Jonk wrote:I think it's mostly about habit. I've used both arms to crank my hand grinders and noticed no difference in ergonomics. But I just tried rotating counterclockwise without beans and it's awkward to me with both hands. For those who are not used to grinding a certain way already it might not matter, but I see it could take some time to get used to.

Either way it's nice to see innovations in hand grinders. Like others, I don't see the point of removing the rotating axle from a wobble perspective. It's just not a problem in quality grinders. Does it present problems with alignment instead perhaps? Usually the outer burr is what we can adjust.

One clear advantage seems to be the ease of brushing away grounds caught on the top of the burrs. Perhaps there are other, not marketed benefits - like grind speed?

Most grinder adjust the inner burr and not the outer, the outer is typically fixed to the main body or in a separate part that is screwed into the main body, Arco should make adjustment with the outer burr, but I cannot come up with other grinder that adjust the outer.

The handle/arm design look like a rather weak part, I just don't see it hold op for long. The lid also look like a massive faff to remove.

The anti clock rotation is just annoying and indeed awkward but it sounds like it will be fixed. Like the rest of you I see no real advantage with removing it, it's some year since wobbly inner burr where indeed a problem a problem that has been fixed pretty much on all newly designed grinders.

The comandante has a wobbly inner burr by design, but that's the only grinder above 100 usd for which this is the case.

Sigh.

We've asked the makers behind this Kickstarter to respect our site's no commercial posts and vendor participation rules, but they have persisted by creating new logins and asking more established members to post on their behalf. This thread is temporarily closed.

I had a question that someone else also asked and I didn't see an answer (though I could have missed it):

How easy is it for a woman to use?

The videos I've watched showed a grinder with a wonderfully, smooth action, and I think smoothness by definition must mean it is easy to use/grind. BUT ... it was a fairly muscular guy grinding, and a strong guy might appear to be using less effort than a desk jockey like myself might need. I'm not at all saying this is deceptive by design, just that strong guys have an easier time. But the action looks super easy/smooth and I'm excited by that.

It's also hard to judge effort from a video. Sigh...

Videos:
Espresso grinding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGaI4b8_3Pc

Pour over grinding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Jsan994Lw

For reference - I have a Lido 2 with the newer/easier burrs and I found it easy to use, but it's big and allows me to utilize mechanical advantage and body ergonomics by bracing it comfortably.

I also have a Porlex. It's smaller so harder to say, brace between my knees. I also have the Porlex Mini which is so small it's impossible to brace so you MUST use only upper body strength to grind. Hold the grinder in one hand and the crank in the other, and every bit force comes from hands, shoulders, arms. I can use it, but it's not much fun. Action is very stuttery. Start - stop - start - stop until you get it going.

If it helps, I also have a Knock Feld2, and an Aerspeed, and those are acceptably easy to use (the Aerspeed doesn't hold the grind setting as well as I'd like though). They are much smoother than the Porlexes. I'm hoping that this grinder is at least as easy as those.

baldheadracing wrote:FWIW, the Etzinger burr in the Lidos/Fixie is about the easiest to grind in my collection.

While ease of grind is an important metric, particularly in a small hand grinder, it's not the *only* important metric.

I saw your mention of the Fixie upthread, and went and looked it up. My Lido2 is my favorite grinder - I used it daily for 10-ish years, but I never really liked the adjustment mechanism and with the Fixie, they went to the opposite extreme, to their set of 3 adjustment spacers. The stepless aspect of the Lido2 was certainly more than I really needed, but the Fixie has less. The one grinder of theirs that I really want is the Apex, but the price is out of my budget, and it's not a great choice for travel.

baldheadracing wrote:I haven't travelled since 2019

Actually, that was my last time formally traveling, too. June 2019, I traveled for work, first time in over a decade. I expect it'll be the last time for quite awhile - my employer doesn't OK travel often.

During the pandemic we were moving to a new house - for the better part of a year, actually (3 hours away, took carloads up on the weekends), so there was just no opportunity. But during regular years, I travel to see family 2 states away at least once per year (and no one has a decent coffee setup), and I go camping several times over the summer. So buying high-end grinders for travel is definitely frivolous given the rarity of use. But, coffee brewing is one of my main hobbies. And for whatever reason, I find grinders irresistible.

Once I settle on my travel set-up, my daughter will end up with a really excellent grinder for travel since I will have surplus to my needs. She's in college and makes her own coffee every morning. (Blade grinder and a small Bonavita auto-drip machine). She's not into coffee the way I am, but thank goodness she she understood the enormous cost-savings in not buying coffee at a coffee shop every morning. And she whole-heartedly agrees that what she makes is MUCH better than she can get anywhere on campus. There is a little independent coffee shop that she likes that makes good coffee right off campus though, and she goes there occasionally.

Hi

I am also a bit concerned about the "smoothness" of this grinder (it seems to only have one large ball bearing at the bottom, close to the burrs, but nothing in the upper part of the body) and, given they use quite large burrs (and depending on how sharp they are), this may be an issue.

Also I still do not understand how the grind settings are defined: depending on what you read it is sometimes referred to a fixed number of points (something like 36 per rotation) and in other places they talk about an infinitely adjustable grind, with this "knob" acting as a set-screw to lock the mechanism in place. If that was the case, then I guess that it would be possible to "scratch" the surface with this set-screw and damage the existing indentations?

Finally the handle looks very thin and narrow, and with the additional hole (to hold it against the body for transport, even if the vast majority of users will not take any advantage of it) that leaves very little material for strength and, although I am no mechanical engineer, I guess that if the handle has to break it will be at that location. This is probably a mere design feature, but IMHO a solid stainless steel handle would look just as good and be much more robust.

What do you guys think?

SoF