Compare the Best Coffee GrindersDecember 2018

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

The price range of coffee grinders is from $11 to $899 and in total we found prices for 39 coffee grinders. On average, a new coffee grinder costs $133 and 80% of coffee grinders are priced between $26 and $268. The Bodum Bistro is the cheapest coffee grinder at only $11, and Baratza Forte is the most expensive at $899.

Coffee Grinder Brands - Price Range

Gastroback coffee grinders start at $459 and their most expensive coffee grinder costs $459. The highest average coffee grinder price out of all brands is Gastroback coffee grinders with an average price of $459.

Baratza coffee grinders start at $0 and their most expensive coffee grinder costs $899. The average price of Baratza coffee grinders is $272 which is the second highest average price of all coffee grinder brands.

The average price of DeLonghi coffee grinders is $157 which is the third highest average price of all coffee grinder brands. DeLonghi coffee grinders start at $47 and their most expensive coffee grinder costs $326.

Coffee Grinder Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 20 expert reviews and 525 user reviews for coffee grinders and used this information to calculate the average rating for each brand of coffee grinder.

Biggest Coffee Grinder Retailers

The biggest coffee grinder retailer by number of products currently for sale is eBay. We found 38 current coffee grinder offers from eBay. The second biggest retailer is Amazon US with 11 offers. That means eBay is over 3 times bigger than Amazon US when it comes to coffee grinders. Overstock is the third biggest retailer with 9 current offers.

When Are Most New Coffee Grinders Released?

July to September is the most common period for new coffee grinders to be released in. The biggest month in 2017 for new coffee grinder releases was July, with five new coffee grinders released that month. In September 2016 35 new coffee grinders were released making it the biggest month that year for new coffee grinder releases. January was the biggest month in 2015 for new coffee grinders, with eight new coffee grinders released that month.

How Fast Do Coffee Grinder Prices Drop After Release?

On average coffee grinders drop in price by 10% in the first 6 months after release. That means a saving of $4 on a typical $40 new coffee grinder if you wait 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 Swan SF16020N, which is on sale for $0.00, has the biggest coffee beans capacity and is a 700g capacity coffee grinder. The Porlex Mini, which is available at $49.00, 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.

We found 82 coffee grinders that are burr coffee grinders, which makes this the most popular grinding mechanism amongst new coffee grinders. The second most popular grinding mechanism amongst new coffee grinders is blade. We found 47 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. 86 coffee grinders out of 129 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. 34 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. 89.5% of their coffee grinder prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.