Contrary to many reviews on this item, mine works fairly well!

BACKGROUND
I am amazed at the number of negative reviews written about this machine! First, there must be a lot of them sold if there are this many reviews. That's gotta say something about its popularity.

I've had mine for about a year and a half and, unlike so many of the negative postings, mine has been reliable and produces an acceptable, consistent grind product. It's not the best grinder for my use but it should work well for most people. Let me explain.

ABOUT COFFEE GRINDERS
There are two types of coffee mills - burr grinders and blade mills. The burr grinder crushes the beans between a set of rotating, notched or finned disks. The blade mill uses a high-revolution revolving blade much like a food processor to "chop" the beans into small pieces. The burr grinder will produce consistent grind because the space between the grinding disks is constant and the beans only make one trip through the crushing mechanism. The blade mill, however, can be inconsistent depending upon the time interval that the momentary switch is engaged by the user for each new batch of beans being processed. Therefore, the burr grinder, in theory, is the best for consistency.

Also, blade mills build up heat in the grind due to the friction of this spinning blade during grinding process, especially when doing a fine grind. There is much less heat generated in a burr grinder since it is a "one pass" operation and the beans are crushed rather than continually cut by a blade. Heating of the grind is a serious negative for grinding because it will change the bean flavor making it bitter and "darker" tasting.

Thus, burr grinders are the preferred method of grinding and is used in larger, more expensive commercial coffee grinders. The grinders in supermarkets where you buy the beans and custom grind them yourself to your choice to fit your needs are burr grinders.

Anyway, that's a quick summary on grinding of coffee beans!

MY EXPERIENCE
The Cuisinart Burr Grinder is a nice compact attractive unit. It has a clear plastic hopper on the top where the beans are gravity fed down into the grinding chamber for grinding to size and exit into a pull-out drawer centered underneath in the base of the unit. The grind fineness is selected by turning a knurled indicator at the bottom "neck" of the hopper, The grinding process is activated by a moving a selector switch to the desired amount of coffee. The unit then begins to grind and will turn off automatically at a predetermined amount of time that should yield the proper amount of coffee selected. It's a lot easier than it sounds and the system works well.

This Cuisinart Burr Grinder, in my experience, does a reasonable job for this price class. It is very noisy but all burr grinders are noisy. At this price level, there is no sound shielding or other attempts to make it quieter. Cleanup is easy and straightforward but it is messy due to the static cling of the coffee fines and grounds that stick to the plastic parts. A small, natural bristle brush works best for me to "sweep" all the loose particles into the waste receptacle or sink.

Occasionally, some beans will momentarily clog the gravity feed chute at the bottom of the hopper. If this happens, a few taps/slaps of the hand will easily dislodge the offending beans and it will, again, feed properly. The motor size appears to be adequate for the job and I've had no reliability problems in the 18 months I've owned this unit. In the beginning, I used it heavily on a regular basis but after about two months, I went back to grinding my beans at the store in the big commercial units. Now, I use it to grind specialty blends about every two weeks.

I've tried 3 other burr grinder units - Mr. Coffee, Braun and DeLonghi. None worked as well as the Cuisinart and all were more expensive. Fortunately, I was able to return all of them to the store for full credit. I found this Cuisinart at Costco for a mere $30! I had almost given up on inexpensive burr grinders and because Costco had a very good satisfaction/return policy I thought I would try one more time. I'm glad I did!

BOTTOM LINE
I recommend this unit for use in all types of coffee makers EXCEPT espresso machines. The fine grind on this machine is just barely adequate for grinding the beans fine enough for good espresso use. I use an Italian stove top espresso coffee maker for my daily coffee. Therefore, when I buy whole beans such as Peet's, Millstone, Seattle's Best and Illy at the supermarket, I set the commercial grinders to Espresso or Turkish settings depending upon that machine's mechanical ability. I will use this Cuisinart Burr Grinder if I have some whole beans but no access to a good commercial burr grinder.

Jim