Customer Reviews

Factory-Reconditioned Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Coffee Burr Mill CCM-16FR

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Briefly, here's how the Cuisinart Burr Mill is supposed to work. With 18 different grind settings, it should produce 18 different grinds, ranging from ultra-course to ultra-fine. Moreover, it is programmed to automatically adjust the volume of grounds up or down, depending on the grind selection: the finer the grind, the smaller the volume. (This is clearly a programmed outcome, and not the natural result of the machine's grinding coffee more finely.) Set the grinder on 10 cups and you'll always get 10 cups' worth of grounds--whether you're making "camp coffee" over a fire pit, using a French press, stovetop percolator, electric percolator, drip coffeemaker, Melitta pour-through cone system, or an espresso machine--provided you've dialed-in the proper grind setting for your system. That's how it's supposed to work.

Actually, despite 18 settings, the Cuisinart Burr Mill produces only 3 grinds: course, less course, and medium. Hence, it doesn't produce grounds fine enough for espresso. It barely produces grounds fine enough for my electric drip coffeemaker. I get finer grounds using my old Krups "fast-touch" grinder for which I paid $10 at Costco ten years ago. To make matters worse--because setting the grind on ultra-fine produces a lower volume of grounds without grinding the coffee commensurately finer than it would on "medium"--I have to set it for 18 cups to make 10 cups' worth of drinkable coffee.

Furthermore, the plastic receptacle into which the Cuisinart Burr Mill shoots the grounds is an electrostatic nightmare. The grounds fight valiantly to stay in that container, and there's no way to get them out of the container's relatively large opening without making a mess, especially if you use a brush to transfer the grounds into your filter basket.

Bottom Line: If you want to make espresso, don't buy this machine. In fact, this machine's only advantage is that you don't have to measure beans every morning, because the machine does that for you. But that only happens if (1) you don't need coffee ground finely, (2) you can, through trial and error, find the right cup selection to match the grind setting you've chosen, and (3) you can get all the grounds out of the receptacle without having a tablespoon's worth fly into your sink or onto your counter.

I still have the original food processor model made by Cuisinart. With confidence in the brand, I purchased this burr coffee grinder. See first review for accurate product details. In addition, I have gone through three Cuisinart Grinders within a 6 month period. The grinder will work for a couple weeks to a month or so, then stop. In the past, Cuisinart has sent me a replacement. My third grinder was sent back to them about six weeks ago, and no replacement has been received. And frankly, I don't think I care. This is a piece of junk sold by Cuisinart. You would be better off buying a hammer.

Bed Bath & Beyond is selling this brand new (not refurbished)at an everyday price of $49.95 and they always have 20% off coupons flying around--a fair price would be $39.95

I have had this grinder for just a few days, but have to say overall I love it. In particular I like how easy it is to set the coarsness of the grind an the volume and just hit a button and walk away.

There is one item that is clear in the instruction booklet however. The bean hopper (holder for the beans) can be removed and placed in the dishwasher for cleaning. I couldn't for the life-of-me figure out how to get it off. Well, you simply turn the bean-holder counter-clockwise until it unscrews. This is not intuitive because turning the holder left or right also changes the coarseness setting.

Caution - empty the beans out of it first or they'll wind up all over your counter! (I shouldn't be permitted to do anything mechanical before having my morning coffe!

Also, depending on the fine-ness of the grind you select, it will produce a slightly higher or lower volume of cofee. For instance, I found that the medium coarsness setting, set on 8 cups, actually produced enough coffee for 9 or 10. I found that the slightly finer grind 2 clicks of the dial-away, (which worked better for a metal filter) produced exactly the right amount for 8 cups. After your first batch you'll get the hang of it.

What's nice about this is once you know what amount and fine-ness to set, you can just dump the coffee into your coffee maker rather than having tomeasure it out a spoon at a time.

The re-conditioned grinder comes with a 90 day warrantee vs. a longer warrantee for a new one.

I purchased this coffee grinder for my office. While I was researching the different coffee grinders available in the $30-$50 price range, I was very interested in this one because it is actually a $100 coffee grinder that is being sold at under $40 because it is refurbished. Normally I don't deal with refurbished items (especially electronics and appliances), but decided that it was worth it in this case because it would be purchased under Amazon's protection, which I trust completely. The only negatives I saw in the reviews of this product were the noise, which is irrelevant in my case because the grinder would be used at work where everyone was, presumably, already awake; and the mess made when transferring the ground beans from the grinder receptacle to a storage container, which is absolutely true. I had assumed that I would be perfectly capable of a smooth and mess-free transfer, especially since the scoop that comes with the grinder has a brush on the other end to assist with the bits that stick to the side of the receptacle. Well, I can't do it, and neither can any of my co-workers. We sprinkle the counter with coffee grounds every time. Oh well. The grinder is still worth it for the taste (and smell) of freshly ground coffee, not to mention the time and aggravation saved from being able to grind coffee in small batches at work instead of in bulk at the store where we purchase it. (Plus it forces people to wipe down the breakroom counter, which otherwise almost never happens!)

All in all, a good buy for frequent use and large batches (the capacity is much greater than most grinders you'll find at this price --perfect for large households or small offices where 2 or 3 full pots of coffee are made at once).

I have been buying whole coffee beans for years and could never justify $100 for a grinder such as this and I was very happy to see this refurbished model for only $20! It says the hopper holds 8 oz of beans, but I was able to fill it with 10 oz. of beans with no trouble. You simply twist the clear bean hopper to the desired grind, which ranges from espresso to medium to course and everything in between. With my old cylindrical grinder I could never get a true course grind for french press. I also enjoy medium and finer grinds for my standard coffee maker. What I have found with this however is that it can grind a bit more than your selection. This will be apparant when you use the included coffee scoop to measure per cup. You will have to fine tune your grind and cups to suit your taste, but once you get that down it's truly a pleasure to have freshly ground coffee beans at the touch of a button. One last comment, and this will sound "Monkish" but the clear bean hopper has a square format so if you turn it and leave it on anything other than medium grind it will look off center on your countertop. It would have been better if the hopper was a perfect circle so it would always look centered.

I don't know if it's Amazon or the sellers claiming you can save 70% by purchasing this item for $29.95. The MSRP is $50 for a brand new one. Let's check that honesty.

Believe it or not! I'm getting fine and consistant espresso gring with this machine! I had to shim up the stationary burr to get it to work and since the unit has plastic (how COULD they?) threads you must NOT put your hand on the feed hopper while grinding or you will destroy the burrs. The threads allow a little movement and this could result in internal damage when running as close as is needed for a good "ristretti" grind. Bottom line is it will work. Shim the burr about .003 (piece of paper), adjust the fineness VERY carefully while the unit is running empty and listen for any sounds of interference. DON'T try to go any finer. A couple of clicks up from the death rattle point should make good espresso. Not for the faint of heart and keep the kids away. Oh yes, one more thing, your warranty is void.

I bought this for my brother so he didn't have to use his whirly-bird grinder for making espresso. After reading a few other reviews, I was expecting the static cling of the coffee grounds and the rather loud operation. Neither one of those bothered me too much. When we set it up for the first time, it was unable to grind the beans fine enough for adequate espresso. After disassembling the top a bit and adding some small shims under the burrs, I was able to "zero" the grinder. (That's the fineness setting at which the burrs actually touch each other and make an even *LOUDER* noise). After that, setting it for something slightly coarser than the zero point it can grind consistent, adequate espresso.

I'm generally pretty confident when I see products like this that are labeled factory-reconditioned. Confident because in most cases the manufacturer will individually test their returns before putting them back out for sale. In this case I think the manufacturer must have skipped testing/recertification. I say this because both the grinder that I ordered and its replacement were defective.

The first grinder was completely dead on arrival. Amazon has excellent customer service and was kind enough to cross ship a replacement. Unfortunately the second was defective as well. I've decided to go ahead and keep the second defective grinder because I can live with this defect, and because I don't care to deal with returning it yet again on the forlorn hope of getting a better example. The replacement grinds about two and a half times as much coffee as you tell it. This isn't that big a deal for me. I simply set it for 4 cups when I want to make my usual 10. Setting it for 10 cups nearly emptied the hopper (25-30 cups worth of beans). I prefer a medium-course grind and so far it delivers exactly what I'm looking for.

My rating:
Quality control: 1 Star
Grind quality (medium course setting): 4 Stars
Amazon Customer Service: 5 Stars

Conclusion:
If you can deal with returning defective products until you get lucky enough to find a good or good enough example then you sure can't beat $20 for a burr coffee grinder. The problem is that if the manufacturer's quality control is this sloppy it's pretty hard to put much faith in their products' longevity.