60.

Drops to two bars on grinding, now sat at 3 bars when not working.

Reading here it feels like there could be quite a lot of variance between copies. (Something that as a keen photographer I am all too aware of with lenses )

dfk41

Snikom The battery will take a few charging cycles before it is optimum

Snikom

dfk41

That’s a new one on me do you have a source?

I do know modern batteries are not meant to be fully charged or fully depleted, but am far too disorganised to watch a charger and turn off at 75 percent 🙂

dfk41

Snikom Perhaps I am living in the past! I know whenever I change my mobile, or for that matter anything with a chargeable battery, it seems to take a few charging cycles before things settle down. I think but maybe wrong, the unit Dave has might not have been unused…..perhaps he can confirm

Snikom

dfk41

Battery tech has come on hugely in the last few years, gone are the days when you had to worry about batteries gaining a memory and needing to fully discharge to try and recover. You may well be right about the optimising thing but I just spent 15 minutes googling to no avail. (I am sure that my time could have been used more productively but the Google distraction is strong 🙂)

DavecUK

Snikom Initially lithium cells often have a half charge and a protective coating, usually the first few charges burns that off, then they should never be allowed to go completely flat, either in use or storage.

Snikom

DavecUK

So I went off a googling and can find no definitive confirmation of that, hear say (mainly on rc forums regarding lipo) is both for and against

I could only find one actual test (an amateur rc youtuber) who concluded some marginal improvement in 1500mah lipo but also found it was detrimental in 1300mah that he tested.

I did have this advert pop up in an article though :)

DavecUK

Snikom https://etn.news/energy-storage/li-ion-cell-manufacturing

But no special coating….so I may have been incorrectly told this

Snikom

DavecUK

Some of the chat in RC forums mentioned special chemicals, there has also been a new coating developed to extend battery life in the last 18 months or so (nothing to do with storage, bit coating of anodes to stop impurities) It could well be these discussions have somehow been conflated by people.

DavecUK

PartySausage Sound like bad batteries in the motor unit

james65477564

PartySausage I just tested mine. After a long charge I ground 8×15g @ a setting of 55. At this point it still had 3 led illuminated and I had no more coffee left so I think mine will easily do the 15×15g claimed.

Norvin

Mine has been very consistent. I got ten espresso grinds from the first charge and ten from the second charge. It took 90 minutes to recharge the battery. The takeaway for me is that when away from home, at 4 coffees per morning, I will have to recharge every second day.

PartySausage

Does sound like this one is bit of a Friday special. I can make do until the V2 replacement.
It’s good that the hand grinder option is there, which some of the other portable motorised grinders available don’t have

Norvin

Following on from an earlier post, I have been thinking about this - I got the dial gauge out and measured the lateral play in the shaft, at 27 clicks out ( my espresso setting ), the side to side movement is 0.15mm. It occurred to me that this is probably just the movement of the inner burr from touching one side of the outer burr to the other side and does not represent the total shaft play. If that is the case, does it matter what the total play is? Do better grinders control the lateral play to the extent that the burrs never touch from side to side movement?

DavecUK

Norvin It occurred to me that this is probably just the movement of the inner burr from touching one side of the outer burr to the other side and does not represent the total shaft play. If that is the case, does it matter what the total play is? Do better grinders control the lateral play to the extent that the burrs never touch from side to side movement?

I’ve asked them to tighten all the tolerances, especially the lower bearing hole which will help lots..

JonWoo187

Norvin Theoretically speaking, when the burrs are under load as in grinding, that should spread the force out evenly and act as a natural form of alignment. Having said that, some higher quality hand grinders are quite tight on tolerance. My Helor 106 has no vertical/horizontal movement at all… provided the bearing pre-load is done just right during assembly anyway, but will spin quite freely.

Snikom

So my experience with batteries so far.

I havent used it much (mainly for a single v60 a day, as my wife uses the ode and the moccamaster and I use the niche and gaggia).

I did a full overnight re-charge and it has just cut out this morning having done 6 lots of 15 grams.

It is still showing three lights when started with no load.

As I have a “grinder problem” according to my wife I am not short of alternatives and this one was really only bought for an upcoming road trip/holiday (when will airbnbs start to provide proper coffee kit….) I am not overly concerned, the coffee it produces is good and I can live with sticking it on to charge daily if needed.

My only real gripe would be the locking mechanism for the motor unit which is the wrong way in my head and has now twice nearly caused me to drop things as when checking its on properly it comes apart.

But the coffee is good and thats what counts :)

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