A great grinder for the price, excellent for drip and french press.
Positive Product Points
-Amazingly easy to use. -Slow rotation minimizes heating up the beans and "scorching" them, and static is reduced -Good sized hopper, I never leave any coffee in it, I only add what I will need from sealed bags -Pretty consistent for it's price -Good burrs -No high pitched whine, a nice, low rumble -Very easy to take apart, even down to the gear reduction system, the hopper comes off with a twist, the burr lifts right out, and the entire casing comes off with just four tabs on the base of the grinder -Nice, heavy base to keep it in place, along with very grippy rubber feet -One year warranty! -A timer
Negative Product Points
-Hard to clean completely, there's always some grounds left in the chute no matter what you do, just short of getting a shop vac -Slow, which is good, and bad, good because it doesn't burn the beans, bad because it takes a little while to grind enough for twelve cups, it's not horrible, but you notice -At very coarse settings (35 - 40) it produces a small amount of dust. Not so much that it affects your french pressed coffee, but it is there. The grind is also less consistent. Espresso grinds are very consistent, but it doesn't go quite fine enough for the very picky machines (Silvia and up) -Plastic gears and burr housing -Easy to clog with an under roasted bean.
Detailed Commentary
This is an amazing grinder for the price. For around 150 bucks you get a great set of burrs, a powerful motor, and very slow rotation. It is factory set to 450 RPM, which is nice and slow to reduce static to close to none, and avoid heating up the burrs. After a whole minute of grinding, the burrs were only slightly warm. This was about a quarter pound of beans at a setting of 20, or "medium." The base is very heavy which gives it a very professional and sturdy feel. The plastic is very though. The grinder housing is good enough, I would have liked to see more metal, but for the price, I'm sure that's all they can do. The plastic is high high density polyethylene around the burrs, and reduction gears and housing, the outer casing is made of ABS plastic. The burr housing is not grounded, but there is a small flap in the schute that slows down the grounds which reduces static. The timer knob is very useful. You can set it and forget it. If I ever need to grind a large amount of coffee at once, I just load up the hopper, set it to one minute, and let it go. My only real quirk with this grinder is spilled grounds. Not on the counter, but into the machine. Every now and then, at least once a month, it's a good idea to take a vacuum to the burrs and open up the housing and shake it out. It can also clog with very very oily beans, which I have only used once when grinding coffee for a friend who loves french roasts.
Overall, I highly recommend this grinder. Baratza knew what they were doing when they made this grinder.
Buying Experience
Sweet Maria's has a wealth of information and can help anyone make an informed buying decision. The care taken in packaging is wonderful. They usually ship the next day, and sometimes even the same day.
Three Month Followup
This thing is still the best budget grinder I have used. I love this thing! It's still going strong with a decent amount of usage, around twice a week or so.
