Decent but Problematic

Author's Rating:

Pros: Styling, German engineering looks, cup and grind selector knobs

Cons: clogs or jam consistently, uneven grind. Quality control issues

The Bottom Line: 
Not recommended for daily use

Author's Review
I have owned a few grinders in the past, (Braun KSM2 blade & Cuisinart DBM-8 burr) and I had high hopes for this model. Being the Krups brand with German engineering, I purchased this model from Macys November 2007 after donating my Cuisinart to my workplace. I used the Braun for a long time until I started researching “the perfect cup of coffee.” I wanted my coffee to taste as good as if not better than Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. So a burr grinder would get me closer. The Cuisinart was an impulse buy because burr grinders at the time were hard to find.

Style and Design: One of the strongest features of this model. It is small and very accommodating to my stainless steel kitchen and impresses upon a quality build. The levers on the side and front are sort of a quirky but elegant in design. I thought I had purchased the Mercedes E –Class of coffee grinders until the early novelty wore off.

Performance: One day I began to notice that this grinder produced a lot of dust. Still I wanted to believe that this was a great quality grinder and dealt with it. The dust will cling to the plastic due to static, but it can be tolerated, it’s just a little “messy” that you have to clean up from time to time. Next was the bean hopper when loaded and grinding beans. Since it supposed to be automatic I learned that you have to keep a close eye on this as it grind beans. It will jam and the beans will not go through the grinder. I would have to tap the base several times to get the beans to flow through the grinder. This was very annoying but hey, I can still live with this. Another problem was with grind consistency. After daily use there were usually large clumps of coffee that I had to shake or break loose. It could be static but the grind wasn’t consistent.

Reliability & Everyday Use: When I was using the Cuisinart I was excited and happy to make coffee however with this model, it became tedious and unpleasant. It did produce decent tasting coffee most of the time but you must pay attention to details and it is not easy to get the perfect cup of coffee, even if you repeated the exact steps. You had to pray that the Krups would not jam. I never had this problem with the Cuisinart. The ON/Off button is interlocked with the bean hopper and now I am troubleshooting to figure out why the unit will not turn on. This model is not recommended if you make coffee every day.