Best Coffee Grinder Reviews — Budget Friendly Electric Coffee Grinders for Grinding Coffee at Home

When shopping for a coffee grinder, you need to work on a budget. How do you establish a working budget? If you’re shopping for a grinder, you probably already own an espresso machine or you’re likely to buy one. The cost of buying a grinder shouldn’t surpass what you’d spend on the coffee maker.

For instance, if your budget for the espresso machine is $900, establish a budget of $250 to $300 for a grinder. The price of a coffee grinder is totally dependent on the materials used to make it, the brand behind it, quality, built-in features, capacity, and size, among other important variables.

Although the market is flooded with various grinders with different price tags, ensure you pick a good quality machine to grind your coffee beans. You might think that a manual hand coffee grinder would cost less than an electric one, but this is not always true, depending upon the quality of either one.

It’s easy to be tempted to buy a cheap coffee grinder; however, it might turn out to be expensive in the long run. Invest in a good grinder that you can use for many years.

With brands such as Mr. Coffee and Hamilton Beach, you’ll find decent grinders priced as low as $20. On the other hand, a brand such as Mazzer has high-end grinders that retail at high costs of up to $1500. Generally, you’ll find a good grinder in the broad price range of $20 to $2,000. Simply pick the right grinder based on your budget and the features you’re likely to use when crushing your fresh beans.

Coffee grinders come in different styles, designs, brands, and modes of operation. They also come with different features. As such, the quality of coffee grinders varies. Therefore, you need to pick a coffee grinder based on the coffee maker you have, hence the fineness level acceptable, and your established budget. Also choose a grinder depending on whether you intend to use it at home or commercially. Choose the right features for your grinder accordingly.

Here a few important features to look out for:

• Size of crushed coffee granules compatible with your coffee-maker
• Blade vs. burr grinders for coarse or fine coffee granules, respectively
• Low-speed vs. high-speed for quiet or noisy operations, respectively
• Gear reduction vs. direct drive for noisy operations or top-quality coffee, respectively
• Dosing vs. non-dosing grinders for convenience and good quality coffee
• Stepped or Stepless adjustment

With non-dosing and stepless adjustment grinders, you can expect to pay more than for their counterparts, due to increased convenience.

Video: How to Clean Your Coffee Grinder

Did you know white rice can help clean your coffee grinder? Here's how. | Courtesy of Real Simple

Size of Crushed Coffee Granules

The evenness or size of crushed coffee granules depends on your particular grinder. The freshness of your coffee beans, the machine you use to brew coffee, and how the coffee is roasted, determine the size of crushed coffee granules your grinder is expected to produce.

Since different coffee machines are made to extract the aroma and flavor of coffee beans in various ways, you need to pick one that produces granule sizes that match your specific coffee brewing machine. For instance, French press coffee machines need very coarse coffee granules, whereas Turkish coffee requires powdery granules.

Blade vs. Burr

Next, decide whether you want a blade or burr grinder.

Blade grinders are designed to use blades to crush coffee beans. Since they don’t grind consistently, they don’t produce as high quality of coffee (but many people choose these because they tend to be more affordable). The longer you grind your coffee, the finer the granules. These blades usually feature built-in timers to set the duration you want a grinding session to last.

One con of using blade grinders is the fact that they generate static charge that can create a mess by throwing coffee granules all over the place. The charge causes the granules to stick on surfaces they fall onto. For these reasons, you might want to consider a burr grinder.

Burr grinders use burrs to evenly grind coffee beans into the same granule size, meaning they make good quality coffee. Choose between the two types of burr grinders: flat plate and conical grinders.

Designed for both home and commercial use, flat plate and conical burr grinders produce fine coffee for use with espresso machines. Flat plate burrs are used in grinders of varying qualities whereas conical burrs find use in low-speed gear-reduction grinders.

Low vs. High Speed

Low-speed grinders are also known as ‘Cadillac’ grinders. They operate quietly and produce little to no heat and static charge. The motor of low-speed grinders neither bogs down nor clogs up, finely grinding coffee beans. Available as flat or conical burr grinders, they’re categorized into ‘gear-reduction’ and ‘direct-drive’ grinders.

High-speed grinders generate heat just like blade grinders, but they give you more control in choosing a suitable size of coffee granules for your coffee-maker. Also known as ‘direct-drive’ grinders, they feature a motor built into the burrs for same-speed turns. These grinders deliver consistent grinds.

Gear Reduction vs. Direct Drive

Gear-reduction grinders feature high-speed motors built into a gear set for burr speed reduction. They work just like a bicycle going up a hill slowly with gears shifted down and legs moving fast. When in operation, these grinders are noisier than direct-drive grinders. However, the motors don’t bog down.

Direct drive grinders are designed for home and light commercial use, and are the best high-end grinding machines and the most expensive on the market. For same-speed spins, low-speed motors are built onto the burrs directly. High-quality motors are used for easy load handling as low-quality motors would bog down during operation. Moreover, these grinders generate low static charge and heat, and operate quietly.

Dosing vs. Non-Dosing Grinders

Dosing grinders are built to direct ground coffee granules into a container. With the pull of a handle, the granules are dispensed into a coffee-maker’s receptacle such as a porta-filter. The container that receives the ground coffee is divided into six equal sections of about six to seven grams of capacity. This is adjustable in some coffee grinders.

Non-dosing grinders grind coffee directly into a coffee-maker’s receptacle. Some brands can be both dosing and non-dosing grinders such as the Baratza grinders.

Stepped vs. Stepless Adjustment

Stepped grinders can either be ‘self-holding’ or ‘lever release’. Stepped adjustments remain fixed or locked once an adjustment on grinding setting is made.

Stepless grinders come with several fineness settings. Choose a setting as you desire with no limitations. You can easily fine-tune your grinder from coarse to fine settings as you deem necessary.

Choose the right coffee grinder that produces coffee granules usable with your type of coffee maker. For instance, if you own an espresso machine, you need a grinder that finely crushes coffee beans. Choose the right speed, adjustment type, and whether you want a dosing or non-dosing style grinder. Since burr coffee grinders are the best, consider one of those if it’s important for you to produce top-quality coffee.

Whichever grinder you pick, ensure it’s high-performing and easy to use. Look out for a user manual and instructions on how to properly care for and maintain your grinder. Most importantly, buy a grinder with a warranty for protection from manufacturing faults.