Customer Reviews

This unit contains a plastic impeller, the part that moves the coffee ground by the burrs, out of the machine. This plastic impeller wears over time (ground by the ground coffee itself) and eventually, the impeller cannot do its job anymore, and the machine jams. You can clean up the jam, but it’ll just clog up again. This piece is not a replaceable part, and even if it was, it wearing down means you get plastic infused in your coffee. Reached out to Breville, but they only offer to repair this defect, not correct it. Just look it up, "dose control impeller jam". If you want to do espresso, and don’t want to have to replace this machine in just a few years, stay away.

This grinder lasted almost 7 months before it started doing the same thing my “Breville “ espresso maker did, the reason I had to buy the grinder in the first place. This happens consistently. Breville uses an inferior plastic impeller that wears quickly and is not replaceable. Same problem others have if you Google this product. I’m now dealing with Breville’s customer support department and having to answer a ridiculous list of questions about coffee types, roasting dates and what other appliances I have it plugged in with. Save yourself the headache, buy another brand. Breville ain’t what it used to be.

I bought one of these about one and a half years ago. I loved the grinder until now. It is quiet and grinds quickly, also the grind is more than fine enough for a non-dual walled filter. However it started to jam on me recently. I found out it is a worn impeller which is used to move the coffee out of the lower burr down to your portafilter. The impeller is made of plastic and not metal so it is designed to fail. I haven't gotten a proper estimate yet but they said it will cost at least 50 bucks for labour plus the part which is likely in the 30 dollar range. So, this is a big expense if you grind often. This is a good price now, I paid 200.00 back in 2015.

This grinder worked good enough for making expresso The Good: 1. It grinds very fine. 2. The coffee goes directly into my portafilter, saving time. The Bad: 1. After 1 year of use, the plastic fan (impeller) wore out so much that it could not push the coffee grinds out of the burr and into the portafilter. 2. Not only that, I also found out that the plastic fan got filed away slowly over the months into my coffee - I ended up DRINKING PLASTIC. Researching on the internet, I discovered that other owners also have this problem. In Quebec the food protection agency requires Breville to exchange this machine for one with a steel fan instead of the plastic fan. Also grinders purchased in Calif can get it exchanged for a model with a steel fan because of the danger of the plastic being carcinogenic.

i got one of these grinders as a Christmas present in 2018. When it stopped working as it should in Fall 2020, after the warranty had expired, I contacted Breville for trouble-shooting help. When the things they suggested didn't solve the problem, they offered to replace it, even though it was no longer under warranty. This was very good customer service. Received the new one, sent back the old one. So far so good.Takes a bit of experimenting to get the dose time and grind just right, but once you do, this will reliably produce good espresso. Hope the new machine lasts more than a year and a half.

I was very pleased to receive the new dose control grinder as my old one had a plastic impeller which had worn out. The new replacement grinder has a steel (or steel clad) impeller which I hope will function much longer. I was very pleased that Breville supported their product out of warranty and have made design changes which should result in a longer lasting product. Thanks!

Pros This grinder has many grind settings and grinds very finely as I use “10” for my illy espresso. There are 20 smaller settings to use from”10”. 9.5, 9, 8.5, 8 etc. The impeller is now made of metal and doesn’t wear out anymore. Cons There’s no timer that can be used, however I have to remove the portafilter and move the grounds around a bit, so that they won’t spill out. Therefore, I wouldn’t use a timer even if there was one. The exterior of the grinder is sort of a cheap metallic looking plastic. It doesn’t match my breville infuser. This is the only issue I have with the grinder.

Like others here, I had posted a glowing review of this grinder after a month of use. I recently requested to have it deleted. While it worked, this grinder did the trick. Unfortunately, I have to concur with the other review here about this grinder not being built to last, especially if you grind finely for espresso. Mine died after six months of once-daily use, even with regular weekly cleaning. The problem lies with the plastic impeller, a kind of turbine paddle that pushes the coffee grinds towards the chute. The tips of this impeller get sanded down(!) over time with the end result being the grinder assembly clogging and the motor stopping mid-grind. This apparently would not be a new problem, affecting all models of Breville grinders, even discontinued ones(search Breville worn impeller). Warranty service so far from Breville has amounted to stonewalling. Over two weeks since I opened a warranty claim and no action. Only my first e-mail was answered, since then I have called (on hold forever) only to have my case referred to a supervisor. "We'll call you back real soon." That was a week ago.

The "Dose Control" is a good yet basic conical cone coffee grinder. On the plus side it provides a consistent ground coffee size. On the negative side, the port filter requires that it be removed from the grinder and the freshly ground coffee tamped down midway through through the grinding operation (because the portafilter is overflowing with ground coffee), and then reinserted for more ground coffee to fill the remainder of the portafilter. Because the portafilter overflows midway through the fill operation, this creates a mess of ground coffee at the bottom of the portafilter.

The Dose Control is an excellent grinder. I use very fresh dark roast beans, which, I found out won’t go through at the finest “espresso” setting. But just moving the setting up a bit worked fine and the result was still excellent.