Customer Reviews

Melitta MEBG8B Coffee Mill

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(72)

 

 

True, it is loud and will spray a bit of coffee dust on your clean counter. A similarly priced blade grinder will be just as loud and make just as much of a mess -- but this burr grinder is much more convenient. Push a single button to grind your morning coffee, no measuring of beans or guessing about the fineness of the grind.

Others have complained that even the finest "16" setting produces coffee that is still quite course. I had this problem as well, but it is fairly easy to reindex the grinder to produce a finer grind. First, unplug the grinder and leave the top grinding burr in place. Inside the whole-bean hopper you'll find 3 Phillip's head screws -- unscrew these to remove the hopper, then carfully lift off the black plastic top of the grinder. Inside you'll see another Phillip's screw on top of the fineness adjustment wheel -- turn the wheel to 16 and unscrew the screw to disengage the gears. Put a dab of White-Out on the gear around the grinding mechanism so that you know what the original setting was. Now you can turn the grinding mechanism clockwise to bring the two grinding wheels closer together. Turn clockwise until the burrs are actually touching, and you can't turn any more, then turn counter-clockwise an eighth or a quarter of a turn so that the burrs don't actually touch each other (you want to grind coffee, not the metal on the burrs). Now lift and turn the fineness adjustment wheel to "16" and screw it back in. Reassemble the grinder and run some coffee through it to check the fineness of the grind.

There, now your $20 grinder is as good as a $50 burr grinder.

While the price of all small coffee grinders seems to have dropped, this burr grinder costs about what I paid for a basic blade grinder years ago. As to the machine. It has 18 degrees of fineness, which you set easily with a wheel on the side. Open the top, fill it with coffee (it holds about a half pound). Hit one of the preset amount buttons, 4,8,10 or 12, and in a few seconds, the bottom detachable container is ready to slide out. It takes some experimentation to find out how fine you like your grind, and if the preset amounts produce the right amount for your pot. I found that the amount it produced for eight cups was just right for our ten cup pot (and I don't like weak coffee). If none of the preset amounts are right for you, it has a shut off button on the front, so you can hit the button for a larger amount and shut it off early. Since the preset amounts seem generous, it should grind enough coffee for most automatic makers, press pots, etc.
The coffee storage area on top is a little small, i.e. it holds about enough for two twelve cup pots, but its simple enough to keep adding new beans.
The grinding burr comes out easily (i.e. the top one - the bottom one is attached, but cleaning is easy. When the coffee is ground, it ends up in a clear plastic container that slides out easily, and cleans up easily.
There is cord storage space underneath, so you can leave out just enough cord to reach from the unit to the wall socket - and this machine has earned a permanent place on our counter, next to the coffee pot. Its going to be burr grinding from now on.

I have used many grinders, and the burr grinders make a much, much better cup of coffee than the blade grinders. There may be better grinders out there, but if you can't afford to spend a fortune, this machine gives you "burr" quality for a "blade" price. It is convenient and easy to use, and easy to clean. I never have to measure coffee, I just press the "6" button and pour the grounds into the coffee maker.

There are a couple of minor inconveniences.
1. There is a small amount of ground coffee that ends up on the counter. Very little, in my experience, nothing like the big mess described below.
2. You do have to experiment with the coarseness settings until you find what you like. It took me three tries to figure out that I like it at setting 10. I used the finest setting a couple of times, to make espresso, and the results were great.

By the way, I have found that I prefer to use the amount of coffee recommended for 6 cups when I make 8 cups of coffee. That has nothing to do with this grinder, I have found exactly the same results with other grinders and other coffee makers.

I have used a blade grinder for years, shaking (while grinding)and pushing the grounds back into the blade area (while off) that anything would be an improvement. Yes I found that if you don't have the catcher seated into the grinder you will get a fine powder. I only grind the amount needed for one 12-cup pot (as you should anyway) and have found that it does a remarkably good job, I have it set on the 8 setting for a Mr Coffee 12-cup maker. They are uniform and have never found lumps as mentioned below. The static is easily removed by gently tapping the catcher's bottom on a towel on the counter before dumping the ground beans. This unit replaced a $149 unit that was susposed to grind and perk the beans with finesse. What a joke that was. The water would collect in the bean area and the beans would stick to the sides then when the water was passing through the small amount of grounds the steam would cook the beans against the inside of the grinder. Try cleaning out the limp beans with your finger for a tasty experience. If you want to grind enough for an army then this isn't the grinder for you. Also the grounds dumped out of the catcher much better than I experienced with the blade ginder. I easily recommend it for daily normal use.

Is this the best grinder out there? No, but it is an affordable one that delivers well ground coffee.

Cons:
-There can be a bit of grounds that escape either during grinding or when you remove the container. If the container isn't attached correctly, then you've got a real mess on your hands (just double check that it's snapped in all the way)
-It is easy to turn on the grinder when you don't mean to. My advice: unplug it when not in use.
-All the beans are not exactly ground uniform in size (some come out very fine regardless of setting) but it's minimal and I haven't been disappointed with the taste of the coffee when brewed.

Pros:
-You can choose how much coffee you grind at a time, from 4 to 12 cups, and how fine or coarse you want the grinds to be.
-It shuts off automatically when the desired amount of beans is ground, so you don't have to measure scoops for the coffeemaker.
-You can store the ground coffee in the lidded container on the counter or put it in the fridge (probably the freezer too but I haven't tried that)
-Attractive design looks great on the counter and it takes up minimal space.
-Easy to clean - from the lidded container to the grinding wheel to the black plastic exterior.

Overall, this is a great buy. The money you save buying this grinder can be better spent on better quality beans - which you'll then be able to freshly grind at home. It's a win-win situation.

One last thing, all coffee grinders are loud - this one is no exception. If you're the first one up in the morning and don't want to wake others, you may want to grind some in advance (that's when the lidded container comes in handy for storing grinds).

I bought two, one for me, one for my son. Worked ok but the grind would not be fine enough for those requiring it. However, my son's broke in less than two months, mine in less than four- in both cases it was a plastic part at the base of the grinder. Bummer since it's so reasonably priced, but I cannot recommend purchasing this grinder.

Is this the best grinder out there? No, but it is an affordable one that delivers well ground coffee.

Cons:
-There can be a bit of grounds that escape either during grinding or when you remove the container. If the container isn't attached correctly, then you've got a real mess on your hands (just double check that it's snapped in all the way)
-It is easy to turn on the grinder when you don't mean to. My advice: unplug it when not in use.
-All the beans are not exactly ground uniform in size (some come out very fine regardless of setting) but it's minimal and I haven't been disappointed with the taste of the coffee when brewed.

Pros:
-You can choose how much coffee you grind at a time, from 4 to 12 cups, and how fine or coarse you want the grinds to be.
-It shuts off automatically when the desired amount of beans is ground, so you don't have to measure scoops for the coffeemaker.
-You can store the ground coffee in the lidded container on the counter or put it in the fridge (probably the freezer too but I haven't tried that)
-Attractive design looks great on the counter and it takes up minimal space.
-Easy to clean - from the lidded container to the grinding wheel to the black plastic exterior.

Overall, this is a great buy. The money you save buying this grinder can be better spent on better quality beans - which you'll then be able to freshly grind at home. It's a win-win situation.

One last thing, all coffee grinders are loud - this one is no exception. If you're the first one up in the morning and don't want to wake others, you may want to grind some in advance (that's when the lidded container comes in handy for storing grinds).

I have to agree with the last reviewer. This grinder is great for the money. I had another burr grinder that broke. It had an egg timer to select the amount of beans to grind. It was not accurate at all. This grinder's timer is electronic so you get very consistant measures of grind. I just push the "4" button on the grinder and in a few seconds I have just enough for a 4 pot. No scoops to deal with; just dump the bin in my coffee maker. Plus this unit is quieter than the other one I had. The only complaint is the bean holder could be bigger and the grinder does leave behind some coffee dust on the counter, but most of them do. You can't go wrong for such an inexpensive unit.

After trying three grinders, I thought this one might work. I ran into the same problem I had with the Mr. Coffee burr grinder: the grind's too coarse for espresso, even at the finest setting. The box also says "delivers consistent, uniform grounds", which is a joke. There are chunks mixed with powder. The beans also have trouble falling down to the burr wheel, so I have to stand there and keep shaking it to get the beans to fall down. The plastic also seems rather chintzy, like the Black & Decker I bought which chipped within three months.

There is only one problem with this low-cost Melitta coffee grinder with all of these great features, but unfortunately it is a REAL deal breaker: Even at the finest grind setting, this grinder produces VERY large grounds. While at first this may not seem like a big problem, you soon notice that you need to grind about three times the coffee beans for your morning cup of coffee than with any other grinder model. So, within a few weeks you have just eaten-up any savings you kept by buying this low-cost coffee burr-type grinder -- and within a month you are just throwing money down the drain day-in and day-out. In other words, buy a more expensive burr-type grinder -- or simply a cheap blade-type grinder.