Customer Reviews

Capresso 553.01 Burr Coffee Grinder with Automatic Shutoff, Black

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

We are your basic home users and brew between 5-8 pots of coffee a week... We've only had the grinder for a short period of time, but expect that we'll continue to be as pleased as we currently are with the product.

It would seem to me that most of the static electricity complaints we read about might stem from users that are trying to grind all their coffee beans in one sitting. I put a clean, white paper towel under the unit initially for the 5 "warm up" grinds I did (with 3 scoops of beans, only, at a time) and I barely got anything flying out and landing on the paper. That continues to be the case during regular use.

Considering how messy we found using our old blade grinder, this was treat. Also, it only takes a couple of seconds to wipe the unit down with a sponge, so we probably won't get the typical mess on our countertop as I have read in many of the lower price burr grinder reviews.

If you are looking for a decent basic burr grinder, don't be afraid to try this one.

We recently upgraded to this burr grinder after years of using a blade type grinder. The quality of our coffee improved dramatically. More flavor, more aroma. The grinder does a great job. My only complaint is that the opening at the top of the receptacle that holds the ground coffee is long and narrow making it very difficult to get the grounds into the coffee maker without spilling grounds all over.

Messy, but the quality of the grind makes it worth the hassle.

...

I have fallen in love with this grinder already. I debated between the grind and brew coffee makers or just getting a new grinder. I didn't get the grind and brew machines because I heard that cleaning them are a nightmare. This awesome grinder is so easy to clean and easy to use.

CONS

1. If only it could magically clean itself.

Pros
1. You can decide on how course or fine you want to grind your beans.

2. Grinds for the appropriate cups of coffee you will be making. I love just grinding enough beans for 4 cups (my after dinner coffee) or if I have company coming over I can just select the 12 cup setting.

3. It is portable. I can take it to work with me. It makes everyone happy at work because I of the nice aroma from the coffee being ground and brewed.

4. Heck of alot easier to clean then my Braun grinder I purchaed like 10 years ago.

5. Helps make the best coffee when you have a ten year old coffee maker (originally purchased from a Thrift Store)and my coffee now taste very comparable to Peaberry's Coffee. WONDERFUL!!!!

This item JUST BARELY gets more than one star, because it *does* do a decent job of grinding your coffee, and if you're not using a great coffee maker or if you're using so-so beans, it may appear to work pretty well.

However.

THIS GRINDER BURNS YOUR BEANS. There's no simpler way to put it. The tiny, flat burr has to work way too hard to grind the beans you put into it-- even relatively non-oily light roasts-- and heats them up in the process to the point where everything comes out tasting slightly of old cigarettes. I blamed the taste on other aspects of my brewing process for a while until this grinder died (about 1 year of heavy use, cleaned frequently) and I replaced it with a better model (Solis Maestro). Wow! Suddenly my coffee stopped tasting awful!

In conclusion, this grinder should never have been made. In fact, no small-flat-burr grinders should ever have been made. They just can't handle the task without too much heat buildup. The bottom line is that there is no price point worth mentioning in the grinder market between the cheap blade grinders (<$20) and the conical burrs (>$90). Capresso made this model to fill the demand for a ~$50 option, but it's a total piece of marketing junk.

Casual Users: save money and get a blade grinder.

[Aspiring] Coffee Snobs: get a Capresso 560 or a Solis Maestro (or a >$200 large-flat-burr grinder if you're jumping all the way to Espresso Snob). Money *very* well spent.

I bought this grinder and it worked for a month before the motor burned out. It would grind the beans very coarse no matter what setting it was on. Had to grind two or three times to get fine enough grounds. Then the motor burned out. I e-mailed the place listed for problems in the owner's manuel. The response was that I had probably used it wrong. Let's see, put in beans, set grinder setting, push button. Hmmmmm.

I bought the Capresso 555.01 grinder, which is the same as this model except that the 555 has a reservoir that holds beans and measures out 2 cups' worth with each click as you rotate the top. That's the theory, but I found that it didn't work as easily as simply keeping the beans in an airtight container and measuring them myself into the grinder hopper--thus my 555.01 is being used as the 553.01, and it works just fine. I particularly like the way the grinder goes through all the beans in the hopper, so it's easy to use one kind of coffee one day and a different kind the next. And measuring "in-between" amounts is much easier when you do the measuring yourself. Excellent grinder, and I have not found it to be messy.

I've tried many grinders over the past 20 years. This one is the best so far. Excellent, quick and consistent grind. A reviewer on another site thought this model was loud, but I suspect he might have been living in a cloistered monastery. The sound level was no different than any other non-commercial grinder I've tried. Simple to use, simple to clean. ( I think everyone might benefit from actually reading and following the directions.)

We purchased this based on earlier positive reviews. We made a mistake. The grinder is incredibly noisy (the loudest we've had)and the automatic shutoff stopped working within six weeks. We returned it to Capresso and they took two weeks to repair it. There are far better burr grinders than this one.

This grinder works great. The coffee made with it has none of the bitterness that I have experienced with other grinders. The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars is that it makes a mess when you remove the container of ground coffee.

I have always heard great things about Capresso so I bought this grinder. It worked for about 2 months and died, and I found it difficult to clean as well. I wish I had better things to say, but after this one died I went and purchased a different brand and it has been working wonderfully for over a year.