Starbucks and Seattle’s Best coffee grinders recalled after turning on unexpectedly

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Starbucks is recalling 530,000 coffee grinders with the unfortunate tendency to turn on all by themselves.

The Seattle coffee giant has receive three reports of lacerations to the hands of coffee lovers who were cleaning their grinders when the appliance unexpectedly turned on, said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the Starbucks recall today.

The three reported injuries were among the 176 reports Starbucks has received of grinders that failed to turn off or began operating on their own, Wolfson said.

Consumers should stop using the grinders immediately and contact Starbucks for a free replacement grinder at (866) 276-2950, he said.

The grinders were sold in Starbucks stores as ‘Barista Blade Grinders’ and at Seattle’s Best Coffee locations as ‘Coffee Blade Grinders’ across the U.S. from March 2002 to March 2009 for about $30, the commission’s recall statement said.

The grinders came in various colors including green, pink, orange, teal, red, olive, black, brown and also in a stainless-steel finish, and featured Starbucks or Seattle’s Best logos, the statement said.

The faulty grinders were imported by Starbucks and built by Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co. of China, the commission said.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles