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When I unpacked the unit (received as a gift) I thought a piece was missing - nope, it's just a terrible design. The engineers at Cuisinart must have taken the week off when this was designed, because it operates as if it was created by a child. False advertising.The way the power 'button' is designed, there is no way it will hold up to repeated use.Static charge mentioned by a few other reviewers is a definite problem; without it you would have a far better chance of replacing the cap after emptying without spilling additional grounds on your countertop.All in all, I don't care how well this grinder may actually grind beans because I am too busy cleaning up my countertop each and every morning. When I'm drowsily getting ready in the morning the last thing I want to do is fight gravity with a backwards product.A few other gripes:Unit's box says '12 Cup Capacity', which is strange because later in the instructions it clearly tells you that to avoid excess spillage, that you need to grind no more than 4 cups worth (8 ounce cups) of beans. Despite two weeks of daily use, I have yet to come up with a way to use this grinder and transfer the contents to my coffee filter without spilling coffee grounds EVERYWHERE. If I am lucky enough to get the grinds into my coffee maker without much mess, a new mess is created each and every time I replace the cap on the unit.Having to flip the entire unit to access the fresh grounds is a preposterous design.
Pushing the "grind" button resulted in nothing but the sad sight of whole coffee beans.Maybe it was a bad unit -- but it didn't seem terribly well constructed anyway. I bought this grinder, and ended up sticking it in the pantry for a few months while I was away on business.When I finally got around to trying to use it for the first time, it simply wouldn't start.
Appears to be difficult to keep clean. Grinder works well, but does too little at a time.
If you want a grinder for more than small batches (those that fill no more than half of the device), this is not the one for you. The size distribution of the resulting ground coffee is way too big, that is, it goes from fine to coarse in the same batch. I believe the only way to control this is to grind multiple batches. We use this product to grind coffee beans for 9 cups of coffee each day. However, if you happen to be at the cabin and this is all you've got, you'll be grateful not to have to use a hammer to pulverize your beans. Cinnamon sticks get stuck in the blades. This is the absolute limit of what it is capable of grinding. If the coffee beans are too moist, the grinder spins them around rather than grinding them.
If only it was a bit bigger, and the grinder was shaped so that pouring the grinds was a bit easier and cleaner, it would get 5 stars. This little grinder gets the job done and gets it done well. The capacity may be a bit low, but it's perfect for my little 4 cup coffee maker.
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