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540 of 543 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better taste, quality build, less noise & no dust!!, January 22, 2005
I've been through a couple of burr grinders - the Gaggia MM and a Melitta, so when it came time to buy a new one, I knew what I didn't want - a noisy, dusty grinder that wears out quickly. I've pretty much found it with the Capresso Infinity.
I did some reading, and depending on what you need, it's amazing how much you can spend for a burr grinder - they range up to $400 and beyond. The main features I was interested in, though, were available in the sub-$200 range. For my pump espresso machine, these features included:
>consistent, even grind - for better tasting coffee
>"reduction" gearing - where the grinder motor speed is slowed down without loosing grinding torque, resulting in less static and dust
>less noise - it's nice to have conversations while making coffee
>durable, long lasting quality - I wanted to keep my third grinder for longer than a year.
The Capresso Infinity has delivered on the first three points, and looks good regarding durability. It has commercial grade grinders, which produce an even, consistent grind. With the reduction gearing, it grinds with a nice, even drone - more like a diesel truck than a jet plane taking off. And the dust that used to fly everywhere is gone - the slower speed has virtually eliminated the static. I've found it easy to use as well - one twist dial that works like the old dial timers - twist to the time setting you want, and it grinds until the time expires.
NOTE - I did read where one person had a problem with the timer where he couldn't turn it off. That may be because he tried to turn it backwards, which is not what the directions recommend. To stop grinding, you turn the bean hopper to the "no grind" mode; otherwise, you can break the switch.
Overall, I am pleased with the purchase. The only real adjustment has been figuring out the proper grind level again. The "extra fine" settings will create a fine powder that is too fine for my machine. However, once I switched to the "fine" setting, it has worked great. The amazing extra benefit is how much better the coffee tastes - the fine, even grind makes for maximum flavor extraction. So matter what grinder you buy, go for one that grinds more evenly - you'll enjoy your coffee even more. For the price, I didn't find one that had the combination of features (and less noise and dust!) found in the Capresso Infinity.
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299 of 301 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works very well, and thanks for the gotchas!, February 18, 2007
First, I have to thank everyone who reviewed the product for warning me about some of the design issues of the product. I read reviews to look for failings in a product and then buy if the price and performance outweighs known problems.
Now, the review. Five stars. Yes, you need to know where to be careful, but you'll definitely enjoy the coffee.
The important stuff. This is where you have to be careful.
- Unpacking - There's a big "PUSH" label that seems counterintuitive, but I pushed and the receiving drawer came out the back of the styrofoam. I could see how people might break this.
- Assembling - the removable burr wheel needs to be seated, mine wasn't so the hopper didn't seem to fit. Turn the burr until it matches up to the bottom and it drops a fraction of an inch to seat. Line up the black dot on the hopper with the mark on the right and gently push down and twist. The plastic on the hopper and drawer feels weak and flimsy, but it works fine once you have the product going.
- Grinding - 16 settings in groups of four. If 1 is extra fine and 16 is coarse, I found #4 and #5 ideal for espresso. A medium dark roast did better at #4, but a dark roast got too fine and nearly clogged my espresso filter. #13 works great with the Bodum columbia press and a medium roast and leaves barely a pinch of grounds in the poured coffee. As another reviewer said, resist the temptation of turning the timer down to zero and just twist the top to stop the grinding. After two grinds you're trained. Oh, and there is a bit of static in the drawer but it hasn't bothered me much. I like the sharp edge for pouring out the grounds directly into the filter basket.
- Cleaning - remove the burr wheel and dust it into the bottom, then sweep the grounds in the grinder bottom (the part under the hopper) together. I have the whole thing near the bin so I can tip it over. Leave the drawer in to catch what you sweep into the grinding mechanism. The brush they provide is small, but I haven't had a problem.
I thought I was happy with my blade grinder, because I'd add cream and sugar to my espresso and it tasted great. But now I'm even happier because I can actually drink the espresso and french-pressed coffee straight, black. I still add a bit of cream and sugar but I'm fascinated that a sugar-head like me can drink the coffee straight.
My theory is that while a good blade grinder can make fine grounds by cutting into the coffee well, coffee shards tend to form a structure inside the espresso filter and channel water through the same tubes of coffee, pulling the bitters along because of overexposure. And a quicker path through the filter results in incomplete brewing, and, bitterness. You can tell that the blade-ground coffee creates an initial resistance and then thinner coffee flows faster.
With burr ground coffee, there are no shards over the size allowed to fall into the drawer. The espresso cake left in the filter, when dry, is uniformly packed (and not pitted or spongy like the blade-ground coffee). The espresso flows consistently, slowly and almost like syrup.
The biggest difference is the taste. You drink the unadulterated espresso and wait for a bitter backtaste, which doesn't come. That is a perfect shot, and your blade grinder will not give you this. Unless you want to buy a strainer and sift out the coarser shards hiding in your blade-ground coffee (that _will_ work, if you don't want to pony up the cost of this grinder).
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259 of 269 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Grinder for the Money, But With One Drawback, November 28, 2006
The Capresso 560 is about the best grinder for the money that I've seen, but it still has a nasty drawback, in my opinion.
On the plus side are the nice conical burrs, the reduced burr speed, a good range of grind settings with good consistency, a clear plastic bean container that lets you see what's going on in the grinding chamber, and the easily-removeable top burr that makes it easy to clean the grinding chamber.
The drawback (to me, anyway) is the significant amount of coffee that remains in the grinding chamber and exit chute when you're done grinding. The instructions say not to grind more than you're going to use in the next hour, because the ground coffee goes stale quickly and attracts other odors. Obviously, this will happen to the coffee left over in the chamber and chute, and you'll get that stale coffee with the next use of the grinder. Since you bought the grinder to get the freshest possible ground coffee with every brew, this seems to defeat that purpose.
So the 560 has a lot of good attributes, but it would have been MUCH nicer if the designers had been able to shrink the grinding chamber so that less coffee was left inside there after grinding, and to reduce the size of or eliminate the tunnel-like exit chute that retains grounds between uses.
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