Compare the 10 Best Coffee GrindersOctober 2017

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.

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.

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.

Coffee Grinder Prices

In total we found 50 coffee grinders ranging from £0 to £266. On average, a new coffee grinder costs £64 and 80% of coffee grinders are priced between £15 and £180. The Cuisinart DBM18E is the cheapest coffee grinder at only £0, and la Pavoni Jolly JL is the most expensive at £266.

Coffee Grinder Brands - Price Range

La Pavoni coffee grinders range in price from £266 to £266, and the average price of la Pavoni coffee grinders is £266 which is the highest average price of all coffee grinder brands.

The average price of KitchenAid coffee grinders is £214 which is the second highest average price of all coffee grinder brands. KitchenAid coffee grinders start at £207 and the most expensive KitchenAid coffee grinder costs £220.

Lelit coffee grinders start at £180 and the most expensive Lelit coffee grinder costs £180. The average price of Lelit coffee grinders is £180 which is the third highest average price of all coffee grinder brands.

Coffee Grinder Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 11 user coffee grinder reviews written online and used this information to evaluate the average rating for each brand of coffee grinder. The top rated coffee grinder brand is Melitta with an average rating of 91%. The second best brand is Breville with 85% and the third best brand is Sencor with 0%.

Biggest Coffee Grinder Retailers

We found 32 current offers for coffee grinders from Amazon UK making it the biggest coffee grinder retailer. That is much bigger than the second biggest retailer, eBay for whom we found 21 current offers for coffee grinders. The third biggest retailer is Currys with 5 current coffee grinder offers.

When Are Most New Coffee Grinders Released?

The most common period for new coffee grinders to be released in is between July and August. Six new coffee grinders were released in August 2016 making it the biggest month that year for new coffee grinder releases. In January 2015 seven new coffee grinders were released making it the biggest month that year for new coffee grinder releases. In 2014 most new coffee grinders were released in July, with 13 new coffee grinders released that month.

How Fast Do Coffee Grinder Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, coffee grinders drop in price by 18%. That means that on a typical coffee grinder costing £62 you could save on average £11 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Coffee Beans Capacity

This denotes the amount of coffee beans that the grinder can hold at once time.

The coffee beans capacity of coffee grinders range from 20g to 700g. The coffee beans capacity of most coffee grinders range from 20g to 58g. The coffee grinder with the biggest coffee beans capacity is the SwanSF16020N, which is a 700g capacity coffee grinder and is available at £18.99. The SwanSF16020N, which is on sale for £47.64, has the smallest coffee beans capacity and is a 20g capacity coffee grinder.

A larger capacity means that more coffee can be ground in a single session, without the need to refill the grinder.

Grinding Mechanisms

This denotes the mechanism used to grind the coffee beans into fine particles.

We found 27 coffee grinders that are blade coffee grinders, which makes this the most common grinding mechanism amongst new coffee grinders. We found 25 coffee grinders that are burr coffee grinders, making burr the second most common grinding mechanism amongst new coffee grinders.

There are two main mechanisms used for grinding - blades and burrs (wheeled gears that crush the beans). Of the two a burr grinder is far better - it allows the size of the resulting grind to be adjusted, and stands less chance of 'burning' the coffee due to heat and friction while grinding.

Adjustable Grinder Settings

This 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. 54% of coffee grinders on Kagoo are coffee grinders with an adjustable grinder settings.

Different types of coffee makers favour different grind sizes - espresso makers need very fine grinds, whereas cafetieres prefer coarser grinds. Having the ability to adjust the grind makes the device far more versatile.

Biggest Coffee Grinder Retailers

We found 32 current offers for coffee grinders from Amazon UK making it the biggest coffee grinder retailer. That is much bigger than the second biggest retailer, eBay for whom we found 21 current offers for coffee grinders. The third biggest retailer is Currys with 5 current coffee grinder offers.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Coffee Grinders?

Amazon UK most frequently has the cheapest coffee grinder prices (found to be cheapest for 23 coffee grinders).

Proportion of Coffee Grinders for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

The retailer that most frequently offered the cheapest price on coffee grinders is Amazon UK and offers the cheapest price on 71.9% of its coffee grinders.