Beautiful, compact, solid, easy-clean, consistent grind, no static, affordable, great for Silvia!
Positive Product Points
Great looks, compact size & height Easy to clean and access burrs Large, solid conical steel burrs Consistent grind Relatively quiet Quality construction
Negative Product Points
Need to clean burrs often if grinding fine Needs a press button for short-burst grinding
Detailed Commentary
Having just spent nearly $500 on Silvia, I didn't want to spring for a Rocky at this time. Since the online vendor where I bought Silvia said this grinder would work just fine, I took the chance. I got the heavy chrome model and feel the extra weight was worth the additional $$. This machine, including the burrs, looks much more substantial than the Solis Maestro Plus I examined. Capresso claims they use commercial weight burrs, will say that they are very heavy and solid burrs, much more so than the other sub $200 grinders I checked out. The Infinity uses solid steel conical burrs and a high reduction motor to grind slowly and precisely. The grind seems very consistent as far as I can tell. I compared the cheaper, lighter weight Infinity and I much preferred the heavier ones.
I was not interested in a huge range of grinds since I only do espresso for cappuccinos, but I was concerned about the fineness of the grind for Silvia. This grinder has 16 grind levels arranged in 4 groups with click stops: extra fine, fine, medium and coarse. In my experimentation, I have settled on the 2nd highest extra fine setting, and it seems perfect for Silvia. The grind settings are done via rotation of the bean hopper, and it appears that you can also set between the 4 click settings which are marked for each group.
I like the overall size of the unit because I only grind for 2 cups of coffee at a time and I wanted something fairly compact. The bean hopper is nice and small, as is the grounds container. There isn't really any static problem with this model, perhaps due to the grounded plug. Grounds drop into the container box without putting any dust on the sides of the basket. A small bit of coffee does seem to remain in the chute, but I just tip the grinder a bit at the end and they all drop into the container, and due to the relatively light weight of the grinder this is simple to do.
Cleaning is easy: unscrew the bean hopper, lift out the top burr. A small brush was included, but it's really too small to be useful. I bought a typical $3 cleaning brush and it works just fine. The base unit is small and light enough that I just take it to the sink and brush everything off the inside fixed burr and surrounding area. All very easy and takes less than a minute. Since I grind very finely, I clean every couple of days as recommended by Capresso.
Replacement parts when needed are reasonably priced and can be ordered directly from Capresso. Examples: Bean container $5, ground coffee container $2.50, upper burr complete with soft collar $14, soft collar for upper burr $1.50.
I'm getting wonderful shots with Silvia using this grinder, and I'm thus far completely satisfied with it after a month of regular use. The only thing I might change is the addition of a quick grind button. Since I measure/weigh my beans before grinding, I'd rather just push/hold a button to grind, and it would be useful to get that last bean or two in the hopper.
Buying Experience
Bought from local kitchen store since they had a demo model set up which I could test and observe.
Three Month Followup
Still pretty happy, but see comments at "one Year", which is actually 2 years for me!
One Year Followup
This is actually a 2-year follow-up! I'm still using the Infinity with my Silvia, but I am suffering from fairly severe upgradeitis at this point. I still think the Infinity is pretty good for this particular price point, and I'm always surprised that it doesn't get more attention. It probably should be compared to the Baratza and the like. I still find the grind to be fairly consistent, but like so many others, I realize that a LOT gets caught up in the burr area, and for the best coffee, you really need to clean this out every day or two. Some people have mentioned static, but I've never found that to be an issue at all. Easy to clean, but still a pain if you have to do it daily. About a year in, I replaced the upper burr set, just to see if things improved. They did, slightly. For Silvia, I am now grinding on the next to the finest setting (out of 16).....when I replaced the burr set about a year ago I remember I was up to the finest setting. This doesn't allow any adjustment for humidity changes, etc., so it's probably not good to be totally at the far end of the grind scale. My taste has evolved to the point where I am convinced that a richer, better coffee for espresso with Silvia will be had from a better grinder than this. (I'm now thinking Macap). However, if $$ is an issue and your espresso tastes aren't fully developed yet, this will be a good grinder for awhile. It really does have a lot of good features, and probably would be a great grinder for things other than espresso with finicky machines.
