Breville the Smart Grinder Pro

There are many bad reviews here about this grinder seizing or stopping, and a few even that talk of a burning smell... this is an easy problem to get around.Bottom line, this is a truly superb entry level grinder with one major drawback that is easily overcome. I'll get into what makes this grinder great in a bit, but first, the one thing you NEED TO KNOW if you buy this model.If the grinder slows down or stops grinding before it has run its cycle, PAUSE THE GRINDER. You do this by pressing the button on the right. Then remove the hopper (consult the manual - this is easy to do). Remove the upper burr (also easy to do - read the manual). Dump out any beans inside the grinder (just pick the machine up and turn it upside down - I dump the beans back into the hopper). Brush out the lower burr area (Breville supplies a small brush for this). Put the upper burr and the hopper back together. Restart the grinder (press the right button). It will complete the remainder of the cycle that was paused. You may wish to manually grind a bit more to make up for any lost grounds.Why does this happen? The motor in this model is a bit underpowered. It can get hung up while grinding. It is rare, but there it is. It's happened to me once in months of daily use. When it happens, follow the steps above and you should have no issues. It's what I did, and the grinder went right back to flawless operation like it had never happened.Why is this still a great grinder? It's pretty simple - the ONLY thing that matters about a grinder other than reliability/durability is how consistent the grind is (how uniform is the size of the individual specks of ground coffee). The better the consistency, the better your coffee will be, period.This model **absolutely excels** in consistency. Hands down, independently tested, it blows every grinder in this price range out of the water with more than twice as much "optimal" size grounds as compared to the next best make and model. You can spend 2 or 3 times this amount and still not get a more consistent grind than you will with this guy. Where it counts, this grinder is the king, unless you want to spend far far more for a true professional model.Some additional nice features:---With a bit of experimenting, you can dial in exactly how much coffee you want it to grind per cup (for drip) or per shot (for espresso) and easily program that amount in so you don't have to think about it again. Once that is done, you can simply tell it 1 or 2 shots, or how many drip cups (up to 12) that you want to make, and then you can ALWAYS grind the EXACT amount of coffee you need. This means you can always make coffee with only freshly ground beans without ever wasting a single bean. That is pretty awesome.---You can experiment with up to 60 grind sizes to dial in exactly what you want. Personally, for espresso, 15.8 seconds at size 14 grind gives a perfectly dialed in double shot on my Breville espresso machine. For drip, I'm liking the mid 40's, but I haven't decided exactly where yet. The difference from one setting to the adjacent setting is really hard to taste with drip coffee.---If you don't need super fine espresso grinds but want courser grounds than setting 60 will give you (to get French Press just so), you can adjust the upper burr (easy to do - read the manual). There are 4 more positions that will adjust all 60 settings and make them coarser. Conversely, if you want even finer espresso but don't need the coarsest settings, there are 5 more positions of that upper burr that will make the whole range of the machine finer. One video review I saw said this makes for 600 grind settings, but I'm sure most of those 600 are overlapping. It's at least 69 different grinds possible, at any rate.---Large hopper. Not as big as a professional grinder's hopper, but you can put a full pound of beans into this grinder with some room to spare.---Cleanly removable hopper. In order to remove the hopper, you twist a knob to "lock" it. This closes down the feed ports at the bottom so no beans will fall out when you take the hopper off. If you want to get crazy, you could buy a second hopper (or more) and switch between espresso and normal coffee easily (although the first few beans ground will be from the previous hopper, left behind in the burr, unless you dump them out when switching). The removable hopper also makes it very easy to clean after it starts to get oil buildup (which can contribute to the machine seizing up).---Magnetic removable catch tray. Grinds get everywhere, and this makes cleaning up of (most) loose grinds very easy.---Magnetic portafilter holders. You get two, one for the standard 58mm PF size, and one for the smaller PF's found on Breville automatic espresso machines. You can set your portafilter in the holder, and grind right into it without any mess. There's even a button so you can set the portafilter in, then activate the grinder by simply pushing on the portafilter.Some things that could stand improvement:---More powerful motor... that would make this grinder just about perfect.---Could be a bit quieter. It's not especially loud, as grinders go, but it's not the quietest I've owned either. But a more power motor would probably be louder, so they may have been trying to find a balance here between powerful and quiet.---The included catch "cup". It seals airtight, which is nice, but the mouth does not line up with the grinder port when it's inserted fully. Push it too far back in and the metal lid sticks to the magnet designed to secure the portafilter adapter, but if you line it up just right with the grinder port, the vibration of the grinder tends to make it to slide out of place during grinding. The fix is to just grind directly into your filter, or take the lid off the "cup" and set it all the way in to catch your grounds.OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:---If you mainly make drip or pour-over coffee, and/or espresso, this grinder is unbeatable unless you can afford a true professional model. Stay vigilant if it binds up (again, that's rare but potentially damaging for the motor). But if you take good care of this grinder, and spend some time customizing the settings, it will deliver superior grinds in exactly the amounts you need, every time.---If you primarily make Press coffee, and really like extremely coarse grinds, then there is probably a better choice for you out there.

Admittedly I'm somewhat of a coffee "novice" - though I've been drinking coffee for almost 4 decades - my coffee making experience has been limited to mainly automatic drip or "pods" - honestly, I've not been too interested in good coffee or as in a hobby until very recently. My wife wanted an espresso maker and shortly afterwards down the rabbit hole I went. Our first purchase was a Breville Barista Express espresso machine which has a built-in grinder and works well enough for the task but may not produce grounds coarse enough for other coffee making methods (pour over, french press, drip, etc.) so rather than just live with the inexpensive blade grinder we already had I looked into a grinder that would give us that level of control and flexibility. After watching hours of reviews online my conclusion was that if I wanted to spend about four hundred dollars (grinder plus, a good set of burrs, and shipping on top) I could get a better grinder for espresso than the built-in with the Barista Express but my non-pressurized shots with the built-in grinder are pretty decent if I don't mind saying so. Which lead me to finding a grinder that my family can use for different coarse settings (easily) and doesn't require complicated re-adjustment to get to another brew method. The "easily" is the main thing - so in my opinion a "stepped" grinder is a good choice and one that's not specifically designed for espresso. I've only used the grinder a couple of times for espresso where I was trying different beans and wanted to leave the built-in grinder un changed.Some notes and observations:- the burr set appears to be the same as the stock built-in one from the Barista Express - Breville's web site seems to confirm this though only the upper/outer burr is available for purchase (when it is available).- I've not had to adjust the upper/outer burr itself - some people have reported that the factory setting is 4 and others say 6 - I'm an engineer so I've been tempted to tinker with it but I've been making far too good coffee to change things unless I have to.- there is a bit more "loss" with the stand alone grinder than with the built-in one - what I'm seeing is about .2 - .3 grams with the Smart Grinder Pro and maybe a tenth of a gram with the built-in grinder although I'm almost always grinding coarser with the Smart Grinder Pro - perhaps there's more being held back due to that. Most coffee I make with the Smart Grinder Pro isn't weighed it's volume measured so I typically grind a little more than I need so "retention" isn't an issue.- the Smart Grinder Pro is a little larger than what I'd thought when I've seen it in pictures and on video. absolutely not a deal breaker but if you're really tight on counter space you may want to measure things out or plan to re-arrange things.- there WILL BE grounds flying about - I've gotten in the habit of placing a towel under the grinder to catch the larger grounds that try to "escape" that makes cleanup a bit easier - you may not have this issue if you're grinding for espresso but for press, pour over, or drip they tend to jump out of the grinder's cup.- the display is easy to read and clear to understand - my eyesight isn't the best in the morning before I've had a cup - you can easily tell what the grind number is and where it falls on the "scale"- cups/shots and grind time is somewhat redundant - I think a lot of reviewers have called that out - it's not really an issue to start/stop/pause the grind process this feature is probably the only real "gimmicky" one - I suppose that the time or cups/shots would vary depending on grind size but as long as it has completely ground your beans and you've stopped the machine well then there you go.- this comes with a nice cup for your grounds, two portafilter adapters (54 and 58 mm).- the coarse / fine grind setting adjustment knob isn't the nicest use "experience" - the knob does feel a bit "plasticy" and "cheap" - I really don't expect a milled solid piece of stainless or anodized aluminum at this price point but I wonder how well this will hold up to years of use.- the price is a bit "high" for a conical bur grinder however - lots of ones at half the price (around $100) seem not to last as long, are more complicated to adjust or return to a setting that you can remember for the brewing method or has features such as the portafilter adapters. The ability to glance down and see that the grind number is in the range of the brewing method I'm doing is worth the extra money.The bottom line (for me at least) was that this grinder has gotten very good reviews by established "coffee folk" for good grinder for people starting out their coffee journey. Is this the G.O.A.T. grinder - I don't think so. Is it even the most consistent one - I don't believe so either - spending about $50-80 more for a flat vertical burr grinder along with a better set of burrs would likely give you better grounds but for someone who wants to grind some beans that's either not "into it" or who is just getting started I think this one makes a lot of sense. This likely will not be my last grinder - I'm certain as I become more skilled and discerning I'll want something "better" will I get rid of this one (give it to a friend / relative or donate it) probably not - there will be times where I want to grind a bag or three of beans for a large gathering and I'll dig the Breville Smart Grinder Pro out for that job - until then I'll be making 8 cups at a time with my Mr. Coffee and enjoy trying pour overs, french press and other methods.