Great conical burr coffee grinder to get you making nice espresso. This grinder has been a top performer in Choice reviews. Note this grinder is at its best after simple modding to make the grind finer. I have had this for 2+ years and it has been a solid and reliable performer. Modding info here: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/grinders/26264-breville-bcg450-mod…
Can't find it at that price at the moment. I'd like to upgrade.
$145 where?
and you didn't post it here? :)
Yep exactly…Please post it on OzB Coley. I can't find a price anywhere near that for the BCG800 at the moment.
Standard price on Ebay, and even slightly cheaper.
Although BCG450 is cleaner, however a better one at grinding are: Sunbeam EM0440 for approx the same price.
For the $4 difference I recon most people would prefer bricks and mortar Target over ebay -I know I would at any rate.
Lol if it was modded though, it doesn't matter where you got it, warranty is voided. However Target staff are usually pretty stupid and will just accept it back without checking anything.
I can vouch for the modding. Once you mod this machine it grinds coffee so fine that you can snort it.
However, if you don't want to mod and you want to use it for espresso machines then give this a miss. Useless.
I have been looking at this unit…is there anyone who has this and the Sunbeam EM0440 that can give a comparison?
How does this compare to those $1000 grinders they keep marketing at barista functions?
I suspect many have similar conical bur setups -so in the Breville you do get quite good value. However, in the expensive ones you may get the grinder components made out of ceramic rather than stainless steel, as well as a larger range of grind settings, with more precise control on the fineness. The will also have a better setup with regards to direct grinding into the basket/group handle. Some will also dispense fixed amounts of ground coffee for shot consistency. The BCG800 has many of the features of the expensive grinders at a very decent price.
I'm not sure which grinders you are referring to but I'll hazard a guess that those have larger burrs (>58mm), stronger motors that can grind kilos of coffee without stopping, don't run at high rpm to limit heat transfer, may have dosers or timed/volumetric dosing, grind consistently and have stepless adjustments. They can probably go fine enough for Turkish coffee.
The BCG450 is can't even do espresso grind.
Depending on how "into" coffee you are, the smart grinder is a better grinder and not much more coin.
http://www.breville.com.au/the-smart-grindertm.html
I got mine for $145 around 6 months ago, the big retailers can move a long way on the price on these. Can even get it free with some of the espresso machines.