The Helor Flux Grinder Review - Page 3

#21: Post by **elviscaprice** » March 3rd, 2018, 1:00 pm

The idea that the Helor Flux is a capable traveling grinder at it's weight, is stretching it. At best, it's a semi (winter to summer home) mobile grinder, good for home storage where counter space is valuable. Beautiful looking workmanship, more so than the Kinu grinders (maybe not in it's engineering tolerances without trying it). How is it for ease of taking apart, grind setting reference point, setting, thus versatility in grinding needs?

At three times the cost of the Kinu 47, does it give you any noticeable gains in the cup? The Kinu 68, at three times the cost, as reviewed by others, doesn't give you much of a gain over the Kinu 47.

I suppose the biggest argument would be, that the Helor Flux's capabilities for grinding lighter beans, for those folks incapable of grinding with say a Kinu 47.

I see the Helor Flux as an alternative outside the standing manual grinders, as mobile in the home, not so much traveling, at it's weight. But personally I don't see the advantage over the Kinu 47, in the cup, for my needs. Definitely not for cost savings in quality gained in the cup.

#22: Post by **animus128** » March 3rd, 2018, 1:16 pm

The quality in the cup is always a hard comparison to objectively make. I think you could argue that after something like the M47 the gain in the cup gets unproportional to the money you pay. Not having done a blind test I can't really give you any more input on how the 106 performs. However I guess for you any of the big conical grinder are no real improvement over the M47 if we just look about quality in the cup.

March 3rd, 2018, 1:40 pm

As animus128 said, talking/writing objectively about taste - without a reliable and exhaustive blind test run - is really tricky. Having had the chance to try 2-3 espressos at animus128' home, I can clearly say that I was really impressed regarding the taste (in combination with his Strietman) of some of his light roasted beans he bought in a local Berlin roastery.
Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to compare a Kinu M47 or Kinu M68 against it so far.
At home I run a Rocket R60V with pressure profiling and a Mazzer Mini E and am not sure I can compete taste wise in the light roast area.

Leaving the comparison part aside, the taste was really great (in my humble and certainly subjective view). I had the chance to try a Titus Grinder as well but would not want to go so far to state anything regarding "better or worse" in terms of taste. It just can't be compared (conical 71 vs. hybrid etc.).

#24: Post by **treq10** » March 3rd, 2018, 10:26 pm

opother wrote:I have a SJ at work that is used for drip. It is a great grinder with a few setbacks for home users and this is my experience. The Super Jolly is heavier (31 lbs,) has a big ass foot print and needs to be plugged in (requiring electricity is not big deal to most people but worth mentioning.) I don't like the Mini it is also designed as a coffee shop grinder.

This hand grinder may be heavy but it seems to me to still be portable. A Mazzer Mini (22.5 lbs), SJ, or Titan sized Major (44 lbs) or Robur (62 lbs) certainly is not.

With the Super Jolly grind retention although not that much has always been a bitch for me to deal with when using this grinder for low volume espresso use. forget about the Robur or Major.

With the Super Jolly grind quality is compromised when you run it without a significant amount of beans in the hopper the same goes for the Mini, Robur, Major and other brands of grinders that use these type of designs. Using some sort of weight to weigh down your single dose helps but in my opinion really is not as good as having a full hopper so it didn't quite cut it for me.

With my Super Jolly I had to jump through hoops to keep my shots from channeling when single dosing but when the doser was full of grounds and used the way it was designed the action of dosing broke up and distributed the grounds in such a way that channeling was much easier to avoid. Oh and you do need a lot of beans in the hopper to grind when you fill up the doser whatever. These were made to be used in a busy shop period there is no 2 ways about it and that is how they function best.

Dialing in shop grinders like my super Jolly is obviously easier when single dosing but I still find it to be a bitch because I have to clean out chute and doser in between adjustments when used as a busy shop grinder it must be a super bitch.

I think this is a great hand grinder and 4 or 5 pounds is fine for travel. It's profile is certainly compact, all stainless is something I like for durability and keeping clean. The large high quality burrs should produce beautiful grinds without the sloppiness and problems of using a shop grinder at home for single dosing. forget about travel with those other large (I did say large) heavy grinders that need to be plugged in.

That gear reduction mechanism is something I like but the trade off like when peddling a bike in low gear is more rotations to get the work done. This is fine with me and a low price to pay for having the use of these great burrs. 50 seconds is not big deal to me either.

I have the Pharos and I am not wimpy about finding a grip somewhere on it and cranking hard however I have always said the Pharos isn't going to cut it if you have arthritis or lack the muscle to do it. With light beans I really have fun. The bench dogs solve this problem for the most part but at the cost of mounting it. This gear reduction system is in my view something that was long needed and I commend and thank Helor for making it.

I also like the fact that this design is not a knockoff of another grinder. Ever since OE had to courage to bring quality hand grinders to market (thank you OE) every other company this way and that has jumped on the band wagon with overpriced knock offs.

Pharos is still king of the poor mans low priced high quality hand grinder with mostly non proprietary parts that are easy to fix and and maintain. I still use it.

That being said I think this new gear reduction grinder is well worth it's asking price at not much more than a big, heavy, sloppy grinder like a Mazzer Mini ($700.00) and certainly less expensive than the massive sized heavy $2700.00 to $3000.00 Robur that uses 71mm burrs.

Finally my Pharos makes better grinds than my Super Jolly hands down and I suspect any other properly aligned grinder that uses quality 71 mm conical burrs would.

Thanks for this input. I suppose that when one wants an all around grinder for both home and travel, espresso and drip, this is a great option. I didn't think about the SJ being something other than an at home espresso grinder.

So, I guess the real question is, how does the Helor 106 fare vs. say, a Commendante? Does it justify the $5-600USD+ in cost difference?

March 4th, 2018, 7:34 am

I would say the 106 really shines in the espresso range. For drip I don't see a big difference to my Lido and furthermore it is not really made for switching back and forth between settings (no numeric scale). That said, in the espresso range the usability of the Helor is in many ways better than the Lido (easier grinding, easier adjustments, far quieter and less retention). The Commandante also doesn't make much sense to compare because it is stepped and performs best for various brewing methods.

Interesting would of cause be a quality in the cup comparison between lets say a Kinu M47, Helor 106, HG 1 and some big conical grinder (maybe the Robur), but that would take quite the community effort to realize.

For now I can just say, that I am super happy with the usability and grind quality of the 106 and don't see any reason to ever upgrade to a different conical. Furthermore, for the "original" Taobao price I would say it is a great deal. However, if we ever get the chance to do a big grinder "in the cup" comparison here in Germany I would love to contribute and see how they each perform in taste.

#26: Post by **helor.coffee** » March 7th, 2018, 1:35 am

Thanks Tom, for sharing your experiences!

#27: Post by **helor.coffee** » March 7th, 2018, 1:40 am

animus128 wrote:Well to be fair, the "real" price in China is 4200 RMB (ca. 550€) which is quite cheap considering that the burrs alone are worth over 200€.

Hi animus128,

The real "real" price on our website is ~$750 USD, which converts to ~4700 RMB.

Thanks for the compliments.

March 7th, 2018, 2:13 am

Oh yeah I meant the price on Taobao, but I see it is now listed internationally. I think the ca. 500 RMB price increase on the international site is quite fair!

#29: Post by **sternalot** » March 9th, 2018, 8:42 pm

First post here. I registered because I am so happy that I have just purchased this grinder (30 minutes ago). Seems to have been the last one Helor had available. I am relatively extremely new to home espresso, but I love having the morning ritual. I felt a manual grinder will really take it up a notch.

animus: Anything you can share about dialing in for espresso? I know it'll depend on machine and beans, but any guidance? TYIA!

edit: I would like to add that helor's customer service was a big factor in me feeling comfortable making this semi-blind leap. I see a lot of questionable things popping up when it comes to other super-premium manual grinders.

#30: Post by **animus128** » March 10th, 2018, 3:27 am

sternalot wrote:Anything you can share about dialing in for espresso? I know it'll depend on machine and beans, but any guidance? TYIA!

I can't really give you any big hints on this topic. I could try to count how far I am currently away from fully closed, but to be honest that is a little tedious for me, because I have to be careful not to loose my current setting. I would suggest just taking some older beans and just try out different settings to see which grindsize seems to be fitting your machine. This will also give you a good feel for the grinder. Maybe start your journey one full rotation from closed and go from there.
(My Strietman arrived after the 106 so I tried some grinding for v60 at first. I'm not super sure, but I think there my setting was in the area of around 3-4 rotations from closed)