Overall, this grinder is great. It has a few idiosyncrasies worth mentioning, but given its price and minimal amount of quirks, this should be an asset to your coffee enjoyment for years to come.
I purchased this grinder because I've been into coffee for a long time but just couldn't bring myself to pay for an expensive electric burr grinder. Between always finding something wrong with one of them or finding some sort of reliability problem, $150+ seemed like too high of a price tag for so many unknowns. Then this little gem came on same for $25. I was never opposed to getting a hand grinder, but again, many of the supposed "good" ones cost upwards of $50. If I'm paying with a little bit of my time every time I use the device, I expect to pay a little bit less for it up front. This one seemed to have decent reviews and a good price, so I bit.
My first impressions are that this grinder is larger than I expected. I was hoping for something a few inches high, on par with a compact pepper mill. It's definitely a bit taller. It's a bit large for me to carry around (and, I don't really need to), but it's much more portable than an electric or counter top grinder.
The "assembly" if you could even call it that is pretty straight forward: twist the star shaped washer onto the threaded pole, add the little metal doodad with two legs to lock the washer in place, then the handle, then the nut to hold it all together.
The grind quality to me is very good. I've only used it for a coarse press grind and for drip coffee, but it does great at both. There may some larger pieces in the final grind, but overall the grind size is pretty consistent. I suppose if I had a gripe with this thing, it would be that the grind size is not 100% uniform, but it's very very close, and most importantly, there is no fine powder or crushing. Both the french press and drip coffee made with this are excellent. Most unfortunately for my wallet, my heart, and my blood pressure, I find myself drinking coffee almost all the time now that I can drink high quality, fresh ground coffee at any time.
Adjusting the grind size for me is very simple. I keep it at my medium grind setting for my drip coffee. If I want to grind a little coarser, I simply turn the adjustment washer a half turn looser to make the output just a bit larger. Then, when I'm done, I simply turn back half a turn to get it back to my medium grind size. It took me a few minutes to figure out my settings at first, but after finding my baseline, I don't usually stray from it too much and don't have any issues.
The unit is fairly easy to clean. Depending on your bean consistency and oil content, there may be some grounds that stick to the ceramic grinder. I usually just blow on the grind mechanism NES-cartridge style and wipe the remaining reside off with a dry rag (as well as wiping the counter upon which I just blew a bunch of coffee grinds). The whole unit is dishwasher safe, so about once a week I unscrew the glass jar and place both the grinder and jar in the dishwasher. I don't even bother to disassemble the handle and grinding nut. It might take a bit more space, but I don't have to fiddle with getting my settings right after washing. The glass jar does come with a lid, but grinding and saving for later really defeats the purpose of having a grinder at your disposal.
One thing to keep in mind with this unit is you will be doing a bit of grinding. Depending on your bean quantity, it could take a little while. I typically use about 4 tbsp of beans for my little 4-cup coffee maker and it usually takes a solid 1-3 minutes of grinding depending on the roast and how brittle the beans are. 1-3 minutes is not a lot, but it can start to feel long after cranking this thing non-stop for that long. I'm a pretty fit younger man and don't have any problems grinding with it, but I do find myself switching which hand grinds and which hand holds the unit every 30 seconds or so, so that I can keep the grind speed up. I would consider the quality of coffee I drink now so much worth the extra minute or two of effort that it's not a con for me in the slightest, but different strokes, as they say.
As I said at the top, I am very satisfied with this grinder. While I can't say how it does for espresso and finer grinds, I can say that it works very well for medium and coarse grinds. I'd imagine it probably does the finer grinds a bit better, but I can't say for sure. The unit is very easy to clean and pops in the dishwasher easily. The grind size is fairly easy to dial in, although it's definitely not as simple as switching from "medium" to "coarse" on a dial on a fancy electric grinder (but then again, you're paying a quarter to an eighth of what you would for an electric grinder). I'd recommend this to anyone that is looking into grinding their own coffee but can't seem to wrap their head around spending half a grand on the serious grinders that most coffee snob sites say you absolutely must get if you want any type of quality out of your coffee. This little unit does great, and when it goes on sale I'm buying another so I can have a backup when the unit I have, likely well worn out by that time, fails.
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- Amazon Basics Electric Coffee Grinder, Coffee Bean and Spice Grinder, With Heavy-Duty Stainless Steel Grind Blades$6.99 shippingAmazon's Choice
Works well, seems built to last
I was previously planning on buying the Hario Skerton, which is a very similar grinder that used to be significantly cheaper. Some people speculate or claim that they are exactly the same. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I ended up buying this one since at the time I purchased the Hario jumped up in price and it was only a few dollars difference between the two.One thing I did notice immediately when I was unboxing mine is that the glass jar says Hario on the bottom of it. So there does appear to be some connection between the companies.I know mine is a genuine Kyocera, because it was drop-shipped to me directly from Kyocera and the packaging was genuine, not just a brown cardboard box like some people have reported receiving suspect counterfeit models in.I just got it today and ground up enough beans to brew 6 cups of coffee with it. I didn't time it, but it took around a few minutes at a relatively fine grind. The consistency of the grinding is very good, certainly better than the old "spice grinder" type electric blade unit I am replacing.It's quiet, and pretty easy to use. I did half of the grinding on my kitchen table, and half with the grinder on my lap. I had no trouble grinding, the rubber base makes it easy to keep in place while you turn the crank.I filled up the hopper again and decided to grind up enough for a few more pots of coffee. It did get tiresome after a while. Grinding just enough to make your coffee isn't too bad, but grinding a lot does get old after 5 minutes.I'll update this review after I've lived with this grinder a while. With the number of reviews this grinder already has I doubt this one is really going to help anyone, but if it does I'd appreciate you marking it as helpful or posting a comment if you'd like. I'd be happy to answer questions in the comments too if anyone has any.
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2014
- Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2014
I was previously planning on buying the Hario Skerton, which is a very similar grinder that used to be significantly cheaper. Some people speculate or claim that they are exactly the same. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I ended up buying this one since at the time I purchased the Hario jumped up in price and it was only a few dollars difference between the two.
One thing I did notice immediately when I was unboxing mine is that the glass jar says Hario on the bottom of it. So there does appear to be some connection between the companies.
I know mine is a genuine Kyocera, because it was drop-shipped to me directly from Kyocera and the packaging was genuine, not just a brown cardboard box like some people have reported receiving suspect counterfeit models in.
I just got it today and ground up enough beans to brew 6 cups of coffee with it. I didn't time it, but it took around a few minutes at a relatively fine grind. The consistency of the grinding is very good, certainly better than the old "spice grinder" type electric blade unit I am replacing.
It's quiet, and pretty easy to use. I did half of the grinding on my kitchen table, and half with the grinder on my lap. I had no trouble grinding, the rubber base makes it easy to keep in place while you turn the crank.
I filled up the hopper again and decided to grind up enough for a few more pots of coffee. It did get tiresome after a while. Grinding just enough to make your coffee isn't too bad, but grinding a lot does get old after 5 minutes.
I'll update this review after I've lived with this grinder a while. With the number of reviews this grinder already has I doubt this one is really going to help anyone, but if it does I'd appreciate you marking it as helpful or posting a comment if you'd like. I'd be happy to answer questions in the comments too if anyone has any.
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Top reviews from other countries
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- retrofiableReviewed in Canada on November 13, 2012
Very nice little grinder, quality is undeniable
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