Given the fact that its rated Semi-Commercial, it has a decent sized hopper. It also has a toggle switch instead of a timer which I like, but some may not. When its not broken, its pretty quiet.
Negative Product Points
The axel for the bottom burr comes lose really easily. It causes the grinder to sound like a lawnmower, and the bottom burr to seize up. This can be fixed by using "Stay-Put" on the four screws that hold it down, but it makes future repairs difficult. The burrs seem to want to seize up no matter what though. Also, it only took me about 2 months to break the doser.
Detailed Commentary
We bought this grinder for our shop to use as a decaf grinder. We probably pull one to two decaf shots in a given day, so it got used as much as it would if it was a home grinder. Right off the bat, the burrs began getting stuck. You couldn't adjust the grind unless it was on, which wasted a lot of coffee. After one to two months we broke the doser on it. It was an easy repair but, given the amount of use we gave it, shouldn't of happened. Soon after that, the grinder became really really loud. It sounded like it was falling apart. The problem was the base for the bottom burr. We had to take the burrs out and re-tighten them. However, it didn't end there. After about one week, the sound came back. So that time, we pulled out the screws, dipped them in "stay-put" and put them back in. This fixed that problem, but now those screws are in there for good, so I hope we don't have to ever them out for anything. The burrs seemed to become dull really quickly. After about 100-200lbs of coffee I'd say. All in all, I can't recommend this grinder to any serious espresso drinker or cafe. So, we ordered an Anfim Best for our new decaf grinder and I plan to take the Astra out to the parking lot and get it back for all that wasted coffee.
Buying Experience
Dealing with Zaccardis was, overall, a pleasant experience. We were pretty new to the business at the time and we bought the grinder based mostly on their review of it. That's the only bad thing I would have to say about them. They sent us a bunch of free coffee with it and it was delivered pretty quickly. We would have attempted to return the grinder almost right away, but we lost the reciept. There was also no manual.
