I'm still getting it dialed in (or rather getting myself dialed in to using this), but I really like it so far. Having the scale really helps to determine grind times and amounts. The scale seems to be of nice quality, however I have not tested it for accuracy.

A note to other newbies like me: The instructions say to grind 1/4 lb of beans to clean manufacturing oils off of the burrs. They also warn you to not let the grinds bin get too full to prevent clogging the grinder. Be sure to empty the bin about half-way through that initial grind. What is not obvious to the newbie is that 1/4 lb of ground beans is too much for the output bin. Sure, the bin can hold that amount, but the grinds will pile up and block the discharge chute and then clog the burrs. I learned the hard way, and so I also got to learn (before my first brew!) how to unclog the grinder.

Ken

This is an excellent coffee grinder for anyone wanting a solid conical burr grinder capable of grinding from fine to coarse coffee, in full pot quantities. Please note that one of the more popular competitive grinders (Bodum Bistro Electric Burr Grinder) limits you to grinding for 20 seconds, then waiting for 2 minutes before grinding more. It takes almost 1 minute for us to grind 2 oz of beans for a 10 cup drip pot, so 20 seconds is out of the question for us.

Note also that the grinder I replaced was a Cuisinart® Burr Mill Grinder. This grinder worked fine for almost 10 years, but I burned out the motor grinding two pounds of coffee without a break. Beware! Any home coffee grinder is not designed for this kind of heavy duty work! while it worked, however, it had presents from 4 to 18 cups, which determined the time it ground. This made it easy, and you could vary the grind fineness separately, but didn't allow for fine tuning the quantity, especially for one cup of espresso.

There are no preset quantities built into the Encore Baratza grinder, and there is no timer. It's either on or off. With the set in this promotional offer, there's a brush and, more importantly, a digital scale ideal for precise measurements. We weigh out the beans, pour them into the grinder, and turn it on. When all beans are ground, we stop. We have been experimenting with different grinds (there are 0-40 possible grind settings, from espresso very, very fine to very coarse) and different quantities of coffee for a 10-cup pot. With our old Cuisinart grinder, we could change the coarseness only, and the quantity was preset to 4-16 cups with an automatic timer. While this worked fairly well, we found that the amount of coffee varied by the particular beans we were using, so we like the Encore flexibility, though it takes some experimenting to get it right. Our rule of thumb: start with two ounces of beans for 10 "cups" and vary the grind and the quantity until it's "perfect."

Note also that you can time how long it takes to grind the desired amount of coffee at a given grind setting, then fill the canister with beans, and use a kitchen timer to tell you when to stop grinding. It will repeat the quantity very accurately if you use the same grind time and coarseness setting.

Finally, one of the greatest advantages of this Encore design is that the canister for catching the ground coffee is directly below the conical burrs. On our old Cuisinart grinder, the grinds were blown sideways by the rotating burrs, and the exit hole tended to get clogged up with grinds, particularly with finer grinds and the more oily beans we often used. In addition, the grinds tended to stick to the sides of the container, held by the force of the ejection and also come static, apparently. This means it was a chore to get all the grounds out of the container and into the filter basket. With the Encore Baratza, there's a neat pile of grinds in the container, no hole to clog, and a few gentle taps seem to clean out the container. We've made about 10 pots of coffee and haven't used the brush yet.

Overall, I didn't want the presets, and am willing to experiment to find the right combination of grind and bean quantity. I don't mind mweighing each batch of beans for the time being, while we experiment. If you just want to use it in an automatic mode with less manual input, this isn't the grinder for you.

Great grinder! My only issue is that the bin to catch the grounds sometimes doesn't catch them all, so there's sometimes a little mess under the container. Easy enough to wipe away.

The other thing I would say is that there's a possibility that it doesn't work out of the box. I was going to return it, but did some research, and it appears that it's common that a connection could come loose in shipping.

http://www.baratza.com/troubleshooting/

Open the case and step one of the electrical check. My issue was step one. A quick cable reconnection and I was grinding like a champ.

I had noted another reviewer commented on the cheezy big red stcker "open" on the grinder. So NOT Great Italian design. I am sure it can come off somehow. For price I think this is on the expensive side for what it is. But so far having only been using this for one week. It has been doing what it is supposed to be doing, and that is grinding coffee beans well. I have no complaint in that department. I would rather have a lower price than a scale and extra brush to clean the machine - both extraneous but included with the purchase, and will never be used. The device already comes with a small cleaning brush. So I do not know what the distributor is trying to do, but my suggestion is to get rid of that red sticker, skip the extras, lower the price accordingly, and you will have a best seller. That is all said with the hope the coffee grinder will work well for a long time.

Easily add beans, push button to grind exactly the amount that I want. After a couple of months checking to see if burrs need brushing, they don't acculumate much packed grounds on the surface. I have seen the warnings about "oily" beans (aka espresso) being a problem. So far, I have medium dark beans labelled as San Francisco Bay Espresso that have very little oil, but that is not the espresso I am accustomed to in the past. With more oil a light tamp works fine, but with the medium dark, it requires more pressure to keep the water from tunelling course through the grounds. I have successfully made espresso for decades in a cheap system and now cannot get a cup to save my life. Without all the oil, the tamping becomes critical and the heat of my introductory level machine is not something that can be altered. I am going to have to get preground espresso in order to save my Baratza from being damaged. I once had a hand grinder that I daily clogged with grindings, and quickly " bit the dust" from oily beans so I have a healthy fear of these warnings. Such a shame, caramel espresso is what I was dreaming of.... maybe more practice and trials. I do really enjoy my grinder for drip coffee. I grind just the amount I need at mid 20 setting. any finer and a silt blocks my drip maker. This is a sweet addition to my kitchen regardless. It is a solid weighty machine, I can easily move as needed.