Krups burr grinder that quickly broke down and various blade grinders
Bottom Line:
High on style, not on substance
Positive Product Points
- Good looking - Pound-size hopper - Easy in operation
Negative Product Points
- Finest grind is borderline usable for espresso - Grind quality is a little inconsistent - Broke down after two years - Loud
Detailed Commentary
Because I thought KitchenAid made pro-level kitchen appliances, I was very surprised when the grinder broke down (it's also very solidly built.) Before its demise, it was fairly usable in combination with our FrancisFrancis! X1 machine, though the grind was just barely fine enough to pull a decent espresso shot. Other negatives were minor inconsistency in grind quality and loudness (I would not use it at night in fear of waking up the entire house.) Grind inconsistencies were following: along with normal-size granules, the grind contained finer coffee dust that tended to clog up the portafilter and cause coffee "sneazing" from the grouphead when the portafilter was removed shortly after pulling a shot. In comparison, using commerical pre-ground coffee never posed such problem (Lavazza del Oro has a fairly similar grind size to what my KitchenAid produced at its best.)
So in all, I was somewhat satisfied with this grinder while our "marriage" lasted, but happy now that it's finally over :) I'm planning to show it to a repairman to see if it could be fixed cheaply. If so, this KitchenAid will be used for anything but espresso. As for that, the replacement should come in the mail tomorrow: Ascaso Mini. I was torn between that and Rocky but picked the former purely because of its looks (here we go again: picking "style" over "substance" :))
