Are good hand grinders better than electric?

[tobeanornottobean]

Hi there

What experience do people have comparing the results in the cup for espresso between a Pharos or Rosco and a mazer mini or compak k3 (or other)
I was thinking of buying an electric grinder but the appearance of a Pharos on here second hand has made me ponder and research some more.
For mine, I'm interested in a hand grinder if the cup quality is discernibly better. Sounds like it might be. But I don't want to muck around too much dialling in all the time...

Cheers

[roburu]

Just my 2 cents ..

A grinder regardless if it's manual or electric is as good as it's burrs. Pharos uses the same burrs as Rossi Conical MC grinder, very similar to Compak K10. The grind quality should be pretty similar.

Just keep in mind that the taste profile for conical burrs (Pharos) differs from the one for flat burrs (Mazer Mini, K3). Only your taste buds can tell which one is better .

[tobeanornottobean]

Interesting. Thx.

Unfort. without buying both a direct comparison isn't going to happen anytime soon.

thinking I'm going to go against my curiosity gene and stick with the easier to live with electric. For now.

[Andy]

Agree!
I've never used a hand grinder that didn't make me think "wonder if this would work with an electric drill" and I don't think hand grinding is a accurate or repeatable as a machine (too much random lateral movement in hand grinding)

[tobeanornottobean]

Yeah. That makes sense to me. And accuracy and repeatability is a main priority.

[KJM]

I might throw in a minor disagree vote against Andy on this one. I have a Macap electric and a Rosco. At work (my former work, now I'm a retired person...) - a Compak K3 and my colleague Hazbean has (had) a Mazzer (and a Rosco). The time to grind on the hand grinder is about 10 seconds longer than the Mazzer/Macap. The grind is at least as good. Unless you turn the crank the wrong way, the grind will be the same irrespective of speed of cranking (unless you have access to Kryptonite and then you probably don't need a grinder ).

The Rosco is just the most exquisitely engineered piece of bean crushing apparatus you could hope to own. It is completely repeatable, almost as fast as an electric and WAAAY smaller. The downside is that it becomes slightly tedious if you do more than 2 coffees at a go. IF that was all I did. I would sell the Macap. Hazbean sold his Mazzer and just uses the Rosco now - and it works beautifully. I most definitely won't be getting rid of the Macap though - when the 3 daughters come for dinner with spouses, it is a lot of coffee back to back.

So for me it comes down to convenience.

But a cordless drill on the Rossa is something I have seriously thought about ;-)

/Kevin

[htb]

I've owned a number of grrinders including a Pharos, a K3 and A mini E. The Pharos is far superior to the other two my opinion unless you are making more then two coffees at once then it is too slow.

I wish I still had my Pharos.

[GreenBeanGenii]

I can attest to being witness to a cordless drill being attached to a hand grinder.

The adventurous brother attempted the task.

We buried the el cheapo grinder.

We had no coffee either.

[GreenBeanGenii]

As a follow up to the above post, the adventurous brother has now successfully used a cordless drill with a hand grinder.

He needed to adapt the method by a few screws & other parts.

His complaint is it sounds like a dental drill.

Not to be used too often.

[kyeba]

Take a piccy of that Frankenstein

[pyrmontboy200]

I've owned a number of grrinders including a Pharos, a K3 and A mini E. The Pharos is far superior to the other two my opinion unless you are making more then two coffees at once then it is too slow.

I wish I still had my Pharos.

I'm similar, I've owned a k3, now mini E and a lido. I couldn't tell the lido from the mini e in a blind espresso taste test. The Lido and Pharos have a double bearing to eliminate lateral movement.

[MrFreddofrog]

I've attached a cordless drill to a Hario skerton. I found cranking effort actually isn't that much compared to the effort required to hold the grinder which you still have to do anyway. Also it isn't really any quicker as you don't want to heat up the burrs or damage them either.

FYI there is/was a pretty cool hand grinder on Kickstarter that was specifically designed to eliminate the wobble. Not sure if it made it into production though.

One advantage of hand grinders is you can take them plus aeropress camping/travelling etc.

[jaredw]

FYI there is/was a pretty cool hand grinder on Kickstarter that was specifically designed to eliminate the wobble. Not sure if it made it into production though.

it isn't I am a back and it has been pushed back to next year

[MrFreddofrog]

it isn't I am a back and it has been pushed back to next year

Luckily I didn't wait for it then. It seemed so promising i almost bought one. Ended with the Hario off ebay for ~US$30