The Chefman and Secura grinders appear identical, apart from the name and price. Are there any differences other than those?
Are you kidding us ?
Surely you noticed that the Secura specs show it is made out of “Inflaming Retarding Material” I am not sure I would buy a device made out of material that got people angry. Is this allowed under California prop 65?
The photos make clear that you load the Secura by just dumping beans on the counter beside it. This seems suboptimal.
The Chefman was my first electric burr grinder. It lasted for 3 years before I replaced it with a similarly-sized Capresso because the burrs wore down and could not be replaced. Since we are not talking $150 units here (which I also have at our camp but takes up too much counter space for my tiny kitchen at home), I will say that the Chefman did approximately as good a job as my Capresso, which is adequate for general purpose coffee making. Neither will produce perfectly uniform sized grounds because of the flat burr (you will get some fines along with the grounds). My hand-crank conical burr grinders can do a more uniform grind, but I wanted a bit more convenience for every day use with an electric grinder.
Static cling in the collection cup is a reality (more so when grinding dark roasts), but I do a slow exhale into the collection cup to fog it up before grinding and that reduces it quite a bit. The output hole on the Chefman did clog up more than the Capresso does, and I needed to smack the side of the grinder before removing the cup to reduce the amount of grounds that float onto the counter, but that’s true with my Capresso as well.
If you can afford the counter space and price of a Breville or an upper end Capresso, those will do a better overall job, but at this price and convenient size, the Chefman is a good budget burr grinder imo.
I bought the Brim, my first burr grinder. Although quite loud, it does a much better job than my “spice grinder”. The collection bin is a bit awkward to pour from until you find just the right spot. It was definitely worth the price.
I have one of these. Don’t waste your money. The bin that holds the ground coffee is a disaster.
The Capreso has a manufacturing defect that they still have not fixed. A high percentage of those units (mine incuded) overheat and stop working after a couple minutes. You have to wait maybe 15 minutes before it will start again. When you contact customer service they give you instructions in fixing it yourself – which beleive it or not – requires SOLDIERING!
Since I had no way of doing that , nor any incination, they DID send me a new unit which works, but frankly, I’m not a fan. If you know your units have a flaw and there’s a fix for it, why arent you fixing it before selling?
I now have the Brim that’s being sold here and am very happy with it, although I wish it had a bigger capacity.
Soldiering? Didn’t want to go through basic training, eh?
I’ve been “around the block” for years regarding grinders. Bottom line: these Chinese grinders are all pretty much the same in this price range. OK for drip grind or French press. Far too inconsistent grind for espresso.
I participated in the “Handground” crank grinder Kickstarter for a year as they struggled with manufacturing problems in China. Sloppy machined metal parts and ceramic burrs that shrank to different sizes from batch to batch as they cooled. Even getting the settings scale printed in the same exact spot was a challenge.
If you have a high-end espresso machine, you need a high-end grinder ($300+). For good old drip coffee, these are fine and freshly ground beans, even inconsistent, are big step up from pre-ground.
Which one, specifically?
As someone who was “duped” into buying a similar grinder anyone considering this purchase might want to watch:
This type of grinder is a “block burr” grinder, a bit of a half step between an electric spice grinder (usually very very cheap) and a true burr grinder (the cheapest of which is the Baratza Encore ~$170). It’s fun to have a coffee grinder in general but if you want to grind your own beans then you’re already kind of a coffee nerd interested in improving your cup. A true burr grinder will give you a much better consistency of grind (less “fines” or super small particles of coffee by accident) and will also be much quieter than a “block burr” (I always feel like I have to wait until my SO wakes up to use it because it’s so loud). Just FYI if that influences your decision, I learned all of this too late.
At least this is cheaper than the one I bought ~$80 for a non-true non-well-constructed non-conical burr grinder.
Which model?
I too have the Brim grinder bought here and it grinds coffee very fast. The collection bin is a bit awkward at first but it was only for the first few uses.