You got it. The Lido series is the hidden bargain of functional grinders. It is a bit different and that throws many people off. As long as it works for you then you got a winner.

tag1260 wrote:From what I'm hearing ,aside from compactness, I not missing anything and have one of the best built hand grinders. I'm glad to hear that. Like I said, the size doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I'm not sure a smaller grinder would even feel right to me. But hen again, I'm a little bit different from the start!!!!!

Depends... if your mostly pour over or brewed coffee then you're missing out on a much cleaner, clear, more flavoured cup of coffee, completely free from bitterness. Compared to the Apex, that is.

From a build quality perspective the Lido is not up there with the best.

Every manual grinder has some sort of drawback but the Lido has several: a lot of plastic, unwieldy size, the moving burr moves up and down because there's no spring holding it firmly, the crank is not ergonomic and becomes really unpleasant when grinding lighter beans at finer settings, the grind setting adjustment is far from ideal etc.

Something like Kinu or Hiku are better overall choices.

devlin2427 wrote:... a lot of plastic...

The only plastic is the knob, hopper, and jar. All the rest of the parts are die cast aluminum, stainless steel, or steel (burr set).

Before the kinu m47 came out I looked at get a lido.

What really turned me off?

Videos on how to align it. Lots of parts , screws. Plastic
No numerical markings to return to. Reports of locking ring slipping Etc.

The kinu was the first that seemed to actually be a well-engineered , maybe professionally engineered, high-quality device. Precision tolerances, no alignment issues, few parts, heavy ss lifetime construction. In every way it is Head and Shoulders Above the Rest in construction and simplicity. It's simple and elegant InDesign.

That doesn't mean it actually Grinds any better....

The most aggravating thing about the feldgrind I had, was having to take the lid off to add beans, and the knob in the middle took up all the space so you could barely get the beans in the thing. With the wider lip on the kinu you just pour them in, they flow in like water. Little things can make all the difference in pleasure of using something.

tag1260 wrote:OK. I have a Lido E-T and I don't see any problems with it that I hear about. I don't find it too big or clumsy to use. It's not too hard to turn, and it's not too heavy. So my question is, Am I missing something with the newer grinders like the Helor or Kinu or such? Do the actually turn a better grind in the end or anything?

Thanks

Based on the reading of the OP's question and then the reading of multiple comments in this thread I think his answer is that he is missing nothing by not engaging in the expensive addiction to "The Gotta Havits" for the newest shiny bobble.

Mbb wrote:Videos on how to align it. Lots of parts , screws. Plastic
No numerical markings to return to. Reports of locking ring slipping Etc.

It's not much of a stretch to say that OE kickstarted the market for precision manual coffee grinders, and Doug and Barb should be commended for that, as well as for all the other benefits they've brought to the coffee community. I've been using a Lido 2 for several years, and their whole Lido line is generally a bargain for the quality and utility of the products.

That said, I've never been happy with the Lido's kind of maddening grind adjustment process/mechanism. I waste too much coffee getting it right with critical precision, and like living with shoes that remain vaguely uncomfortable, it's clearly just a matter of time before I pull the trigger to replace it with an M47 or suchlike, something that will be the last manual grinder I'll ever want. It's just not as yet near the top of my priority list, though.

As you say and as Hoffman's video illustrates, usability is a huge issue for any product.

I recently setup and ran usability testing... all my warnings had been ignored by the person in charge of the project over a couple years. The usability testing quickly highlighted the issues.. in fact, for one of the developers it was eye opening to run my usability script with a user themselves and see just how people interacted with the resource.

Personally, I think every engineer should run a proper usability test with target users (not early adopters). I've worked with engineers, marketing, artists, educational developers, CEOs.. they all have their blind spots which arise from not viewing things from the end users perspective.