Cuisinart DBM-8CRM Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill Review

Grind is second most important factor after beans themselves when it comes to quality and flavor of your coffee. This is why burr grinders are so cherished between coffee lovers – even though a really good one will cost hundreds of dollars even a cheap burr grinder is heaps better than blade grinder. Not only they usually offer wide variety of grinds settings from coarse to super fine so you can have optimal grind they also produce a very consistent grind where beans are grinded evenly with no odd chunks in which ruins the taste of the coffee.

Cuisinart DBM-8CRM is currently the best selling burr grinder in North America and also one of the cheaper ones. It has managed to stay relevant for nearly 20 years since it was released, so does that mean it’s a good entry burr grinder for someone who’s not quite ready yet to spend large amounts of money?

Grinding

Cuisinart DBM-8CRM has a total of 18 grinding settings coarse to extra fine. It grinds 4 to 18 cups worth of beans in a single session and hopper holds up to half a pound of beans (8 oz).

As you might expect for a budget priced burr grinder grind is not perfect, it’s however significantly better than using a blade grinder. The biggest fault is that grind size is not super consistent no matter the selected setting, however finer grind settings output more even/consistent grind than coarse.

It’s a bit loud when grinding. Really any burr grinder is, but Cuisinart DBM-8CRM is louder than most which is definitely a drawback.

Controls

Cuisinart DBM-8CRM is super simple to use. You simply select the desired grind setting via Grind Selector Dial and then choose how many cups worth of beans you want to grind via Slide Dial. Then press and release Power Bar and Cuisinart DBM-8CRM will grind selected amount and stop automatically. If you want to manually stop grinding just slide the Slide Dial all the way to the left side to ”Off” position.

Reliability

As Cuisinart DBM-8CRM is a very popular burr grinder that’s been on sale for a while there’s a large amount of consumer feedback to investigate. There are reports about it lasting less than 1 year before breaking, then again there’s at least just as many reports of it lasting for many years (seems like it’s uncommon for it work for 10 years too).

As there’s such a large variance in reported products life service it’s hard to say how long you should expect it to last. However since large majority of consumers have reported to be satisfied with their Cuisinart DBM-8CRM perhaps it’s more likely to last for years than not.

Conclusions

Cuisinart DBM-8CRM is no match for premium burr grinders but it’s still better than using a blade grinder. For an entry level unit it’s not bad, but as a burr grinder it’s still a mediocre one. To find out which are the best affordable burr grinders read our Best Cheap Burr Coffee Grinders article.

Cuisinart DBM-8CRM Specifications:

• Grind settings: 18
• Bean hopper capacity: 8 oz / 0.5 lbs / 227 grams
• Cups per grind: 4 to 18
• Dimensions (L x W x H): 6.00″ x 7.13″ x 10.75″
• Weight: 5.6 lbs / 2.54 kg