GRINDER GO - Timemore's Hands-Free Hand Grinder
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- Timemore has a lot of experience with hand grinders, but the Grinder Go Advanced is something a little different. Powered by two rechargable batteries, this hands-free hand grinder claims to crank out some quality coffee with its titanium coated, spike-to-cut burrs. So in this video I put it to the test to see if it lives up to barista scrutiny.
↓CHAPTERS↓
[0:00] INTRO
[1:19] QUICK OVERVIEW
[3:26] GRINDING & BREWING
[4:35] QUIRKS & DOWNSIDES
[6:19] FINAL THOUGHTS
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I used to be obsessed with espresso but lost my passion for it a few years ago. Came across your channel a few months ago, and your content has rekindled my passion for perfecting my espresso. Thanks for always uploading top notch content.
I just just my first espresso machine" gaggia classic pro" a few weeks ago, tell me your secrets lol
Hey Stephen, thanks for the kinds words! Always nice to hear I’ve helped bring out or in this case bring back the passion for coffee!
@@sneakysquirrel1990 I'm no expert but I've found the secret is time. My espresso has gotten better as I've learned my machine, grinder, how to temp surf etc. Theres no short cuts. Im about a year into having a machine and I'm just now happy with my espresso. Good luck have fun
@@sneakysquirrel1990 very cheesy, but the journey is the reward.
I like the back-and-forth solution for stalls. That's quite clever. But it highlights the difficulty of grinding coffee with a small motor. Perhaps if they went with a larger form factor, they could have given the grinder more power and more capability. Of course, that snowballs into needing more battery power, which also makes the grinder bigger, then before you know it, you're carrying around an EK43 in rolling luggage just to make decent coffee in a crappy motel (which is all you can afford because you brought your cafe grinder on a plane).
Perhaps this is the best we can expect from a battery-powered grinder right now.
Yeah I mean it’s smartly designed, Timemore isn’t new to the space. But like you said it’s sort of a weird middle ground solution to coffee on the go and the instances of where it would be used seem pretty far and few between. But it beats dragging around and EK baha
I have been happily living with the Timemore Chestnut hand grinder for a long time. I graduated to that from grinding 250 grams at a time in Nutribullet until James Hoffmann explained why grind size consistency matters so I researched and went with Timemore. I am now looking for something I can grind with more silently - such as keeping an electric one inside a closed closet, to minimize disturbance to other people irritated by the noise of my hand grinding. So thanks a ton for this review. I thought, given the exorbitantly high price on many other grinders and not wanting to compromise grind quality below the Timemore that I know, perhaps this Grinder Go is the answer. I am, however, put off big time by two factors: The shape of the glass part and that it is glass, and even worse, the fact that the battery is built-in and not replaceable which means a lifespan on this thing not longer than the lifespan of a rechargeable battery. I won't be in for such planned obsolescence. Thanks again for the review.
The way I use this grinder that I can't with other hand grinder or even other powered grinders - grind directly into my brewer, i.e. Just holding Grinder Go on top of V60 and press the start button. And also grind directly into AeroPress 😁
That’s true, interesting point I hadn’t even considered that haha.
I picked one up to play around with and agree with everything you said, spot on. My two deal breaker issues with it are the absolutely awful catch cup, and (on my unit at least) it sometimes turns finer while grinding and ends up on 0 clicks all by itself. I guess if you were brewing with a batch brewer with a big basket it wouldn’t be too bad, but that catch cup is a complete hassle to use with a pour over setup.
Super informative vid, Spro. Once again you've brought me up to speed. Cheers, Rob.
Great review, thank you! I decided to gift one to my friend who loves making cold brew using medium and dark roast coffee beans 🤗👍
Thanks friend.
I find this grinder perfect for the office. The small footprint is ideal for the coffee station we have.
We use a moccamaster for larger brews and a clever dripper for small ones, and it seems to work good/ok for both (slightly better for the moccamaster)
Still, anyone interested should be aware of the grind size limitations.
i feel like a lot of these electric battery operated handheld grinders would benefit from having an optional DC adapter port so you can use the battery for travel but not have to burn it out when you use it at home
I have been using Grinder Go for the last 8 months and very happy with the grind quality. I decided to do some burr alignment and after some tweaking I managed to enhance the uniformity of the grind size. If you want a separate grinder for v60, moka pot, or Aeropress, then this is a great option. Battery, you can replace once they lost their viability.
How did you align the burs? Not sure if the process is the same, but I have a timemore c2 and the alignment is a mess, to the point where there's a scraping noise close to the amount of clicks I use for aeropress
@@killermelga if you remove the outer burr, you will see some hard tape already attached to one of the sides of the outer burr. Kinda stock alignment but it is not accurate. At least on the grinder go. So i cut that short strip of a spacer and applied it in two layers after detecting the offset. Also added some pet spacers below the outer burr. As a result, in the finest setting, burrs are equally spaced. There is a video tutorial for timemore hand grinder burr alignment, it will be helpful as well.
What's the battery replacement like? Does it use a standard size?
Right on! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and the process for alignment, I’m sure a lot of folks would be interested in that if they have one and are trying to eek out every last bit of performance. The burrs are actually very capable.
@@Sprometheus the issue with mine was the outer burrs wobbling. I used as many wraps of Teflon tape as I could and it came out centered. But you really need to get lucky have have a centered cylinder for that to work
I have one for home use and I'm pretty happy with it. I share with my wife and she doesn't want to hand grind. I have a very limited counter space. It's nice to have when I have friends over and I just run it while I prep the other things... In the past the same friend refused to have a 2nd cup of coffee as he didn't want to cause me a hassle of laborious handgrinding (as much as I didn't mind it made him somewhat uncomfortable haha) also I have a toddler so any step to be automated, is a big help for me.
I see some complaints on the other comments but for a road trip or international travel, this is good enough to travel with in a suitcase. maybe a bit builky for a backpack.
I share the same complaints about grind setting. I didn't even think it had 40 clicks adjustments as I just stayed between 2-8 clicks like spremetheus.
I'm all in all happy - it's kinda like what those people attached motored hand drill on to comandante's crank shaft, but in a package:-)
Make the toddler hand grind the coffee. Keeps the kid occupied and gets the coffee ground! 🤣😁
@@whosgonnadotcom you're dad on.
Thoughtful design, although I do worry about the steps between grinds (80 microns!) and as you mentioned, lack of control for finer grind settings. I think this grinder plops itself right between someone taking a hand grinder to go camping and someone carrying a small electric grinder to stay somewhere for like a week. Definitely a potential market.
For me personally, I don't think I'm the target audience. I have a 1zpresso Q2 for travel and camping, and a couple electric stand alone grinders for home. I guess I don't mind hand grinding too much, especially for filter (which this mostly aims for).
It looks like it uses the same adjustment mechanism as their hand grinders, with a disc that has 12 indents where the lines are and the dial that you turn from one indent to the next. If you want half-click adjustments and you're handy with a drill, you can drill indents in between the existing indents (halfway between each of the lines).
E&B in Europe very well also stand for moka-pot optimization, not only espresso. Just worth noting, I think.
The general idea is nice! If the burrs are well aligned you can probably get more out of this thing. The only thing that is weird to me: I thought the burrs would be larger for the size of this thing. I don’t really see a reason why you should choose this over a C3 then.
It would be pretty sick for making cold brew on the go
This seems like one of those things that's going to create a market with this first version, but it would be worth holding out for a V2 that works out some of the kinks that come with a brand new product category.
What's up with the Silvia on the bar? 😁
I see that Silvia Pro back there.
I own a Timemore C1 as well as a Cafflano kinder hand grinder.
Having used both for some time now, i personally feel the kinder despite having some learning issues in how to grind the beans are now easier to operate thus helping me producing a consistent grind size in comparison to the C1. When it comes to build quality and finish the timemore is miles ahead on this aspect.
Making me wonder what is the most important aspect in any coffee grinder.
Kindly do a review on I am not a Barista Momentum hands double grinder, when it comes available.
Thankfully, awesome videos as always.
Great review, but since it can't do espresso. I'd rather use a hand grinder that can since I use a Flair pro 2 for hiking. Camping and any other form of travel. Already have a Niche Zero for home use.
I’m interested to see you talk about that Rancilio Silvia Pro (X?) in the background
waiting for an espresso version :)
I'm a techie guy and there's one additional pet peeve I have with that grinder. It has a non-compliant USB Type-C port. It would not charge on a Type-C to Type C cable.
I absolutely love mine otherwise.
great review
will you try the Timemore Sculptor 078 ?
Silvia pro x in the back 🧐
Better bring timemore manual grinder 😁
This S2C burr design follows the principle of ""Spike first, cut later"" is similar to two-step grinding? Wondering if you have tested regarding coffee :)
I’d like a drill attachment grinder
I can see how this would be nice. I don't think I go through 200g in a week, so this would get by with one charge per week. If my wife wants to make coffee (rare, but still...), she can load this up and get a good grind without aggravating her wrist. Takes up very little space, doesn't need to occupy a wall socket, and it isn't noisy as shit like most sub-$300 electric grinders.
I definitely think what you described is the perfect use case for this grinder.
How did you estimate the amount of different grain sizes?
Wow
I have been using it at work for several months with light roasts. Never had stalls. It must be modified for espresso. The top of the cone burr has to be filed down to allow you to bring it closer to the ring. Then it will do espresso.
But why if this is the same e&b burr found in timemore’s hand grinders.
This is the answer to a question no one asked
I like the portable grinder, but I prefer hand grinder
Have you tried it for moka pot and any recommendations on how many clicks? I’m using a C2 handgrinder and found 12 clicks to be best for my moka pot brew, but not sure what it would be on the Timemore Go though I reckon it will be lesser clicks.
If anyone has tried and can recommend, please feel free to add on your thoughts!
I agree the ability to connect a crack would be ideal. The only thing I'd like more of on the grinder reviews, is to be explicit about what coffee type they're good for. Here it was mentioned that it doesn't do espresso, but most others aren't specified if they do Turkish coffee, for example.
If it doesn't do espresso, it won't do Turkish coffee as the grind size for that is even finer.
So basically each step has a 80 micron difference between them, but how can I understand what’s the difference between the 0 position and the first click? Is it 80 microns?
I have this grinder with steel E&B burrs and I have to say it grinds fine enough for espresso in 2 clicks. When I set the fineness to 0 clicks, it is already too fine and the water hardly flows through the coffee. I don't understand why people write here that it doesn't have enough smoothness for espresso. They must be doing something wrong.
I'm all for travel options that are also accessible to people with the kind of physical disability that would make hand grinding very unpleasant.
My biggest problem or point of confusion is this though: the battery doesn't last long enough to take this thing anywhere without its cord, so I just don't see why they put a battery in it at all.
Yeah, I mean I’m not sure how long it’ll work after a charge. Battery powered has a lot of downsides and that’s definitely one of the major ones. I still think it has some use cases, but having a manual crank would be a good thing for them to have.
It lasted me around 3 weeks. I grind 15g twice every day. Mostly medium roast. So, it's not too bad on the battery department. No "battery powered hand grinder anxiety" for me so far 😁
How many clicks do you use for each brew method? I’m having problem dialing in
Honestly for pour over 2 and sometimes 3 and Aeropress 1. Some commenters mentioned realignment of the burrs being helpful, but it can be a bit of a trial and error process.
@@Sprometheus wow thats much finer then I usually go. I’ve been using between 6 and 8 for clever dripper and v60, with normal draw time. That’s interesting
I don’t really see what the use case is for something like this. Why not just get a hand grinder, especially if you’re not going very fine? Unless you’re making a ton of coffee (which I doubt you’re doing while traveling), the motor feels unnecessary and just adds weight & cost and is another thing that can break/degrade over time (as you mentioned). Even when making espresso, I don’t find my arms get tired with my J-Max unless I’m making 3+ shots back-to-back. At pour-over setting, I could crank through many many cups before it would become an issue.
I get what you’re saying, and the use case is rather limited. But I know a lot of people with bad wrists who don’t want to fuss with a hand grinder and aren’t nearly as picky as both of us are. So I think that’s the target market? Personally I wouldn’t buy one, it does what it claims and these days that’s worth something haha.
Is it possible to modify this thing like some Timemore's hand grinders?!
Hmmm I'm confused by this grind size discussion... I use a Timemore Slim+ that should be using the same E&B burr design, but expresso-size is around 8~9 clicks, for pour-overs I'm usually using around 16 clicks. So in this Go they must have aligned the burr significantly differently? Or is it an improved design of their E&B? Really weird.
It’s aligned and designed to be coarse because there is no way the low RPM motor would be able to crank through 14-22g of fine espresso without jamming into oblivion.
@@Sprometheus Thats absolutely true, but then dont give me 40 clicks when the last 25 are entirely worthless. It feels like false advertising, giving you the fallacious impression of a wide range of grind sizes without actually lying to you.
You mean unimproved design? Seems like a backward step for me and I too have the nano slim + with the e&b burr - an excellent hand grinder!
Silvia Pro X in the background.. Can we expect a review soon?
Yep! Coming soon for sure.
How centered did it seem? My Chestnut Slim Plus was nothing close to centered when I got it.
What do you mean centered? Like the burr set wasnt dead center in the grind chamber? How is that even possible?
@@skeetsmcgrew3282 there's slop with the outer burr. And it's very common for burrs to not be centered. Either the outer burr is out of the axle isn't straight
@@veganpotterthevegan Well crap, never even considered that. Howd you fix yours?
I think I’m missing something. What is the fatal flaw in the idea to use a hand grinder like the K-Plus with a low-rpm (180rpm) power drill when you want electric power? It’s not elegant, but wouldn’t be great value for the dollar?
Yeah I think that is a solid option. This is just the elegant version as you put it. All self contained.
I bought a cheap Chinese knock-off version. You'll know the one(s) if you've even remotely thought about buying a battery grinder. For the money it's just fine but I wouldn't want to use it for anything other than immersion brewing which is much more forgiving of rocks and dust. Lucky for me it's either a Clever Dripper, French Press or Eva Solo. It's USB-C charging and when the battery goes kaput, well, I will have had my money's worth though the jury's out as to what might fail first.
It looks like a firts generation product with significant improvements coming for next versions. For now, i think it doesn’t worth it over a traditional hand grinder.
I wonder how many people actually need a battery powered grinder for travel.
I think most people could get away with something like the Lagom Mini.
Even when I go camping I have access to outlets…
like!
Light roasts not compatible? Even medium cause issues? What the hell is this for then!
I'm confused: around 5:20 you say the Grinder Go won't do espresso, but follow that up with pictures of you doing espresso with it. Huh?
Well technically you can make espresso with any grinder, the point I was trying to make is it won’t grind fine enough to build pressure and extract properly. ie too fast, watery.
@@Sprometheus I have the same one with an e&b steel burr and it does fine espresso grinds without a problem. Espresso should be finely ground, not dusty.
The inability to go finer is a huge red flag. Not sure why new grinders seem to have this issue, like the Fellow Ode when it initially came out. Not sure I’m too keen on battery powered “hand” grinders.
The bottom view of this burr seems wobbling, just like my $2000 Key, I guess this is some kind of USP of conical burr LOL
So, which company is going to make a hand-grinder where you have electric support when grinding. So that when the battery is dead on a trip you can still use it, but the hand grinding is not such a work-out.
Lika an electric bike.
80μm adjustment in 2022 is just unacceptable. It's so frustrating that every time a new interesting hand grinder comes out it almost always severely lacks in regards to adjustment.
Everybody has their own preferences but to me it's the single most important feature. It's the first detail I look for and is the deciding factor on whether or not I'm interested.
If it is above 15-20μm then I simply don't care about anything else a grinder has to offer in any other metric. Price, retention, size, build quality, QoL/UX... no longer matters.
Why is the lagom p64 200$ more on prima coffee… and that’s the only place I can get it if I’m in the USA??????
Supply demand 😁
@@sebaba001 i call that absolute bullshit
40 big clicks with 30 of them being so coarse they're useless? What is this, a Baratza Encore? I kid, I kid. Or do I 👀
Great video, Asa. I've actually got the timemore c2 with upgraded e&b burr set. I can get espresso from my picopresso quite nicely.
But I feel the issue you might have is that your GS 3, having the precision portafilter basket won't allow for espresso to be brewed, as a finer grind size is needed.
Maybe give it a burl on that blasted leverpresso baby yoda thing I sent you. Hopefully you don't get any romance explosions on your bar in the process.
I think I just dont see the appeal of a portable electric grinder unless both battery and electric motor technology get much better. Especially the shot in the car cup holder, what are you transporting this thing, back and forth to your job? Are you making coffee in your car? I feel like the reality is you want a bare-bones, lightweight grinder that you can toss in a backpack with a sack of beans and an aeropress and get going. What kind of person is too busy to hand-grind their beans but not too busy to do the whole fiddly process of making great coffee? Just feels like straight up laziness
Edit: I did see the suggestion of people with disabilities, but that seems like a rather niche market in an already niche market
hands-free electric powered grinder.... where have i seen this before..... hmmm....
"Hang-grinder adjacent".. So the convenience of a hand grinder but with the failings of a mediocre powered grinder? Yeah, think I'll stick with my trusty JX-Pro which is not only portable but can actually grind espresso-fine. Also, no batteries or charging required.
Thats what Im saying. Its like they asked if they could but didnt ask if they should
I already dislike battery powered pepper grinders... Why does anyone need a battery powered grinder that ain't exactly portable?
I don’t recommend it at all. It grind a lot of fine coffee and that effect your coffee a lot. I got it from amazon and after 5 days I ordered encore brtaza. If you want something that you can carry it, go with 1zpresso hand grinder. This timemore grinder is horrible and expensive her price should be between 35-45$
Battery powered... charging cable....electronics.... this gonna die at some point...rather have a good old cable powered grinder plus a hand grinder if you really need to carry one on a trip... can we still afford nowadays to build a sell this kind of products....
Doesn't do espresso, or light+fine. Non replaceable battery. Dead to me.
This seems like a piece of crap.
Do we really need that annoying background 'music'?
Hey Sprometheus! I backed the kickstarter xBar because of your video on it and now they refuse and have gone dead silence on communication to their backers for months now, essentially scamming all of us. Would it be possible for you to reach out to your contact on how you got it and talk to them on what they intend to do? I am kind of out of options and not sure who to reach out too since kickstarter hasn't done anything
Hey, yeah I got an email from a backer a couple weeks ago and gave her the contact info that I used to communicate with them. She told me it was the same email from the Kickstarter. Unfortunately I have no other way to connect with them, not sure if Kickstarter has any kind of insurance for instances like this, but it seems to happen fairly frequently.
Oh that's a shame, yeah they don't have any policy for stuff like this. Was really looking forward to the machine because of your review. At this point treating it like a huge loss but definitely disappointing! Love your work btw and hope for your continued success