Best Grinder EVER!
Hi everybody!I bought this particular Krups coffee grinder mainly because my mom has one that is coming up on 20 years old. As the saying goes, "they just don't make em like they used to." Or do they? The answer is YES. Side by side comparison of the 20 year old white Krups, and my brand new black Krups revealed almost no difference. They are identical. You know what that means to me? It means the company knows they make a great product that lasts for years, so why change it? All I can say is I wish Krups made cars.So, about the grinder... It is very simple and straightforward. A powerful machine with one purpose: to pulverize anything you put in it. I mainly use mine for coffee, but I also use it for spices occasionally. Normally I hand grind all my spices in a mortar and pestle. I have even used it to grind my home grown dry chili peppers to put in a shaker. It works beautifully! The only problem with that is cleaning, but its not fair to fault the machine for that. After all, it was meant for coffee beans. It does take a bit of work to clean it without damaging it. You can't exactly put it in the dishwasher. I used a dry toothbrush and toothpicks to pick out all the spicy mess. I assume I got it all out since I don't taste any chili pepper in my coffee. Heck, for 20 bucks, its worth buying a second one just for spices!This is a great grinder! It is well built and very powerful! There is no doubt in my mind that this one will last 20+ years just like my moms!UPDATE 2/2016! It's been about 4 years and this grinder is still going strong! I use it about 2 to 3 times daily. I haven't had one single problem with it, and I have not had to perform any sort of maintenance except for the occasional cleaning. I have noticed a few gripes from other reviewers that I would like to address:1. Hard to pour the coffee into the coffee maker from the grinder. Really? Come on. Grind your coffee, turn the thing upside down with the lid on, give it a few taps, and pull the lid off in the upside down position. Now you have a nice little container of ground coffee to pour it into your machine. It's not brain surgery... you can do this. Give it a try!2. Oval shape hinders the circular flow of beans while grinding. I have found this only matters when you overload the grinder. Keep it to level with the top and you're golden. If you're like me and insist on filling the thing with a huge heap, then do this: I solved this by pulsing the power button 5 or 6 times. While doing that, you can watch the grounds circulate top to bottom, not round and round. Either way, your beans still get pulverized, so who cares?3. Comparing this unit to a high dollar burr grinder. NO! STOP IT! This is a $20 blender type (for lack of a better term) It's not a barrista's wet dream $300 burr grinder. It's just not, no matter how much you want it to be. If that's what you were expecting when you dropped a whole Jackson on this one, you must enjoy disappointment. It's like comparing apples to.. hmm... applesauce.. yeah, applesauce. Lets go with that.4. Too loud. I saw one reviewer that described this unit as "deafeningly loud" which I had to chuckle at. Granted, it's not exactly quiet, but it's not "deafening" in any sense of the word. If you're one of those spastic drama queens who overly exaggerates everything, this one is not for you. The grinder is basically a drill motor with a tiny lawn mower blade on it. It's gonna make some noise. I'd say it's comparable to a hair dryer on low. I am rather biased on the noise level though. I work in a steel mill, so to me the noise level is no big deal. Take that for whatever it's worth to ya, but it's hardly deafening or I would most certainly be stone deaf by now.I will update again sometime in the future! ta ta!10 YEAR UPDATE!!! I have nothing to complain about.. literally nothing! This grinder still works just as good as the day it was new! Considering at least a pot a day sometimes more, we are talking over 3,650 uses. That also makes my moms grinder I mentioned 30 years old and hers is also still going strong. I challenge you to show me any product that lasts 10 years without a single problem. Some may say "Its not the years, its the mileage." which is true to an extent... however, I am not nice to this grinder.. Its not a once-in-a-while thing. Its had daily use since day one. We've been through a lot together and she's got a lottta rough miles on 'er... but the most important thing is she's still here and just won't give up.