I used this product for a few months, then experienced the same problem many other reviewers faced with the grinding bowl getting stuck in the unit. I gave up on it and put it in the cupboard, intending to contact Cuisinart about it and get it replaced under warranty. I went back to grinding my coffee at the supermarket (sacrilege, I know).

About a week ago, I picked up a bag of whole bean coffee and decided to give this thing another go. Miraculously, the grinding bowl came free with ease. I used it for about a week and then, sure enough, the grinding bowl is stuck again.

I've had enough - I'm totally done with this grinder. And now that I think about it, it never did a great job with the beans. The grind size was always inconsistent, no matter how many beans I put in the grinding bowl. Also, getting the cord back into the unit is a pain.

The only positive thing I can say about this is that it LOOKS great. If all you're looking for is a conversation piece, by all means buy this... but if you want to grind coffee beans, buy something else.

...Cuisinart was known for making excellent applicances, well-designed and durable. If this item is any indication, that time is receding rapidly into the mists of myth. While this is quite a sharp looking grinder, the grinding is not so sharp. It's impossible to produce a proper fine espresso grind. Furthermore, the grinder broke down after several uses: the motor simply seized. I was using the grinder properly, not over-filling. Cuisinart was good enough to send me a replacement...which also died a similar death after a few uses. The third one seems to be holding out thus far, but the motor seems to be becoming noisier with time, which does not bode well for the future. Not recommended.

I just tried this for the first time, and it doesn't work at all. At first the blades spun around but did not break up any beans, and then very quickly it smelled like it was overheating and now it doesn't work at all. The grinder lasted less than one minute, and ground nothing. I'm surprised since it's Cuisinart. I should've looked at the reviews on amazon firtst.

I bought this style with the silver retro look as it perfectly matches my Cuisinart coffee maker. The grinder is cute and small, doesn't take up much cabinet space at all! I am happy with my purchase. Giving it a 4 star as I don't understand why plastic lid which fits the grinder cup (and is intended for storage of coffee) couldn't have been made smaller so it could snap on the top and sit under the plastic dome top and on top of the grinder for storage of coffee for the next day.

To store the coffee, you have to take the cup out and then snap lid on and leave it sitting outside the grinder. So for that reason I give it 4 stars, a bit of a design flaw; the plastic lid is worthless to me and I'll probably never use it. Secondly, the cord isn't easy to push underneath the grinder for storing and hiding it. That doesn't bother me so much but it may bother others.

Other than these two notations, I am grinding beans daily and enjoying it!

I have to add my voice to the other negative reviews of this product. I've gone through several other small blade-type grinders from other maufacturers. The two best were made by Braun and each lasted about 10 years, at which time the blades self-destructed. I thought perhaps a slightly better grade of grinder would be preferable, and wanted one I could clean more thoroughly. A friend has the KitchenAid grinder with the removable bowl. I liked it, but couldn't find one locally. This Cuisinart was the closest I could get.

I grind coffee & spices. First, the spices. Although the description on this site states you can grind spices with it, the instructions specifically warn against doing so. It does a lousy job with them in any event, not getting them down to a fairly even powder, or even a reasonably even size. It does its primary job, grinding coffee, equally poorly. It takes twice as long (roughly 30 seconds) to grind 12 cups worth of beans to the same degree of fineness than did my old Braun grinder. Although the cup can hold 18 cups worth of beans, don't even try grinding them. They spill over the top as they are ground, leaving bits of ground coffee all over the outside of the cup, stuck to the plastic lid, exploding out of the container when you open it. As others have commented, the grind is uneven. Even at 30 seconds, while I end up with some coffee ground almost fine enough for Turkish coffee, I've got a lot of big (1/8 bean) chunks in the mix. Adding insult to injury, at least 80 percent of the time the grind chamber won't come off, so I'm left first to pour the ground coffee awkwardly from the grinder into my coffee container, then wipe it out as best I can without washing it, since the chamber is stuck. As a last straw, I have to put it away with the cord loosely wrapped around, because the opening into which one is instructed to push the cord is too small to accommodate it and the grinder is too bulky and big around for wrapping the cord around to work well.

In short, don't buy this product. Go buy the KitchenAid. It works beautifully, grinds evenly, comes apart with only a little pressure but never actually sticks. It lacks any way to stow the cord, but it's _round_, so it's easy to wrap the cord around it.

Motor burned out. Didn't last a month under light use. Didn't grind evenly. An awful product.

This coffee grinder looks great. The problem is the coffee is never ground evenly. There are always big chunks left even after grinding over 30 seconds. If you grind more then that the friction causes the coffee to heat up, so it is not really functional at all. Pre-ground coffee tastes better then anything ground with this machine.

This coffee grinder was purchased to replace an older Cuisinart dcg-12c grinder. The older grinder was not inoperative, we just felt a new one should be on hand in case of failure. The new grinder sometimes sounds as though it is grinding its own gears instead of the coffee beans. There appears to be some uncertainty as to proper seating of the grinding bowl. Not sure we'll be keeping this grinder so an update of this review may be required.

I received this as a present. 2 months after I got it, the bowl would not come off anymore. As this was the reason I wanted this one, I brought it back to the store it was purchased in, and did get an exchange. Less than 5 months later, this one has just stopped working. I also agree with many of the other reviewers who are disappointed in the grinding. It does leave a lot of large chunks and unground beans. I have been using my blender which has worked better than this grinder ever did. I have written to Cuisinart and am waiting for a reply. I have other Cuisinart products and have been happy with them, but would recommend that you pass this one up. I have also been looking into other grinders, and it seems that most recommendations favor the burr grinders.

While looking for the instruction manual because i just remembered that the bowl is suppose to come off so I can wash it, I came across these reviews, which are all true. It doesn't grind small, no matter how much you try. It is persnickity with other seeds besides coffee, such as flax and sesame. The bowl doesn't release and so it is difficult to wash. It is loud. You have to kee checking to see if it is ground up. It creates a mess what taking the lid off. Mine does work and it has for a fewmonths now, so at least it is reliable thus far. If you can get it on sale, I go for it, but the money spent is not worth it at all.

Worked 3 times and then totally broke. Working = leaving big chunks of beans in the ground coffee.

I've had my grinder since 2004 and I love it! I was going to buy one for a friend so I came to Amazon to do so and was shocked to see all of the people who don't like it! We are "weekend coffee drinkers" who only tend to grind beans once a week on weekends, when we are entertaining or just relaxing around the house. I am usually grinding beans for about 5 or 6 people at a time and I use it, as the instructions say, by grinding only 20 or 30 seconds at a time. I use it for grinding good quality beans to a coarse grind for use in my French Press.

I wonder if some of the people whose motors have started smoking or burned out have been keeping the motor running for a few minutes at a time? Or perhaps they have washed the cup in the dishwasher so much with hard water that there is a scale build up?

I like the fact that the grinder cup has a plastic lid, so that if I grind too much I can easily save it in the refrigerator.

I also like the fact that it is so easy to use and that you just press down on the bar on the top of the clear plastic lid to get it to grind. When you stop pressing the bar, the motor stops. And, I can see inside and decide if I want to grind a bit more or not.

Additionally, I like the fact that the grinder is quite compact and can sit on my counter without taking up too much room, plus is stainless steel, so looks good.

The best part is that the price is quite reasonable for a lightly used small appliance.

I would recommend this grinder to anyone who likes to grind their own beans for use in a French Press occasionally, but it may not be heavy duty enough for daily use (I'll tell you in another 3 years, because that would be the equivalent, I suppose!)

We got this as a wedding gift but have stopped using it. It grinds poorly with anything more beans for 2 cups of coffee. It's aesthetically pleasing and doesn't break, but I would never buy it again.

The overall concept of the grinder is good. The problems are with the stainless steel/plastic cover. Since purchasing it, the button on top feels cheap and has lost some of it's springback. Also the chrome screws on the underside of the lid have rusted. I hand wash and rinse it after using. Also grinds manage to slip out from under the grind cup and make a cleanup mess on the base. I think Cuisinart can do better than this! It does grind coffee VERY well though.

I have had this grinder for 13 months and it stopped working this morning, Dont waste your money on this. My daughter liked the look of this machine. Don't let the looks deceive you. Poor quality.

This is so noisy my wife thought she heard a chain saw while still in bed trying to sleep. In addition it messy and doesn't grind evenly.

I bought this grinder @ Bed Bath & Beyond because I had a $10 off coupon and my old grinder that I had for a few years finally gave out. I liked the fact that you could wash the grinding part in the dishwasher. It worked great for about 2 weeks. However, after that, I could not twist off the grinder part anymore to clean it. No matter what I did, it just wouldn't come off. I took it back and exchanged it for another. Well, the second one was bad for another reason. The coffee would spill out around the base part of the grinder. Two defective machines in a row? I took it back and got my money back. I got a Mr. Coffee grinder @ Wal-Mart. We'll see how that works. Hopefully better than the Cuisenart.

1. This blade grinder moves extremely fast and does not grind as quickly as other blade grinders, meaning if you grind for more than a few seconds at a time, you'll end up with a burnt flavor.

2. The cup of grounds frequently gets stuck on the base.

3. After less than a year, my grinder no longer functions. It started smoking the last time it was in use.

Conclusion: the design is flawed to begin with (parts fitting together, etc.), the method of grinding (blade) is subpar, and its durability is questionable. I've had similar complaints about other Cuisinart appliances.

This little unit does everything it is advertised to do. It is not automatic. You need to measure the coffee beans yourself. You have to time the grind to get the texture you want. If you want automatic, you pay much more. It is reasonably quiet, doesn't take up much space and clean up could not be easier.

What a disappointment!! On the very first grinding session, the bowl will not release from the base. We are turning it correctly- counterclockwise- and cannot get it to release. I had tried the release before grinding the first, and only batch, of coffee, and it easily released. Then we ground one measure of beans, and it won't release. I wish I had checked out this website before buying this product.

I bought this at William Sonoma store without going on here to look at the review. I used it exactly 4 times. The fifth time, the motor stopped working. Why can't they make a good product like they used to do it in the good old US of A. Do not buy this product!

I had the same problem of a fused cup after about 3 months of using this product. I solved my problem as follows. Take my advice at your own risk, but the process worked like a charm for me.

1) remove cup, apply force if needed (mine was very difficult to remove)
2) get a pen/pencil and some medium coarse sand paper (i used 150 grit)
3) plug in the grinder
4) use the pen to hold down the depressed button to spin the base blade knob
5) apply LIGHT even pressure to one side of the protruding knob. DO NOT SAND THE CIRCULAR GROOVES!!! ONLY THE TOP PORTION OF THE KNOB THAT IS SHAPED LIKE A SMALL ROD.
6) try very light and even sanding for short periods of time (4-5 seconds) and keep trying to put the bowl on. If the bowl attaches with no friction, then you should be good to go.

*the reason i think this happens is that the plastic rod heats up and melts to the metal on the underside of the blade. I recommend that you try this as soon as you feel problems getting the bowl off. Make sure to be very neat and clean with your sanding so that you can still return if needed*

good luck!

I used this grinder about a dozen times before the cup became fused to hte base. I can not get the cup off the base no matter how hard I try. The grinder still works, but it is much more difficult to clean the grinding bowl now.

Not recommended!!!

This was a Christmas gift from my daughter who knew that I wanted a grinder that I could use for both coffee and spices and clean between uses. I used it once to grind coffee before it quit working. For the few brief moments that it worked, it ground the coffee unevenly. I am back to looking for a spice grinder that can be washed between uses and trying to figure out how to tell my daughter that her thoughtful gift was a complete flop!

At $50 it is a bit much, but brought down to a price comparable to other one-speeds it has many advantages. The most obvious is the removable bowl, which means one does not jerk out the plug to move the ground coffee over to the filter. It is also much quieter than bare bones grinders, eliminating the need to wrap it in towels if you are the first one up. Third, the capacity is a bit larger. The drawbacks are first, that it somehow looks more inviting as a potential alternative place to pour the boiling water if you are very tired and not paying attention. Second, the beans on the top are deceptively well ground while ungainly chunks remain towards the bottom. One knows this, but always is surprised by how big they are.

Finally, it is quieter than the standard cylinder grinders (no names!). As someone who used to have to wrap a set of towels around the grinder every morning to avoid waking my lady friend's young son before I went off to work, I really appreciate this. You feel less like you're doing something WRONG just by making a decent cup of coffee in the morning. That itself is worth a great deal. [26]

My wife and I have always prefered to grind our own coffee beans. The problem was that most coffee grinders had small motors or were over priced. This grinder works great, has the stong motor for which Cuisinart is famous and was low priced to boot.

I am blown away by the crappiness of this product. Mom should have done her homework before buying me this lemon for Christmas. I've been reading the other reviews, and it makes me relatively angry at Cuisinart for putting out what they SURELY must have known was a bad product. Motor burned out within 2 pounds of beans being run through it, and I never got a decent grind in the first place. Produced coffee "gravel" of all grades and sizes, making for a mediocre cup of joe, at best. dropped the lid from a height of about 2 1/2 feet and shattered the little black operational button. This, just before the motor fried trying to grind roughly half a cup of beans. Guess I'll chalk it up as a loss and go back to bed - so sleepy...

I bought this grinder after reading reviews here on Amazon. I've had the product almost exactly a year.

The main thing I like about this grinder is that it grinds consistently. It always comes out the same, for better or for worse. It does grind evenly, but you have to stand there for a minute to let it do its work. You can hear the motor speed change when it is done grinding. The stainless steel styling is also eye pleasing and matches my Cuisinart coffee maker that is the same style.

The consistent grind is also the major weakness of this grinder. If you don't like the grind (fairly rough, definitely for a drip style coffee maker) you can't change it. You will not be able to make an espresso type grind (powdery) with this grinder.

Overall, this is not a bad grinder for the price. It offers consistency but you can't adjust how much it grinds. Models that are both adjustable and consistent tend to be a different style of grinder and I'm not quite ready to move up to that price point.

I found out the other day that if you put too many beans in it (and I mean really packed full) it won't grind at all and burns up the motor. I probably should have backed off it when I noticed the blade wasn't turning, but I figured it would speed up. Instead I smoked it. I did buy a cheap one at the grocery store due to the emergency situation. It grinds the beans into a powder almost instantly (espresso style) and results in burnt tasting coffee. So the true test of the Cuisinart coffee bean grinder has come to light. I'll keep the cheap grocery store one around somewhere in case I'm in a pinch again. However, I will be purchasing another Cuisinart DCG-12BC to replace the dead one. That is how I came up with 4 stars.

I LOVE IT TO DEATH. IT LOOKS GREAT, DOES A GREAT JOB AND THE REMOVABLE CUP MAKES IT EASY TO MOVE THE FINISHED PRODUCT TO YOUR STORAGE CONTAINER.

I bought this grinder for my son for Christmas and it was broken within a month. I purposely spent more money on this product thinking it would last longer. I don't have the receipt so I guess I'm just out the money. Would have thought Cuisinart would have been a better product.

I received this grinder for Christmas and unfortunately threw away the packaging. The grinder worked great for the first 4 times and then it just quit. I thought maybe the bowl wasn't secured or the blade had come loose. Don't waste your money on this product and I thought Cuisinart was a good product. If you do, save receipts and boxes for at least a month.

Large size was the initial appeal, and low price comparable to other larger models. But only OK...and only if: you ignore the directions re capacity. Hopper more than half full will produce very uneven grind, and filling it more than half full (to max. indicated by mfg.'s marking) will require a long, slow process. Pulsing, rather than continuous grind helps, but a tedious process. Overheats easily. Lasted maybe a year, using it every couple of days (one half-full hopper lasts me a couple of days. Probably would last even less if I used it daily, let alone several times a day. Removable, washable hopper with separate snap-on lid is handy. Will replace with another model. No sense wasting money on repair, though I hate to discard anything when repairs are practical.

I purchased this coffee grinder about six months ago. After the first couple of uses, the removable bowl fused to the base. I took it back to the store I had purchased it from for an exchange, figuring it was just an unlucky unit. My second grinder worked ok for about four months, but went from quiet to ridiculously loud. Something was definitely wrong either with the motor or the connection of the motor to the blade. The grinding itself was terrible too, with super fine coffee grinds at the bottom of the bowl and very coarse grinds at the top. Finally, I got so frustrated with this unit I took it back to the store again for a full refund. I do NOT recommend this product!

All of the pitiful reviews are TRUE. Bad grinding of beans. My grinding cup froze on, then it started to melt down the plastic in the base of the cup. I used it 3 times. That's $10.00 per grind. Save you money,,, this product is absoulutely defective in design. Cuisinart should refund everyone who purchased this Coffee Grinder. My rating is actually a ZERO, but the reviewing site would not accept a ZERO.

I bought this grinder because I thought Cuisinart makes good products. What a mistake... This thing is quite loud, it is a mess to clean, it rosts, and above all...it grinds terribly! The coffee comes in all sizes, usually half beans on the top and powder on the bottom even though I shake it in between while it grinds (which you really shouldn't have to do...). We love our morning coffee, and we use French Press; this grinder produces very disappointing and inconsistent results. I am looking into byuing a new one, and I will not buy another blade grinder. Spending $60-80 on a burr grinder seems more than worth it after this experience.