Excellent idea, but they need to make the design functional for those of us that like oily beans and stronger coffee.
Positive Product Points
Excellent idea - keeping water and beans apart until actually brewing. Fresh ground coffee at a pre-programmed time of day, or at any time desired is awesome.
Negative Product Points
Can't make a full pot at the strength I like. The directions told me to make a smaller pot to allow for the lack of ability to adjust the amount of coffee being ground.
The bottom of the grinder reservoir is too flat, making it necessary to constantly stir the beans to get them to go into the burs. Otherwise, the amount of coffee ground is even less. This obviously defeats the purpose of having a programmable coffee maker.
Detailed Commentary
I was SOO excited to be able to have fresh ground coffee so easily, it came as a big disappointment when it didn't work with the beans I like. Apparently to work in this design, you need to use dry beans. I like the oily beans. I tried all sorts of tricks, and even tried to force myself to like the drier beans, but I eventually decided to go back to my old grinder. I took this information and looked at other bur grinders in all the local stores. Consistently the reservoir has a large slope on the base. I would love to have this machine in my house if they would redesign it to a larger slope on the reservoir base and the shute. They should also make it more adjustable for the amount of coffeee it will grind rather than telling us to use less water. Great idea, but just a few weak links remain.
Buying Experience
I called ahead and purchased it. They had it waiting for me and made sure I didn't have any questions. Very helpful. Then, after I decided I couldn't live with the short comings, they took it back without a problem.
