KitchenAid KPCG100NP Pro Line Burr Coffee Grinder, Nickel Pearl

I bought this after reading the rave reviews. I have been using a refurb Cuisinart burr grinder which I use for drip (melitta type) w/ a paper cone. The grind I get from the Cuisinart is uniformly fine & the coffee is excellent. But since it's kind of falling apart, I thought I'd spring for the extra money for the Kitchenaid. What a disappointment!! The finest grind has larger grains interspersed w/the fine grains. Moreover, it simply stopped working altogether after I used it 3 times!! I called Kitchenaid customer service who asked if I used oily beans as if that was some kind of cardinal sin. If a Kitchenaid can't handle oily beans and a cheapie Cuisinart can, well then Kitchenaid needs to go back to the drawing board. Needless to say, it went right back and when my Cuisinart dies, I'll get a new one.

I had read several reviews on this grinder. I have better control of the grind and the sound level is greatly reduced from my previous grinder. The only problem that was pointed out in other reviews is the clean up. The ground coffee sticks to the grinder and the glass container. Coffee is not kept in the glass container even while it is being ground. The rubber on the bottom of the grinder are so thin that the screws holding them will scratch the counter if you are not careful. This may sound like I am unhappy with the grinder but its virtues outweigh the negatives. I would buy it again.

I got this grinder when I bought the matching coffee maker. I bought both because I fell in love with their color and design. And they ARE gorgeous! My brief review of the coffee maker is elsewhere. Let me just say that the grinder works every bit as great as it looks. (About how many products can you truly make that statement?)

I bought this product a month ago because I LOVE LOVE LOVE coffee and I had heard that burr grinders produced better tasting coffee than blade grinders. After a month of use I've gone back to my blade grinder. Here is my summary of its features from which you can draw your own conlusions:

Pros:
1) You set the granularity level once and get a consistent grind, instead of the timing and checking method necessary with a blade grinder.

2) You can grind more coffee in a batch.

3) Flicking the switch on this device is easier than the consistent pressure required by blade grinders.

Cons:
1) I use French Roast, which is fairly oily, and the unit clogs after every single batch. So I have to clean it every five days! This involves taking it apart with a screwdriver, brushing and scraping the burrs, then putting it back together again. This is not a quick or easy operation. Plus, if you still have coffee in the reservoir when it clogs, there's no way to remove the reservoir without spilling beans all over.

2) The ground coffee has particles of all different sizes. This isn't a huge deal, but I have to use more coffee because there are always useless larger chunks of coffee in the grind.

3) It's way more expensive and takes up a lot more room than a blade grinder.

4) The coffee does not taste any better to me than when ground by a blade grinder, and I'm a coffee snob who is very sensitive to taste. All the talk about grinding versus crushing is beside the point.

I hope that helps :>)

KitchenAid upgraded me to this grinder as a courtesy after I had a lot of trouble with their $100 retro grinder. This new grinder produces a uniform grind with very little dust. It has several adjustment settings and even comes with instructions on how to fine-tune the burrs. We have a french press and two Bodum Santos vaccuum pots, and both produce a very fine cup of coffee with virtually no sludge. I would have never spent $300 on a coffee grinder, but after using this one for the past 2 1/2 years, I would now. At the discounted prices available on Amazon and the like, this grinder is an excellent value.