This is a decent product with some noticeable flaws. Any satisfaction in the purchase is removed if you have to deal with Capresso customer service.
Positive Product Points
Decent grinder for the money, the metal version (more $$$) is pretty solid and sturdy, quiet, no static build up.
Negative Product Points
- Hard to clean thoroughly and holds a lot of excess ground coffee around the grinding burrs. - HORRIBLE Capresso customer service.
Detailed Commentary
This is not a bad grinder for the price. It is quiet, sturdy and fairly reliable. The grind adjustment is just okay. It is mainly a press pot and drip grinder. I don't think it's capable of a good espresso grind.
The biggest problem with the unit is how much excess ground coffee it holds around the grinding burrs. Each time you grind fresh beans you'll get a tablespoon or two of stale, old, ground coffee that was leftover in the area around the burrs. This sort of defeats the whole purpose of freshly grinding beans and does effect the taste of coffee noticeably.
If you use the unit infrequently the only way to get truly fresh coffee out of this unit is to disassemble the unit and brush/vacuum out the area around the grinding burrs after each use. This would be less of an issue of the unit were used several times daily since the coffee would not be as stale. It is not terribly difficult to access the burrs to clean them, but you do have to remove the hopper. This means you either empty the hopper by turning the unit upside down, or you pull out the hopper with beans still in it and let it drop beans all over your counter. Overall, cleaning isn't too difficult, but it's not something you want to do every morning either.
The biggest negative of all is Capresso customer service, which is the worst I have ever experienced. They are rude, billigerent, unwilling to accept customer feedback and will hang up on you. Nothing is covered under their warranty. All they are willing to do is sell you a refurbished unit for a slightly discounted cost. Do not even bother calling them. It is a total waste of your time. I will *never* buy another Capresso product after dealing with them. I am done with this company.
Edit: I would like to add that it is possible that there may be something wrong with my grinder concerning the excess ground coffee. Unfortunately, Capresso customer service is unresponsive to the issue, other than claiming if it's grinding it's working properly, so I'll never know. I do believe it's a design flaw.
Buying Experience
Sur La Table is fine. I didn't investigate returning the unit to them, although I probably should have. They are not very knowledgeable on coffee in general, but I don't really fault them for this.
