Received this as a holiday gift from wife and mother-in-law who know I like to grind it at home. They have great taste, so I felt confident about this machine, especially since the design is just like a high-line "no heat" juicer I bought after extensive research.
Presently we're brewing coffee retro-"toddy style," soaking 1 pound of grounds with 8 cups of cold water 12 hours to produce smooth concentrate, no acid burnoff, so we need fresh grind. Been using Krups burr grinder that has got be 30 years old, but like my 20 year old Krups burr, still works great, though both are very noisy.
Used it once when opened, got fired up for a lifetime opus machine. A few days later, put a pound in and walked away for less than 5 minutes (I usually shut my Krups in the bathroom to keep the noise down and then do a chore while it grinds). When I came back, the beans were ground, the machine wasn't running, and I noticed a funny burning smell. I thought it was something else, then I realized it was my grinder! What the heck!? Ran it out to the garage, let it cool, took it apart all the way (btw those grinders (augers) have needed pliers (metal on metal) to pull out every time despite manual suggestion contra) and then put it back together but it simply refused to start, even several hours later. I noticed some beans stuck in the augers (which have pretty large grooves) but I didn't sense that the thing got stuck.
I don't know what happened, but I couldn't believe that this thing doesn't have an auto shutoff. That's just elementary, Watson, or a timer for that matter. Am I supposed to babysit this steamship while it grinds my coffee? Not at the prices that Kitchen Aid is asking. It's going back tomorrow, and unless Mr. KitchenAid himself is there, they aren't going to sell me another. Fool me once . . . |
