Customer Reviews

Krups GVX212 Electric Coffee and Spice Grinder with grind and cup selection, Black and stainless steel

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(76)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(64)
1 star:		(113)

 

 

First, let me say that I am NOT a coffee connoisseur (heresy, I know). Just a guy with a drip machine and a need for much morning brew. I wanted to grind my own because I hate the flavored coffee taste that I always seem to get from the grocery store grinder. I'm also busy and lazy.

I really like this grinder; and I like it for the same reasons that the guy from Hawaii hated it. I want to spend my morning drinking coffee, not preparing it (one cup at a time? - yeah, right). Pour the beans in (no more measuring), push the button, and before you can fill the maker with water, you have just the right amount of grind ready to go. Yes, there's a little sticking to the plastic container, but I've never had it cause any mess - just tap it on the sink before you remove the lid then pour it into the filter. Grind size and quantity takes a couple of attempts to figure out exactly what you like, but seems pretty consistent once set. Only gave it 4 stars because there are features on the more expensive units that would be nice - a BIG, sealed, hopper that would hold several days worth of beans; and glass grind containers that would completely eliminate the static issue. However, for my use, and for the price, this thing works great. Hope it holds up over time.

One other reviewer stated that this grinder is ungodly big - soooo not true. At a little under 10 inches tall, 5 inches deep, and 4 and 1/2 inches wide, this grinder is WAY smaller than my previous Cuisinart Burr Grinder which just recently broke. And the noise! DECIBLES quieter than my Cuisinart!!! It is such a low sound for a grinder. Mainly sounds a little louder than a murmur....First time I grinded coffee, I nearly jumped for joy that the volume was loads lower than my other one! Grinds were also very even. I grind in between medium and fine, and I did not see extremely powerdy grinds or even course grinds. Everything was very even in it's texture! Great grinder. I love it already!!!

I've been the owner of this grinder since February 20, 2005. In that time span, I would guess that the beans have gotten "stuck" (whereby the burrs spin freely without doing anything) maybe 5 times TOTAL. I make coffee about 3 or 4 times a week. So that's somewhere between 30 and 45 operations, and it's goofed up 5 of those times. NOT ONCE have I had to disassemble anything. You just hit the grind button again to stop it, jostle it GENTLY back and forth, and hit the grind button again. Of course, you lose the timed grind that is supposed to happen, but I view it as a VERY MINOR inconvenience to have to stand there and manually turn it off when it's done grinding.

As for the complaints of size, I think we've pretty much come to a consensus among the reviewers that it's NOT freakishly huge, or whatever that one reviewer said. It's modestly sized, and certainly less blockish and imposing than, say, the Rancilio Rocky, for which you'll pay 5-10 times as much.

The noise is not an issue for me, because it's no noisier than the old blade grinder I had. You've got to look at these kinds of issues like you would evaluate a car. Yes, a Rolls Royce is going to have less road noise than a subcompact Toyota, but the Toyota isn't going to set you back $50,000, and it's going to use less gas, AND it's going to get you there in just as much time. So there might be some noise (particularly when the beans get lodged funny), but it's no worse than the KitchenAid blade grinder that will wake up not only your partner, but also your dog and the local fire department.

Lastly, the grind itself. I will agree with the complaints that have been lodged previously. First, the grind is generally too fine for the setting. I haven't tried french press yet, but I get the suspicion that it'll be too fine even on the coarsest setting. Additionally, there's a little bit of overground powder that comes through with every grind. This shows up as a very thin layer of sludge at the bottom of a brewed pot. And finally, the cup dial does not accurately reflect everything I've learned and been taught about how much bean goes into one cup of coffee. It does grind too long for the cup setting. But you learn this quickly, and it's a pretty easy fix. If you're making 4 cups, set the dial to JUST above 3 cups. Voila. And if you're making fewer than 3 cups of coffee, you should find a roommate. There's no good way to make coffee in that small an amount.

My final thought on this grinder is that people who give it one star are being way too hard on it. I'd honestly give it 3 and a half, but I'll go with 4 just to boost its self-esteem a bit. You're paying $50 people. It's not a Rancilio. It's not a Mazzer, it's not an Isomac, it's not even a Starbucks Barista. But it's pretty good, and affordably priced, and it's a hell of a lot better than a blade grinder.

For those of you who might WANT to spend $350-500 on a burr grinder, but know you reasonably SHOULDN'T, this is the grinder for you. Just learn to live with its quirks, and you have a fantastic bargain on your countertop.

**UPDATE**
French press works great. My favorite use for this setting: I grind up a baggie-full before I go camping, and with my Lexan French press, I get a spectacular cup of coffee, which makes my fellow campers extremely jealous.

After having this grinder for over a year now, I feel that I have to update my review (which I have left in its entirety below). While I still love the grinder and it still makes a great cup of coffee, it is not as versatile as it should be. I have entered into the worlds of both french press and espresso. I do believe it grinds coarsely enough for french press coffee, but it does create some "dust" on the top of the catcher that accumulates. I can usually remove this clump although I'm sure some still gets in the coarse grounds. All-in-all, it performs fairly well with french press.

Espresso is another matter all together. It just does not get fine enough to pull a proper shot of espresso even at its lowest setting.

Another downside I discovered was that I can't leave it plugged in. I have to plug it in when I use it and unplug it after. Otherwise, it gets hot just sitting there. I'm not sure what would happen if I always kept it plugged in, but something is clearly not right there and I'm not willing to chance it.

So, for drip coffee it is still a perfect grinder, french press is good but not great, and espresso is all but impossible. My next purchase will be the Kitchen Aid Pro Line grinder. Although if I were only doing drip coffee (with occasional french press) I'd save the money and stay with the Krups. If I could, I'd drop this rating to 3 stars. Hope this helps.

Original Review:

As my title suggests, this coffee grinder gives you the best cup of coffee you could ever possibly make. I won't go into the benefits of a burr coffee grinder, but I will address peoples complaints and provide some tips.

First, there are complaints of it grinding without beans going through, which would undoubtedly burn out the motor. This does in fact happen so it makes it a bit less convenient than it could be. While its grinding, I stick around and prep my coffee maker to make sure that if starts to grind without the beans, I can give it a shake to get it to catch. One way to help prevent this is to load it up above the max line which gives it a bit more weight. Then push down with your fingers a bit to compress the beans enough to get them through. It's not fool proof but definitely does help. They warn to not load above the max because it can't grind that long, but if you have a cup selector, why would it matter? It just stops after its ground enough coffee for the amount of cups you set.

Another prevalent complaint is the clean up. It does get messier than they advertise. Make sure to keep it next to the sink and take out the coffee catcher while holding the front half of the grinder over the sink. A bit of grounds will fall into your sink and that's that. Make sure to tap the container and dump into your filter. You may choose to brush it out after ward with the included brush but I guess it's not necessary. You do it this way, and clean up is not a problem.

As for the fineness selector, it works like a charm. I'm willing to bet most of the people complaining it doesn't work took out or reinstalled the top bur incorrectly. MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW DIRECTIONS ON THIS. You put it all the way to the finest selection to take it out and then all the way to the coarsest selection to put it back in. Do this or else the selector is worthless.

Why four stars instead of five? Because of the clean up and the beans getting caught up and not going through sometimes while it grinds. If you follow my suggestions, these issues will be limited.

That said, it was worth every penny. I can buy more coffee at a time now since whole beans last longer than ground beans and my coffee is as good as it ever tasted.

I got this grinder because it seemed ridiculous to pay three or four times the price for the nice industrial-strength Kitchen Aid grinder that I saw sitting next to it on the shelf. After a few months of using it, I know why it's cheaper -- it continually fails, even on fresh, oily Peet's beans. As another reviewer noted, when it jams, you have to unload the whole thing into a bowl, disassemble it, note disconcertingly that the insides are made of plastic, and put it all back together.

And in actual use, this grinder leaves the largest countertop coffee-ground piles of any grinder I've used.

It's extremely frustrating and I wish I'd bought the Kitchen Aid to start with. Poor build quality, short lifespan, and poor design.

After a "long term road test" of this Krups Coffee Grinder, I wanted to summarize my experience. I have used it pretty much daily. It replaced another Krups grinder (blade not burr) that I had used off and on for 20+ years.

Good:
1. Easy to use, particularly for getting beans into it and ground coffee out of it.
2. Does not get coffee everywhere (a key modification was to put it on a little tray that catches the ground coffee that falls out as you remove the ground coffee container).
3. Moderate noise level. It is not "quiet" and has gotten noisier over time. That makes me suspect that the noise level of individual units may vary a bit. But it is much quieter than the Krups blade unit it replaced.
4. Has been reliable. My previous burr grinder (different brand) failed within one week.

Bad:
1. Plastic grounds reservior is very staticy, so grounds adhere to the plastic. I carry the container to the sink, and give a sharp rap on the bottom of the sink, to get everything loose off.
2. Beans do not feed evenly, sometimes the grinder freewheels with no beans feeding down and you need to whack it. I found that the grind affects this (finer grinds seem to feed better) and the beans; very oily (i.e. dark roast) beans do not feed as well as drier beans.

I still have ranked it 4 stars as I thought it was a very good value. It has lasted nearly a year without an issue and I have worked around or adapted to the shortcomings. I would not spend money to replace it: it meets my needs.

When I read in these reviews that this grinder was fairly large, I hesitated, but went ahead and ordered anyway. Well, the package arrived today 11-01, (ordered on 10-26) and the grinder is fantastic. It is actually a bit shorter than my old Braun KMM30, but a bit wider. The design is clean and uncluttered. The Braun has a mechanical timer that needs to be reset each time it is used. The Krups has selectors for quality of grind (very wide range from fine to very course) and quantity of grind. Then there is a backlit power stop/start switch. Cobalt blue. So once you get the quality/quantity down for your taste, you leave it and just hit the power button.
Grind seems to be uniform, better than the Braun. Much better.
Quieter and faster than the Braun, too.
A great product.

I was so impressed with this quiet little grinder that I bought a second one. I use one for caffeinated and the other for decaf coffee, so I don't have to mess with left-over beans. I use it exclusively for espresso with a good-quality espresso maker. In the finest setting, the grind is perfect every time, evenly fine with never a hint of wasteful coarse grounds. The espresso comes out consistently frothy with "crema" but without powdery grounds.

I have had this machine just short of two years now. I find it an awesome machine for the money. Yes I agree that once in a while the beans catch and it needs a bump. The static problem has long been gone in mine. But, as far as the grind size range, it works great in mine, large enough for the French press and fine enough for the Espresso maker. If yours doesn't it is more than likely operator error. Put it together correctly, keep it clean and watch it work, all easy task if you pay attention. We grind over three pounds a week in my house, in all grind sizes. I would be hard pressed to get another model other than this one.
Why four stars you ask, because it doesn't fill itself and make my coffee for me!

I've been using the Krups GVX1 burr grinder for about 3 weeks and have twice had it jam, apparently lacking the torque necessary to grind the toughest beans. In both cases, the grinder was set on the finest grind setting and the grinder turned itself off. To get it working again, I moved the fineness selector lever to the coarsest setting and manually twisted the knob inside the grinder, and pressed the start button. So far, this has allowed me to keep grinding, but one wonders how many times the unit can do this and keep on working. Also, it would have been nice for Krups to have provided instructions on dealing with this possibility in its user's guide under Trouble Shooting Guide; it didn't.

As for performance while working properly: flawless. Does a great job of providing satisfactory amounts of very finely-ground coffee, perfect for espresso/lattes.

I think that the unit is quite attractively designed and modest in size - certainly not large as some have complained. The other nice characteristic is the amount of noise that it makes while grinding: very little, not enough to wake those sleeping in other parts of the house.

Overall, a good little grinder for the money, although I am a bit disappointed with the frequency of jams, as well as the lack of guidance as to what to do should a jam occur. I hope that the grinder will last awile, too, but wonder whether the jams may reduce its useful life.

I've now had this unit for 2 1/2 years, and while it still works, I have been very unimpressed - it jams constantly and is not a serious piece of equipment. I have come to the same conclusion as the many others: one star, more of a toy than a tool. I recommend that you avoid this item if you take your coffee, and its preparation, seriously.