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So I have an old blade grinder, which seems to work well enough for me, except in one respect: The coffee grinds fall out of the bottom of the grinder. Now this is a cheapo grinder that I got as a gift, and I've never had another grinder. So I don't want to go buy another if they all do this. But on the other hand, if this just a function of a piece of cr*p grinder, I'd like to have a new one.

To clarify: I'm not talking about a static explosion of grind upon opening the cover after grinding. I'm talking about some of the grinds simply ending up on the counter while I'm grinding.

UPDATE
So, I have opened the bottom in the past, and when I did, the most enormous amount of old yucky coffee grinds spilled out. So I cleaned it out, and put it back together, and when I did, the problem continued to happen. So I, like any good ol' cheapskate would do, sealed the bottom with duct tape. This solved the problem until I realized that the design of the thing is to let moisture out the bottom of the machine, and that's the same path that the grind were coming out. So all my coffee grinds were ending up moist and sticky.

So in short, I should've bought a new one long ago, and to you future cheapskates reading this, do not even ACCEPT a "white-westinghouse" grinder as a freebie.

JakeParis
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4 Answers4

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I've owned several grinders -- both blade and burr, but I've never had one that did this. So no I would not say it is normal

Is the lid closed tight when you start it? Blade style ones are pretty cheap, so you might just want to get a new one.

tkone
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I had one that suffered this problem once (a Krups branded whirly blade machine), which I noticed when the coffee dust fouled the contacts and it wouldn't run any more.

You may be able to disassemble it, clean out the guts and reassemble more neatly to reduce the problem.

But you'll probably need a special set of drivers to get in--they are sealed to prevent law suits. (I happened to own the right tamper-resistant drivers. There were no capacitors or other obvious sources of danger in there, but be sure to test the interlock when reassembling: you don't want to lose a finger.)

On the other hand, a new machine might be cheaper than the tools and more certain.

dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
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If it has multiple blades it might be removable, if that's the case, some grinds might have nudged their way in there. Check to see if you can remove the blade and clean out the assembly.

mfg
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A trick I use when grinding coffee is to place my grinder on top of the coffee filter. This helps when I take off the lid and some grinds always fall out. It sounds like it would help you when your grinds falling out of the bottom and not just from the top.

Chad
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    Grinds coming out the bottom notwithstanding, I always turn the grinder upside down and then push the button for one or two more pulses. That cleans the blades and the bowl out, and pushes all the grinds into the lid. Then I take the lid off, and all clean. – JakeParis Mar 07 '11 at 16:29