Amazon.com: Customer reviews: OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

Great coffee grinder and Great customer service

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

The product is quieter than previous products we have purchased. It is easy to set to the grind you prefer and provides a consistent grind.
I am writing this review about 14 months after purchase. The grinder just stopped grinding one day about 14 months after purchasing. We used it daily, cleaned as directed and when it stopped grinding there was an audible cracking sound. I contacted the customer service number listed in the product instructions and a very helpful agent assisted me with troubleshooting. After finding the grinder wasn’t working, they helped me with returning my he grinder for free replacement per its 2 year warranty. I received my replacement today, it took about 1 week.
I did not encounter any issues with customer service, no long waits , and I am completely satisfied.
I’m posting today because of previous posts from folks who reported poor customer service. That has not been my experience!
I am a very happy customer!

4 people found this helpful

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Maradon

Excellent grinder. Only minor flaws.

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2019

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

(I am an ex professional barista.)

CONS:

-The grounds container doesn't lock into place and will sometimes vibrate out during grinding. This is the only serious flaw with the product, and I feel it's a minor one. I've gone through many of the reviews and it seems that it's simply a matter of construction inconsistency. Most people's containers "click" into place; a minority do not. I was just unlucky enough to get one of the ones that don't.

-You can't remove the bottom burr to clean it. They really did do their best to make this easy to clean and I appreciate that you don't have to undo a bunch of microscopic screws just to clean your burrs, but I really wish I could remove BOTH burrs to give them a thorough wipe-down. It's difficult to clean the one that's stuck inside the grinder. The other lifts out easily by a cute little handle.

PROS:

-High quality, consistent grind. The brewing methods I use most all hover around the medium grind range, so I haven't really tested the extremes of coarse and fine. Can't speak to those. But as far as the medium ranges, it grinds beautifully and consistently. That's what matters in the end, right?

-The beans feed very well, even for single dosing. Never an issue.

-As mentioned above, the ability to clean the grinder is taken into account in the construction. No need to delicately deconstruct the whole thing and keep track of a bunch of itty bitty screws and springs. The top part of the grinder and the top burr simply turn-and-lift out, and then turn-and-lock back into place. So nice.

-It's aesthetically pleasing and takes up little room on the counter. All the materials have a quality feel.

-It isn't super noisy. All grinders are gonna make noise, to be sure, but as far as grinders go, this one has a pretty gentle sound. I've definitely used my fair share of grinders that made me feel like my brain was going to vibrate out of my skull, and this one has a polite hum by comparison.

-The price for this level of quality is unbeatable. I can't even believe I paid less than one hundred dollars for this. Real talk, folks: these are steel conical burrs. Solid construction. 40+ grind settings. Did I mention steel conical burrs? I never thought I would own something like this for less than $250. You cannot beat this price point/quality intersection. You just can't. This grinder is price-meets-quality king.

USAGE:

You're working with three variables: time, grind, and amount. There are two popular approaches to working out your dose.

Method 1: You leave 'amount' as the open variable. With this method, you dump all your beans in the hopper and store them there. You then adjust grind and time until you're getting the right dose at the right grind level.

Method 2: You leave 'time' as the open variable. With this method, you only deposit the amount of beans you plan to use for each dose, adjust the grind as needed, and let it take whatever amount of time it takes. You're adjusting the amount and the grind, rather than adjusting the grind and the time. (This is called "single dosing.")

Go to any coffee forum, and you'll be pages of debate about which of these methods is superior. Honestly, you should use the method that feels best for YOU.

The reason I bring it up here is because people seem anxious that Method #2 will damage the burrs over time, since you run them all the way to empty every time you grind.

Here's my take: I use Method #2, because I feel that the beans start to taste stale if left in the hopper. (Everyone's tastebuds are different; there's no right or wrong.) This means that I let the burrs run until I hear the sound change from a low growl to a high pitched growl, which indicates that the burrs are grinding empty, and then I manually stop the grind.

I honestly don't see any issue with this, and I don't feel any anxiety about it. Think about it: if you're cleaning the burrs between bean swaps, you're letting them run for several seconds on empty anyway. Even the manufacturer instructions tell you to do this when cleaning the burrs! The only difference here is that instead of intentionally running them on empty for several seconds to clean them, you're running them on empty for one single second every day/dose. I'd never recommend doing that on a fine espresso setting, but as long as you're in the medium-to-coarse range, I don't see any possible ways the burrs could damage each other. There's no way the burrs are touching at that distance, regardless of variables like heat expanding the metal and other things coffee nerds like to debate about.

I hope this review was helpful. I'll update in a year to let you know if this grinder held up through daily use.

3,723 people found this helpful

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S. Johnson

Seems to be a well made machine!

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

Our previous coffee grinder was the "Cuisinart Supreme Grind", in fact, we had 2 of them (they were gifts). So that's my reference. They were loud, the reservoir for the ground coffee was plastic and prone to static buildup, and they did not last very long.

After checking CR, I bought the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder to replace the second (dying) Cuisinart.

The OXO is *much* quieter, smoother operating, and the reservoir is stainless steel which does not have a 'static cling' problem.

As an electro-mechanical technician, I appreciate the way the OXO operates. One thing that's helpful is the distinct change in the sound when the last of the coffee beans are ground. That indicates that the timer is set correctly (for 1/4 cup of beans I set it for about 11 seconds).

As the title says, it seems to be a well made machine. I said "seems" because as with all product reviews, this one is being written shortly after receiving it. It would be VERY helpful if -- in addition to initial impressions -- Amazon and other retailers would request reviews 1/2/3 years after the product was purchased.

20 people found this helpful

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Chris D

It’s a great appliance

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

We’ve had this for four weeks or so, and love it. We have had a Cuisinart burr-grinder coffeemaker for a long time, and had become increasingly disappointed with it because its grinder frequently jams with beans such that little ground coffee makes it to the filter basket, and - even when it ground perfectly - the coffee tasted weak.

Now, with the OXO grinder we can now get finer-ground coffee, and can control how much we grind. Using the Cuisinart just as a straight filter coffeemaker with the grind turned off, we are getting perfect strong coffee. It’s a whole lot quieter than the Cuisinart, too.

The only problem so far is that that flimsy smoked plastic cover on the grind pot cracked in the first week. Doesn’t affect anything; it just doesn’t look so pretty any more.

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Xinru li

Well designed

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

Great design, the machine itself and all the parts come with it are very solid, it will last a long time, plus the grinding is quiet and the cleaning is easy. Am very happy so far with the machine ,and consider it’s a good investment. One note, I wish a brush to clean the inside is included.

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Sophie

Quiet, cute, and functional

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

Love this coffee grinder! It is sleek looking, works great to grind your coffee beans, and oh so quiet. I had a perfectly functional grinder before this one but it drove my partner (and potentially next door neighbors) crazy with the noisiness. This grinder is certainly not silent, but it significantly quieter than any other grinder I've used. I love the easy dial for "number of seconds to grind" which makes it easy to conceptualize how much ground coffee you'll end up with. I also love the "start" button, it's satisfying to push. Originally I was confused by the fact that the grounds container just sits in its spot, it doesn't snap or click into place in any obvious way, but it does make it easy to take out and put in. I can't say I'm a coffee connoisseur but my pour over coffee tastes just right after using this grinder!

I highly recommend, and even though it's $20-$40 more than other grinders that may look similar, I swear it's worth it (I've owned those other grinders before, and will not be going back). Great product, and it shows no wear or tear after 5 months of daily use!

10 people found this helpful

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designmom

Most Disappointing Coffee Product I Have Ever Purchased

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2018

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

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To be as blunt and simple as possible, the OXO BREW Conical Burr Grinder is the worst product I have ever purchased online through Amazon. Furthermore, my wife has been in contact via email with OXO's customer support team about the poor quality of this product, and their support team refuses to either refund or replace the product. We have provided them with both videos and photos showing that the unit functions either very poorly or does not function at all without lots of troubleshooting. Yet, their engineers have responded saying that the unit appears to be functioning "normally" in the videos (one of which I will attach to this review). However, at this point the unit does not work without quite a bit of frustration--plugging and unplugging multiple times or sweeping out the burrs multiple times just to grind enough beans for a pour over coffee. Even though I have only owned this unit for one month, I see no other solution than to place this unit in the trash and buy a more expensive unit from another manufacturer. I am an avid home coffee brewer, and I have owned other coffee products from Bonavita, Hario, Mr. Coffee, Cuisinart, and OXO. I can say unequivocally, this OXO burr grinder is the worst coffee product I have ever owned or purchased. I will attach video and photographic proof that the unit does not work correctly and will explain further below the problems with the unit.

Initially, the unit worked great. For the first week, the unit produced a reliable and consistent grind of Trader Joe's Ethiopian beans (~$8.99 a bag). Then, the trouble started the second week when I began grinding Stumptown Hair Bender beans (~$15.99 a bag). The unit jammed mid-cycle for the first time. The button on the front of the unit would not start the motor so I tried troubleshooting the unit in multiple ways, following the instructions in the owner's manual. I unplugged it and plugged it back in--start button still did not work. I opened the bean hopper and nothing appeared jammed. So finally I opened up the burrs and swept them out. When I put the unit back together, it worked, and I thought the problem was solved. However, over the next week, the unit kept jamming every time I used it with the Stumptown beans. Sometimes it would jam multiple times in a row. Each time I had to open the unit and sweep out the burrs to get it to work. This process, while being extremely frustrating and time-consuming, also caused the unit to produce an inconsistent grind size. I've attached a picture showing that I get chunks of beans in my pour over because I have to play an elaborate game with the machine just to get it to function. For a unit that regularly retails for around $100, this is absolutely unacceptable for a new product. Furthermore, if a $100 burr grinder cannot be used on a premium product like Stumptown, then that grinder is entirely worthless to coffee enthusiasts.

After I finished the bag of Stumptown coffee, I tried the grinder again on the Trader Joe's beans (since those beans had initially worked well with the unit). Now, I began experiencing the same problems with Trader Joe's. In order to grind 5 scoops of beans for one large pour over coffee, I had to either: (1) Open and sweep the burrs multiple times or (2) Plug and unplug the unit multiple times because it grinds for about 3 seconds before jamming even when the timer is set on 30 seconds. I have attached a video showing the unit functioning in this way. In the video, you will see the game I have to play just to grind beans using a unit that was purchased only 3 weeks prior.

Here's my personal thought regarding the performance issues of the machine. I assume the motor has a fail-safe feature designed to stop the motor in event that it becomes clogged. This would prevent the motor from being damaged if a very small stone or an extremely hard bean got stuck in the burrs (which can happen on a rare occasion). My guess is that this setting isn't quite right in my unit and that the unit stops every time there is the tiniest bit of resistance on the motor. This would explain why I have to unplug the unit multiple times just to completely grind a cup of beans. Either way, it is entirely unreasonable for OXO to expect users to have to troubleshoot a new unit with such frequency as a part of the unit's "normal" functioning.

Currently, OXO does not want to address my concerns with this unit so I have decided to place this negative review. I've never felt compelled before to write a negative review on Amazon. Hopefully, they will decide to improve the product and respond to customer concerns. At this point, I cannot recommend this product to any other buyer, and I will no longer purchase any kitchen or coffee products manufactured by OXO. Finally, I've decided I don't even want a replacement for this unit. Even if OXO offered to replace it, I would refuse. That alone shows my level of disappointment with the product. The overall build quality feels cheap to me, especially the timer and start button on the front. I owned an entry-level Mr. Coffee burr grinder (~$30) for 7 years that "felt" better--button quality, weight of product, sound of motor, etc. If OXO decides to respond to my concerns, I will only accept a full refund for the purchase price of the product so that I can purchase another unit from a different manufacturer.

UPDATE: OXO finally agreed to refund us the purchase price of the unit after I posted this negative review and video on Amazon. The refund process took some time, but we did eventually get a check in the mail for the full purchase price of the unit. We will explore other options for a replacement unit.

779 people found this helpful

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Steve

Simple, effective, great value for money.

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: Matte BlackVerified Purchase

This is a review of the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder purchased on Amazon

-Value/features for price: great (on the lower end price of burr ginders)
-Overall effectiveness of product: excellent
-Simplicity: excellent

This is a simple to operate machine for grinding beans at home.

Why do you need a grinder at all, and why a burr grinder? If you are a daily coffee drinker, particularly making a cup or two each day, you want to get the freshest grounds you can before making each pot of coffee. Pre-ground coffee does't last as long, and can lose its flavor in a couple of weeks after it's opened; the grounds start to oxidize pretty much right after you grind it. Before buying this grinder, I was using a blade grinder, which functioned great for years and years, but produced irregular grind results that could sometimes leave too much sediment in the coffee, or be too course to make a strong enough cup. The Oxo burr grinder solves this problem by letting you dial exactly how course or fine you want the coffee, and what amount of grounds you need for a single brew batch. I make pour-over drip coffee, so a setting of 7-9 works best for the beans I use and I get consistent results each time.

Simplicity. You put fresh beans in the top, set your grind setting, set the timer, and press the button That's it- the grind and timer settings stay the same until you change them. The instructions give you some guidelines on a range of grind settings for making espresso, drip, coldbrew, etc., but there is little information on how long to set the grind timer (they suggest trial and error). The timer simply determines how long the grinder will grind whatever is in the hopper, so you can grind just enough coffee for that one use and not have extra grounds that start to go stale. For me, I use enough grounds to make about 1.5 cups of very strong coffee, and that equals about 23-25 grams of coffee. At a grind setting of "7" it takes the grinder about 15 seconds to make this amount based on the type of beans I use.

My only minor criticism of the grinder is there are no instructions with a table to estimate the timer settings, so you have to do this yourself, and to be accurate, you'll need a small kitchen scale that can weigh grams and then play around with how long it takes the grinder to produce the amount you need for your perfect brew. To be clear, the "timer" is only a manually set operating timer, not a programmable timer that turns the grinder on/off at a preset time. Also, there is no brush for cleaning the burrs included with the grinder, so you'll need to buy one or use a new toothbrush to clean the lower burrs. The top burr ring easily detaches from the grinder with a small steel wire handle, to facilitate cleaning.

To summarize, a great product for the money, once you figure out your ideal grind setting and how much coffee to grind, you'll be off and running.

One person found this helpful

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Christopher Sqwaukin'

Look no further, spend no more or less, this is it!

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

For years I used blade grinders, and went through a few of them. One day the coffee was good another bad. I assume depending on how long you grind. You wind up with coffee thats a mixed bag of coarse to dust fine. Sometimes it tasted like absoulute crap, and with the price of good coffeee going up and up, and it gets expensive to be pouring pots of coffee down the drain! One grinder I had that died had a timer, but I thought I"d try to find it again. That was in the 1980's, I think it was like 8 bucks! Ha! So after researching a bit and arrving at the idea that perhaps a burr grinder was the thing I needed, I bought the Hamilton Beach unit for $40. It spun wildly half the time, not grinding anything and a different amount each time coming out, so the settings on it were pretty useless. The hopper also didn't hold much coffee, and required constantly refilling. And you often had to shake it to get it to feed the beans. DING NEXT! So next up was the Cuisinart for $5 more. With the grind set to fine, the bean hopper sits at a very odd angle, which the OCD wifey just hated. But after a short while the coffee started not tasting good. I endeavored to clean it and discovered you couldn't clean it for crap without disassembling it, and that many other people had the same experience and sent it back or ground rice through it to clean it. At the least with the Hamilton Beach you could remove the grinding burr to clean it but not the Cuissinart. It was hard to get the coffee into the filter without making a mess, coffee stuck all over the output hopper. But it would supposedly grind up to 18 cups worth of cofee at a time. Not hardly! I had to grind 24 cups worth to get 14 cups worth, and full carafe in our coffee maker. Not happy! DING NEXT! I began to wonder if Consumers Reports had tested coffee grinders and they had. The OXO was one of their top picks, and it was on sale for 80 bucks on Amazon. OK, now I'm up to 80 bucks, but all the reviews were great, no static, perfect grind, long life, good customer support, no dust, etc etc etc. So I took the plung and I do not regret it. I have a few OXO hand tools but didn't know they made such well designed small kitchen appliances as well. Anyway, I see it's a $100 now but probably the last coffee grinder you'll ever need. After some experimenting I determined 20 seconds x2 was enough to get the 14 cups of ground coffee I needed. It grind consistanly, the same amount every time, I never have to adjust it. I know this because I use the filters that have cup markings on them. And fairly quiet unlike the major racket the cuisinart made! The ground coffee comes out easily from output hopper, and you can remove the blade to clean it mostly. I love this thing. I hope it lasts many years to come, the coffee is SO consistantly good, it's almost boring! HA! Guess I'll have to try something other than Sumatra for a while. Sumatra is truely the best coffee in the morning on an empty stomach. Get the OXO conical grinder, you won't regret it!

16 people found this helpful

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Tracy T

Great while it lasts - Positive Post Update

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2024

Size: One SizeColor: SilverVerified Purchase

Changed rating from 2 star to 4 star. Following the original post, I spoke with OXO customer service and provided some insights on how to proceed. They also sent a form to fill out to get a free replacement, if we failed to fix it. The coffee grinder was fixed. The key action that was required was to use a medium size paper clip to open up the the coffee route. The path had to be cleaned from both sides. The biggest issue appeared to be at the canister side. However, using the paper clip with a small 90 degree angle at its tip and several rotations later, the path was fully cleared. After that, the coffee grinder returned to its proper operational state. Overall, it is an excellent coffee grinder. We will update after a year of use.

Original post below

This was purchased after a recommendation from NYT Wirecutter. The unit looks great and grinds perfectly at all settings, while it works. The issue is that after 4 months of operation (3-4 times per week) it stopped grinding. We followed the instructions and cleaned all coffee residue up (very easy process) but the grinder would continue to jam and not grind coffee. We hear the motor run, but no coffee out.

We noticed that the problems began when I started using the finer grounding setting. It may be coincidental. I do not know if it is a problem with the burr or something else. The bottom line is that the product after 4 months is not usable. Now, we need to deal with OXO customer service for replacement or our money back. I will come back with progress on this matter. Theoretically, it has 2 years warranty.

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OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder - Matte Black

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