Great grinder once you realize grinds only look too big. I only wish it didn't trap so many beans or was easy to clean on a daily basis.
Positive Product Points
High value Easy to maintain
Negative Product Points
Learning curve Grinds look bigger than they are Too many places where beans get stuck
Detailed Commentary
I have had this grinder for about a month, upgrading from a blade grinder so that I could get better, more varied grinds for new brewing techniques that I have been learning. As a relative newbie to the coffee obsession and without experience without other burr grinders, I can't really add much beyond previous reviews (I recommend Robert Uy's review of the grinder below).
There is one key point I have learned with this mill after several weeks of use. One is that the look of the grinds in terms of fineness is very deceptive. I noticed that several people posted reviews saying that they could not get the grind fine enough. That seems doubtful given that you can adjust the burrs so that they touch. Initially it took me several weeks to work out what I was doing wrong with the mill, but now I can consistently get a good cup of coffee using any of several different brewing techniques. While the grinds always come out looking too big to me, I get excellent flavor extraction by trying various grinds around the indents recommended in the manual. That's my two bits.
Buying Experience
I purchased a refurbished model from Amazon priced at $145 minus $25 off all kitchen purchases of $125 with free shipping, so I really can't complain about the cost. Short warranty period didn't bother me given KitchenAids reputation for durability and ready availability of spare parts. Amazon did take their sweet time with shipping.
Three Month Followup
Overall, this grinder still provides fairly good function for the price. It seems to me that I would have to spend nearly three times as much money to get the same quality grind from another machine. However, maintenance is proving somewhat more onerous than I had originally expected. I have found that it needs very frequent cleanings due to beans getting stuck in the burrs. While cleaning the machine is relatively straight forward, it still requires several steps to full disassemble (and then reassemble) it, so it is not something you really want to be doing every day. If I try to go too long between cleanings, I get very sour brews.
