Customer Reviews

La Pavoni CG-600 Alpina Grinder in Black

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Horrible grinder. We were replacing a different La Pavoni model that was several years old, and couldn't find the same one so I got this one. It's horrible. It quit grinding beans after about the 3rd day, and now it won't work unless it gets a throrough cleaning before each use. And I mean empty all the beans out, take the whole thing apart and brush out the grinder and clean out the output area. Even after that, it can never get to the end of one cycle to grind enough coffee for 8 cups. Oh, it's hideously loud as well and sprays grounds all over the counter. I gave it one star because zero stars was not an option.

I have read some good reviews of this grinder, but bought one sight unseen a couple days ago. I needed a replacement for my Capresso 553, which burned out last month, and the La Pavoni Alpina happened to be in the store where I returned my old Capresso. It cost me about $62, after taxes, which seems to be a really low price compared to what I am seeing online.

The La Pavoni Alpina grinds quite well--I drink only espresso, so I use the 3 finest settings depending on what I want. I suppose one could grind for drip or other coffees with this machine, but I don't think it would grind finely enough for a really dense Turkish coffee. The grind is very consistent, which is nice.

A couple drawbacks: the coffee that I get here in the US is all very very oily, which means the little slot that ground coffee comes out of can get clogged pretty quickly. Make sure you clean this out fairly regularly. (according to my coffee distributer friends, the oiliness has to do with freshness--I'm skeptical, but I don't know that much about the process) The grinder has a handy portioner setting, which allows you to set it to grind between 1 and 12 cups worth of coffee: however, this setting doesn't give me enough coffee for my purposes--the 2 cup setting won't even send through enough for one espresso, so I am still tinkering with these settings. Finally, the noise: it's loud, but not excessively loud. Lots of these burr mill grinders are loud. What sets this machine apart is the shrillness of the noise--imagine a normal burr-mill grinder cross-bred with a dental drill, and you've got the general idea. It was unexpected, but now that I know what to expect, it's not too bad.

Please keep in mind that I have literally only been using this machine for a couple days. These things have a way of burning out or dulling relatively quickly, so I am sort of banking on the good quality of La Pavoni to see me through. As for the messiness factor, which others have already mentioned in reviews, I would only say that the static that this machine generates is not much worse than other machines. A few taps on the ground box before removal from the machine, and a few more after removal (with the lid still on and a thumb over the slot) pretty much solves this problem.

I would recommend this to my friends, though as I said, it's still a brand new machine for me.

I've had this grinder for about 6 months. It does grind, though it's noisy. I find that their idea of the amount of coffee needed for, say, 4 cups is very different from mine. But these are minor problems. My biggest complaint is that it clogs nearly every time I use it. There are the minor clogs - when the oiliness of the coffee beans makes the grounds stick together and clog up the hole -- which is apparently too small -- between the grinding mechanism and the ground coffee hopper. You have to use a skewer to clear this, literally about every 2 minutes or less of grinding time. Then there are the major clogs, when a bean gets caught in the grinding mechanism, and the thing refuses to work. For this, you need to dump out any beans, remove the top container, and then take a chopstick and turn the burr part around to dislodge the bean. This happens about every other grinding session. Finally, the thing is terrifically messy, with grounds actually flying through the air as soon as you open it - I end up with coffee grounds all over me, the counter, and any nearby objects. Major cleanup necessary.

I think I'm going to go back to buying ground coffee from Starbucks.

First. the beans have to fall around a 'guide' in the hopper that can cause the beans to stop falling into the grinder altogether. Second, the catch-bin doesn't fit the main housing very well. Third, the electronics are poor. I encountered a failed power connection and it shipped back for repair. Received repaired after two weeks only to have a similar electronic failure a couple weeks later. Skip this product and buy a Barazta. The Baratza is far superior - 5 starts for the Baratza Maestro Plus.

We purchased this coffee grinder & found it did require quite a bit of cleaning between daily uses depending on the type of beans we were grinding. After 6 months it stopped working...we sent it in under warranty - got it back & 6 months later it stopped working again. Once again we sent it in under the revised extended warranty. Again this 3rd time it again doesn't work (they said they replaced a fuse). When I called to inquire why it kept breaking down...they said it was that the fuse would keep blowing out because it couldn't handle grinding certain types of beans (ie darker beans)? Well - we don't always grind just the lighter beans & actually try different types (that may be darker/oilier etc) but I would think the frequent cleaning that we were doing would take care of this? I'm not wasting the shipping to return it again (ie 4 time in less than a year & a 1/2!) This was a mistake in purchase on a poorly designed & poorly supported product....definitely not worth the money. Meanwhile we've just fallen back on our small, 12 yr old, simple Krups grinder that works!

Appearance and specifications are quite similar to the $29.95 Lello Ariete.

Are they the same unit?