Pharos

Equipment, technique, or just drinking the stuff

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Re: RE: Re: re

Postby GreenBean » Wed Oct 10, 2012 3:06 pm

dsc wrote:......GreenBean: jealous? oh come on, look at your signature, you have too much stuff anyway!;).....

You can never have too much stuff. :wink: :D
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Re: RE: Re: re

Postby EricC » Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:53 am

dsc wrote:It shipped!! can't wait.


Hi Tom,

Well, what do you think of it. ? :)

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re

Postby dsc » Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:55 am

Well...I've pulled it apart to get the burrs out for my diy grinder project, but the bottom one is glued to the shaft, so...the Pharos is still in pieces:) I might be able to put it back together this weekend.

I haven't used it yet, so can't say how good or bad the grind is, but the build isn't exactly something I'd call solid;)

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Re: re

Postby EricC » Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:29 pm

dsc wrote:but the build isn't exactly something I'd call solid;)

It is with Voodoodaddys Modifications, the outer burr is actually locked down. :-)

Sorry to hear that you are not that impressed with it. :-(

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Postby dsc » Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:03 pm

Voodoodaddy maybe a solution, but it doubles the price of the grinder doesn't it?

I'm not impressed with the built, the materials used and partially the design, but it must do something right, as there's loads of people on HB lovin' it:)

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Postby EricC » Sat Nov 17, 2012 5:28 pm

It does indeed double the price, but at least in my eyes it is well worth it.

The reason that the majority of owners love it is that it gives Titan Grinder burrs in a very cheap package, and with the Voodoodaddy mods, no waste at all. :wink:

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Postby nickr » Sat Nov 17, 2012 5:28 pm

dsc wrote:I'm not impressed with the built, the materials used and partially the design


I'm curious, what specifically don't you like about the build, materials and design?


I am 100% happy with mine, I find the design beautiful, and very functional. I can't think of another grinder (or any other product) which offers such an exceptional performance/cost ratio.
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Postby zix » Sat Nov 17, 2012 8:17 pm

I don't know if it would cost twice as much if it was built the voodoodaddy way to begin with, but I for one would probably not have bought it if the pricing was x2. As it is now, the unmodded Pharos is the best grinder I have when it comes to quality in the cup. Now that I know this, paying the same amount again for making the Pharos more user friendly is no problem - as long as the grind quality doesn't go down.
not quite sure what would be bad build quality. It is a bit "naked", but what needs to be there is there, at least as far as I know, and what wasn't absolutely necessary has been left out. In my book, that is brilliant design. (Edit: come to think of it, there is one thing I never liked: the feet made it unstable. It's good jow, with the stabiliser ring, but it could have been built in to begin with.)
The steel seems to be high quality steel, there is no play in the mechanism and nothing is falling off the grinder even after a summer of travelling in the back of the car together with other kitchen utensils. As far as I know, the build quality if my Pharos is just great. Same thing with the one my colleague bought for using at work. This is more than I can say of the three Zassenhaus hand grinders, the traditional Turkish hand grinder and the other two no name hand grinders that have broken down or just worn out for me.
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Postby dsc » Sun Nov 18, 2012 11:04 am

I knew I'd open a can of worms with my comment;)

Voodoodaddy mod doubles the price as the mod parts cost as much as the grinder (or slightly more). Looking at the parts used to make the grinder, I'm simply not impressed, but that might be just me, I'm used to stainless or anodised ali, call me spoilt. I'm also not crazy about the plastic bits used for the stand-offs, the flimsy mount of the upper burr (using nyloc nuts) and most of all the way you have to shake the hell out of the grinder to get the grinds out. In my opinion, a good design means easy cleaning, as little left overs as possible and easy coffee dispensing. I'm not so sure Pharos thicks all of those boxes.

Now saying all this, I'm not slating it, I'm simply saying it looks a bit like a home DIY version, which works, but could be so much better. I know the initial idea was to release something which is to be modded by users, but mods on grinders are normally not cheap, especially when bearing related parts are involved (precision needed).

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Postby lsjms » Sun Nov 18, 2012 2:49 pm

You are not spoilt, you just don't get it because you don't care about the money and don't need the grinder.
For the same money as VD can manufacture a few extra parts OE can supply an entire grinder with an output of the same quality as a Robur.

Nearly everyone can take a given piece of equipment and 'improve' it in their mind (not that anodising a part improves it) few have the knowledge to provide the bare essentials required for exemplary performance and nothing more.

In my opinion, a good design means easy cleaning, as little left overs as possible and easy coffee dispensing. I'm not so sure Pharos thicks all of those boxes.


Not many grinders tick those boxes
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Postby dsc » Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:06 pm

I don't get it? now if you can expand on that a bit I'd be grateful.

The output is provided by the burrs, nothing else, align them properly and bam you have the same grind quality as a Robur. It's everything surroounding that which is the problem, like getting the grinds out, providing an easy way of changing the grind settings etc. I know there's isn't a grinder which thicks all those boxes, which is a joke to be honest, considering how long Mazzer and all the other manufacturers have been on the market.

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Postby dr.chris » Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:15 pm

If anyone was interested I just noticed there is a pharos on e-bay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pharos-Orphan ... 3f24247d33
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Postby dsc » Fri Apr 19, 2013 1:04 pm

I have one which I don't really use, if anyone's interested let me know.

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Postby CakeBoy » Sat Apr 20, 2013 9:43 am

How is life in Manchester panning out Chris? Any decent coffee haunts?
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Postby dr.chris » Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:09 am

Life in Manchester is good thanks cakey. very happy with the move, although we moved into a 'project' house which will probably leave us in spacious penury. Swansea never worked for us. We are on the edge of the peak district with good access to Manchester and the hills, and the tap water is the best tasting I can think of.

Changing routines have meant that I am only currently a weekend espresso drinker, so spend most of the week at work drinking a well known hot drink loosely based on coffee. (I guess I will just have to start getting up earlier...) Doesnt stop the drooling over new equipment thing, and I'd love to replace the MC2 grinder as I dont love it the way I do Anna, but that will have to wait.

I think we would go to coffeefix more often if we could justify it, but its unfortunately not 'just on the way to...' somewhere in the kind of way which would make dropping in easy. Havnt yet made it to North Sea Tea Power, which is the other one on the original list to visit, but then I dont go into town much. I wish I could remember all the names but Coffeefix do have a list of other 'recommended' cafes, and the people who run it are really nice.
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