Grinder

[analogdino]

Hi All,
I want to replace my electric burr coffee bean grinder. While the present one works, the motor runs too fast giving rise to what I'll call "impact grinding" in addition to the burr grind size distance setting,. Result: too many fines.
I have been unable to slow down the motor... it looks like a 2-pole AC shaded-pole type. As an EE I've looked into variable-frequency AC sources... in addition to technical issues (torque, over-heating), none are economic.
So, either I find a variable speed electric grinder (unlikely!) or I find a manual burr grinder that I simply control myself.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Roger
PS I am looking on Amazon for manual grinders... many are there!

 

[Kudzu]

"...or I find a manual burr grinder that I simply control myself.
Any ideas?"

You might find something of interest in James Hoffman's comparison of manual grinders, HERE.

 

[analogdino]

Many thanks.... an amazing analysis!
Downside... all are well over my price point. I thought I could get a manual grinder for less that CAD$50 (about US$35.) Not going to happen!
Project on hold...!
Best to all!

 

[froze]

Depends on how scientific you want to get with coffee, if you really want to go scientific you would need 3 quality hand grinders because one grinder cannot excel at all grinds.

If you want to keep it simple, and cheap, there is a grinder that I love called Timemore Chestnut C3 ESP PRO, it sells for around $80 on AliExpress. The reason I chose that grinder because it's one of the few that can grind Turkish fine powder type of grind, and since I've used it for that I can tell you it's pretty easy to grind that fine, but it does take about 75 seconds to do. Then it has 120 steps to it's course setting. I find the grind to be uniform, but again I'm not a coffee scientist examining every single piece of grind, but it looks good enough for me. It feels heavy duty and should last a very long time. After a year of owning it, it still works great. When the S2C burr set wear out they are replaceable from Timemore, and they have a few other parts.

There are quite a few reviews on various Timemore grinders including the one that I have.

I'm not saying it's the best grinder in the world, but it is better than my old electric grinder was, I'm sure if you spent $400 for hand grinder you should get a better one, but I seriously doubt you could taste the difference in the coffee between the two...unless you have professional coffee tastebuds, even then I'm not so sure.

 

[analogdino]

Many thanks. I'll look into the Timemore Chestnut C3 ESP PRO.
Cheers,
Roger

 

[shadow745]

Depends on how scientific you want to get with coffee, if you really want to go scientific you would need 3 quality hand grinders because one grinder cannot excel at all grinds.

If you want to keep it simple, and cheap, there is a grinder that I love called Timemore Chestnut C3 ESP PRO, it sells for around $80 on AliExpress. The reason I chose that grinder because it's one of the few that can grind Turkish fine powder type of grind, and since I've used it for that I can tell you it's pretty easy to grind that fine, but it does take about 75 seconds to do. Then it has 120 steps to it's course setting. I find the grind to be uniform, but again I'm not a coffee scientist examining every single piece of grind, but it looks good enough for me. It feels heavy duty and should last a very long time. After a year of owning it, it still works great. When the S2C burr set wear out they are replaceable from Timemore, and they have a few other parts.

There are quite a few reviews on various Timemore grinders including the one that I have.

I'm not saying it's the best grinder in the world, but it is better than my old electric grinder was, I'm sure if you spent $400 for hand grinder you should get a better one, but I seriously doubt you could taste the difference in the coffee between the two...unless you have professional coffee tastebuds, even then I'm not so sure.

Lmao, do explain what 'professional coffee tastebuds' are... people get caught up thinking some are supertasters and their judgement should be respected as they know what's good, blah blah blah... I personally don't care what others taste when it will never affect/influence MY taste. Some people think you can train your sense of taste when I question that garbage as well. You might can alter what your mind thinks you're tasting, smelling, etc. to some degree, but in reality it is what it is.

 

[froze]

Lmao, do explain what 'professional coffee tastebuds' are... people get caught up thinking some are supertasters and their judgement should be respected as they know what's good, blah blah blah... I personally don't care what others taste when it will never affect/influence MY taste. Some people think you can train your sense of taste when I question that garbage as well. You might can alter what your mind thinks you're tasting, smelling, etc. to some degree, but in reality it is what it is.

Believe it or not, I agree with what you said, I was just walking carefully about it so as not to insult those "professional" tasters. I think a lot of it is imagination, sort of like people who think they can hear the difference between $1,000 a foot speaker wire vs $1.50 a foot wire, and the people are going tell us they can are old rich guys that lost at least 20% of their hearing due to natural age degradation, when you are a teenager a normal person can hear up to 20,000 hertz but by the time they are 50 that has been reduced to 12,000 on average. The funny thing about natural hearing loss is that there is also natural loss of taste and smell that starts declining at the age of 60.

 

[shadow745]

Believe it or not, I agree with what you said, I was just walking carefully about it so as not to insult those "professional" tasters. I think a lot of it is imagination, sort of like people who think they can hear the difference between $1,000 a foot speaker wire vs $1.50 a foot wire, and the people are going tell us they can are old rich guys that lost at least 20% of their hearing due to natural age degradation, when you are a teenager a normal person can hear up to 20,000 hertz but by the time they are 50 that has been reduced to 12,000 on average. The funny thing about natural hearing loss is that there is also natural loss of taste and smell that starts declining at the age of 60.

Yep it just gets old when people somewhat discredit themselves... for example, quite often on forums someone will say their experience/taste isn't on an 'expert' level when that is of absolutely no importance at all IMBHO. Only difference in pro/amateur is the pro gets paid for what they do, never a guarantee of any sort. We all will smell/taste/visualize things quite differently. To really amplify the garbage is the FOMO with the idiotic influencer crowd as they are simply pushing their beliefs on products, etc. that generate income to some degree. People really should experiment/think for themselves and stop reading into the crap mentioned online repeatedly.