Great first burr grinder once you foil the static villian.
Positive Product Points
Good entry level burr grinder. Small countertop footprint, simple operation.
Negative Product Points
As advertised by every other review, it is unnecessarily messy. The doser attachment is not offered by Saeco US, even though it is pictured on the side of the box and in teh documentation.
Detailed Commentary
I purchased this grinder after reading reviews on this and other sites until my eyeballs nearly fell out. Fortunately, a nice double mocha got them stuffed back in. I did not want to spend a ton of money this time for a burr grinder as I am presently using a Starbucks Barista machine with a pressurized porta-filter which I am very happy with. . When I upgrade to a higher level machine, I will also get the top end grinder.
I decided on the Saeco for a couple of reasons.
1) The biggest negative I saw was the mess factor. I can deal with that. 2) Almost everyone said that it did a good grind, and that is important. 3) I had a gift certificate to Amazon.com that would cover the Saeco, but not the Maestro.
So far it has lived up to the reviews. It is a good grinder for the money. It is messy due to poor design on the grind basket lid and enough static to light up Chicago. However I have overcome this with a fiendishly clever idea that seems to work. I just hung a piece of aluminum foil on the front of the grind basket that reaches to the botton of the inside of the container and hangs about 3 inches outside. I touch this before grinding, sometimes during and definitely after. Apparently this discharges the static because I have no problem whatsoever now with it. It is even less messy!
I am playing with a non-pressurized porta filter and so far the Saeco has not ground fine enough to use it, but I have high hopes it will get there.
I called Saeco US to see if I could get the doser attachment. They said they did not offer it. Their reason is that none of their porta filters will fit underneath it. Ok, fair enough. I have not heard back from Saeco Canada, but now that the static problem is solved I may not bother.
Buying Experience
Flawless through Amazon.com
Three Month Followup
Still going strong. I wound up with a second porta filter from Starbucks (long boring story) so I am experimenting with defeating the pressure mechanism and going for true art. So far the Saeco does not get it quite as fine as needed for this, and I did adjust the grind as fine as it could go by removing the hopper and fiddling around. However, I am extrememly happy with the overall performance of the Saeco.
