Breville (BCG820BSSXL) The Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Bean Grinder Reviews

So far I like is a lot. The grind settings work for me for pour overs, drip, and espresso. Haven’t  tried French press. I like the easy to use display. The main reason I bought it, it’s quiet because it has a small motor. That works for me since I only grind 5 times a week.

Set it and it grinds exactly every time, cant fault it, have been using it ever day now for over a year and love the fresh ground coffee bean flavor, was buying pre ground beans but will not go back to that as long as I have this excellent machine.

There are many bad reviews here about this grinder seizing or stopping, and a few even that talk of a burning smell... this is an easy problem to get around.

Bottom line, this is a truly superb entry level grinder with one major drawback that is easily overcome. I'll get into what makes this grinder great in a bit, but first, the one thing you NEED TO KNOW if you buy this model.

If the grinder slows down or stops grinding before it has run its cycle, PAUSE THE GRINDER. You do this by pressing the button on the right. Then remove the hopper (consult the manual - this is easy to do). Remove the upper burr (also easy to do - read the manual). Dump out any beans inside the grinder (just pick the machine up and turn it upside down - I dump the beans back into the hopper). Brush out the lower burr area (Breville supplies a small brush for this). Put the upper burr and the hopper back together. Restart the grinder (press the right button). It will complete the remainder of the cycle that was paused. You may wish to manually grind a bit more to make up for any lost grounds.

Why does this happen? The motor in this model is a bit underpowered. It can get hung up while grinding. It is rare, but there it is. It's happened to me once in months of daily use. When it happens, follow the steps above and you should have no issues. It's what I did, and the grinder went right back to flawless operation like it had never happened.

Why is this still a great grinder? It's pretty simple - the ONLY thing that matters about a grinder other than reliability/durability is how consistent the grind is (how uniform is the size of the individual specks of ground coffee). The better the consistency, the better your coffee will be, period.

This model **absolutely excels** in consistency. Hands down, independently tested, it blows every grinder in this price range out of the water with more than twice as much "optimal" size grounds as compared to the next best make and model. You can spend 2 or 3 times this amount and still not get a more consistent grind than you will with this guy. Where it counts, this grinder is the king, unless you want to spend far far more for a true professional model.

Some additional nice features:

---With a bit of experimenting, you can dial in exactly how much coffee you want it to grind per cup (for drip) or per shot (for espresso) and easily program that amount in so you don't have to think about it again. Once that is done, you can simply tell it 1 or 2 shots, or how many drip cups (up to 12) that you want to make, and then you can ALWAYS grind the EXACT amount of coffee you need. This means you can always make coffee with only freshly ground beans without ever wasting a single bean. That is pretty awesome.

---You can experiment with up to 60 grind sizes to dial in exactly what you want. Personally, for espresso, 15.8 seconds at size 14 grind gives a perfectly dialed in double shot on my Breville espresso machine. For drip, I'm liking the mid 40's, but I haven't decided exactly where yet. The difference from one setting to the adjacent setting is really hard to taste with drip coffee.

---If you don't need super fine espresso grinds but want courser grounds than setting 60 will give you (to get French Press just so), you can adjust the upper burr (easy to do - read the manual). There are 4 more positions that will adjust all 60 settings and make them coarser. Conversely, if you want even finer espresso but don't need the coarsest settings, there are 5 more positions of that upper burr that will make the whole range of the machine finer. One video review I saw said this makes for 600 grind settings, but I'm sure most of those 600 are overlapping. It's at least 69 different grinds possible, at any rate.

---Large hopper. Not as big as a professional grinder's hopper, but you can put a full pound of beans into this grinder with some room to spare.

---Cleanly removable hopper. In order to remove the hopper, you twist a knob to "lock" it. This closes down the feed ports at the bottom so no beans will fall out when you take the hopper off. If you want to get crazy, you could buy a second hopper (or more) and switch between espresso and normal coffee easily (although the first few beans ground will be from the previous hopper, left behind in the burr, unless you dump them out when switching). The removable hopper also makes it very easy to clean after it starts to get oil buildup (which can contribute to the machine seizing up).

---Magnetic removable catch tray. Grinds get everywhere, and this makes cleaning up of (most) loose grinds very easy.

---Magnetic portafilter holders. You get two, one for the standard 58mm PF size, and one for the smaller PF's found on Breville automatic espresso machines. You can set your portafilter in the holder, and grind right into it without any mess. There's even a button so you can set the portafilter in, then activate the grinder by simply pushing on the portafilter.

Some things that could stand improvement:

---More powerful motor... that would make this grinder just about perfect.

---Could be a bit quieter. It's not especially loud, as grinders go, but it's not the quietest I've owned either. But a more power motor would probably be louder, so they may have been trying to find a balance here between powerful and quiet.

---The included catch "cup". It seals airtight, which is nice, but the mouth does not line up with the grinder port when it's inserted fully. Push it too far back in and the metal lid sticks to the magnet designed to secure the portafilter adapter, but if you line it up just right with the grinder port, the vibration of the grinder tends to make it to slide out of place during grinding. The fix is to just grind directly into your filter, or take the lid off the "cup" and set it all the way in to catch your grounds.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:

---If you mainly make drip or pour-over coffee, and/or espresso, this grinder is unbeatable unless you can afford a true professional model. Stay vigilant if it binds up (again, that's rare but potentially damaging for the motor). But if you take good care of this grinder, and spend some time customizing the settings, it will deliver superior grinds in exactly the amounts you need, every time.

---If you primarily make Press coffee, and really like extremely coarse grinds, then there is probably a better choice for you out there.

This grinder changed my coffee game. I went through all of the phases of coffee drinking: starting out clueless drinking sugary starbucks crap. Then progressing to drinking actual coffee by getting my own drip coffee maker. Then realizing maybe a french press was better....and then oh snap -- I need to grind the beans fresh. Then progressing to espresso and getting an espresso maker.....before quickly realizing my $20 Mr. Coffee grinder wasn't going to cut it and that the grind is incredibly key. Enter: this Breville burr grinder. DANG. It made a profound difference -- being able to dial in the grind specific to whatever device you're using to brew was a super game changer. So much so that we ordered two more. Proper coffee degenerates here. Love this grinder though -- I haven't ever had to clean it or had it jam like other reviewers have mentioned. The electronic display screen is super handy and the hopper is a great size -- fits an entire 14 ounce canister of fresh beans.

There are many bad reviews here about this grinder seizing or stopping, and a few even that talk of a burning smell... this is an easy problem to get around.

Bottom line, this is a truly superb entry level grinder with one major drawback that is easily overcome. I'll get into what makes this grinder great in a bit, but first, the one thing you NEED TO KNOW if you buy this model.

If the grinder slows down or stops grinding before it has run its cycle, PAUSE THE GRINDER. You do this by pressing the button on the right. Then remove the hopper (consult the manual - this is easy to do). Remove the upper burr (also easy to do - read the manual). Dump out any beans inside the grinder (just pick the machine up and turn it upside down - I dump the beans back into the hopper). Brush out the lower burr area (Breville supplies a small brush for this). Put the upper burr and the hopper back together. Restart the grinder (press the right button). It will complete the remainder of the cycle that was paused. You may wish to manually grind a bit more to make up for any lost grounds.

Why does this happen? The motor in this model is a bit underpowered. It can get hung up while grinding. It is rare, but there it is. It's happened to me once in months of daily use. When it happens, follow the steps above and you should have no issues. It's what I did, and the grinder went right back to flawless operation like it had never happened.

Why is this still a great grinder? It's pretty simple - the ONLY thing that matters about a grinder other than reliability/durability is how consistent the grind is (how uniform is the size of the individual specks of ground coffee). The better the consistency, the better your coffee will be, period.

This model **absolutely excels** in consistency. Hands down, independently tested, it blows every grinder in this price range out of the water with more than twice as much "optimal" size grounds as compared to the next best make and model. You can spend 2 or 3 times this amount and still not get a more consistent grind than you will with this guy. Where it counts, this grinder is the king, unless you want to spend far far more for a true professional model.

Some additional nice features:

---With a bit of experimenting, you can dial in exactly how much coffee you want it to grind per cup (for drip) or per shot (for espresso) and easily program that amount in so you don't have to think about it again. Once that is done, you can simply tell it 1 or 2 shots, or how many drip cups (up to 12) that you want to make, and then you can ALWAYS grind the EXACT amount of coffee you need. This means you can always make coffee with only freshly ground beans without ever wasting a single bean. That is pretty awesome.

---You can experiment with up to 60 grind sizes to dial in exactly what you want. Personally, for espresso, 15.8 seconds at size 14 grind gives a perfectly dialed in double shot on my Breville espresso machine. For drip, I'm liking the mid 40's, but I haven't decided exactly where yet. The difference from one setting to the adjacent setting is really hard to taste with drip coffee.

---If you don't need super fine espresso grinds but want courser grounds than setting 60 will give you (to get French Press just so), you can adjust the upper burr (easy to do - read the manual). There are 4 more positions that will adjust all 60 settings and make them coarser. Conversely, if you want even finer espresso but don't need the coarsest settings, there are 5 more positions of that upper burr that will make the whole range of the machine finer. One video review I saw said this makes for 600 grind settings, but I'm sure most of those 600 are overlapping. It's at least 69 different grinds possible, at any rate.

---Large hopper. Not as big as a professional grinder's hopper, but you can put a full pound of beans into this grinder with some room to spare.

---Cleanly removable hopper. In order to remove the hopper, you twist a knob to "lock" it. This closes down the feed ports at the bottom so no beans will fall out when you take the hopper off. If you want to get crazy, you could buy a second hopper (or more) and switch between espresso and normal coffee easily (although the first few beans ground will be from the previous hopper, left behind in the burr, unless you dump them out when switching). The removable hopper also makes it very easy to clean after it starts to get oil buildup (which can contribute to the machine seizing up).

---Magnetic removable catch tray. Grinds get everywhere, and this makes cleaning up of (most) loose grinds very easy.

---Magnetic portafilter holders. You get two, one for the standard 58mm PF size, and one for the smaller PF's found on Breville automatic espresso machines. You can set your portafilter in the holder, and grind right into it without any mess. There's even a button so you can set the portafilter in, then activate the grinder by simply pushing on the portafilter.

Some things that could stand improvement:

---More powerful motor... that would make this grinder just about perfect.

---Could be a bit quieter. It's not especially loud, as grinders go, but it's not the quietest I've owned either. But a more power motor would probably be louder, so they may have been trying to find a balance here between powerful and quiet.

---The included catch "cup". It seals airtight, which is nice, but the mouth does not line up with the grinder port when it's inserted fully. Push it too far back in and the metal lid sticks to the magnet designed to secure the portafilter adapter, but if you line it up just right with the grinder port, the vibration of the grinder tends to make it to slide out of place during grinding. The fix is to just grind directly into your filter, or take the lid off the "cup" and set it all the way in to catch your grounds.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:

---If you mainly make drip or pour-over coffee, and/or espresso, this grinder is unbeatable unless you can afford a true professional model. Stay vigilant if it binds up (again, that's rare but potentially damaging for the motor). But if you take good care of this grinder, and spend some time customizing the settings, it will deliver superior grinds in exactly the amounts you need, every time.

---If you primarily make Press coffee, and really like extremely coarse grinds, then there is probably a better choice for you out there.

This is an excellent, albeit expensive, coffee grinder. I ordered 3 machines in the $ 125 to $ 250 dollar price range and this was the only one that didn't have an unacceptable design flaw. It has way more adjustments than I will ever use but it has many features that make it a perfect choice for me. It doesn't generate an excessive amount of static and spew grounds all over our counter top even when using a stainless steel coffee cup for the grounds receptacle. The grounds are uniform and once you adjust it to your preferences you push one button and it does the job. Its pretty quiet as these things go and many of them are as loud as a tornado siren. Hopefully we will get a few years service out of it.