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Orphan Pharos Faulty? Or just dumb user error

4K views 58 replies 5 participants last post by  MWJB 
#1 ·
Hey a Orphan Pharos that I pickup up off of eBay just arrived and in the process of getting to grips (quite literally) with it, but I'm a bit concerned about a few things. First of I'm grinding course but the beans are not feeding through and appear to be getting stuck on the side (see picture 1). Also I am having to do at least 100 revolutions of the handle to grind through even 15g of beans. On finer espresso grinds it seems to be better but the amount of work needed to grind through espresso grind is really making me think something is wrong. I've attached all the photos of the setup in case it's just user error. Picture 1 is where the grinds are sometimes jamming and picture 2 and 3 is of the grind adjustment. Picture 3 is from what I understand is the maximum courseness as it cannot move any furgher but from what I am getting on picture 4 seems still pretty fine.

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#8 ·
Has it been cleaned out and re-calibrated ? grounds and oily residue in the burrs ?

Reading on other forums apparently your problem is not uncommon. It is believed to be caused by the slow turning of the burrs (from electric grinders) it supposedly allows the larger pieces of bean to ' wiggle through' the burrs and exit. It is also suggested that the Pharos is not ideal for brewed coffee.
 
#10 ·
Yh I'm a bit confused myself as I just tried to dial in for espresso and it takes routinely 50+ rotations for 19g of beans when I was under the impression this was suppose to chew through beans fairly easily. Hasn't been cleaned out so that is now one of the things on my list aswell as burr alignment :/. Neither am I confident in doing with this machine but the orphan espresso founder has a ton of videos online on doing it so at least that's a plus. I'm just hoping it's not due to overuse of the burrs as this machine has apparently had around 10kg of beans through it according to the seller
 
#11 ·
The burrs should be OK for 100 kg let alone 10kg! It may need aligning. That is fiddly but the Orphan videos walk you through it. From the pics this is either a modded one or a later one. Around 30 turns should get you 18g of espresso grade grounds.
It may well need cleaning. Other than that, I can see no reason why it would take 100 turns.
 
#12 ·
Thanks everyone for the replies, I have to be up early today so I'll probably start tinkering with it later today or tomorrow, most likely disassembling it and cleaning it our ?. It wasn't cleaned out when I received and it has been modded so I'm wondering if the modder messed up the alignment.

Will update when all's done and done
 
#13 ·
You should be able to go so coarse that the bottom burr sits on the lower bearing (at least with mine) the threading on your axel might be different for the adjustment ring on yours so there might be a limit there but you shouldn't need to grind coarser than that for anything. The burrs should spin freely when there is nothing in them until they start touching obviously so if it's difficult to turn the handle at a coarse setting you might have an alignment issue with the upper and lower bearings if the grinder wasn't assembled properly. The number of turns to grind increases with coarseness so while you say "espresso setting" I assume you've pulled a shot with this setting and seen it's really an espresso setting and not too fine? I never bothered counting the turns on mine but it would take about 30 seconds to grind and I'd get more than one turn in per second.
 
#14 · (Edited by Moderator)
Rob1 said:
You should be able to go so coarse that the bottom burr sits on the lower bearing
Pic 3 is what I think you're getting at which is when Is its coarsest setting for me but grind size wise it was barley a v60 grind and the grinds kept getting stuck.

Rob1 said:
The number of turns to grind increases with coarseness so while you say "espresso setting" I assume you've pulled a shot with this setting and seen it's really an espresso setting and not too fine? I never bothered counting the turns on mine but it would take about 30 seconds to grind and I'd get more than one turn in per second.
Do you mean here would be more turns for a Chemex vs a espresso as I thought it would be the other way round?
 
#22 ·
I cleaned mine with isopropyl, it breaks through oil and evaporates quickly. Rinsing them off with boiling and soapy water won't hurt and isopropyl to rinse them afterwards will help dry them off...

Looks to be a lot of old oil and coffee there for "it's only had 10kg through it".

Do you mean here would be more turns for a Chemex vs a espresso as I thought it would be the other way round?
As I said more turns for a coarser grind, less force required, less aggressive grinding. You are only using the top part of the burrs.

The grinds are probably getting stuck just because they fall through the burrs until they fall free of the inner burr and get stuck between the middle plate (where there is no grinding surface) and the inner burr. Just rattling the handle up and down a couple of times should see them fall through.
 
#15 ·
Disassembly has begun. Took longer to find the tools for the job than actually dismantling the grinder, it was very easy. Parts as far as I can tell look dirty but good, no blockages either which I didn't suspect was the problem as there weren't any retention issues when the grinds did come through.

Quick question in terms of cleaning the burrs, is it recommended to just clean it with a dry cloth or toothbrush or should water or soap be used? Pics of the burrs down below

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#24 ·
Looks to be a lot of old oil and coffee there for "it's only had 10kg through it".
Haha the seller might be generously rounding down with that estimate. Do the burrs look alright as I was chatting with the owners of a coffee shop that I go to and I was under the impression burrs last - at least for home use - pretty much forever but I was told burrs will degrade over time and take longer to grind the worse they get. Will these need to replaced in the long run?

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#26 ·
Don't know. Run a thumb across the edges around the fine end and see if they still feel like there's an edge. You need to clean them up first and foremost. I'm not 100% sure but I think the Pharos uses the Rossi burr set which will set you back about £75 https://espresso-solutions.co.uk/rossi-conical-grinder-burr-set-68mm-rh/ so hopefully they'll still be good. They should be changed around every 750kg of coffee ground according to espressoparts.com "manufacturer recommendation" for 63mm conicals. They say you might want to change them at half that to maintain peak performance.

It looks to have been built at the end of 2013 so assume 6 years of use. If you have a hand grinder you probably aren't having more than one or two cups a day. It's an espresso grinder really so say 36g a day for 6 years = 36 * 365 * 6 = 78840. So round up to 80kg. If you aim to replace the burrs at about the 400kg mark you've still got plenty of life left in them.

I suppose burrs will degrade over time in the sense that everything falls apart eventually but really their lifespan is determined by use not time.
 
#27 ·
Finished the assembly and aligned the burrs, the actual Pharos is quite smooth and in terms of grinding espresso it is chewing through them. The problem is what used to be a 3/4 turn from Zero is about half a turn and seems to be very inconsistent. Coarser settings is also just as inconsistent and if i were to persevere with this grinder i would only be able to dial for maybe a V60 or Press.

Any ideas for the less fine grind problem i.e have I not tightened the 4 middle screws enough?

Thanks

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#28 ·
Also the amount of fines this thing is producing is concerning, for coarse I've heard of fine problems but since its primarily for espresso I thought I'll give it a pass, but this thing is clogging my espresso machine as well as being very sour in some shots. ;/

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#29 ·
Also the amount of fines this thing is producing is concerning, for coarse I've heard of fine problems but since its primarily for espresso I thought I'll give it a pass, but this thing is clogging my espresso machine as well as being very sour in some shots. ;/

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What are your shot parameters (dose, grind set, output & time)?

Coarse grind setting make fewer particles under a given, small size (under 250um for example)
 
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