A great machine IF you like your coffee French or if you like espresso - but its not capable of both grinds without recallibration.
Positive Product Points
Physically, this is a nice machine to have on the counter. The off-silver finish and modern features make it look really nice. I also enjoy the quiet operation and the ease of use - a simple dial control for the grind and an easy on-off switch on the side. Calibrating the machine is easy too, though not easy enough to do it every day!
Negative Product Points
This grinder is incapable of grinding for both French press and espresso without recallibration - kind of a surprise. Also (though a minor point), the grinder lets go a small amount of ground coffee after removing the hopper, and this is messy.
Detailed Commentary
I have had this machine for about two months now, and we've really put it to the test. Out of the box, the settings (ranging from 1-8 with half steps for a total of 15) allowed for a good, coarse French press grind and an unacceptable (too coarse) espresso grind (for a Silvia). To recallibrate the degree of grind is easily done - and allen bolt on the front comes off, turn the machine on and twist a wheel until the burrs touch, then back off to the finest grind you want. After some trial and error, we got to a good espresso grind at the highest setting. Now the problems. By shifting the finest grind upward, the coarsest grind got less coarse - and this was too fine for good French press, as I now felt like the coffee was over-extracted. Additionally, I would ideally like to have my daily espresso setting be at less than the max so that I have some room to move upward if needed.
Over time, oil seemed to build up on the burrs, and we had to do some further recallibration - but then a good cleaning with rice helped to deal with this problem.
I called KitchenAid and also wrote a note to WLL's helpful customer service people - and both replied that this is the nature of the machine. You can't really achieve optimum grinds for both French and espresso without opening the machine and recalibrating it.
So, its off to eBay with this one - and a new Rocky for me!
Buying Experience
The buying experience was typical Amazon - all electronic and good, timely shipping. If I had bought this from a store, I would be taking it back now, but I know Amazon won't refund me, so I will sell it on eBay.
