I got a Pharos a couple of months ago and haven't used it much yet. In my limited experimenting, I feel like the grind consistency has been, well, inconsistent. Seeing as it has less than 1lb of beans through it, I figured I should season it a bit.

Running any volume of grinds through the Pharos is a pain, as I am sure many of you know. FWIW, I am sharing what I did to make a little easier: I removed the rubber feet and mounted it to a board with some bolts, drilled a hole for the funnel and placed the board/Pharos over a small garbage can with a compost bag.




As I ground through a few pounds of bean this afternoon, I couldn't help but feel like the whole seasoning thing is a type of hazing.

I imagine long time HB'ers said, "Hey, we should tell new members they need to season their burrs. What do you think, recommend a pound or two? ...No, we should tell them 10 or 20 lbs at least!"

Anyway, the large catch bin/board helped a lot.

It is too late now to start testing the fruits of my labor, but I will tomorrow, particularly against my very user-friendly Vario.

In all honesty, I don't think I have enough taste sensitivity that I am going to see much difference, but I am curious...

Stop grinding into the trash and try the coffee. Worst case you'll appreciate why seasoning matters and best case you won't taste a difference. Either way you're wasting less coffee

Just based on market influence I would fully expect the difference between Titan Conical burrs and 50mm flat burrs to be noticeable.

How many pounds of beans are you planning to run through that before you empty the garbage can?

boxerboxer wrote:Stop grinding into the trash and try the coffee. Worst case you'll appreciate why seasoning matters and best case you won't taste a difference. Either way you're wasting less coffee

Before the seasoning, I had been trying the coffee. But I was frustrated as I found it hard to dial-in and wasn't happy with the results. By comparison, I find the Vario very easy to dial-in and have been very happy with the espresso I get with it.

I bought the Pharos, in part, out of curiosity with conicals. They are obviously very popular here and I figured the Pharos was a low cost way of exploring a quality conical. But since I haven't been nearly as impressed as I have with the Vario, I figured I would try some seasoning and then make more of an effort to dial-it in.

I expect to get good results with the Pharos. I may find I prefer the Vario or I may prefer the Pharos. I mostly want to explore the difference.

day wrote:Just based on market influence I would fully expect the difference between Titan Conical burrs and 50mm flat burrs to be noticeable.

I have no doubt there are differences that many notice. I am not sure I will, at least yet, though. I don't think I am adept taster.

James Mulryan wrote:How many pounds of beans are you planning to run through that before you empty the garbage can?

I went through about 3 pounds of beans I got pretty cheaply from Costco. The grounds are very good for the garden, at least, so not a total waste.

I noticed grinding got significantly easier after 2-2.5 lbs. So I am going to start pulling shots with the Pharos tomorrow and not wait on going 10lbs, as some have suggested in other threads.

Perhaps you should have kept some pre and post *curling arm strength data as well

I am just kidding, envy is all

Glad you got some good leverage with that little chair.....

There are times this hobby reminds me of my audiophile days. Back then I was making purchase decisions on partly on equipment specifications like 20-20,000 hz. The trouble was as a human, my hearing range was unable to enjoy that spectrum.

I recently put the Pharos away and went to an electric grinder that has a smaller set of burrs. I did several mods to the Pharos that made it better, tweaking the grind was never as easy as my new electric grinder. In the end I used a shaft collar on the Pharos which was the final breakthrough to adjusting, but it took me a while figure out, then I had grounds all over the counter. Time to master the electric? 10 minutes, max, no mods needed.

The smaller burrs, that are the wrong shape on this electric machine have produced the best shots we've ever had. The precision that I can achieve when making adjustments to the size of the grind has been a far bigger deal than burr size/shape in creating the best end product.