At the beginning of last year I bought a helor 101. It arrived while I was on vacation and by the time I got to use it, it had been past the return date. Well, I hated it. So much so that I didn't pick it up until 15min ago to give it another shot. I am even more disappointed at the waste of money. I have the contemporary burrs on it (the ones for espresso) and it takes FOREVER to grind. I just timed myself and I stopped after 5 freaking minutes and it had only gone through like 6g of beans. I'd rather just place the beans on the table and smack my head on them than spend what, 12min to grind a single dose of espresso. I got this because of the wonderful reviews. Yes, this thing is built like a tank, but it doesn't grind and is therefore completely useless.

Does anyone else here have this grinder? How long does it take you to grind for espresso? I don't know what to do with this thing. I don't want to sell a trash product to someone, it won't feel morally right. I also don't have the heart to throw it out since it was pricey.

I have a very early 101, I've no idea which burrs I have but it's never seemed to be particularly slow.

I have both burrs. Never had this problem.

What setting are you grinding on? If super fine, it can take a while. Try coarsening the setting to see if it grinds faster. Also maybe try a different bean. Very large beans sometimes have trouble feeding.

I would normally grind for espresso around "18", so 1.5 turns (ie there are 12 dots on the dial, so from full closed go all the way round once - 12 - then half a turn -6 - to make 18). If you're grinding a lot finer than that it will take forever.

The contemporary burrs would take me about 1 minute to grind 18-20g. That is until I had the dumb idea to try grinding salt in it (don't ask) and the burrs rusted. I cleaned the rust off with vinegar, but now they grind ridiculously slowly - like your experience- so I just use the traditional burrs, which are fine. They take maybe 1:30 to grind for espresso so that's ok too

jb-0101 wrote: The contemporary burrs would take me about 1 minute to grind 18-20g. That is until I had the dumb idea to try grinding salt in it (don't ask) and the burrs rusted. I cleaned the rust off with vinegar, but now they grind ridiculously slowly - like your experience- so I just use the traditional burrs, which are fine. They take maybe 1:30 to grind for espresso so that's ok too

Salt is a crystaline structure and significantly harder than coffee beans. So likely damaged the leading edges of the burr cutting area.

Salt also draws water to the surface but rust is likely surface rust and not the cause of the poor grinding unless it was left to rust for probably months. A new burr set is fairly cheap probably worth swapping in and you'll be back to new.

maxbmello wrote:What setting are you grinding on? If super fine, it can take a while. Try coarsening the setting to see if it grinds faster. Also maybe try a different bean. Very large beans sometimes have trouble feeding.

Second all of this, great places to start troubleshooting.

OP, have you tried troubleshooting at all? Can you share any more info such as what setting you're grinding at?

I had the REMI, which was the successor to the Helor 101, and was only using it for filter coffee, but never had any such issues.

For what it's worth I have a Kinu -- it's about a minute for 20gr espresso grind -- going at a pleasant pace. I assume the Helor (if functioning correctly) should be similar.

For reference. Own a bunch of hand grinders. Older ones are from the 50's or maybe older to my most recent purchase. The 1Zpresso K-Pro. Some of the older ones are more than slow at >2 minutes for a 20gm dose. Fastest grinder is the K-Pro at around couple seconds a gram set at the ~3.5-4 setting for pour over.

Something cannot be right with your Helor 101.
Any chance the retailer would exchange it for another unit even after the "return period"? Wouldn't hurt to explain your issue and hope.

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? I have the option-o version of this grinder now and having a similar issue.