Built to last a long time; grinds very consistently for something in this price range; generous size hopper for beans.

So anoyingly loud that you may want to put a toaster mitt over it; messy, coffee grinds jump from resevoir onto counter due to static; not very easy to clean thoroughly.

I miss my Braun KM-30.  I bought it in 1999 for $35 at an appliance store that specializes in factory reconditioned small appliances.  So, it was factory reconditioned then, and it worked right up to the present day.  However, I was never very diligent about cleaning it, and years of rancid coffee dust had accumulated to the point that, once it was cleaned, it just smelled horrible.  I bleached and oxy-ed the hopper and removable parts, but it still managed to impart that horrid smell and taste to my coffee.  So I bade farewell to my good friend.

In seven years of hard use (three pots of coffee a day) it never once gave me any trouble.  My mother has the same model, and she's been using it for about ten years.  It always ground consistent uniform granules.  I never tried grinding ultra-fine espresso with it, so I cannot speak to its abilities there.  I used it for auto-drip, my Krups moka brew, and press pot.  And it did great for that.

This grinder has a resevoir for the grinds that attaches to the base of the grinder, butting it up against the housing of the grinder.  This is where it was messy; removing the resevoir always resulted in fine grinds flying out onto the kitchen counter.  And this grinder was the noisiest thing I ever owned, and I own a Harley.  My wife used to throw a kitchen towel over it when grinding coffee.  And if someone was on the phone, they would have to go upstairs so they could hear their conversation.    The big complaint I have about this machine is that it is not very easy to clean.  The hopper detaches from the adjustable base, and the base unscrews.  But, there are a lot of crevices and crannies for coffee dust to hide, and cleaning is such a chore that it is easy for one to simply not do it properly.  

All in all, this grinder had a helluva run.  I bought it reconditioned over seven years ago, and got great coffee out of it.  Had I been more aggressive in keeping it clean I would be using it today.  However, due to its relative scarcity in my area (and the noise and cleaning) I opted for the Krups GVX1 to replace it.  But, had it been readily available I likely would have bought another one (I don't buy appliances online-hands on kind of guy).

Purchased from a small, locally owned business that specializes in customer service; so buying experience was great.