Breville Smart Grinder BCG800

Breville .... what’s your response? – I am an owner of Breville coffee machine and a Sunbeam grinder and “was” very interested in purchasing the latest Breville automatic grinder but reading through the reviews here and noting that a part in the 800 that the plastic disk which spins to push the ground coffee out into the group head wears out in normal service is not replaceable is… Read more

quite disturbing. ): Now I understand all rotating parts have a certain life expectancy but I believe that manufacturers would gain more support for their products if they made the most common wear items available as a spare part. I’m interested why Breville is willing to respond to certain posts here but have remained silent with no response to the two posts other posters that have raised this issue here. Come on Breville ... yes all machines eventually wear out but surely you have enough marketing foresight not to create a situation where people can critise you for not helping to reduce land fill .... I should imagine ... with the popularity of the 8xx series of grinders you are consigning 10s of 1000s of machine to an earlier than necessary grave. What a waste of the worlds precious resources. License the part to someone and let them manufacture it if you can’t be bothered.

Does a Great Job – I've had this little grinder for about a year now and I'm very happy with the grind I'm getting from it. It's easy and intuitive to use and gives consistent results. The design is very thoughtful: for instance there's a little moulded tray that you sit your container on, retained by a magnet, so every now and then you can just pull that out and… Read more

give it a wipe or rinse.

The only problem I've had is that the locking mechanism is a little rickety. There are two little tabs that are pushed out then you lock the lock the hopper. They hold it in place and notify the machine that it's safe to start. If part of a bean gets lodged in there the tabs may get jammed or even come out. It's a bit fiddly to unscrew the base of the hopper and jiggle them back in, but after the first time it's no big deal. It does however mean one star off my rating since the engineering on that part is not great.

It also came with a surprising amount of useful documentation, which is unusual these days. Not only an excellent Quick Start Guide, but also a proper printed instruction booklet with clear instructions and illustrations covering every aspect of operation.

Awesome – I read one poor review for this grinder elsewhere, but after checking the feedback here and also the test on www.seattlecoffeegear.com, I decided to get one anyway, just before Christmas. I'm glad I did - this machine is fantastic. I used to take my chances with a blade-style grinder, or have the coffee shop grind the beans for me. But with… Read more

the Smart Grinder I've been able to tailor the grind to match the machine exactly, and that has made a huge difference to the taste - not to mention the freshness versus having all the coffee pre-ground.

The Smart Grinder creates a very consistent grind, and the design really minimises mess and makes it easy to use, especially once you've set it up.

Seattle Coffee Gear recommends that, bang for buck, it's often better to upgrade your grinder than go for a more expensive coffee machine. I can believe it.

Two final points for new owners:

1. In accordance with the instructions, I rinsed a couple of the parts before using it the first time, and must have left a couple of drops of water in it for my first use. When they say "dry thoroughly", they *mean* dry thoroughly!!! I'd recommend not only doing a thorough dry with a tea towel, but also leaving it to air, otherwise the machine can clog.

2. This machine can well and truly grind to the fineness needed for mainstream expresso machines - in fact, on its finest setting it can probably bring one to a complete standstill. I have a c.$300 Sunbeam expresso machine and have the Smart Grinder set to less than halfway on the "Expresso" part of the grind scale. A mate who just purchased the Smart Grinder along with a more expensive (c $1200) expresso machine still has it set 3-4 notches from the finest setting. Don't get too ambitious when finetuning your grind to your home machine. Start with the consistency that's worked from a coffee shop (you can roughly compare grind size), then gradually go finer until you get the crema you want, watching for any early signs that your expresso machine is choking up. Note that going for finer grinds also makes it even more important to regularly clean your expresso machine. Brilliantly designed; fine & consistent grinding; about as mess free as this type of coffee-making gets; good standby mode; relatively inexpensive Can take a few attempts to get the grind right, but that's the same for all standalone grinders and is part of the fun!

Best grinder ever and makes a difference – Used others but after using this i wont go back ...it makes a difference at first it took a few goes but once I got the grind right what a winner .it's true get the grind right the machine will do the rest ..had a built in grinder with the old Breville but this way is better and gets results every coffee I make is perfect and I am at least 4 t 5 coffee a day .. Show details

Great grind every time = great coffee! – Fantastic grinder, easy to use and adjust to achieve perfect grind for a perfect coffee. Very happy with this purchase. Actually bought grinder bcg820 (updated model) separate to the coffee machine but this updated item isn’t an option to review without the coffee machine, but it’s so good I’m sure this previous model must be too! July 5th 2019… Read more

Update: Great consistent easy to use grinder

Great grinder, consistent grind every time, easy to adjust the grind and operation is quick and simple. I’ve been using it daily for over 6 months without a hiccup. Perfect companion to my Breville dual boiler coffee machine.

More than enough for the amature barista – After hours of research for the right grinder to start my journey to become a coffee snob I settled with the Breville Smart Grinder. Managed to get it whilst on sale at Myer and simply cant fault it. With the multiple size cradles it will still be perfect when I finally upgrade our coffee machine.  Show details

can't be serviced – I bought the smart grinder in combination with the BES900 dual boiler coffee machine. The distribution impeller wears down over a period of time and the grinder jams. I got just over 2 years out of it, meaning out of warranty. It is a known issue (judging by forums etc) and Breville Australia, in their wisdom, don't provide the part for service,… Read more

rendering the machine useless. The part is available in Canada from Breville or you can by a 3D printed component from the states. Breville's solution, "we can sell you a new one at 40% off". So essentially for the sake of a $20 piece of plastic (allowing you to dramatically inflate your price above the $1 production cost) the machine is now landfill. I replaced it with a Mazzer mini. May have cost me more but EVERY part is replaceable and the suggestion is that I would get 10 years out of it.

Disgusting business practice. Do more for our planet breville.

Worn out and heading for landfill – The toothed plastic impeller under the rotating conical burr that drives the ground coffee out the shoot for collection wears out. The ground coffee then jams up under the burr and stops the grinder from rotating. Breville do not provide this part for replacement! The parts I expected to wear out were the burr grinding surfaces but they are… Read more

still in good working condition, and until the machine started jamming it was working as well as new. I've put about 12000 shots of coffee through it since purchased in 2011. I calculated this based on an average of grinding 36 shots per week, or 1 double shot each day Monday to Friday and 2 each day on Saturday and Sunday. Some users will no doubt use their grinder way more than this so will find this fault occurring sooner.

It's disappointing not to able to simply replace the worn part and continue to use the machine, after all it is a part that predictably will wear out early. It is now just another difficult to recyclable device heading for landfill for the want of an unavailable replaceable part.

Waste of money – We have the same problem. We bought some pre ground coffee just to compare and it confirmed the breville doesn't grind fine enough even on the finest setting. At first it ground okay on the recommended setting but quickly deteriorated as we had to keep reducing the setting down to the finest. We had aSunbeam before getting the Breville around… Read more

Christmas. It lasted about 2 years before it wore out and we couldn't get a fine enough grind even after re calibrating. We are now looking at a more expensive prosumer grinder.

Consistent grinder that is easy to use. I was able to source a newer upper burr from the latest model to replace the original one for this and that gave a little more control over grind size. It is able to hold grind size over time and is easy to maintain. Great option for a high-volume espresso household.

Very impressed by breville – Running a breville coffee machine and a sunbeam grinder was having poor result until I upgraded to the breville smart grinder. I'm constantly impressed by the thought put into brevilles coffee machine product line up, can tell a lot of effort and testing has been put into their products and you can taste the difference and appreciate the practical features Show details ·  1

Excellent all rounder – Drinking a variety of coffee's, this unit enables the optimal grind of bean for the type of coffee to be brewed. I was quiet surprised by how goat is compared to its competitors. Grinding head is a very good quality component and it shows in the quality of the grind. Highly recommended. Show details

Great grinder – My fancy Italian grinder was in need of new burrs but they were out of stock, so I picked up the Breville grinder from the Breville Seconds shop. paid $110. It's great. Much better than my last grinder. It's consistent and easily adjusted. I've been using it for 2 months and very VERY happy with it. Smart design and great functionality.  Show details

The best from the best – This is truly the ultimate and best grinder you could ever imagine. I was previously considering to buy a cheaper grinder around $20, but after having a thorough review on the web, it is best to invest your money in something that last. This grinder had last for 1 year and still going strong.  Show details

My pick for a coffee grinder – Received this grinder today and definitely happy! We had a previois grinder that was unable to grind the beans as fine as needed but this machine does it perfectly! User friends, quick and easy instructions with a gelp guide too! Slim and sleek look. Perfect for all types of machines!  Show details

A grinder that is actually smart – Grinders are generally relatively simple. However this is a truly different one. The display allows you to set the exact amount to be ground each time. Simply push the handle in, and it starts. A push again will pause the grinding so you can do a mid grind tamp. One final push and the grinder starts off where it was. Definitely recommend!!!  Show details

Superb grinder to have – I have been using this grinder since last about 6 years and never had an issue. The Breville proved itself as being very consistent in grinding coffee for espresso and sporting superb ergonomics. This amazing grinder can be a bit finicky, but it can deliver remarkable coffees. Very much worth any minor hassles.  Show details

Great grinder with premium finish – Got this grinder for Christmas and since I haven't used it for that long, I already tested a few different grinding settings and can say that it does the job wonderfuly. The espresso from my coffee machine is a lot nicer with a lot richer tones compared to the bitter and watery espresso I used to get from the conventional blade spinning grinder.… Read more

Since I can't comment on the durability yet, this grinder is pleasure to use and it produces excellent grind for all types of coffee makers.

This grinder SHOULD get 5 stars for its great features, however – I have had this coffee grinder for nearly 4 years now. I only make around 1 coffee per day, so it only gets very light use. There is a LOT to like about this grinder. I can grind straight into my coffee machines group handle hands free. Just push the group handle into the coffee grinder & leave it alone while the grinder grinds exactly the… Read more

right amount of coffee into the group handle, & then automatically stops when finished. I can be doing other things while it grinds away, rather than having to stand there holding the group handle, & having to guess when the right amount of coffee has been ground.

There is also almost zero mess, as nearly all of the ground coffee goes directly into the group handle without making a mess & going everywhere as some other coffee grinders do.

Any coffee that does spill over (which is very little) ends up in a catch tray underneath which is very easy to remove & clean (though I rarely need to do it, that is how mess free this grinder is.

Since I have had the coffee grinder it has never once clogged on me, & I have never had to clean it, unlike some other grinders I have used, which were required to be regularly pulled apart & cleaned, or they would just clog up & refuse to grind properly (I dont see a need to clean it while it is working correctly, as it has fresh coffee beans going through it all the time, so essentially self cleaning).

After grinding the coffee, virtually no ground coffee seems to stay in the head of the machine to go stale or rancid (a lot of other coffee grinders will still have a fair amount of ground coffee sitting in the head of the machine around the burr till the next grind going stale or rancid).

This COULD be a great coffee grinder, & I would love to give it 5 stars, except for 1 major flaw. I have to have it on the very finest grind setting the grinder will go to, & even then it only just grinds the coffee fine enough for my expresso machine with very fresh coffee.

If the coffee is not so fresh, or there is a lot of damp weather, then the machine fails to grind fine enough to get a decent extraction from my expresso machine. This is not really acceptable for an expresso coffee grinder.

I believe that you can get a shim kit to fix this problem, but it should not be necessary for the end user to pull their machine apart (thus probably voiding the warranty) & install a shim kit. it should grind fine enough, with plenty of adjustment to spare straight out of the box. Maybe later models of this grinder have fixed this problem, I dont know. I can only review the machine that I have (I do believe that Breville was supposed to have fixed this problem by the time I had purchased my grinder, but apparently not).

If this grinder consistently ground the coffee fine enough, with adjustment to spare for expresso coffee, I would happily give this grinder 5 stars, however as this is a fairly major flaw, sadly I can only give 3 stars for this grinder.

Breville 820 Great, so far! – I have the Breville 820 and have only had it for 6 months, but it is working faultlessly and producing a quality of grind far better than I expected. My Breville Infuser coffee machine works so much better with a consistent and correct size of grind than it did with either purchased pre-ground, or coffee I had ground using a simple chopper grinder.  Show reply

Breville quality is a fail – This grinder came as part of a package with the dual boiler coffee machine. Both have died after a couple of years, and are uneconomic to repair. Worse, both products are well known for doing this, and Breville's service is non existent. Unlike many other devices, they are unnecessarily complex and designed to be almost impossible to repair, with… Read more

proprietary Breville parts. It's worth paying more for a good quality grinder - the coffee is better, and the grinder will last a lifetime because parts are readily available, and not made of cheap flimsy plastic. Given the short lifespan, these were an expensive mistake, and I would not recommend Breville to anyone.

Good Grinder but sub-standard durability – Like many of the other reviewers have found, our BCG800 worked well for about two years (about 4 cups per day) and then started making a loud metallic grinding noise and would not grind the beans as it had done. I rang Breville and was told to take the grinder to a service centre. Breville stated that there is no known problem with the grinder. … Read more

When I described the symptoms, the call centre operator, who said he knows about Breville coffee appliances claimed not to have heard about this type of failure and said it could be caused by over roasted beans. We didn't take extended warranty on the grinder as we thought what could go wrong with a Breville grinder - we didn't count on poor reliability.

Great machine pity it didnt last very long – Breville products really impress me in general, in fact i usually look for the breville brand before others at there price point. Their designers obviously are thinkers and it shows in there product innovations. They do really try to make products that work and have practical function. For instance the wall plug with the pull hole incorporated is… Read more

a brilliant idea. But back to the grinder, fantastic product, except it didn't last very long maybe 2 years ( one cup a day). Just would't turn on one day, just like that , dead!. Good one day, deceased the next. Since i paid about $ 200 or there abouts its expensive coffee in my book. So what would normally be a 5 star product i'll have to mark down simply because of short life. So its back to the old Breville coffee and spice grinder, very simple but reliable . Cant take a chance on another fancy one, my names Rupert not Stupert.

Terrible – I'm very disappointed, the Grinder is continuaslly breaking down, I was advised to take it the appliance repair center for Breville. The repair center advised me that they it a good cleaned and that's all they could do. I can't get Breville to repair or supply parts. I'll never buy Breville product again

Early days – Our Sunbeam freebee stopped grinding consistently, so decided to get this model. Happened to be on sale for $199, ON MY BIRTHDAY, today!!! So far so good. Learned that I had to increase the two shot grind time by 8 seconds, and it came out very nicely, and much quieter than our previous grinder. Pulled the shot, great coffee! Happy days once… Read more

more. Did not give it 5 stars as I would like to see its longevity - i'll come back and update if required. Good build and features for the price too.

Fantastic until – Bought from The Good Guys in Frankston in mid 2012 along with extra cover. Just as well I got the extended cover as the grinder ground to a halt just last week. Until that time it had been a wonderful unit doing a perfect job complementing the BES900. It suddenly was unable to hold a grind setting slipping to so fine a setting it was grinding… Read more

itself tightly to a stop. I was told the electronics had given out. I used the money from warranty to get the less complicated BCG600SIL. Wasn't confident enough to pay the extra $100 to get the newer BCG820. Can only give 3 stars for just making it past warranty.

Fantastic, love it – We bought a pod machine late 2014 and found we could buy fillable pods locally. We wanted to be able to grind our own coffee so went searching for the best possible grinder, which would grind fine enough for a pod and also suitable for plunger and other coffee making devices. And we found it, love our grinder and can thoroughly recommend it, it's quick and easy to use and easy to clean.

Pretty good and does the job at least for home – Up front I dont like the price but I did buy one about a year ago and for home use at least its pretty good for average joe coffee drinker who uses a machine to make coffee. If you want to make a reasonable Turkish coffee It can do it or if like my family you just want a decent cup of coffee or espresso that is not watery and doesn't taste like… Read more

instant, then the Smart grinder does the job.

It does have a short learning curve .. but lets face it we are dealing with electronics .. If you are looking for an easy way to make fresh coffee at home the Smart grinder is a good place to start .

If you are a connoisseur coffee drinker or hobbyist, I suggest pay more for Mazzer or other huge brand coffee grinder .. if you just want a fresh decent coffee at home that is better then pods or instant .. buy this to start with

Used to be good – We have had two of these now, the first worked great until it didn't (possibly a small stone or something in some beans we had). Much like someone else's experience our first smart grinder ran into some problems (loud grating sound like something was stuck in it). Once this happened we cleaned it all out but the grind was just incredibly coarse.… Read more

Breville service attempted to fix it, sent it back after cleaning it all out and said they found no problems but it still didn't work (coffee ground was still way too coarse even on the finest setting which had never been a problem previously). We had to pack the grouphead with coffee, and tamp it to death in order to get an ok pour

We ended up with a new smart grinder not so long ago and I am unsure if it is the exact same model, however the grind is still quite coarse even on the finest setting. Again we have to pack the grouphead with coffee, and tamp pretty firmly in order to get an ok pour, this means we are going through a lot more coffee than we used to for a worse coffee. We are consistently having to adjust the grind as it gives quite inconsistent results. Pretty disappointing.

Awesome, consistent grind – Have been using the Breville grinder in our coffee cart for the past year and have been very happy with it. This little grinder once set up will produce a consistent, perfectly weighted grind every time, the only adjustment you need to do is taking into account the weather for the day and your right to go. The size and layout We did get it replaced under warranty as it started making metal grinding noises but that's after doing 4000 double shots.

I used to love it – The grinder has always been inconsistent, which we lived with. Just after its warranty expired, it developed a ghastly grating sound (imagine a spoon caught in the burrs). We've cleaned it, tightened it, loosened it, over again. I assume we need a new shim kit but definitely expected it to last much longer, considering it wasn't exactly cheap. No… Read more

mess. Love the magnetic holder for the grip handle and variable doses. You need variable doses and grinds because the grind is never the same twice.

Easy to use and an awesome grind – After much consideration I bought the BCG800 (thanks largely to a timely myer sale). I had read a couple of reviews that said the machine couldn't grind fine enough - I have the Breville 800ES machine and this grinder grinds more than fine to produce the perfect espresso. I find the best extractions come with a fine grind and light tamping.… Read more

Ease of use, programmable, looks great, easy to clean, grind settings Cannot see exactly how beans are in hopper when grinding small amounts "on demand"

Perfect partner for my dual boiler – This was thrown in when I bought my Breville dual boiler and I find it to be the perfect match. Side by side in my kitchen they look and perform perfectly. It consistently delivers the correct amount of the exact grind to suit my coffee machine. It's reasonably quiet and easy to clean. Complements my coffee machine perfectly. Nothing

Thank goodness – I've only used 2 grinders. The cheaper breville (BarAroma) and this one. This is MUCH better. It's quieter, allows hands free dosage, grinds directly into the basket, has lots of adjustments and grinds fine enough for my dual boiler. I've only had for 2 weeks but my coffee has improved and it's all because of a decent grinder. Got a 4 yr warranty… Read more

with mine so hopefully I'm still happy in 4years time! What else do I need to say? She holds more beans too! Quieter than others, grinds directly into basket, allows handsfree filling of basket It should have been free with my machine!

Does not grind fine enough for a semi commercial machine – I bought this grinder after reading all the good reviews about it. However I had to return this grinder as it could not grind fine enough for my espresso machine (even on the finest setting). I am not sure if I bought a dud or not but after reading of others who had the same issue I upgraded to a Rancilio Rocky and the difference was very… Read more

noticeable. Setting the amount of the grind is very handy for a consistant shot. This grinder could not grind fine enough for a semi commercial espresso machine.