Too Much Coffee

We have had a rather nice battery operated Bodum pepper mill for the past few years. It has always worked flawlessly and is a well made, weighty beast. A few days ago it stopped grinding beyond producing a little dust and despite being stripped down it resolutely refused to do its duty.

On close inspection it appears that one of the grinder plate screw mounts has collapsed, which suggests the conical burrs are now moving incorrectly and fouling on each other. This in turn explains the piece of spurious plastic that I found on my runner beans the night before the grinder stopped working and the tiny shards of metal that appeared in post clean-up grind/dust production.

RIP lovely grinder

A truly sad tale. Sorry to hear of the demise. Things like this take the spice out of life.

Hey! Who took my coat?

On a related note, has anyone else found it hard to find a decent pepper grinder? We have had a few now, but there is only one that grinds quickly, with a good uniform fine grind.

Unfortunately, it was the one we got as a present. It is about 15 inches tall and would look more at home in a cheesy italian restaurant! It has a truely great grind, but my wife struggles to use it, and I have knocked it over on more than one occasion. It's quite loud.

Sorry to hear about yours Cakey. But - if you get a replacement and it's any good, let me know!

Peugeot makes 2 grades of manual grinder; pretty good and not so good. Neither one is cheap, but the better ones are even less cheap. The better Peugeots have the grind adjustment on the bottom, are generally of the Italian restaurant style and generally work quite well.

If you can find a well-preserved Zassenhaus that doesn't look too weird they have pretty good mechanicals and generally work well. New Zassenhaus are not as good as the old ones.

Monopol makes good ones for the kitchen, with a crank rather than a knob to turn on top and with very good ceramic burrs. They're difficult to find, modern looking and expensive. I like the crank because of my arthritis, ie. it's easier to turn than a knob.

Victorinox (The Swiss knife company) make some very good ones that are quite attractive.

Cilio make some very nice ones that work quite well.

Fissler make some very good ones with ceramic burrs, but I can't use them because the knob is so smooth I can't really hold it tightly enough to turn it. Dumb.

As to electric (battery or rechargeable) there are some pretty good ones. The Peugeot rechargeables (Elis)are excellent, but ridiculously expensive. Check ebay. WMF Ceramills are also very good, but also quite dear.

Paying a lot is not necessarily a guarantee you'll get one that works well, but buying a cheap one is a guarantee of the opposite.

Wow! Thanks for the information - I will have a hunt around.

I really don't mind paying more for something that is well built, produces good results and lasts. It must be cheaper than constantly replacing cheap ones!

The battery operated Bodum was great. They have two types now, the traditional shaped one with an all metal conical grind system and full adjustment. It has a push botton at the top to operate ii. This is the type we had and we will replace it with the same again. We would recommend it and the cost is reasonable at around £20 from Bodum stores at outlet villages. The other type operates as you tilt it. The design is basically a 'handle' with the grinder workings to the side of one end. These are around £15 from the same source.

We too have a 'manual' Peugeot, though have found the same issues with it as Bruce described. It is pinickerty to say the least and may well be of the lesser quality type.