Breville® The Smart Grinder Pro™

I have a lot of great things to say about this grinder... and only two negatives. I'll start with the negatives first so that anyone reading can "hear" the bad news first. 1. I wish the coarsest settings would grind the coffee beans a little coarser. I like my french press grounds to be rather coarse (slightly larger than fresh coarse pepper, but not much bigger), and I can't get the grinder to grind that big/coarse. Solution: I've adjusted my tastebuds. 2. Some of the roasters I buy (Anodyne and Ritual to be specific) have roasts that are low on oily beans... and when these beans are put this grinder, the lack of oils in the roasted beans allows for the grounds to be somewhat static-clingy to the machine and to the plastic collection bin for ground coffee. Solution: with the exception of just simply dealing with the static ground debris (ie, cleaning it up and being happy I have an awesome grinder), I haven't anything to fix the problem. Other than this, I love this machine. I have been using a burr grinder for years now, and recently bought this one. It does a great job with having a consistent grind every time. Here are the things I like about this grinder. 1. It is rather quiet. Compared to the other Cuisinart burr grinder I had been using, this Smart Grinder Pro is extremely quiet... and for that matter, it's even quieter than the built-in Breville grinder that comes on my BES870XL Barista Express. 2. It is easy to use. You can set your grind size, grind duration, and cup/shot amount very easily and consistently every time. The grind size is even more adjustable than the "out of the box" condition. Per reading the manual, you can take the hopper off, take out the top portion of the burr grinder (which so far isn't new for me since I've had the BES870XL), but with this grinder, there's an extra manually changeable setting on the burr grinder... just lift up the "pin" and place it higher or lower for a coarser or finer setting. 3. It has a PAUSE feature! I love this feature! Basically, it does what it says... in the middle of pulling grounds for, say, an espresso shot, you can pause it (for 5 seconds, if memory serves me), pull the portafilter out, do a soft tamp, and place the portafilter back in if you want. 4. The bean hopper's lid is very tight fitting. Now I know that beans are best ground fresh, and whole beans shouldn't be exposed to air for long durations at a time, but in my house, coffee beans go fast. So it's convenient that the hopper holds a lot of coffee, and more specifically that the hopper lid has a good seal. For any long duration (ie, multiple days), I would recommend removing the beans and placing them back in their sealable bags... but for leaving them out for a day, this does a good job keeping air away. (That said, I am aware that air comes in through the bottom portion of the grinder when the machine is off... so I understand that the lid isn't "locking" air in/out.) 5. It comes with everything I need to help keep it clean. It has the collection bin, two portafilter size cradles, and a removable base/tray. The "removable base/tray" is a thin plastic piece that is attached (and magnetically attached) to the bottom of the collection area where the grounds come out. So say that you've got your portafilter cradle in place, you grind some grounds into a portafilter, and a little bit overs flows off the side of the portafilter (which is normal)... you now have grounds on the base of the machine, and would normally need to get a damp rag in there to clean it out. But since the bottom is removable, you can just remove that base/tray, go over to your knock box or trashcan, and easily discard the excess grounds. I didn't give it 5 stars because I've used other grinders that were comparable in price that had better solutions to the static issue. But that said, I love Breville products and decided that since I value Breville's name, I'd stay with them. I've been a Breville guy since my first Breville espresso machine (Cafe Roma ESP8XL) back in 2004. Since then, I've had the BES830 and now I have the BES870XL, plus this Smart Grinder Pro and the Breville Knock Box.