Baratza G285 Maestro Coffee Grinder  Product Reviews

"When I decided to buy a coffee grinder and espresso machine, I researched and read reviews and thought "This is the one!" Unfortunately, it never lived up to its name. After the first few weeks, it wouldn't grind unless you constantly jiggled it to get the beans to seat in the grinder. Yes, I took it apart and cleaned and dried it as per manufacturer's instructions, but it would NEVER grind the beans very fine. I like espresso type grind but had to settle for the coarsest grind it did. As the months wore on, it just got worse. I finally got to the point where I had to use a wooden spoon handle to force the beans into the grinder. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I had spent $140 on this thing and I didn't want to just throw it away. Maybe if you used an extremely "dry" or slightly undercooked roast, it would work better? This used to be made by Solis. I would NEVER recommend their coffee grinders. I do have a Solis espresso machine that I purchased at the same time as the coffee grinder and it works well."

"I love my coffee grinder. It grinds the beans very fine, so you can enjoy the taste of the coffee. It is the most "quiet" coffee grinder that I have ever owned. Thank you!"

"I bought the Solis Maestro (not the plus - much difference?) and promptly filled the bean hopper about 1/4 full with Starbuck's espresso coffee beans only to have it hang up 3 times before it finally finished them off with annoying cleaning and bean rearangement in the maintime. By hang up, I mean the grinder was grinding but no beans were moving or being ground. I had to unplug the machine and manually move the beans with my finger to get the machine running again. Apparently a design flaw allows the oily beans to stick together enough not to feed well. The machine did sound good (not noisy) and did a good job of grinding when it worked. If you don't want espresso (which this machine is supposed to be designed for) it may be a good machine for you. I can't imagine that Solis didn't correct their design flaw with their new Maestro plus but I wouldn't count on it. Better check the new Solis Maestro PLUS machine's feedback if you have your heart set on this machine!"

"I don't do Espresso so can't comment on the finer settings, but the coarse grind (I use a Bodum press pot) works great. This unit is much better than the Capresso unit it is replacing. There is much less static electricity than the Capresso unit. If I grind when I start the water boiling, none of the ground coffee sticks to the side of the collection unit. By the time the water is boiled, a gentle tap of the collection unit spills all of the ground coffee into the press pot. Highly recommended, it would probably rate 5 stars but I only give 5 stars to perfect units and nothing is perfect. Buy it, you won't be sorry."