Customer Reviews

Hamilton Beach 80374 Custom Grind Hands-Free Coffee Grinder, Black

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

When my husband and I got married we EACH owned our own coffee grinder. Both of them were very dependable (one was a Waring, one a Brauning) and it took many years for them to both wear out. The Waring's plastic lid deteriorated by bits and pieces, but when we got this new grinder we still use it for a spice mill! But this one is the best ever---we just love it. It's much better than our old ones in every way. You can easily adjust the grind, and best of all the cup is detachable so it's very easy to get the coffee into the filter with NO MESS (that's one reason it doesn't need a long cord). It's even attractive-looking! We have nothing negative to say about this grinder---it's a great product.

UPDATE: TWO YEARS LATER!
I bought this grinder in June 2007 and it is still going strong after daily use for over 2 years. I've had none of the "cap-loosening problem" or "stopped working" that others reported. I'm now buying a second one for my vacation home. Things I love about this grinder:

1 You don't have to stand there and hold the button
2 It has multiple grind selections and it really DOES grind to espresso fineness
3 You can put the coffee in the lid for transport instead of having to drag the whole grinder over to your coffee pot
4 It's really dependable
5 It's attractive
6 Reasonably priced (with free shipping!)
7 Retractable cord! Yay!
8 Metal lid hasn't eroded at all over 2 years
9 And it's easy to use, too!

Best coffee grinder we've ever owned.

UPDATE: FOUR YEARS LATER! Still going strong, no problems!

I couldn't recommend this grinder more highly. It is solidly constructed, and the manufacturer took the time to add all the little details that are missing on cheaper models, like no-slip feet and a retractable cord (which is a little short, perhaps the one negative to this otherwise perfect product). The stainless steel grinder bowl is well designed - it has gradiated markings to let you know how many beans to put in for the number of cups of coffee you intend to brew, and it perfectly grinds the beans to your desired coarsness. In addition, it is removable AND dishwasher safe, making for easy cleaning.

The machine's slim, tall profile is ideal for easy on-counter or cabinet storage, and the black / stainless steel finish is attractive and a good match to most major coffee maker and espresso machine brands. The grinder provides multiple different settings for different coarsness and the amount of beans you are grinding, and since the grinding time is pre-set you can just push the button and move on to doing something else while the coffee grinds. It may take the "art" out of coffee grinding, but it will give you a great cup of coffee every time.

A final note - you may feel constrained by the pre-set options, but they still provide quite a bit of flexibility. If you like your coffee weaker, just put in a few less beans than your desired cup mark would call for (or vice versa if you like your coffee stronger). Having the specific settings means that when your experimenation finally comes out the way you want it to, you'll be able to remember next time ("oh, I used the 4-cup measure of beans to 8 cups of water, and I ground it on the medium-coarse setting") rather than having to try to guess at what you did to get that "perfect cup."

I can't imagine anything else that I would want in a grinder - the only semi-common option that it is missing is extra storage for beans or ground coffee; these features are not missed, however, as I always grind my beans fresh and I store them in a cool, dry airtight container. Storing your beans or grounds in the grinder is a sure way to ruin their taste.

Is this the perfect grinder? I'd say so. I give it a perfect 5/5.

The machine is not really a "hands free" coffee grinder. The clear plastic cover/cap has a safety mechanism such that the machine will not grind unless the cover is twisted firmly all the way into place. After some usage, in my case about a month, the cover starts to walk out of position ever so slightly because of the vibration from the grinding motor. The result is the grinder shuts off. Frustrating until I figured out what was going on.

I did not return the machine because 1) the solution is simple, hold onto the machine while it grinds away and 2) for that minor inconvenience it is a great grinder. The inside of the stainless steel bean cup is marked such that you fill it up to say 8 cups, set the dial for 8 cups, rotate the knob for the type of grind and the grinder delivers perfectly ground coffee. Espresso grind 8 cups is about 25 seconds of grinding. It takes all the guess work out of the regular automatic grinders that grind as long as you hold them. Not withstanding the holding of the top the machine has been great. I'm so happy to have perfectly ground coffee I don't worry about it. It would have been nice to have a longer cord, but I think they made the cord as long as they could without having to make the body thicker or resorting to the dreaded wrap-the-cord-around-the-bottom design.

It looks nice, cleans easily, the selection between amount and coarseness of grind make it easy to customize your grind, but I have been very satisfied with the factory settings. I have owned/used it for more than a year now.

After about 1 week of use the plastic cover would no longer latch. It doesn't appear that anything broke, but it must have worn slightly. I now have to continually apply a twisting pressure while grinding or else the grinder will stop.
Also, you cannot use it repeatedly, so if you like to grind enough coffee for a few days at once, this is not the machine for you. Just doing two fine grinds in a row causes it to smoke quite a *lot* and emit a nasty odor. I am not sure how this has gotten such good reviews. It is inferior to all the basic, $10-15 models I've tried.

I received this coffee grinder as a gift and looked up the reviews after receiving it. I panicked when I read about all the people having trouble with it just stopping--all of a sudden it wouldn't work. The same thing happened to me one day. What I found, however, is that the few times this has happened it was because I either didn't have the covered aligned and screwed on properly or the metal part that holds the beans was not screwed in properly. It's not that it's hard to screw the pieces on properly--in hindsight it was my own error in not waiting for the "click-in" that feels right. Actually a no brainer to put the bean-grinder bowl in and put on the top.
I have been using this grinder at least once a day for over a year and aside from the problems created by me, it has performed beautifully. I love it! It is truly hands-off. While the beans are grinding I fill the coffee maker and the beans are ready. Beans in, click (more of a "feel" than a sound), grinder bowl and cover securely on, press button to grind--that's it. No holding anything while waiting for beans to grind. You can also very easily switch the setting from 4 cups to 6-8-10 by slide up or down lever on the front as well as dial in the brew style on the front. For those who had trouble with it just stopping I urge you to go back and try again. This is the best coffee grinder I have owned in about 20 years of "grinding" and I highly recommend it.

We bought our first Hamilton Beach grinder about 10 months ago and we loved the consistency of the coffee taste, the fact that it rarely needs to be cleaned and the convenience of running hands-free. However it recently died -- we depressed the start button, nothing happened. Re-engaged the grinder bowl and the lid to be sure the interlocks are engaged, depressed the start button, and nothing happened. DOA. We misplaced the receipt so we could not use the warranty -- bad move. We ordered a new unit and it failed in the same way on first use. Called Hamilton Beach and eventually we received a replacement but this time we are keeping the receipt (proof of purchase date) handy. We like this grinder so much we are willing to keep replacing it.

.....the button stopped working. It started out slowly where sometimes I had to hit the button twice to get it to start. This morning it wouldn't work at all. I've had it for just over 90 days.

I have yet to find a fault with this product. I now make my own cofee instead of visiting Dunkin' Donuts every day.

My old grinder used to only grind 6 ounces of beans -- this one does 15.

What I especially love about this grinder is the ability to remove the grinding cup to dump the ground beans into my coffee maker. My other grinder had no separate parts and required me to turn the whole unit over to dump out the beans (which was hard to clean too.) Being able to remove the cup makes it super easy to clean.

Its a great product .. for about two- three months.. I have purchased two of these and both times they last for a couple of months then quit working .. so if dont mind paying 28-30 bucks for a grinder that lasts for a couple of week .. have at it... buy a small cheap grinder they work as well and last forever...

Like others, I have experienced this early shut-down right out of the box. It appears the plastic cover loosens and will not keep the 'safety switch' in the back on. The coffee beans are chopped up for a few seconds, then the unit quits. Now what do you do? It won't restart unless you reset the cover. And then, it usually quits early again. If it doesn't, your total grind-time is so excessive the beans are now coffee-dust. There is simply no controlling this spastic unit.
The only way to force this thing to work is to hold the cover in a clockwise twist while the coffee is grinding. So much for being 'automatic'. This unit should be re-called and the designer sent back to the bar where he/she designed this thing.