Mr. Coffee BMX3 Burr Mill

Decent grinder for the money. Yea it's loud, the hopper doesn't hold much, the grind isn't very consistent at the finest level and there's usually a fine dusting of coffee for a ten inch radius on my counter top that needs to be wiped down if I do more than 2 or 3 cups worth at once.

That being said, compared to other burr grinders, this is a steal. It is fairly well-made, seems like it will last for a while although I've only had it a couple months. Not the best but definitely not the worst, great as an "intro" grinder for the person who wants to start buying fresh whole beans but doesn't want to spend $50 or more for a grinder.

**UPDATE**
So I've had this thing for over a year now, and it is still going strong. No loss of power, no loss of grind consistency (compared to when it was new), and none of the knobs, dials, lids or whatever have broken or cracked. I do take care of it, by cleaning the burrs and internals on a regular basis. Probably grind coffee with it two to three times a week and it has been a great performer. As I said after a few months of ownership, this is a great bang for buck burr grinder for people who enjoy fresh coffee but don't want to spend $50-200 or more on a top of the line model.

I've read a lot of reviews about this product. Many say it stops working. I thought I had the same problem, but it's because there are so many safety features, I think. It won't start if the hopper lid is open, it won't start if the switch for the container for grounds isn't completely seated. This means that you periodically have to clean the machine (I use a brush meant for cleaning my espresso machine parts)around the hole where the grounds shoot out. Of course it has some fine sediment that collects in the grounds, but if you've ever ground coffee in a coffee shop, they spend $$$ on their machines and have the same maintenance concerns and the same sediment...it's part of the coffee experience. Setting the appropriate ground consistency is the most difficult thing about this machine, but once it's set, it works great. This machine is hard to find now, so if you have the opportunity to get one, better take it.

If you perform the modification mentioned above you will notice some things about how the burrs get adjusted and realize you can take it one step further. The top burr mounts into a sleeve that screws into the unit. When you turn the knob you screw in or unscrew this sleeve thus moving the top burr up and down.

The previous metioned modification makes a lot of sense but I decided to go one further. The adjustment knob has stops built into it, when you look at it you see that it rotates almost 360 degrees. This gives you ~0.5mm of total movement, but why not more?

I decided to look at how it stops and guess what? All you have to do is remove the grey adjusting wheel, and voila, there is the little piece of plastic that stops the rotation of the wheel. With a pair of pliers you remove the piece of plastic and reassemble.

What you have now is an almost infinitely adjustable burr mill. All the way from french press course to espresso fine :)

This modification makes this unit the best deal that can be found. It may be loud and it may be a little slow but now you can set the grind to anything you want. You can even use a feeler gauge through the output to set the grind, I just use my eyes and the current output.

I thought that this was a great price to pay for a burr grinder. However, a key feature of the grinder malfuctioned and broke within 3 months of purchase. The bin that the ground coffee goes into must be engaged, locked in, to a little tab in the base of the grinder. Within no time at all we had a hard time getting the tab to stay put. Within 3 months we were holding it in place during the entire grinding. We tried cleaning it, but that didn't work. It is a real shame, because the grinder itself works great.

I haven't gotten a chance to use my new burr grinder, but it looks to be good quality and the price was very reasonable compared to other burr grinders.