By pulverizing beans with a burr instead of chopping them with a blade, this 100-watt coffee grinder maximizes flavor and aroma and minimizes the loss of delicate oils to heat. Beans are ground more uniformly and with less "dust" (which causes over-extraction and bitterness during coffee brewing). Equipped with an electronic sensor that automatically shuts off the grinder when grinding is completed, this shapely appliance has a 17-position grind selector to ensure the proper grind for any type of brewing method, from espresso to French press. The selector also permits adjustments for such variables as humidity and personal taste. Bean capacity ranges from enough for two cups of coffee to enough for 16. Both the bean holder and the ground-coffee container are transparent, and the latter is designed for spill-free pouring. The grinding burr removes for cleaning. (Cleaning brush and bean measuring scoop included.) The grinder measures 8-1/2 inches high, 6 inches wide, and 6-3/4 inches deep and carries a one- year warranty against defects. --Fred Brack
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I purchased this coffee grinder after reading numerous reviews of all the grinders Amazon offered. For the price I expected more. At just over a year old, with normal use (we grind a months worth at one time), the automatic shutoff no longer works and the unit doesn't "sound" right anymore. After every use we dusted and cleaned it completely. It worked great until about that one year mark. This was our first coffee grinder; and we've found that it depends on the type of coffee as to whether you can contain the mess. Some coffees appear to be "dryer" than others. Overall it is inconvenient to keep the counter and the unit clean. I wouldn't recommend this grinder, and I'll be shopping for a different brand and style that may contain the grounds better and actually last longer.
This coffee grinder is loud and somewhat messy. But I still like it. I like that you can select the grind you want, hit a button and walk away. My opinion is also influenced by the great coffee this machine helps make. I've also come to like the noise -- the whirr is now a part of my morning routine. The catch bin is the biggest drawback. It's molded to suit the styling of the machine and has sharp corners. This is a drawback because it makes it difficult to get all of the ground coffee out with a scoop or a spoon.
For some reason so many people have found this grinder to be less than credible. Why I am not sure. Let me preface any of this by informing those interested in this grinder, "I DO NOT USE THIS GRINDER FOR ESPRESSO". With that said, I do plan to use it for such in the future, and will update the reviews accordingly.
Hope that all helps in some way!
With that said - a few things worth noting:
1) This is a (Flat blade) burr grinder, meaning that you will have to replace the burr from time to time. Now, that is not to say that you wouldn't with a conical burr grinder, but I could see how you would have to do so less. In fact, in the manual it clearly states that you should replace the burr annually (at the least, and at only $12 replacement - it seems reasonable).
2) Clogging machine syndrome:
I can say that in the past (approx.) 10 months the machine has stopped working for me twice. Just on a hunch, I decided to unplug it at open up the burr (while I tend to like taking things apart to understand their inner-workings, it is incredibly easy to perform this cleaning task) to see if anything was clogging it. After a good brush-down of residue, the machine was up and running once again with no problems! Just an added note here, as with ANY burr grinder, you should get into the "Good" habit of cleaning the ejection whole port. Meaning take a brush and just brush out the build up of residue.
3) I would offer this comment more of a suggestion rather than a point noted. Burr grinders in general are really meant to work well with NON-FLAVORED beans. Flavored beans contain heavy oils which gives them their flavoring, and this tends to gunk up the burrs rather quickly. So, if you enjoy your coffee flavored go with a blade grinder instead. Sure, it won't be the same as the burr quality, but use a given machine for its intended purpose - clearly a burr should not be used regularly to grind Flavored beans.
4) Lastly, I want to mention a note pertaining to the coarseness settings. I will give you an example that I think will illustrate my point quite clearly. Now mind you, the coffee pot we use is the highly touted Cuisinart pot. With that said, any coffee pot making large quantities of coffee would be challenged in the sense of water/grind backup, if the grind is too fine. When making only one serving, I would typically use a setting of 3.5 on the grinder that worked with no issue. The problem came about when I was making enough coffee for the entire house and had gotten tired of cleaning grinds out of every little nook-and-cranny of the pot. So, I decided to try adjusting the setting up to a coarseness of 4.5. Guess what... no more backups - and no more grinds galore! Personally, that was enough to convince me that there was in fact a difference amongst the coarseness settings. The only way this could have worked at all, is if the coarseness of the grinds (grind diameter) was larger - allowing the drip water to filter through the ground beans at a faster rate.
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2007
I don't generally write reviews, but this product has been outstanding. We have owned one for 5 years, and it has worked perfectly. Makes a very uniform grind, grind adjustment works well, coffee tastes great, better than previous blade grinder. Also after I owned it for a couple of months I ground 2 pounds of coffee for a party and the motor burned out. I called customer service and they told me the instructions say not to grind more than 1/4 pound at a time for this reason (the instructions do in fact say this; I had missed it). They sent me a new grinder for no charge despite my having destroyed it by not following instructions. Impressive.
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2002
I bought this grinder and it worked for a month before the motor burned out. It would grind the beans very coarse no matter what setting it was on. Had to grind two or three times to get fine enough grounds. Then the motor burned out. I e-mailed the place listed for problems in the owner's manuel. The response was that I had probably used it wrong. Let's see, put in beans, set grinder setting, push button. Hmmmmm.
This grinder technically works as designed, but it makes a huge mess. There is no good way to get the coffee out of the coffee container. Also, it is very, very loud.
