I noticed the Krups GX610050 Professional Die Cast Conical Burr Grinder a while ago on Amazon but haven't seen any posts about them in the wild. I ordered one to see what it is about.

I thought it looked like the Graef CM80 which some of our European members might be familiar with. I also thought it looks a lot like the Sunbeam EM0480 - but the burrs are a different design on that Australian product compared to the Krups and Graef - the Sunbeam uses a burr set similar to the Ascaso Mini 38mm conical burr grinder while the Graef and Krups uses a burr set similar to the Maestro Plus in appearance.

Those grinders are considered to be entry level yet espresso capable grinders - if the Krups can too for only $99 then the entry price for a capable electric espresso grinder would drop from the $250 - $299 range to only $99 - a huge drop.

150 watts - strong enough for light home use.



A grounds bin, brush, rubber snout, and two sizes of portafilter holders - looks like 53mm & 58mm



The spring loaded hopper closes when you take it off the grinder.



The Burrs:



The mount for the inner/lower burr:



Close up of the burrs - coffee dust, not rust :



Grind retention - 17.1g in and 16.7g out - The beans got into second crack by mistake...



Powdery grinds (Preciso bin, btw) - but is it fine enough?



Yep - it's fine enough.



Tasty home roasted Sumatra Aceh Dry hulled Burkit coffee in the glass.



In conclusion, this grinder is capable. I can't speak to the longevity but the build quality is good - the body is metal, the metal toggle power switch (looks like the ones on my Quick Mill Silvano) has a nice feel, a removable rubber black mat under the portafilter holder makes clean up easy, and the grind quality is acceptable for espresso.

I did have to create a spacer to gain enough range to grind fine enough for espresso - Krups doesn't offer any information online but the Sunbeam pdf (from the manufacturer - not a mod) I found on Coffeesnobs.au shows how to install these and it took all of five minutes tops to complete. here is a link to the file:

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/attachments/E..._Guide.PDF

Here is a link to a 76 page thread about the Graef CM80 (Google translate is wonderful, btw) from the European coffee enthusiast site Kaffee-Netz:

http://www.kaffee-netz.de/m-hlen/33530-...-cm80.html

Thanks for the post!

Good price point, and looks like great bang for the buck grinder for those with a tight budget.
As a point of interest, how large are the burrs exactly?

You are welcome. I know better grinders exist, but none for close to $99 that I can find for sale.

From the Graef website: The conical burr grinder consists of a chrome-alloyed, stainless steel. I would guess these are 38mm burrs - they look similar in size and appearance to the 38mm set on my Maestro.

Krups does not list this product yet (Macy's does though) and the description is incorrect since the body is not steel but is in fact aluminum.

Too bad they missed the boat by making it stepped. Looks pretty decent for the price though.

The steps are small but yes, stepped none the less - at least with out a simple modification.

This information from Kaffee-Netz (edited from Googlish to English) discusses the steps from an interesting perspective.

The mill has 25 steps. These are distributed over 1/5th or 72 ° of a complete cone rotation. So if you could adjust the mill over a complete rotation of the cone, as for example in the Gastro (and other brands) mills is the equivalent of 125 steps in one complete rotation in the Graef on one turn.

What exactly makes it stepped anyway? It marks steps when these ridges:



meets this pin:



The pin is spring loaded - attached to this external release button to allow for fast removal of the top of the burr chamber.



Interestingly, there is no interlock attached. The grinder will run with this button held in but the top is threaded in so it can't come off when set in the grinding range.

Add a piece of tape over that release button and the steps are gone.

What is the noise level compared to other small espresso grinders, like a Nemox Lux?

Randy G. wrote:Too bad they missed the boat by making it stepped. Looks pretty decent for the price though.

125 steps / rotation is plenty, assuming the pitch on the adjustment is shallow enough. If the adjustment pitch is steep, stepless is of little advantage.

Sounds like a real bargain for $99! The shot above certainly looks good. How does the espresso taste?

Nice first look and an interesting grinder at a good price point.

Did you look at what difference in shot time you would get for a step above and a step below the dialed in point?

yakster wrote:Did you look at what difference in shot time you would get for a step above and a step below the dialed in point?

Excellent question. Should have been a Poll..

They could have put the "detents" on as a separate piece like a "rack" and had a lever or knob to move the rack back and forth for a fine adjustment. From the looks of the burrs, with that one change they could have dominated the entry-level espresso grinder market... Did I say "Dominated"? More like ruled it like a despot!