Why I buy this one ?
- Anti Static Design  
- Grind Coffee For Any Brewing Method
- Automatic & Manual Operation
- Swiss Made Grinding Wheels
- Easy to Clean

Espresso Parts Northwest offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $105.00 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

What our customer's say!

"Premium Price Produces Poor Performance", What a failed design. I never thought grinding my own coffee could bring so much despair and frustration, but truly it has. One must stand watch over this grinder as if it were a stubborn, disobedient child.

Imagine this: You've turned the timer knob as far as it allows. The grinder whirs loudly as few beans are ground. At first, you shake the grinder to coax beans into the burrs, but it doesn't help. Next, you manually shove beans down in the hopper with a small spatula. Coffee dust quickly spreads across your counter, creating a mess. Suddenly, the timer stops. You find you're left enough grinds for three-to-four scoops. You feel defeated, but you soldier on. Repeat this procedure three times until you have enough grinds for a full pot of coffee. Now wait, you're almost done! Finish your task by vacuuming the counter, grinder and floor below you with a DustBuster.

Without one iota of exaggeration, and I swear by the God who guides me, this is the most aggravating kitchen appliance I have ever owned. And I paid upwards of $100 for it!

Bottom line: If you love coffee and wish to protect your sanity, look elsewhere for a grinder. This is NOT what you want. As one human trying earnestly to help another, I beg of you to heed my warning.

"Hasn't worked well since it came out of the box :(", My husband bought this for me about 4 years ago - and every time we have used it, regardless of the size or roast of the beans - it needs to be fiddled with and jiggled and have a spoon pushed down into the hopper in order for the beans to feed without jamming.

This takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes to get enough for a pot. :(

I called Solis immediately afterwards, thinking our unit was defective, and was told that it was a problem that they were aware of, and if I shipped the unit back to them they would fix it. Postage and insurance paid by ME. Not to mention the 3-5 week turnaround time that I would be without a coffee grinder.

Poor customer service, poorly designed product - I'll never buy a Solis again.

ETA: When it *does* grind beans it produces a nice grind for both espresso and drip coffee makers.

"FATAL design problem", THE GOOD: I have used the Solis Maestro daily for over a year. I've gained some serious experience with it. It's a nice, slick machine that produces a good, even, fine grind for espresso (about all we ever grind around here). It runs quietly and doesn't have static electricity problems. The lower hopper fits well so it seals tightly. And it has a self-timer - which is useless. Why useless?

THE BAD: This thing has INEXCUSABLE feed problems. Beans will slide smoothly into the grinding "burrs" for only a few seconds without assistance. It's bad enough that my wife gets frustrated and abusive with the machine, so I have assumed the bean-grinding responsibility.

I have found NO beans that will simply feed into the burrs without constant help: rocking, banging, poking with spoon or chopstick, etc. I've heard that "oily beans" or "large beans" may have a problem: but in a year I have found NO beans, none - not oily, not dry, not big, not small - that feed without constant attention.

Rocking or banging the machine keeps the beans moving, but knocks the burrs together when on the finest settings - this causes burr damage! I've found that a bamboo chopstick is the best feed-assist tool; if it is nicked by the rotating burr, it causes no damage. Best approach is a gentle poking and sweeping motion through a half-filled hopper.

THE UGLY TRUTH: you must figure that EACH time you use the machine, you will give it FULL-time attention, feeding the beans down the hopper.


ENGINEERING: As a mechanical engineer, I think the problem should (and could) be addressed by the manufacturer. I believe they had to have discovered this in development and pre-release testing, but released it anyway. I think this is reprehensible.

The machine runs smoothly and quietly and doesn't vibrate like cheaper grinders; but probably this smoothness exacerbates the problem. Perhaps a bump, or bumps, on top of the rotating burr would "cam" the descending beans with each rotation, and keep them disturbed and moving. Or perhaps a central polyethylene or Teflon plug above the rotating central burr would occupy that space and keep beans from interlocking and packing there, and "bridging" the burr-set. Perhaps some combination, with a rotating central Teflon plug which is cammed toward the top, and relieved toward the bottom... anyway, I've intended to try some experiments, but haven't yet. Has anyone else?


"Solis Crema Maestro G 285, Excellent!", The grinder is all I expected it to be and more. It's very quiet, consistant in the grind quality, and doesn't throw coffee all over like my previous grinder. In fact, it doesn't leak at all and there is little, if any static electricity.
Great little grinder.
N Feero
Half Moon Bay, CA

"not for espresso", At first this seemed high end for my $250 pump machine. After 90 days the machine could not pump it through. I blamed on A cheap maker; & thought my great grinder should have A great machine. Another 30 days with my new $1000 machine that started to fail also. I finally realized the point of spending big on the grinded first. I popped only $250 for A cheap commercial grind; & shazam both machines work fine. I would use it for pot coffee only & et A real grinder for espresso; you may not need A commercial maker than? The espresso grind wore out these burrs very fast. For espresso, it is mearly A toy with static.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Great for drip coffee--very good for espresso", I've had this grinder for over a year now and am very happy with it. My parents have the Braun KMM30 and this is a far superior machine. It is quieter (though still loud enough to solicit complaints from television watchers) and produces far less static. That said, my parents (who only drink drip coffee and aren't terribly picky as to nuances of flavor in their beans) are very happy with the Braun.

I use my Solis for grinding beans for a Braun auto drip coffee maker and a Rancilio Sylvia espresso maker. It does a great job for the drip coffee, and is pretty good for the espresso. I have noticed that occasionally the beans will stop feeding through the hopper-a small shake or stirring of the beans provides a quick fix (washing the hopper seems to make the problem go away). When the Solis finally breaks (no signs of that yet) I may go upscale in my grinder purchase and plunk down the $250 to upgrade to the Rancilio Rocky grinder.

While this grinder does cost twice the price of the Braun, if you are looking for a machine to do grinds for an espresso machine than the Solis is definitely worth considering-you will probably find that you cannot get a fine enough grind with a machine like the Braun. Finally, if you are looking at getting a more expensive machine, then you might want to first read the reviews posted at sites like coffeegeek.com and wholelattelove.com to help you make an informed decision.

"An admirable performer", After getting into homeroasting (check out homeroaster.com or bloggle.com for more info) my own beans, I figured I needed to upgrade my old Krups whirly-blade grinder, which, though dependable, was a real mess to clean. I knew I wanted a burr grinder, and after reading some of the reviews at coffeegeek, I narrowed down my choices to the Gaggia MDF and the Solis Maestro, based on performance and reliability. Ultimately, because I'm not a big espresso drinker, I chose the Maestro, and I've been happy with my selection (the MDF, though better built, sells for a lot more, and does not have a convenient hopper to catch grinds). After using this machine daily for several months now, I'm happy to report that I've had zero problems. Be sure to read the directions, and don't try to change the grind settings if beans are already in the hopper. The machine itself is mostly plastic, but well-built, with nice tolerances: the grind hopper fits in very snugly, demonstrating its European-built quality. I have had minimal problems with static (virtually none to speak of) but you can reduce any static even more by breathing into the hopper just before grinding.

Now that I can roast and grind my own beans, I'll never buy another cup at a specialty coffee house; doing it yourself guarantees you the freshest results, and for the money, this grinder is the best I've seen. Note that Solis is now selling the Maestro Plus for about $40 more, but the main differences are more grind settings and a metal base -- I'd rather save the money and spend it on green beans!

"A great grinder", I normally don't take the time to write reviews. However, after seeing the two negative reviews about this product, I felt I needed to add some balance.

After owning a few grinders, this is the best one I've ever owned or used. It is reasonably fast, very quiet and (so far)reliable. It produces a grind that is very consistent in size, even when grinding espresso, which is important. It is well made, and both easy and neat to use. There are no feed problems, no static problems, no problems of any kind.

I haven't tried feeding it any rocks, like one other reviewer here did (duh!), but it works great with coffee beans. Seriously, should it be expected to work well after being abused like that?

Maybe there is a product out there that is better for this kind of money, but I haven't found one.

"Only because zero is not an option . . .", The first week that I had the grinder, it encountered a rock in my coffee beans. It would not grind after I extracted the rock. I called their service center and they advised me to replace one of the mills. The usual cost $15. Since the grinder was so new, they agreed to send it for $10 even though they faulted me running the rock through it.

Nevertheless, they billed my credit card the full $15. The new grinder mill did not improve the performance beyond the level of the damaged part.

I have to feed the beans through a small sprinkling at a time. Just as theother reviewer stated, it quits grinding because the beans won't feed through. Exasperating.

Useless junk.

"I just tossed mine in the garbage.", After a year of fighting with this thing, and having already brought it to the factory for service, I finally threw mine away. Beans would inexplicably stop feeding into the burrs, especially with French Roast beans, which are larger and lighter. When we did get some grinds out of it, the static electricity would send them shooting all over the place.

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