Excellent value for a robust espresso grinder in the near-$300 range.
Positive Product Points
Attractive mirror polished steel... Consistent grind... Built like a tank...
Considerably better than anything else I have seen that is near in price range.
Most importantly, it grinds well and consistently.
Negative Product Points
Dialing it up and down requires a LOT of turns of the dial, making it fairly impractical to use this for both Espresso and, effectively, any other grind.
One "safety-ish" issue: there's sharp-ish sheet metal used to control where your portafilter will go; push anything else in there and it's likely to get scraped up. This isn't a major problem, but underlines that This Is An Espresso Grinder, and would-be buyers expecting it to also be suitable for their French Press needs are likely to be disappointed.
I guess that justifies my keeping a "whirlyblade" around for such occasions.
Detailed Commentary
I'd been using a Saeco MC2002 Burr for a mighty long time, and finally got sick of cleaning the table of the huge amounts of static-clinged beans that go everywhere.
I considered quite a number of grinders, even including the manual ones. This looked like a fine choice in the near-$300 price range, and my post-ownership experiences haven't pointed me to think I got the choice wrong. This is a BIG step up from the Saeco grinder.
The doser isn't "superduper great"; it is a *little* bit messy, but does successfully get nearly all the grounds into the portafilter. Other reviewers have reported it painful to remove the cover to clean the doser - while I did find it a little tricky to screw the thumbscrew in afterwards, it was only a *little* tricky. I felt no need to look for a drill to improve this.
There's a bit of a tendancy for clumping at two levels:
I often find I want to stir/shake the beans a bit, as they seem to get stuck just a bit in the hopper.
There's some clumping of grounds after coming out of the burr and heading down the chute to the portafilter.
None of this is serious - wiggling my finger in the hopper once in a while resolves #1 nicely, and I expect that if I kept the hopper more completely full, the added weight of the beans above would resolve it automatically.
It's a mighty nice step up from my previous grinders.
Buying Experience
The folks at IDrinkCoffee are always helpful, friendly, and interesting to talk with. I came in preferring the idea of buying this grinder, and was pleased to discover that despite having a fair number of grinders out of stock, this one was in stock.
Three Month Followup
After a few more months, there's not a huge amount to add.
My bit of concern about sharp-ish sheet metal seems *not* well placed. Not a major problem.
The clumping issue is consistent; I do find I need to poke at the beans in the hopper to ensure they fall into the grinder.
