I Just Ordered A Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

Well folks, it finally happened. My Black And Decker portable coffee grinder gave me almost 13-years of service, it lived a long life. And while I am sure it wanted to carry me through the Christmas season, it decided in its own strange wisdom, to let out the ozone smoke, indicating and concreting its way to electronics death. It was willing to send its soul off to electronics heaven, because it knew that the best thing for me, was to get my first quality but yet very quite affordable, coffee grinder.

And while I do admire its wisdom in doing so, I just wish it waited till it was done with the job before dying. Have you ever tried to manually mash coffee beans with a utensil to get them to a medium grind? Well, lets just say we take coffee grinders for granted, its not fun manually doing it with a tool. We have talked about this coffee grinder before on the forum, and I did inform you fine folks here at the wonderful B&B Cafe, that I was going to get this coffee grinder, once my old one gave up the ghost.

@APBinNCA I'm pretty sure that you have used this coffee grinder before, what say you?

And please, any of you who own this coffee grinder, please, by all means, tell me what you think of this coffee grinder, and how well that its done for you. Lets share!

 

[APBinNCA]

It should work fine for you, a little bit noisy. What you need is a little spray bottle and distilled water(keep it next to the grinder). If you single serving dose your coffee, just give it a spritz to cut down the static. If you keep coffee stored in the hopper... good luck! You don't want to leave moisture in there and rust the burrs. Keep a close eye on any crevice that is exposed to ground coffee and proactively keep it brushed/banged/blown out. The burrs will last about 5 years give or take and at that point, you can decide if it's worth it. It will make a ton of fines everywhere when they are worn out.

 

[Mick]

I had one For a while (wife brought it home from a thrift store).

Good entry level grinder. Works best for filtered coffee. Ceramic burrs on the small side so watch heat build up (don't grind a lot at one time)

 

[Phoenixkh]

I grind mine on the 8 setting for volume... I'm not sure if that is too much at a time. We've had ours for years now... let me look: December of 2016. I do use it for filtered coffee, not French Press. I love the idea of the more expensive ones but since I only drink filtered coffee, they might be overkill for me.

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

It should work fine for you, a little bit noisy. What you need is a little spray bottle and distilled water(keep it next to the grinder). If you single serving dose your coffee, just give it a spritz to cut down the static. If you keep coffee stored in the hopper... good luck! You don't want to leave moisture in there and rust the burrs. Keep a close eye on any crevice that is exposed to ground coffee and proactively keep it brushed/banged/blown out. The burrs will last about 5 years give or take and at that point, you can decide if it's worth it. It will make a ton of fines everywhere when they are worn out.

I'm aware it is a loud grinder, when I watched a few YouTube videos on it, I was like, get me a flight deck helmet with hearing protection, cause this sucker sounds like it's about to take off.

If I have serious problems with static, I'll be sure to spray them beans down like a firefighter sprays down an area to keep embers from igniting a new wildfire.

If there is moisture, I'll banish it into the metaverse, problem will be solved.

I have an wall powered air blower that would blow the snot out of a rhinoceros, so it surely could handle cleaning my grinder, just don't call it Shirley, I'd hate to give it a complex.

I had one For a while (wife brought it home from a thrift store).

Good entry level grinder. Works best for filtered coffee. Ceramic burrs on the small side so watch heat build up (don't grind a lot at one time)

I will be using mine for filtered coffee indeed. Would running it for 12-cups at one time to be too much? I sure hope not! Ceramics like to retain heat, I have a shave scuttle, so I know lol

If indeed the ceramic burr gets heated up, I'll have to send it a message to chill. Thanks for the advice folks, much appreciated

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

I grind mine on the 8 setting for volume... I'm not sure if that is too much at a time. We've had ours for years now... let me look: December of 2016. I do use it for filtered coffee, not French Press. I love the idea of the more expensive ones but since I only drink filtered coffee, they might be overkill for me.

I completely agree about overkill. I usually say there's no kill like overkill. And you folks know I'm not really that frugal of a person. I mean, look at my avatar if you need proof of that lol.

Having said that however, I'm using a Hamilton Beach 49987 The Scoop single serve coffee brewer, it uses a dual stage mesh permanent filter system. With my setup, I'd be running it at a medium grind.

Even if I use my coffee percolator instead, I'd still be running a medium grind for that. Both DRIP and Percolation, like it at medium. I'd run grinder for 12-cups for my percolator pot, and 4-cuos would be too much for single serve DRIP, so I'd have done left over.

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

Hello everyone, how was your coffee grind today, and what grinder did you use?

One of the things I learned after coming to B&B, is that the coffee grinder that one uses, is more important that the brewer. Because depending on how well the grind comes out, is how the brewer is going to be able to extract the coffee from the grinds, thus impacting the flavor. The things you learn. On that note, in 5-years when my Cuisinart ceramic burrs wears out, I am planning to buy an Baratza Encore grinder.

But guess what came in the mail today folks? Yep, my new coffee grinder showed up WOOHOO!

This may be a cheap consumer grinder, but it sure doesn't have cheap looks. I think this machine is slick and sexy. And it also weighs more then you'd might expect, 5.6 pounds. So, this unit has a 140-watt motor, which is about 70-watts more then my old blade grinder. The material makeup of this grinder is BPA free ABS plastic, and stainless steel. The hopper capacity holds up to 8 ounces of coffee beans, and the removable grind chamber, holds up to 32-cups of grounded beans.

The hopper also has an 18-position grind selector, from fine, to medium, to course, and anywhere in between. I use both DRIP and PERCOLATOR brewers, so I use the MEDIUM grind setting. The hopper lid fits into place snugly, but I must add that the handle is very difficult to grip, since the handle doesn't use a through hole design, and is super smooth glossy. I would have proffered a textured grip, so it was easier to grip with my fingers. I suppose I could fix this by using some fine grit sandpaper, to rough up the handle edges, that might work, and anything I do would be an improvement at this point.

The Cuisinart DBM-8 coffee mill grinder, most certainly has a sizable footprint, but no larger then most DRIP based coffee brewers, but most certainly larger then a Baratza grinder. The grounds chamber just pulls right out, and there is a dust control top that you have to remove, before you can empty the grinds, then just replace the top and push the grounds chamber back in. There are no controls on the front, sides, or rear of the unit. Keep in mind, this grinder uses a super short 24" cord, which will only reach an outlet that is near to it.

All the control functions, are located on the top of the unit. Set the grind level by rotating the hopper, it is super intuitive, even a novice could handle this. Set the level of cups worth of grinds, you want this grinder to produce, by picking the desired setting, using the slide switch. Then you just simply tap on the start bar, and the grinder automatically grinds the beans, until its internal timer runs out, for the desired setting, and then the grinder stops.

The Cuisinart DBM-8 uses 2 ceramic burrs that meet up with each other, that makes coffee beans quiver in fear, as the 2 pulverize and grind the beans into next week. This is most certainly not a high end option, as a professional conical burr would be better. Having said that however, ceramic burrs are indeed better then a blade grinder, because they do a more uniform grind. One thing I can confirm however, is the heat generated by these ceramic burrs, does indeed cause static. When you check the grounds chamber after doing a grind, you will find the grounds stuck to the container.

The grinder comes with a small scoop, that has a brush on the end. This is good, because I have been told, eventually, after running this thing for multiple grinds, the burr chamber will clog with grounds, and will need that brush to clear the area. Its just one of those things you have to deal with, if your going to buy a cheaper coffee grinder. For only a 60-dollar grinder, there are going to be some trade offs.

Using this coffee grinder is pretty easy, any beginner could do it. I think its an excellent entry level grinder for sure. It is noisy to operate, most certainly don't want to run it while someone is sleeping, unless they sleep by a white noise generator. Having said that however, it is less noisy then I had expected. The grounds generated by this were a bit finer then expected, set on the medium setting, but still perfectly usable. The static generation is annoying indeed, and this might make a PRO user run for a Baratza immediately. I have been told spraying down the beans with a sprayer, can help alleviate the static buildup.

Also the hopper lid is annoying to try to grip the handle, that is something to be aware of as well. All these negatives, will equal up to 1-star being dropped. Remember, I am coming from a portable blade grinder, so this machine is a considerable upgrade for me, so I am not too picky about it yet. There is another thing to consider, I prefer strong coffee, and this grinder doesn't make the required amount of cups worth of grinds I want, for a 12-pot percolator, using the 12-cup setting. If you like strong coffee like me, please consider using the 18-cup setting instead, otherwise your coffee might come out a bit weak.

This grinder gets out of stars.

 

[APBinNCA]

As I was reading this, I was thinking of something helpful that I previously forgot and you kind of got to it in the end. Unlike a whirly blade grinder where you need to shake it to get the beans heading toward their demise, you should resist shaking this thing while it is running, but you will get some missed beans. The trick is to first set it to the number you intended, let it run, flip it to 4 or 6, shake it a bit while off, run it until you are sure it's processed all the beans or it stops on it's own. Other grinders have a pulse function that you can use to clear missed beans so I came up with this when I needed to use one of these for a week. I need to get you a picture of the type of sprayer to use, don't use too much!

Something like this or smaller:

Amazon.com

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

As I was reading this, I was thinking of something helpful that I previously forgot and you kind of got to it in the end. Unlike a whirly blade grinder where you need to shake it to get the beans heading toward their demise, you should resist shaking this thing while it is running, but you will get some missed beans. The trick is to first set it to the number you intended, let it run, flip it to 4 or 6, shake it a bit while off, run it until you are sure it's processed all the beans or it stops on it's own. Other grinders have a pulse function that you can use to clear missed beans so I came up with this when I needed to use one of these for a week. I need to get you a picture of the type of sprayer to use, don't use too much!

Something like this or smaller:

Amazon.com

I think while looking at Baratza grinders, I remember one of them mentioning a pulse function. This might be the reason for such a feature. But I am still so new to this grinder life, having only come from as you put it, a whirly blade grinder, that I still have so much more to learn. I will say this, the more experience I get with grinders, the more I realize the features that I am missing, that I would like to have. But, as with all things in life, we start at the bottom, and we work out way up from there.

I've gone from a tier 1 grinder, to a tier 2 grinder. I can only go up from here lol. So I figure, I will struggle a bit with the missing features with this grinder for awhile, and while doing so, I will be saving up for a PRO grinder. While I have plans to get an Encore grinder in the future, I may get a Virtuoso+ or a Seti 30. The skies the limit when one is saving, and not being forced to make a snap judgement right away out of pure necessity.

Thanks for the tips as always buddy, I always appreciate your wisdom! Glad you liked the pictures too, I was happy how my MACRO shots of the ceramic burrs turned out.