My Personal Experience with Orphan Espresso Lido OG: Problems & Solutions - Page 2

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
raminolta (original poster)
Posts: 17
Joined: 3 years ago

#11: Post by raminolta (original poster) »

Update: Two and half weeks have passed and I haven't heard back from OE nor have I received the piece they promised they would send me. I am going to contact them tomorrow about this again.

In regards to drifting, well I am suspecting this is a common issue with this grinder even if it may take a while before it starts developing. This is because the measure to prevent drifting seems inherently inadequate relying on the friction of the end point of a screw with the central axis that carries the central butt. After using the grinder for a while eventually this friction reduces by the constant rubbing that is happening. In my case, this frictional force has got to be too weak to be effective.

I am not familiar with the engineering of other grinders. I do have another hand grinder though which seems having a better mechanism for fixing the grind setting. It is a Kalita grinder. The pin simply sits in the gaps with the gears. Grind setting cannot change unless this pin is moved out of the current gap. Practically this cannot happen unless the user decides to do so hence no drifting. Maybe OE should have used the same idea.


BodieZoffa
Posts: 408
Joined: 3 years ago

#12: Post by BodieZoffa »

raminolta wrote:Update: Two and half weeks have passed and I haven't heard back from OE nor have I received the piece they promised they would send me. I am going to contact them tomorrow about this again.

In regards to drifting, well I am suspecting this is a common issue with this grinder even if it may take a while before it starts developing. This is because the measure to prevent drifting seems inherently inadequate relying on the friction of the end point of a screw with the central axis that carries the central butt. After using the grinder for a while eventually this friction reduces by the constant rubbing that is happening. In my case, this frictional force has got to be too weak to be effective.

I am not familiar with the engineering of other grinders. I do have another hand grinder though which has a clearly superior mechanism to for fixing the grind setting. It is a Kalita grinder. The pin simply sits in the gaps with the gears. Grind setting cannot change unless this pin is moved out of the current gap. Practically this cannot happen unless the user decides to do so hence no drifting. Maybe OE should have used the same idea.

image
That type of grind adjustment/lock is quite often used on stepped grinders with very coarse settings, but likely couldn't be implemented with anything more demanding/precise. Personally have never owned/used any of the grinders from OE and likely wouldn't for the reason being mentioned as the grind adjustment seems iffy on most of what they've designed.

raminolta (original poster)
Posts: 17
Joined: 3 years ago

#13: Post by raminolta (original poster) »

Update on what finally happened in this regards. Like I said before, OE said they would be sending me a little piece which once put in, it would prevent drifting . That must have been a bluff or what because, I did not hear back from them since then and did not receive the piece.
Luckily, the retailer from which I had bought the grinder, offered that I could return the grinder for credit. I decided I would not want to waste my time anymore and jumped on the offer. I am no longer in the possession of the Lido OG grinder. I wish its owners good luck though personally, I would not recommend it to potential buyers.
No hard feeling towards OE. I understand this is a small family owned manufacturing business without the resources and costumer service of big companies. Hopefully,they will find a solution to improve on the problem.

User avatar
doug
Supporter ♡
Posts: 116
Joined: 12 years ago

#14: Post by doug »

I've had and used an OG for a while, along with other Lidos, and too many other electric grinders to count. I saw on Reddit another poster who echoed the OP's concern on repeatability and / or drift. No two grinders of the same make and model will ever be perfectly alike, so I'm not questioning at all that some may have negative experiences.

But I decided to take one for the home-barista team and force myself to make and drink three shots back to back made with the OG. My senior citizen shoulders are sore after building a fence for my neighbor in rocky soil, so this was like a form of physical therapy. First three grinds to get it somewhat dialed in, then three more for a test.

I used Light - Medium beans from Ethiopia with a wonderful peachy flavor I roasted eight days ago. Using a Decent DE1XL (the far superior white colored model) to hopefully get objective numbers for preinfusion and pour times for 17.0g weight by a Lunar scale (depending on how consistent you think the Decent is).

The Lido OG was calibrated by adjusting fine tune mechanism back and forth until I could click one setting finer than zero and it would sound exactly the same as when going from 200 to 100 to 0. It ended up at 200 on the primary adjustment knob, then three major ticks finer on fine adjustment knob (though I probably should have gone for 5 for slower shots). It took ~120 turns on the Lido OG to grind 17g each time, though more like 230 while dialing in on my first attempt which just choked. Then 10 OCD turns of an Etsy spirograph WDT, followed by a level and tamp on the latest Normcore wedge leveler and tamper. And a puck screen. With a warm Decent with a full flush before each shot.

Anyway, the three shots came out:

14s 38ml preinfusion, 23s 36ml shot.
13s 34ml preinfusion, 17s 36ml shot. (faster)
13s 34ml preinfusion, 19s 36ml shot. (slower)

No drift in any one direction, and halfway close to each other. I found my Niche Zero tended to create numbers even closer to each other on back to backs, while my DF83 has more inconsistency than the Lido OG. The Lido OG and DF83 both have more clarity than the Niche Zero, at least to my taste buds.

Very tasty shots, but now I'm truly wired, so guess I'll go mow the lawn a few times. :)

Yan
Posts: 577
Joined: 5 years ago

#15: Post by Yan »

raminolta wrote:No hard feeling towards OE. I understand this is a small family owned manufacturing business without the resources and costumer service of big companies. Hopefully,they will find a solution to improve on the problem.
I had 3 years with Lido 3 without any problems and 3+ years using OE Apex with some minor problems, luckily Barb and Doug "always" help me many times via emails, as OP wish hopefully OE keep inventing new stuff and perfecting their products.


Post Reply