So... I'll start by saying I have 2 of these now.

Forewarning, this grinder is not something that you can buy and use for all your coffee needs. This grinder is excellent if you are looking for something to grind for french presses, pour overs, or drip. Will
As far as bang for buck, this is the best grinder I have found. Fairly good construction, all of it is plastic and is farily durable. The unit itself is fairly loud but that's not a a problem for me. You have the option to upgrade the burrs to the Preciso burrs, which I did in both of mine. As with all Baratza grinders they have all the parts you need on their website to be able to maintain and service your product if 2-3 years down the line you have an issue. I have had one of my other encores for 3 years and a Vario for 4 years now with no issues.

This has to be the best grinder that I have personally used hands-down! This grinder produces the most consistent granule size, with only a teeny-tiny amount of fines. Compared to my last grinder, its on the slower side of things, but again I am coming back to consistency, and the almost negligible amount of fines. This grinder is tad bit on the loud side, but it seems to be sturdily built, and quite a bit heavier than my last grinder. This is a HUGE step up from my last burr type grinder, again its all about the consistency, so its well worth the premium (at least for me)

Setup was less than intuitive, but I managed to figure it out (pix would have helped). Weekly maintenance is a breeze, as it comes apart quite readily, and is easy to put back together again. Simply pull out the top burr give it a thorough wiping, vacuum, or air-spray out the internals, give the grommet a quickie once-over, biggidy-bam Bobs your uncle, reassemble and Fannie's your aunt!

All in all, I would recommend this grinder to any serious or semi-serious coffee head who does french press, drip or chemex type of brewing, who wishes to step their coffee game up. I personally am a french presser and my preferential setting is at 25 for french press

I received a Baratza Encore for Christmas. Wow, what a difference. Beautiful grind from the stainless grinders - consistent and can go finer than I want, much quieter and the coffee tastes great again. Oh - and it's easier to use.

I had a Cuisinart DBM-8AMZ Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill that I returned - Looks good on the reviews and the write-up, but it wasn't good.
I buy a premium coffee (for the last 5 years), a consistently good brand and I know how it should taste.

1. This Baratza grinder is relatively quiet, I can use it in the mornings without waking the whole family up.
2. The grind is consistent. From coarse to very fine for an espresso machine. On setting 10 it's just right for a press.
3. I like the stainless conical burr grinders, and the container for the grounds slides in and out easily.

I'm loving this grinder!

What a disappointment... recommended by The WireCutter (which also recommended the headphones I had to return..).

Purchased in February, used almost daily, minus travel time, since then. Almost 8 months. Then, one morning, at 6AM, in the dark and cold, after staying up late for a work project and running late for a meeting.. guess what?

This thing wouldn't turn on. For coffee. At 6 AM. It's like ambulance running out of gas.

It's still under warranty, but, um, I need coffee. So, I order some parts from them. 30 bucks worth; circuit board, and two switches. They have a nice support site, complete with youtube videos and instructions for replacing anything.

On second thought, maybe having so many resources devoted to repairing this stuff should be a hint? Maybe high-production quality repair videos means something? It means they would like to head off at the pass the tidal wave of support calls. It worked on me.

I paid 15 dollars for 2 day shipping, parts came in, and i, like a fool, just spent Friday evening replacing every part I can except the motor. It's a real pain. For one, they don't use phillips (contrary to their docs and videos), they use torx stuff, really small too. thankfully, someone bought me a set I never used. Tore apart the garage, and found the torx set.

I'll spare the details, but it's an ugly mess just removing the outside case. If you remove the case, you will forever have scars all around the base. But then again, it's a grinder, and maybe this is a patina? Maybe I'm actually really cool?

Put this turd back together. Works! Wow!

Wife comes home, I'm beaming with pride given the 2 hours operation I just did.

She turns it on.. NOTHING. NO worky. My guess is the motor went bad and it fries the switch? Maybe I screwed something up putting this turd back together? Who cares.. 140 dollars, 30 dollars more on parts, I'm over it.

Have been using this grinder for about two years. It works well for grinding french press, but I'm finally fed up with the dust it leaves all over the counters. No matter what I do to try to prevent coffee dust from going everywhere, it consistently adds an extremely unwelcome and irritating cleanup step to the process of making coffee every morning.

I'm going to sell it on craigslist and find a coffee grinder that just grinds without exploding all over my counter.