AFL Products Stainless Steel Manual Coffee Grinder with Hand Crank, Brush, Bag and Ceramic Burr

This grinder is awesome! It is very easy to use. It is simple to assemble and start grinding. The grinder adjusts for different size grind. I use a fine grind for the press coffee, but I was able to create many other sizes with a simple adjustment. The bottom of the grinder is a cup to collect the coffee and it has a little window so that you can see your progress. Very, very nice touch!The weather in the Northeastern US has been terrible lately and as a result we lose power on a regular basis. I am an avid coffee-lover and insist on fresh ground. This is a great way to enjoy coffee right up to the point when the power is out in the morning! At that point - it's a BIG problem. My Power Outage Coffee Kit is complete now that I have received this key item - the coffee grinder. I love that I won't have to worry about going hunting for nasty convenience store coffee because I can't grind my own in an outage - or, worse, use my mortar and pestle (yes, it works, but now I don't have to).This grinder will also be a central part of my camping and travel kit. Of course it will be great while camping and electricity isn't an option, but I can even imagine using it in a hotel instead of those horrid packs of pre-ground coffee for the in-room coffee maker. It's much easier to pack than an electric grinder.The product was very well packaged and the bag that comes with it will help keep the pieces together when it is packed.

The knob to change grind settings does not work properly. Sometimes turning the knob does not adjust the setting. Also, there is no audible sound when it turns so I can't know how many "clicks" it went. This would not be an issue if I always left the grinder on the same setting. But I go back and forth daily between french press coarseness and moka pot coarseness. I cannot accurately move between the two settings, I have to guess each time and grind a couple beans to test the fineness.It grinds well so it is a good value if you don't need to change the settings ever. But not very usable if you adjust coarseness on a regular basis.

If you occasionally like to have fresh ground coffee, this is it. Inexpensive but well made, easy to use, easy to adjust the grind, simple in nature but does the trick. On the other hand, if you do a lot of coffee grinding, get a good quality electric conical burr grinder. The hand grinders are great for small amounts, or taking with you on trips, but not for grinding a lot of coffee. For my needs, it's perfect and I'm very happy with it!

January 2016This is a terrific grinder for peppercorns. Right out of the box it was set on fine grind, just the way I like. Just 3 or 4 turns of the handle produces the same amount as 60 turns of a grocery store pepper/grinder combo.The only con is after about 4 months of daily usage the black plastic insert which goes inside the inner ceramic grinder (on the shaft) splits in half and will no longer be driven by turning the shaft.I contacted AFL Products via Seller Feedback here at Amazon - I received a letter of apology and was told a new grinder has been shipped to me._______________________Update 6-20-2016I have received my new grinder within just a few days - at no charge , per AFL's 100% Guarantee Warranty - a complete new package like my original order._______________________Update 1-26-2017Replacement grinder has broken - the same plastic part which broke in the first grinder. I will return to using grocery store peppercorn/grinder combo units at $1.98 each.

The grinder works very well for the price but the handle doesn't stay on the grinder and it smells like machine oil when you take it out of the box. I purchased it to grind pepper for cooking when I need a lot fast and it works great for my purpose. I did try coffee in it also and it works fine for what it is.

***UPDATE 10/9/17***After using this grinder almost daily since purchasing it, I had to deduct a star for one reason: grind consistency. the little burr wobbles out of position and creates the dreaded boulder and fines combo. I thought something was wrong when I was getting sludge in my cup using an aeropress with a paper filter. there must be a way to stabilize it, and I am going to look into that. despite this, it is a solid 4 stars because it is easy to use, clean, and its form factor allows me to bring it wherever. as I am getting more "into" coffee, this will be relegated to travel and taking to work (unless the burr spacing issue can be resolved)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PACKAGING - the grinder and handle were nicely wrapped with bubble wrap inside of the box, and this ensured they arrived in perfect condition (not even a scratch). the brush was also sealed in a plastic wrapper which shows it wasn't just a "toss it in" afterthought. in fact, everything fit perfectly inside of the box.GRINDING PROCESS - I don't know if it was mentioned, but the hopper can hold approximately 32 grams of coffee beans (because you all are weighing and using ratios, right? ;-) perfect!) without having to pack it in there. FYI, this would be enough for just about 3 cups of brewed coffee using my preferred 16:1 for a French Press. not bad for such a compact grinder.the grind size adjustment nut spins easily, but with enough resistance that it shouldn't loosen mid-grind (at least not for quite some time). there are no markings, just trial and error to get the size you are shooting for.speaking of spinning easily, the actual effort of grinding is surprisingly smooth. never having used a manual grinder before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but the construction of this unit made it quite an easy. the handle slides on perfectly, and once you get your technique down after a few cranks, I highly doubt there will be much slipping of the handle off the grinder. the metal arm of the crank handle is thicker than I expected, so it should not warp (again, for at least quite some time)now I said it was easy, but it isn't fast by any means if you are coming from an electric grinder. with a steady, not-rushing-it, cranking pace, I went through 25 grams of beans in roughly 75-90 seconds for a course grind setting. this process will obviously take longer as the grind size gets smaller. if you are going to do a full pot or a batch of cold brew, be ready to invest 5+ minutes and have a nice little upper body work out while you are at itTHE GRIND - pretty even I have to say. I messed around with different sizes, and the medium to course settings that I am going to be primarily using looked really good. coming from a blade grinder to this unit, the sludge in my French Press was reduced dramatically.CLEAN UP - for now I have just blown out and wiped down the unit using the supplied brush. this gets just about everything, I will say "clean-ish", and ready for the next session. however, I do plan to do a more thorough cleaning periodically to keep this unit looking and operating well for as long as possibleOVERALL - taking everything into account (price, usage, result), this is an awesome purchase for someone looking to up their coffee game. I didn't know what I was missing for the past decade of using my (now for spices) blade grinder. the ability to control the size of my grinds has been a revelation and giving me better brews. my intention with this purchase was to see if the "burr thing" was worth it, and it definitely is. the construction of this unit makes me want to use it every day, and I do plan on traveling with it. might this lead into a "better" grinder? yeah maybe. but until this thing breaks, I see no reason to move away from it based on the amount of beans I typically need.