Great inexpensive grinder for regular coffee and low end pump espresso machines (ie Krups/DeLonghi).
Positive Product Points
Nice design, easy access to grounds, timer is convenient. Low price, $40 at local dept. stores. Very small and nice design.
Negative Product Points
Needs to grind a little finer for easy espresso making without heavy tamping. Static electricty makes it a little messy, ie sometimes when taking off the lid the coffee grounds magically jump into the air and look like a miniature powder fountain.
Detailed Commentary
I've used the KMM30 for over three years and it has served me well. I've used it for both normal coffee and espresso.
The only real negative that I've encountered is that it doesn't grind super fine. I was able to get nice 25 second pulls with decent crema from my Krups Novo Compact and DeLonghi Cafe Venezia BAR29 but I had to set the Braun on its finest grind setting and tamp the coffee fairly hard (about 30 to 40 pounds of force) in order to get good pulls.
When I first got my Gaggia Classic, before my Gaggia MDF grinder arrived, I tried using the KMM30 to grind for it. Not to toot my horn but I'm a six foot, 200 pound guy who works out like a steroid freak and with all of my java fed muscles and body mass there was no way that I could muster up enough muscle to tamp the coffee in the Gaggia basket hard enough to deliver anything but 10 second pulls. I tried tamping in several lifts, tapping the sides of the filter before tamping.Everything. No dice. Luckily the MDF solved that problem.
I read about the modification to make this puppy grind finer but haven't made the mod as I had planned on purchasing the MDF for espresso and continuing to use the KMM30 for regular coffee and french press.
Overall, I've been satisfied with KMM30 and it is still working fine after 3+ years of daily use. extracting the ground coffee is easy, especially compared to the Pavoni PA grinder where you have to remove the output container to scoop out the grounds. It works fine with stovetop moka pots, steam pressured espresso machines and even the mass market, top of the line Krups and DeLonghi pump espresso machines. As stated above, this grinder won't grind fine enough or even enough for a Gaggia or Rancilio level espresso machine, but if it were to break, I'd probably get another for my other coffee needs as the product is easy and convenient to use unlike some other grinders that I've used.
