Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Unlike most reviewers on Amazon, I like to live with a product before I review it. Had a Breville coffee grinder, BCG450 for about 6 years. The grinder wore smooth. A search for a replacement part found nothing. Seemed shortsighted to spend over $130 for a company that did not support its customers with replacement parts. Baratza had good reviews and good parts availability. What follows is really a comparison of the Baratza and Breville machines. I am not a coffee geek. I am just a value shopper trying to get a reliable cup of espresso or coffee. Just someone looking for a good grinder I can rely on. Noise - The first time you grind with this machine is startling. It sounds more like a broken vacuum cleaner than a grinder. Not recommended for households with small children or pets (or the hearing unimpaired). Breville is clearly the quieter machine. Grind quality - Set it at 4-6 the first time to see it did with espresso. The grind was so fine that it clogged my double wall espresso filter. (cost me $24 to replace). Afterwards the grind was so coarse that no matter what setting I placed it at it could not grind fine enough. Then it started grinding too coarse no matter what I did. But I could still get a cuppa. After a cleaning. it started grinding too fine again. Unfortunately, I did not notice it, an ruined another espresso filter (another $24 to replace). The guide marks remind me of the Pirates of the Caribbean quote "they're not really rules, more like guidelines". An espresso setting on the Breville always meant espresso, not flour. I've sent a pic of the inconsistent grounds a single grinding gave me. Maintenance - This machine needs at least weekly cleaning. I cleaned the Breville once a month and it did not really complain. The Baratza has a slit on the bottom that seems designed to drop grinds under the machine whenever you pull the chute out. Screwing out the chute to clean the machine is not a simple.. Getting it properly back on requires fiddling. There's also a $#$$@# rubber collar under the chute that has to be removed. I really believe I have spent more time cleaning this machine in that months I have had it then the entire time I had the Breville. Support - Called Baratza, left phone no. as requested. No one called me up. Managed to get someone after awhile. Not helpful at all. Never had to deal with Breville support because their machine never gave me problems. Design - I am not a coffee geek, but I relish well designed products. This is not a designed product, I think of it as an effort by some marketing wonk to get something out quickly for the 'value market'. No thought was spent in refining the design and implementation. Someone should have noticed that the cheap plastic covering was vibrating. Someone should have spent more time on the grinder assembly. Etc, etc. This product is enough to trash the Baratza name for me. Breville is much better designed in all aspects but one. In summary - Don't buy this unless you are a masochist. The machine is too loud, requires too much fiddling, and is backed by a company with indifferent phone support.