My options were limited. I guess I could have gone to somewhere that had a grinder and beg them, or surreptitiously sneak in to the super market and grind my coffee in their grinder. I could have rescued our hand cranked coffee grinder from my basement storage, a 19th century model, beautiful and antique, and probably great for coffee you boil for a while. Instead, I decided to buy one.
I knew we used to have one, a blade model, which had been used for spices and would impart a bad taste for coffee at this point. My brief investigation on the internet gave me the new concept that a burr grinder was necessary if I was going to be a player in this new world. I was getting hooked!
I looked around on the net and found models ranging from about $100 to several thousand. I was getting unhooked!
I needed a deal. Looking around, I found a Black and Decker model that sounded like what I wanted and retailed for $35 to $40 in Canada. Things are more expensive here and less is available. Sending things here from the US is often difficult or very expensive. Often, I send stuff to my mother-in-law and pick it up when we’re in New Jersey. But, I wanted to use this one now, so I bit the bullet and went out and for $35 plus all our taxes, I got the Black and Decker.
What I should have done before I bought it was looked at reader’s experiences, but I didn’t.
One of the web sites I looked at recommended a small Cuisinart one that was their version of a “Best Buy”; low end, (around $100) and good quality. My brother-in-law had one of these, I believe.
The Canadian Tire web site had a few readers’ comments which weren’t too bad. I hadn’t looked at Amazon.com yet, not until after I purchased it. I read these and my heart was stilled. There were 93 of them! This is a record for consumer’s comments in my world; this is only done if something is hated! Here are just a few edited versions, not all the bad ones:
*What this is not: a highly precise burr grinder with a wide range of grind settings
What this is: a very good alternative to a blade grinder that grinds at a lower speed (as all burr grinders do), and thus won't burn the beans and is relatively quiet
I think it's safe to say that the manufacturer didn't intend this grinder to compete with high-end burr grinders, like the great one from Kitchen Aid. This grinder sells at the same price point of blade grinders, albeit with a slight premium. And, for good reason.
This grinder provides a relatively consistent grind size (there's even a mod listed in these reviews that promises to help). The size of grind on the smallest and the largest settings really is not that different - it clearly does not have the range of a serious burr grinder. But, as a casual burr grinder, this thing is great.
*If you need an occasional grinder, like if your friend gives you beans occasionally or if you want to get started in grinding without a large investment - this grinder is a great value. If, however, you want a grinder capable of grinding coffee beans into the almost-flour-like espresso and the large almost-pebble-size-grind for your French press, and you expect this grinder to do all that - what are you thinking?
Someone included a”how to repair” the new item (why bother?)
*Paid $19 at Target and was dismayed at the random grind it produced. Realized it was a good design, just poorly executed. Here is how to fix it:
1. Pop out the top grinding head as per the cleaning instructions.
2. Carefully unscrew the two screws securing the grinding head to the plastic insert.
3. Trace the circular grinding head on a business card.
4. Cut this out to make a gasket that will fit between the grinding plate and the plastic insert.
5. Re-assemble and insert into the hopper as per the cleaning instructions.
Now it will grind your coffee beans consistently to whatever degree you want.
I'd give it 5 stars for value, but it should have been made right in the first place!
*coffee aficionado friend who roasts his own coffee once told me that for uniformity of ground size, mill grinders generally were considered best, followed by burr grinders, then blade ones. Not wanting to spend over $100 for a mill, when I saw this Black & Decker burr-mill grinder at a reasonable price, I figured, "Why not?" My current blade grinder was old; was it time to upgrade to a better grinder? This does look a lot better on a countertop than the round conventional blade grinders. The answer, I discovered, in summary, is "No," because THIS IS A DISASTER MASKING AS A COFFEE GRINDER.
*I've learned that with my blade grinder I get the most uniform grounds, as fine as I want, by holding and shaking it while grinding, counting to a given number, depending on the amount of coffee. Usually about 20 seconds is sufficient. Leaving it on the counter sans shaking still gives decent grind uniformity, but I am a perfectionist where possible, so I suspend and shake while grinding. With this burr grinder, it takes 30 seconds to grind 4 rounded tablespoons of beans, about 60 seconds plus for making enough for a pot of coffee. As with all home grinders you have to hold the switch on. Say a prayer while waiting for this to finish grinding.
*With the Black and Decker Burr Mill Coffee Bean Grinder, I ran several test grindings, with the adjustable grind control on various settings. I learned quickly that the only usable setting is on the "finest" grind, because the other settings made a grind so coarse as to be unsatisfactory even in percolator coffee makers. The knob and adjustment no doubt was put there to improve marketability of the product.
*READ THIS: with the B&D burr mill grinder a UNIFORM grind is impossible, regardless of fineness. A FINE grind is impossible; a MEDIUM GRIND without uniformity requires a second pass of the first grinding. It does, however, do a great job of making a non-uniform medium-coarse grind. Thus, the grounds will work OK in a percolator coffee maker, which uses a coarser grind. Do you use a drip coffee maker? Forget it.
What's more? Convenience and cleanliness. Never thought these would be issues with a simple machine? They are. The grinder comes with a brush, NEEDED to clean the spout and the dust particles that stick to the insides of the deep receptacle for the grounds. If you don't use it, the spout will ultimately clog with old grounds, and, even if it doesn't clog initially, per the instructions the oils in the residual grounds around the spout can become rancid. Moral? Cleaning is necessary. Further, the grounds receptacle is in two parts. Thus, to use the grounds you have to take the cover off and not misplace it. When you do, often a few grounds find their way to the countertop. Ergo, cleanup. Remember that you have to keep track of the brush and store it, also. More? Yep. The manual says the receptacle for grounds must be hand-washed; it's apparently not top-dishwasher safe.
*This grinder is a waste of money.
It does not grind with any uniformity, large chunks mixed with fine grounds
Not suitable for espresso or Turkish, or any fine grind requirements.
Spend a bit more and get a quality product with good reviews
I wish i had stayed at home........
*This is a good looking coffee grinder and doesn't take up a whole lot of space.
The bad:
1) No variation in the grind settings. It seems to grind the coffee the same at every setting.
2) Noisy. I owned a prior brand that just hummed. This one is loud.
3) Dropped lid to the grinder box and it shattered. Now looking for a replacement box and lid. Durability. Poor.
*Over the years I had heard that conical burr grinders are much better than blade grinders, but I always thought it's proponents to be gullible. My blade grinder worked just fine. It didn't "overheat" my coffee as far as I could tell, so what did I care if it used a blade or a burr? In fact, what the heck is a burr? But then I got into roasting green coffee beans myself, which puts one immediately in touch with the very upper-class coffee snobs. I soon started to get ridiculed by my fellow roasters: "What, you roast your own coffee but still use a blade grinder?" So, being the cheap fool that I am, I went to Walmart and bought one of these inexpensive Black and Decker burr grinders. It took me about a half hour with it to discover that even on it's finest setting it can only obtain a very very course grind and therefore results in a very thin, blah cup of coffee. So I stuck the brand new Black and Decker in the garage and put my old blade grinder back on the kitchen counter and my coffee tasted good again. I would never have bought another burr grinder myself, but my brother ended up giving me a Solis Crema Maestro burr grinder for my birthday. Well, I love it. I think the coffee does taste better, but who really knows since every pot of coffee tastes different to me anyway. But this Black and Decker thing is not to be taken seriously. It's a step backwards, not forwards. Don't make the same mistake I did. Keep using your blade grinder until your brother gives you a real conical burr grinder or you save up for a real conical burr grinder. Or just keep using your blade grinder; it's ok, I won't tell anyone.
*I bought this about 2 weeks ago. I think I got about 3 grinds worth before it clogged and smoked.
I was able to unclog it, though that was not easy, and I got another grind out of it before it died completely. It's not really serviceable, I threw it away. I feel like my money was outright stolen from me. I would be ashamed to put my name on a product this bad.
*If I could give negative stars, I would. Apparently, the container does not fit correctly into the grinder, resulting in coffee dust and grids that cover EVERYTHING in about a three-foot radius. I'm contacting the manufacturer to find out what to do.
*Like everyone else here, I found the B&D CBM210 grinder to look great and work like crap. It's Turkish/espresso grind was too big for a drip coffee maker. The coarsest settings were too fine for French press.
BUT...a guy on here came up with a solution...take the 2 screws out of the removable grinder part; trace the circle on a business card (or paper with similar thickness), cut it out and place it in the bottom of the grinder and place the top burr on top. Replace the screws. The whole process will take you 5 minutes.
What you will get is a grinder that now can grind perfect espresso grind. I bought as an espresso grinder...so I did not try the other settings.
I was going to return the unit, but thanks to that guy, it works and I love it now. To the guy that took the time to figure out the problem and the solution...THANK YOU!! You should be working at B&D :) You are brilliant! Thank you so much!
*This product was horrible. I saw it on the shelf at Wal-Mart and decided to buy it. I thought that a burr mill grinder for under 30 dollars was too good to be true....It was. I bought it to use for espresso, which requires an extremely fine grind of coffee. The grind came out the same no matter what setting you put it on. Everything came out from coffee dust to (literally) whole coffee beans. This machine is useless for almost every type of coffee. Too coarse for espresso and drip coffee machines. There are many fine coffee particles that would slip through the filter of a French press. I returned this product the next day. This is a lesson, never buy something that sounds too good to be true until you read the reviews.
*When I first purchased this grinder I loved it. It was inexpensive, small, and seemed to operate just fine. I tried different grinder settings to maximize the grind for my automatic drip coffee maker. After using it I realized it had several significant shortcomings. You have to use a minimum of 50% more beans to get the same strength coffee. This "hidden expense" make this a long term very expensive grinder. And even more important, the quality of the coffee from this grinder is notably inferior to the coffee made from beans ground with the grinder I replaced it with (Infinity Conical Burr model 560 - which I LOVE). Another problem with the Black & Decker grinder is the chamber where the ground coffee collects has a lid which when placed on the counter while you are making coffee makes a notable mess. I was constantly cleaning up after the Black & Decker grinder. The Black & Decker Burr Coffee Grinder is expensive to use, makes inferior coffee, and makes a mess.
*This grinder looks good, but most coffee fans don't want coarse grounds coming out of an aesthetically pleasing machine. Take my advice: Don't waste your money on this contraption. Either settle for using a hammer on your coffee beans or consider another manufacturer. This model is a piece of junk. My new BW is going into the garbage and I'm going back to the store -- for a European model. The folks at BW need to either stick to making drills or bring their development department up to speed.
They were all right! It was horrible. I tried it three times, and the coffee was terrible, thin and not drinkable. All the grind sizes were the same, coarse and not usable. I tried to regrind the ground coffee to no avail. It was a mess.
I returned the unit as unacceptable and went on my way.
I wasn’t going to accept defeat.
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