-Idiot proof -Well built for the price -Quicker to use, easier to clean and kinder to the beans than a blade grinder -Does a good job of grinding for my moka and press pots -It doesn't scare my dog like the blade thing did and that makes it a bargain :) Being able to enjoy a coffee without being chewed and barked at is lovely.
Negative Product Points
-The build quality is good for the price, but the hopper and bin look a little flimsy. But should the worst come to the worst I'm sure it will be easy to get hold of replacement parts. -I'm drinking more coffee, but that will only be a negative point to my bank manager
Detailed Commentary
Over the last 18 months or so I have been collecting moka and press pots of various different sizes and spending a small fortune on reasonable coffee beans and it hasn't been all that hard to make nicer coffee than I can get from the usual suspects. But something wasn't right and my crappy blade grinder was obviously the weakest link. Buying a better grinder as soon as I came into a bit of money made sense but living in the UK, not wanting to spend much more than £50 and being limited to the high-street or Amazon didn't leave me many grinders to choose from.
Fortunately this grinder is suitable for the types of coffee I make and has behaved itself for the first week it has spent in my company. It has improved the quality of the coffee I am drinking, which is all I expected of it. It wasn't possible to get a consistent grind with the blade grinder and so far that is all the Dualit has given me.
But I'm by no means an expert and can only compare the grinder to the blade jobby I had before and not the performance of any other burr grinders. Nor do I know if it will behave itself without being tweaked when I finally get my mitts on an espresso machine, time and the three month followup will tell. But for the moment it is perfect for me and it was well worth the money.
I have noticed that some of the reviews have mentioned annoying static problems or the bin working its way loose depositing grinds about the place as it does. I haven't suffered from either problem, perhaps I have been lucky?
Buying Experience
I bought the Dualit branded version of the machine for £60 at my local Whittards. It would have been 5p cheaper at Starbucks and it would have been easier to haggle for some free beans, but I felt happier giving my money to Whittards. They had the grinder in stock, although the price wasn't displayed and they refused to give me a student discount. Boooo. But they have saved me from supermarket coffee for a long time now and I enjoy flirting with some of their staff. Swings and roundabouts, swings and roundabouts.
