Compare the Best Coffee GrindersMarch 2020

At its core, a coffee grinder is a small machine that take whole coffee beans and runs them through a grinder, providing fresh ground coffee for an excellent brew. While it’s definitely fine to use pre-ground coffee, coffee snobs generally agree that coffee tastes better when you use freshly-ground beans rather than pre-packaged grounds.

Blade grinders

These grinders use sharp blades powered by an electric motor to chop the beans into very fine pieces. These machines are generally the cheapest type of coffee grinder, but they do not produce a particularly even grind - some ground may be significantly different sizes than others, leading to a less-efficient brewing, and less tasty coffee. More troubling, the high RPM of the blades on these type of grinders generates quite a lot of heat, which can lead to actually burning the grounds, making coffee brewed from them taste far more bitter.

Burr grinders

This method of grinding is the traditional way of grinding coffee, and has changed very little since the manual grinders that used to be used. The ‘burrs’ in question are toothed or notched gears, which crush and grind the beans into a uniform manner. They give a far more consistent grind than blade grinders, but tend to be slightly more expensive. Burr grinders also improve on blade grinders by being able to vary the size of the grind, allowing them to be effectively used for a wide variety of coffee brewing methods.

There are two main types of burr grinder: conical and wheel. Conical grinders are quieter but also slighly more expensive than wheel grinders.

Grind Settings

Burr and disc coffee grinders have settings to change the size of the coffee grounds produced by the machine. This is important because different types of brewing methods favour different sizes of grinds - an espresso machine requires an extremely fine blend, whereas using a cafetiere requires far coarser grounds. Many will have pre-programmed settings to allow for easy selection, but will also allow manual adjustment.

For bladed grinders, it is more difficult to adjust the side of the grind, since the blades cannot be modified to cut coarser or finer. However you can gain an approximation of different grind sizes by grinding the beans for longer. As a good rule of thumb 8-10 seconds will give you a coarse grind, with 12-15 seconds giving a medium grind, and 15-20 for a fine grind.

With all types of grinder, you have to experiment a bit to find the perfect grind setting for the coffee you want to make. If you find too many ground leaking into the coffee, try a coarser grind. If you want a more intense flavour, try finer grounds.

Capacity

Coffee grinders all have a different capacity, measuring that amount of ground coffee the machine can hold. Some grinders contain a big hopper that can hold enough grounds for several cafetieres, others will only product enough grounds for a single cup - these usually have inbuilt ‘dose controls’ to make sure only the right amount of grounds are produced at once.

Which capacity is best for you depends on what kind of coffee you mot regularly make - families and companies may prefer a bigger capacity, while solo coffee drinkers may only need a grinder that dispenses a single dose at a time.

Timer

More advanced coffee grinders will allow you to set a timer for how long the grinder will run - this allows you to create the precise grind quantity for the amount of coffee you want to make, especially when using bladed grinders. Some coffee makers will measure out in seconds of grinding, others will measure in cups. In both cases, you will need to experiment to find the right amount of coffee grinds for your chosen method of brewing.

Coffee Grinder Prices

We currently list 42 coffee grinders ranging from $11 to $895. The average price of a new coffee grinder is $134 and the 80% of coffee grinders are priced between $18 and $249. The most expensive coffee grinder that we found is the Baratza Forte at $895, and the cheapest is the Bodum Bistro at only $12.

Coffee Grinder Brands - Price Range

The average price of Baratza coffee grinders is $364 which is the highest average price of all coffee grinder brands. Baratza coffee grinders range in price from $0 to $895.

Melitta coffee grinders range in price from $394 to $394, and the second highest average coffee grinder price out of all brands is Melitta coffee grinders with an average price of $150.

The third highest average coffee grinder price out of all brands is Breville coffee grinders with an average price of $120. Breville coffee grinders start at $120 and their most expensive coffee grinder costs $120.

Coffee Grinder Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 24 expert reviews and 970 user reviews for coffee grinders and used this information to calculate the average rating for each brand of coffee grinder.

Biggest Coffee Grinder Retailers

We found 42 current offers for coffee grinders from eBay making it the biggest coffee grinder retailer. That is over 7 times bigger than the second biggest retailer, Overstock for whom we found 6 current offers for coffee grinders.

When Are Most New Coffee Grinders Released?

We couldn't see any obvious trend in the release dates for new coffee grinders over the last 3 years. Last year most new coffee grinders were released in March, with four new coffee grinders released that month. Six new coffee grinders were released in June 2018 making it the biggest month that year for new coffee grinder releases. In July 2017, five new coffee grinders were released making it the biggest month that year for new coffee grinder releases.

How Fast Do Coffee Grinder Prices Drop After Release?

On average coffee grinders drop in price by 9% in the first 6 months after release.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $4 on a typical $39 new coffee grinder by waiting 6 months before buying.

Coffee Beans Capacity

'Coffee Bean Capacity' denotes the amount of coffee beans that the grinder can hold at once time.

The coffee beans capacity of coffee grinders range from 12g to 700g. The coffee beans capacity of the majority of coffee grinders range from 10g to 70g. The coffee grinder with the biggest coffee beans capacity is the Swan SF16020N, which is a 700g capacity coffee grinder and currently retails for $0.00. The Porlex Mini, which is available at $60.89, has the smallest coffee beans capacity and is a 20g capacity coffee grinder.

Grinding Mechanisms

'Grinding Mechanism' denotes the mechanism used to grind the coffee beans into fine particles.

Burr is the most popular grinding mechanism amongst new coffee grinders. We found 89 coffee grinders that are burr coffee grinders. Blade is the second most common grinding mechanism amongst new coffee grinders. We found 56 coffee grinders that are blade coffee grinders.

Adjustable Grinder Settings

'Adjustable Grinder Settings' denotes whether you can adjust the settings on the coffee grinder to produce finer or coarser grinds.

Most new coffee grinders are coffee grinders with an adjustable grinder settings. 93 coffee grinders (64%) on Kagoo are coffee grinders with an adjustable grinder settings.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Coffee Grinders?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying coffee grinders. For each retailer it shows the total number of coffee grinders where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying coffee grinders. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was eBay. 39 of their coffee grinder prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Coffee Grinders for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for coffee grinders by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of coffee grinder prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's coffee grinder prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was eBay. 92.9% of their coffee grinder prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.