Krups GX4100 Electric Coffee and Spice Grinder
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Krups GX4100 Electric Coffee and Spice Grinder
Customer Review: Pretty good. Not great
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this item to grind flax seeds and spices. It works great for that. I like the stainless steel construction. And, after a couple of weeks' use, it seems like it'll be pretty sturdy. One thing I don't like about it is the way the lid locks on. You have to put it on so that it's not quite lined up to lock down then twist it down into place. It took several minutes of finagling (technical word) to get the technique down because if you don't line it up just right it won't go on at all. Then, once you have it on, you make a slight twist to lock it into place.
Ironically, I had been thinking about getting a grinder like this for months, finally got around to it, then a couple of weeks later saw the Magic Bullet at our local warehouse club. I bought the Magic Bullet for around $50 and it does so much more than this grinder does. Had I had the Magic Bullet first, I would not have bought this. Not only does the Magic Bullet do a lot more tasks (acting as a blender as well as a grinder). But, it comes with multiple containers to grind in. And, the major advantage is that when you're grinding things like coffee, spices, flax seeds in this grinder when you dump them out, some inevitably get stuck under the blades. You can shake that out. But, with the Magic Bullet you actually screw the blades to the container. So, when you detach that from the motor, you remove the blades and pour straight from the container.
Customer Review: best of breed for this type of grinder
Summary: 4 Stars
The Krups coffee grinder is excellent for what it is and in my opinion it is the best of breed for this type and price range of grinder. It is impressively quiet, quick and efficient. It looks great on the counter next to my stainless coffee pot. Good for drip coffee where you do not need to adjust the fineness of the grind (or for grinding spices). My only comments are:
1. The capacity is too small for a 12 cup pot of coffee to be ground in one batch, you need to do two batches.
2. Dumping the coffee into the brewer basket is a little messy and coffee gets into the rim of the top where it clogs the sealing cogs. Static causes coffee to cling to the lid and grinder bowl that has to be wiped out manually (a problem inherent in the design of all "blender type" grinders). Tapping the unit before opening helps release some of the coffee, but the static cling always holds on to some.
Overall I recommend this for drip coffee or spices. If you want to control the fineness of the grind or grind coffee for espresso, then I recommend that you spend the extra $$ and purchase a burr grinder. (I have a $50 Cuisinart burr grinder that I use for espresso that I would also recommend).
Customer Review: Best Coffee Grinder I've Owned
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been grinding my own coffee beans since the early eighties and since then I've owned a few different grinders, including the Krups Fast Touch and a similarly priced model made by Braun. I also own a burr grinder, which is good when I want to grind enough beans to last a few days or a week. The Krups GX4100 is by far my favorite. It's quiet, the lid locks on during grinding, it grinds fast, it feels powerful, I like the high tech look, and ground coffee seems to stick to the inside of the lid and the grinder far less than with cheaper grinders. It is necessary for me to carefully brush the ground coffee from the lid and grinder into a coffee filter, but for me this is part of the ritual of preparing a nice cup of coffee from freshly ground beans. I'm glad I purchased this grinder.
Update 2/20/10: I've used this grinder daily (except when traveling) since getting it a little over 2 years ago, and it continues to run perfectly. I typically use it twice a day. By now I know exactly how many seconds to grind beans for drip, espresso, and French press coffee, and the results are perfect every time. So glad I have this powerful, "industrial strength" grinder.
Customer Review: Grinds well, also sturdy and quiet
Summary: 4 Stars
I had an older model Krups before this, which worked pretty well but this one is an improvement.
First thing - this is MUCH quieter. My old one I used to wrap a towel around at night since it used to wake up my son, who was a baby when I first got it. Something about that sound bothered him more than other loud noises. I'm sure I'd have no such problem with this one, and it's just more pleasant to use.
It grinds just fine - no problems there. As with most coffee grinders, there's a lot of static cling with the ground beans sticking to the lid. But I've always put a few drops of water in with the beans before grinding, and that does the trick for this model too.
It feels much sturdier than my old one and the lid locks into place nicely. Also the "well" where you drop the beans is very wide and deep, so you can pour the beans right into the grinder instead of pouring them into the lid, tilting it right side up to grind, and then upside down again to catch all the ground-up beans. That was the routine with the old one.
Overall, it's been great. Especially for the price.
Customer Review: Best thing for dry grinding indian spices
Summary: 5 Stars
Grinding indian spices require a small container, powerful motor, very few moving parts and capability to handle really small products. After going through most departmental store and on the internet we didn't really conclude as to which product would really do the job. We were very skeptical when we purchased this one but we have been pleasantly surprised by it's performance. Just to highlight it's effectiveness we have used it to grind mustard seeds and poppy seeds to our satisfaction.
Among the cons the only one we could think of is that the blades can't be taken off. Since we grind in very small quantities it takes time to remove the ground product from underneath the blades. Another thing to consider is that other than the plastic cover nothing else can go into the dishwasher. It does take time clean everything unless you don't care what your food will smell like !!
Thing to be considered is that this is strictly a dry grinder. So don't think this $30 grinder will replace your $300 wet and dry grinder ever :). For what it costs it does a very effective job.