• Grinders

  • Helor 106 Grind Settings - Difficult or perhaps EASIER than people think?

Hi to all. I’ve just ordered an Helor 106. While I’m waiting for this much anticipated grinder, I’ve been searching for all available information.
I found grind size recommendations on Honest Coffee, but following the ideas I propose below, they have missinterpreted the scale on the bottom of the grinder… (I will explain why I say this below)

I also saw a number of people in written and Youtube reviews saying that it is rather difficult to set the grind size because there are NO NUMBERS. This also may be just because of that same missunderstanding…

So let me explain what I noticed, and how this may help ENORMOUSLY!

There happen to be 12 major divisions and 60 minor divisions.
Lo and behold, what else has 12 major divisions and 60 minor divisions??
THE CLOCK FACE!
I don’t think that this CAN be accidental. I reckon that despite saying nothing about this on the product page, that Helor DESIGNED the divisions to reflect the Clock Face!

So while I’m waiting for my big “self-pressie”, I decided to put this insight into graphical form using CorelDRAW. I’ve done Clock Face charts for each of the main coffee brewing methods, using the data from the Honest Coffee chart - BUT correcting the mistake they had made of assuming that there were 120 minor divisions (60 visible, with 60 “virtual”)

I share each of these here, although unfortuately I don’t think I can share the cdr file?

You STILL need to take care of the “Full Turns”, but I reckon that MOST users are not going to be switching methods, and so will be mostly within one “Full Turn”? Certainly I will only be using it for Espresso, Moka-Pot, Turkish or Aero-Press….
I show the “Full Turns” with small dots of three colours at the “Twelve O’Clock”, “One O’Clock”, and “Two O’Clock” positions.

Each chart needs to be separate, and I decided that actual Clock hands confused the issue, since there would have to be TWO hour hands and TWO minute hands. How would one distinguish??

Each chart has the info ALSO as a phrase - AND IT’S THE PHRASE which will help you to remember THE MOST-EST!

I hope you like, and it helps you other Helor 106 users!
Regards Greg









One final thought about the above Clock Face Charts.

Since the Helor 106 is fully stepless ( and since it is bottom adjusted, should not suffer from any “Setings Drift”),
the user can easily remember the REALLY MICRO setting by adding the SECONDS to the phrase that expresses their preferred setting!

Regards Greg

Who needs Numbers, when you’ve got the Clock Face and the TIME?

It’s quite possible that there are other grinders out there that share this method of being divided into 60 divisions, not 100.
Please post them here, so that other grinder users might be alerted to this and might find this kind of chart useful…

Regards Greg, the Star-Gazing Troglodyte

Having said that to express the Honest Coffee Suggested settings with Clock HANDS would get conplicated, since two SETS of hands would be required - actually you CAN use Clock Hands in your mind to remember and actually SET the Helor 106.

I’ve done just one sample Espresso settings as an example.
Once again the PHRASE is key to both REMEMBERING the setting, and being able to set it up WITHOUT COUNTING out all the divisions!

The Red Minute Hand is the Helor 106 adjustment Dial. The other two hands just show the detail. The PHRASE again is KEY!

Enjoy!

Love the graphics very nicely done!

Always doing more research!
I noticed that the Helor 101 is also Stepless and ALSO has 12 main divisions. However it lacks any “Minor Divisions”.
Helor even mention in the video tutorial they share on Youtube that the Filled in Marker can be called “Twelve O’Clock”!

So it is clear that “Telling the Time” is a method which can also apply to the Helor 101!

We’ve ALL seen watches that - like the Helor 101 - only have the 12 markers.
We can still read the time on them - even if it’s just that little bit more difficult…

In fact - as the Samsung Galaxy Watch I share here shows - we can EVEN “Tell the Time” with NO DOTS AT ALL!
Having said that, us CoffeHolics will want a little more than that, to easily make and remember our settings!

PLEASE;-
If anyone knows of other Grinders are “Telling the Time” compatible, then please list them here!

Regards Greg

  • MWJB replied to this.

    Enjoy the grinder and do report back. I had a 101 and really enjoyed it, was a nicely made grinder and 106 looks like an upgrade.

    StellarGreg If anyone knows of other Grinders are “Telling the Time” compatible, then please list them here!

    Don’t the MBK Aergrind & Feld47 have a 12 digit dial?

    My old Feldgrind has a 14 digit dial, I just used the number of turns, plus final setting number, e.g. 0+10, 1+8, 2+6…

    I wouldn’t put too much store in the Honest Coffee guides, the cupping & French press grinds seem too coarse. The coarsest I ever go for French press is Siphon/Cupping grind (about 700um avg.), manual drip is the coarsest I use (850um +/-50um). Finest French press (small glass press) moka pot/coarse espresso grind.

    Best to dial in a method, then reference grind size setting & detailed recipe.

        Hi FadedFrontiers

        Yes I’ll do that! Also it looks like I’ll be doing that sooner than I had expected!!!

        I just received an e-mail from UPS telling me to expect it TOMORROW in the afternoon!
        But I only ordered it in the afternoon last thursday!

        That’s only 5 days from China! AMAZING!

        You’ll need to imagine me doing a cartwheel…

        Regards Greg

        MWJB
        Hi MWJB.

        Yes I agree with you about the Honest Coffee suggested settings. I always assume for Espresso, that I’m going to be using the very FINEST of their suggestions - or perhaps even a bit finer still!

        But they were literally the only suggestions I could find.

        If people here would like to give me BETTER suggestions for the various methods I can fairly easilly “Correct” the charts I’ve shared above. It’s just a question of rotating the edges of the “Pieces of Pie” in my CorelDRAW file, and then exporting that to png…
        It’s a shame that I can’t upload that cdr file here, then people could even do that themselves.

        Regards Greg

          After having used a Helor 106 for quite some time and put a few hundred lbs through it I will say don’t overthink grind settings. No clue how it does for more forgiving brew methods, but for espresso only there will be slight changes needed quite often as with any grinder. Will also add that I found the included ceramic bearings to be junk. Super smooth early on, but having an unsealed design and coffee dust migrating into them required cleaning often and still a bit gritty over time. I found some very high quality sealed hybrid bearings that were light yrs better/tighter tolerances than what he uses in the 106. Much smoother and didn’t have to be torn down for cleaning at all.

            JonWoo187
            I’d love to know the manufacturer of those bearing you mention!
            I DID include in my order a spare set of Helor’s ceramic bearings, but if what you say is true they may not keep me going that long?

            (Once I get them, I can of course measure, with my Micrometer! - and do my own search)

            Ta - Thanks for that info!

            Greg

            Could the problem be helped by the orientation of the Bearing?
            I notice that the ceramic bearings have two different sides. One a little more covered over than the other. Yes I was wondering “which way round should these be fitted”. I hadn’t found the answer to that online as yet!

            I also have had a MIGHTY SEVERE problem with the top bearing of my Varia VS3. I find that each time I strip the Varia down to clean, that the top bearing is once again siezed, despite being a “Sealed” type.
            Yes - I can “Un-seize” it fairly easily, but it’s annoying. Together with the Settings drifting by one division on each grind, it’s a reason I hope to retire the VS3 altogether… Shame! It does produce good coffee…

            I did make suggestions to Varia a while back, but despite the Engineer being very interested in my, farily cheap, “fix”, the Company Director from New Zealand said “Leave it to us” - and has done precisely NOTHING!

                StellarGreg

                Tried the ceramics in both directions and made no difference at all. This is exactly what I bought (1 pair obviously) and by far the best actual preventive maintenance fix for an otherwise fantastic grinder.

                  15 days later

                  Having received my long awaited Helor 106, I find that unlike many of my other Grinders, whose thread holding on the burrs is REVERSE thread, that the Helor uses the regular thread, where clockwise tightens and anti-clock loosens.

                  HENCE everything in these posts is the REVERSE of the facts!

                  Hey! - but it IS POSSIBLE to tell the time on a clock that goes BACKWARDS!
                  A secondary school I taught in had a clock in the Main Hall / Examination Room, which went BACKWARDS.
                  It was as if - “If you can’t work this out then you won’t pass anyway!”

                  ALSO- a while back on my Facebook page I shared a method of telling the time, when lying on your back, and looking up at the clock, which was UPSIDE DOWN! Still possible. My dogs just love to cuddle/fight with me on the bed!

                  I don’t seem to be able to edit and REMOVE the incorrect Clock Faces, so at the end of this series, I will post CORRECTED Clock Faces, which still work. Check them out if you have a Helor 106!

                  Hi fellow Helor 106 user.
                  I won’t write any extended commentary here, I’ll just say, that now I have REVERSED all these Clock Faces, to ANTI-CLOCKWISE, that they do work, and correctly show settings on the Helor 106. (and the Helor 101 too)











                  I’ve also done an Excel File which not only records settings you use for specific Beans and specific Brewing Methods, but also is capable of outputting directly the Ratio of Grounds to Coffee Output, and also calculating the actual Burr Height movement (from “touching”).

                  Anybody on the staff of the Forum - is there any way of sharing an excel file here?

                  regards Greg

                    Dude, just use the grinder and enjoy, bwahaha. CW equals finer, CCW equals coarser, no need to overthink it. That grinder excels in espresso range and honestly wouldn’t waste grinding/coffee on coarser/boring brew methods.

                    The weber hg1 didn’t have numbers on some versions.

                    Wouldn’t bother me if someone removed the number ring from my grinders.

                    Shot runs too quick, estimate by how much, find grinder.

                    Shot runs roo slow, grind coarser

                    Shot runs correctly to spec keep that setting.

                    No need for rocket science or spreadsheets the next bag of the same beans will be slightly different in any case.

                    I could have just said i agree with @JonWoo187

                    Well, it had to happen i guess!! 🤭

                    Ade Smith. ACS Evo Leva v2. Kafatek Flat max 2, ssw 2024. Mazzer Philos, Craig Lyn HG-1 prime.

                    About Me

                    StellarGreg is there any way of sharing an excel file here?

                    Save it to one drive or google drive etc make it shared “to anyone with the link”.

                    Copy and paste the link in to a comment.

                    Ade Smith. ACS Evo Leva v2. Kafatek Flat max 2, ssw 2024. Mazzer Philos, Craig Lyn HG-1 prime.

                    About Me