Breville BCG450XL Conical Burr Grinder

I spent a ridiculous amount of time reading reviews on grinders before deciding on this one. I was pleasantly surprised to see how simple, fast, quiet, and tidy its operation is. I'm struck by how nice the grind is, how simple the procedure is, and what a good idea it had been to finally get a grinder instead of trying to estimate how fine to grind the beans in my little electric grinder that didn't have a gauge for fineness or dealing with the inconvenient and messy one at the grocery store. I actually like the grinds this one makes better than what I'd been getting with the big grinder at the store, which kind of surprised me. I'm enjoying delicious coffee with little effort - couldn't ask for more. I saw comments that the canister is rather small, but I only intend to put in enough for one day's coffee at a time, so that isn't a problem for me. I do wish it had come with a little brush for cleaning out the area where the grinder sits, but I'll just pick up something like basting brush at a kitchen store.

Tried cheaper models, blade models and burr grinders. FOR THE PRICE this is the best I have found. Some reviews complained of flimsy parts on the plastic container or problems with the grind adjustment knob. I have not experienced that. Buying two more for Christmas gifts.

This grinder has serious problems with static charges on coffee grounds. It ends up with grounds flying all over the counter, particularly when dumping the coffee out. My old Saeco grinder never had this problem, and it was mechanically very similar. I would send it back for this reason if I still had the box. I am amazed that other reviewers said this model does not have this static problem. If I had known about this in advance I would not have bought it.

The plastic container that holds the ground coffee has a hinged plastic lid, with a little hole in it where the grinder puts the coffee. This lid has to be tilted out of the way to dump out the coffee, which is awkward. The ground coffee container is awkward enough, and this lid makes it worse - this part seems like a dumb design. I tried it with this lid removed, and it did not help the static problem, although it works just as well without the lid.

The whole grinder is significantly bigger than it has to be do to the job. Mechanically it appears to be similar to my old Saeco, with the same conical burrs, but the outside is larger and harder to use, and less attractive. In general the design has notably worse usability than my old Saeco.

Positive: Burr grinders are great, much better than blade grinders. This one grinds well. It's relatively quiet.

A blade grinder does just as well for the price. It also stopped working after 10 months.

The consistency of the grinds is very good - as opposed to my old grinder that produced all sizes from powder to chunks.

The burrs are very heavy weight, and the motor is strong so it can grind with lots of power at low RPM's, which reduces heat, noise and static, which translates to flavor!

There's no more coffee on the counter-top.

I'll be looking at Breville products for future small appliances because this design is a home-run and an excellent value!

*after owning for 3 weeks, I love it. It won't grind if you forget to put the catcher in the base (a typical 5:00AM mistake), saving you a huge mess!