Mr. Coffee BMX3 Burr Mill

UPDATE 10/30/08--- I would take this down to at least two stars, if Amazon would let me. The grinder died just a few days past the warranty expiration.

My wife and I have owned this for about two months now. We bought it at Meijer for about $22, which was only a few dollars more than they were asking for blade type grinders. We make only drip coffee, so we cannot speak to the problems people have had with very coarse or fine grinds. With a few experimental pots, we found a good grind for coffee the way we like it. It is actually quieter than our old Braun blade grinder. We have not found it difficult to clean, nor have we had problems with static build up (tap the ground coffee holder gently a few times before opening) or coffee discharged on to the counter. Our only gripe at this point is that the bean hopper does not quite hold enough to make 2 full ten cup pots for our coffee maker, so we refill the hopper after each batch.

3/2/08 update-- Regular cleaning is a must. Make sure the top burr is firmly reseated when you re-assemble. I have started using a French press to make coffee at work. The coarse grind works very well for me.

As soon as I opened the unit, I made two modifications mentioned by fellow reviewers:
1. Radtek's grind tuning
2. Kulikowski's grind knob adjustment

After these modifications I find the unit to offer a very nice drip cup. With the following pro's and cons:

Pros:
1. Economically efficient - it's dirt cheap. This will tide you over until you can afford a nicer unit.
2. Nice design, looks really good, is small, and doesn't feel cheap (quite the opposite actually).
3. Easy to clean, good thing because a static charge creates quite a mess within the hopper. Comes with a nice brush for cleaning.
4. Much nicer grind than a whirly-blade
5. You can retire your whirly blade, which is an excellent spice grinder.
6. Did I mention it's cheap? It is a great value for drip.

Cons:
1. The burrs are extraordinarily poorly designed, in fact it doesn't seem to cut the beans at all, instead it pounds them. Fine for drip cups with a courser setting, but I'm sure it creates an over-extracted espresso (just like most cheap espresso machines) or french press brew.
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2. You must brush-clean the storage hopper every time you use it, there is about a teaspoon of grind left after empyting it, this will stale your cup if the grinds are over an hour old.
3. You have to modify it

My 5-star rating is for drip coffee only, as that's all I use it for

Tips:
1. Make grinding your last step, after everything is warm and ready as ground coffee quickly loses its flavor and stales
2. Roast your own coffee, I use the FreshBrew Plus 2 from sweetmarias.com
This will give you the best cup you've ever had, and empower you to make direct purchases from small co-op growers for less than half the cost of stale horrible "premium" coffee that most of the population of the world think is normal. The Freshbrew is about $85 w/8lbs of green coffee...8lbs of "good" coffee from a store is about $85-90. Do the math Poindexter!
3. Get a thermometer and see if your machine reaches a brewing temp of 200F, does it? If not throw it away and get one that does.
4. Empty your pot into a thermos immediately after brewing, coffee will go bad after about 15 minutes on the heater, but will keep for about two hours in a good thermous. Never reheat it
5. There's no shame in being picky, but don't get snobby with friends once you've mastered the art of drip coffee...There's a million amateur baristas out there who will quickly pound you (and me) to the ground with their eliteness.

I bought this item a few months ago. After one week, it started to shut down unpredictably. The safety lach on the removable container was getting unlocked. I sometimes had to press 'on' several times to finish grinding. It didn't bother me too much because I only grind 2-3 cups at a time.
Since yesterday, I have to hold the container tight to the grinder to make it work. I have heard the saying, 'Expensive cries once, cheap cries again and again'. So I am buying a kitchenaid burr grinder.
It is very noisy. The grind is not uniform.

Only plus is that it was making grind course enough for me. I don't drink expresso. I don't like find grind that can make coffee taste bitter.

I was totally happy with this coffee grinder for two years, using it typically once a day. But recently I began noticing that my coffee has been getting weaker. Removing the upper burr wheel revealed the problem: the burr wheel itself is ground down, and is no longer grinding much coffee.

If you don't mind replacing your grinder every few years, this is an excellent choice. I loved it until this problem developed. I'm shopping for a replacement now. I'd buy the same model again, but I hate buying products that wear out quickly, so I'm leaning towards buying a Krups with a standard blade instead.

After that, the safety on the bean hopper stopped working, so you'd have to hold the lid down to get a grind. Then, (it was never very stable) it managed to slide right off the table while grinding. The lid broke, and it broke for good.

I guess two years is decent for disposable consumer goods from low-cost Chinese manufacturers. But I think I'll try another brand for my next grinder.