Black Krups Gvx2 Expert Coffee Grinder

I'm using this for grinding coffee for use with my cafetiere. It was easy to set the correct grinder setting for this. The grinder has a few useful features. You can set a grind time so it automatically switches off after the correct amount is ground. The grinder remembers this setting so once you've found the correct setting all you need to do is add beans and press the go button. You can use the lid as a useful hopper to measure your beans into and then easily decant into the grinder. I use various size beans and it copes easily with all of these. The ground beans are a consistent size and the result is very repeatable. Note that I use my Mazzer for grinding for Espresso so I have no idea if this grinder will grind fine enough for that. So far I've noticed that some of the ground coffee sticks to the sides of the output hopper due to electrostatic attraction but I'm expecting this to improve once the hopper gets a bit more dirty - It's not a serious problem.

Appears to be a recurring fault on these grinders with the on off switch which is not repairable , shame because otherwise its a good cheap grinder.

We have had 3 of these. On each one the on/off button broke. Research shows this is a common design fault. Be warned.

I like making espresso coffee, and have always been struck by how little of the ground coffee available from supermarkets etc is made for espresso machines. Most is made for cafetieres and filter machines, which work best with a less finely ground coffee. So, after years of thinking about it, I thought that I’d start to grind my own. There is plenty of advice on the internet about different types of grinder. Most agreed that burr grinders are best, especially for fine grinding. Some suggested that you really need to spend hundreds of pounds to get really consistent grinders, but I certainly wasn’t prepared to spend that much for what was essentially an experiment. This model seemed to represent a good entry-level model. (A burr grinder has two rings, with cutting edges on those rings, between which the coffee is ground, in contrast to blade grinders which have rotating metal blades like a food blender.) After a month’s use, I am quite impressed. It is capable of grinding coffee beans to a very, very fine powder – so fine, in fact, that my espresso machine (which is not particularly powerful) cannot force water through! I have found that setting the fine/coarse dial on the side of the machine to the midway position produces coffee of about the same fineness as that from bags of ground coffee for espresso makers. Moving the dial about another sixth in the direction of “fine” seems to be the optimum. It’s obvious, when you think about it, but I am struck by just how much faster you use up the coffee when you grind it more finely; on the other hand, the coffee does taste a little stronger. The “hopper” at the top of the machine holds about half of a standard bag of coffee, and the dial at the front allows you to choose how many cups worth of coffee you wish to grind, although I haven’t found that feature to be particularly consistent. Thus, I tend to make a little more than I think I’ll need and keep the rest for the next cup. Some people use their grinders to grind coffee more finely than it comes (e.g. to grind bags of coffee for filer machines for use in an espresso maker). I have tried this once with this machine: it did it, but the motor raced as it did it and it seemed to use up all of the coffee that I’d put in the hopper, suggesting that the cup measurement didn’t work this way. My feeling is that such use is probably going to damage the machine and I don’t plan to do it any more. It’s a neat little machine with a pleasant design, and while it may be an entry level burr grinder I am very happy with it.