I have the KitchenAid Burr Grinder... http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-Line-Series-Coffee-Black/dp/B003AM7KIK

I've had it for about 10 years, and it is incredible. It's a bit expensive, but for a lifelong product that delivers incredible consistency... it's tough to beat.

Whichever product you decide upon, if the best coffee you can make is your goal, then get a burr grinder.

All I know is good ones are way too expensive. The Rancilio is awful, we are getting rid of it and are in the market for another so I will watch to see what recs you receive.

Yeah the really good ones will set you back. I've had my Mazzer Mini for well over 10 years, luckily got it before the price went way up. A real workhorse

I've been using a rather cheap ($110) Saeco Titan for 12 years. It still grinds well for Turkish brewing.

However, when I have the time, my hand-cranked Pharos from Orphan Espresso delivers the most consistent grind possible, arguably better than the home-pro grinders are mentioned by the OP.

I have the BunnLPG. Way high end for home use but i put it on my e-bay watch list 5yrs ago and got it for a fifth of the retail and brand new. Took a few months and just used a burr kitchenaid until then. If you ever see one anywhere...anytime....yard sale, coffee shop going out of business, etc. snap it up.

Pre-programmed by us to exactly one pot and the grind we like. One button. Can be stopped for a smaller second weekend pot. Sits on a pantry shelf just steps from our coffee making spot.

You might want to check Coffeegeek forum for what is out now and recommended. They cover the budget-minded products as well.

I have a Macap MC4 doserless and stepless grinder. I have had it for 7years. Rock solid and not a problem since I bought it. They are pretty expensive but you can look on Coffeegeek Buy Sell forum if you are not adverse to used units. The folks on that forum have upgraderitis and I found see grinders come up for sale.

Good luck!

I have a Baratza Vario which I use almost exclusively for espresso and it is excellent. It is more than you want to spend so I second looking on Coffeegeek to see what they recommend, or their buy/sell forum.

I've had a Virtuoso for some time now. My only complaint is that the twist knob falls off a lot. Just something I haven't made a priority to deal with.

That KA Pro is a great grinder (it's what I use) but they no longer make it. It probably cost $200 on sale five years ago. I only hand-grind when I travel because you can't really pack an electric burr grinder. I'll third coffeegeek for your research:

http://coffeegeek.com/guides/howtobuyanespressomachine/getagrinder

I have a Breville Smart Grinder. I use it mostly for my Aeropress. I have tried using it for espresso but I have wandered among the finer settings trying to figure out whether any can make a grind that I can tamp and get a reliable flow and good espresso. At a coffee site I was told that I had to invest in a grinder just for espresso. Not willing to do that so I haven't made much espresso.

I have a Breville Smart Grinder that is great for grinding beans for my coffee maker (Moccamaster) but not fine enough for espresso. The Breville has been reliable over nearly three years of daily use (except when we travel - I don't take a coffee grinder along :)) I clean it out about once/month which is probably too infrequent, but it hasn't affected performance. I can't tell you anything about the durability of the Virtuoso

OK, I was poking around the WS website (with a 20% off everything code in hand) and stumbled upon the re-released KA burr grinder. I flat-out love this machine, as I indicated a few months back, and am happy to see that they are making it again. It is listed on WS as a "new" product and on-line only so I assume it is direct-ship from KA. I have been grinding beans daily for 64 oz of coffee for years without fail. The glass is nice as it does not build static cling like plastic will. And if you grind for espresso you can custom adjust the grind beyond the factory preset (the manual explains how to do this). http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/kitchenaid-burr-coffee-grinder/

Or eBay

Is that KitchenAid really only 10" high? I have a Baratza model that we really liked a lot at first, but it does have the static issue with the plastic and there is always a fine dusting of particles on the counter when we are done. And it just barely fits under the wall cabinets. But the worst thing is that it doesn't always grind a whole batch of beans without stopping. You can stop and start the motor, which sometimes works, or slap the side of the container, which sometimes works, or poke something in there to rearrange the beans, which eventually works.

10" tall seems about right. Thing is built solid. I'm by no means a grind expert, but I am a PITA when it comes to coffee - roast my own every two weeks, won't travel without a hand grinder and brewer - and I would buy the KA again without question. But again, one person's opinion.

The KitchenAid grinder that I have is just under 13 1/2" high, and is 10" deep. I have an older model from before they discontinued, then recently reintroduced this style. Mine looks like the same exact one they are now carrying. While I have no idea if the motor is the same, it sure looks exactly alike.

Like steve, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.

OK, I measured my KA coffee grinder when I got home and can confirm rgreen48, it's 13 1/2" tall. So the re-releaed version has been scaled down a bit. It is still listed as die-cast and has great reviews on Amazon at this point. I've attached the older version. You can see it looks pretty close to the new version. The older one is vented on the sides and the new one is not from what I saw. On one hand the vents could cool the gears for large batches, but on the other hand it's an opportunity for moisture and dust to infiltrate - pick your advantage.

I was hoping that the re-release meant guaranteed source of replacement parts (not that I have needed any all these years) but the scale change may have messed that up for me. Oh well.

Steve, I don't think it has been scaled down. I just looked it up and it looks like Lori may have misapplied the 10" measurement to the height, that's all. The new model seems to be the same dimensions.

Thanks, Steve. (Williams-Sonoma site says 6x 10 x 10 high.)

Well, incited by reading this thread, I bought the new KA grinder. It is, indeed, only 10" tall (not including the glass hopper).

The burrs are absolute junk, with no sharp edge anywhere to cut the beans. I'm sure it will grind, however it would do so by crushing the beans instead of slicing them, which brings bitterness to the brew.

Even without turning it on, I already ordered a set of Mazzer Mini burrs (182D) to replace the sorry ones coming with the grinder. Hopefully it's worth the effort.

Getting back to the original question by Stephan, what he should look for is a grinder with conical carbon steel burrs, as these burrs perform much better and are easier to maintain than the flat burrs some mid-range grinders have (e.g. the KA).

giglelus, I'm curious... if Stephan should look for "a grinder with conical cast iron burrs," which, from your knowledge and experience, "perform much better and are easier to maintain than the flat burrs" on machines like the KA, then why in the world did you buy the KA?!

You didn't even turn it on and yet you declare it to be "sorry"? If it is so bad, why first did you buy it, or why didn't you just return it?

I'm not really an expert by any measure. All I can say is that I've had my KA for 10 years and it works as good as the day I bought it. But from reading your comment, I have to wonder at the authenticity of your words.

Impulse buying. Also, it's gorgeous red :-) The pictures I've seen of the burrs in the older KA (such as yours) show a better quality than what I just received today. the burrs in mine have absolutely no cutting edge, they're smooth and obviously meant for crushing only.

Seriously though, my last two grinders have been conical burrs (the electric Saeco and the manual OE Pharos). The last time I owned a flat burr machine was more than 12 years ago and I forgot how it performed. In anticipation of receiving the KA (really an impulse buy), I read a lot about it and was surprised to see that one has to regularly open it up to clean the burrs and that the grind is not very consistent, especially on finer settings (Turkish in my case). Things that do not happen with decent conical burrs.

Having said that, I'll stick with the KA and replace its burrs with a better quality set. I don't like returning things when it was my choice of buying them.

Bringing this thread back in light of the looming need to get Christmas presents. Gigelus, did you receive the replacement burrs and did it fix the shortcoming?

Walt, yes, I did receive the Mazzer Mini burrs and made the modifications to fit them. Unfortunately, while the grind was reasonably uniform for Turkish, the speed was not; it took almost 25 minutes to grind about half a pound of freshly-roasted beans. The motor felt very weak and kept struggling. Furthermore, the chute is badly designed and a lot of ground coffee gets lodged there instead of dropping out.

It may be a decent grinder for things like french press, but it cannot handle fine grinds (espresso and Turkish). Very disappointing - I had to return it.

BTW, here are the original burr (left) and the much better replacement (right):

The cutting edges on the KA burr are a joke. At most, they're crushing the beans instead of cutting them.

OTOH, the ones on the Mazzer Mini are really sharp.

The Breville smart grinder is a total no go for espresso. It simply wont grind fine enough and consistent enough. For Drip, Press, hario etc. it's a nice machine but I found it unreliable. My first copy lasted a little under a year and was replaced. The second unit failed in a few days.

From there we moved on to a Baratza Preciso. It's been grinding 100+ pounds a year for the last few years. This is probably the least costly machine I would suggest if you want an all purpose grinder that can still grind espresso.

Let me tell you - this is definitely not something that you want to cheap out on! As the only coffee drinker in my house, I was waking up the spouse and the dogs with my cheap Mr Coffee grinder. So, I set out to find a good quiet coffee grinder and had to spend more for it. But I love it and wouldn't go back!

Good grinders generally aren't very quiet, my Mazzer will wake up the whole house.

My motorized Orphan Espresso is whisper-quiet! Fitted with a hefty DC motor and reduction gear (down to 50RPM), it chews through one pound of coffee in about 8 minutes while producing a wonderful dust-like grind for Turkish brewing. Probably the last grinder I'll ever own. Did I mention how quiet it is?

Anything with large burrs (60mm or more) is bound to be high quality and, because the grinding area is large, will be driven by a low-speed motor, which makes for a quiet grinder. I got the OE and modified it just because a similar quality grinder is very expensive (around a grand or more, see for example https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/compak-k10-fresh-espresso-grinder); it was also a fun tinkering project.

ooh, I like the sound of "whisper quiet" ! Thanks for the tip, gonna check that out and see if I need to upgrade my coffee gear.

so gigelus, you motorized a hand cranked grinder? Nice

You guys are as hard core as over at coffee geek -- here I thought the correct answer to the OP had to be a grinder that already had his name on it??

Somehow I think this grinder (I guess I didn't even grab the Braun that is a burr grinder) gives this threads' posters nightmares....

Love my baratza encour

@dbabrams, yes. The thing still needs some plastic forming for a decent hopper and collection chute, but I'm happy, especially after the horror that was the KA.

@lapsangtea: guess where one can get all sort of ideas regarding OE modding? coffee geek forums!

P.S. I apologize for hijacking the thread