something below $100? or I can go above
find a good hand grinder. nothing really to go wrong on them especially if you get a sturdy metal one. ive had plastic ones break when dropped. still works fine tho.
I love my 1zpresso grinder. Great value for the price.
Do you think a hand coffee grinder (I would buy the kingrinder k6, as I want cheap) is a “buy for life” product? I never had one in my hand, but I would think that anything that “grinds” probably gets blunt in a few years, no?
Decent quality ones should at least last years. These grinders crush rather than cut. Should the burr get worse from too much prolonged use, some brands may allow part replacement. Though those would probably be a higher price.
The only thing that beats my 1zpresso is my Pietro and that’s in a whole other price bracket. Highly recommend if you are into coffee though.
Damn I that looks sweet. Maybe if i ever got a ridiculous influx of cash i could waste.
For espresso or drip?
The only (finely adjustable) espresso grinders < $100 are probably going to be used or maybe Baratza brand. Baratza does sell many of the replacement parts online, but occasionally the designs get updated and older models can be hard to repair without having to change lots of internals. The models share a lot of their internal designs however and they are quite durable. Used baratza is around $60-75. Burrs can run $40.
Hario makes some good simple hand grinders that you can get new burrs for. The skerton model can screw onto a mason / ball wide mouth jar if you break the glass canister. They can usually make an okay espresso grind but definitely a tier below an electric machine for quality and speed. Hand grinders take about 3 minutes a shot if you are grinding finely. For drip grind levels these are fast enough.
There are plenty of good higher end grinders. I had a Rancilio Rocky that I got second hand, made in 1985, used multiple times daily for years and only needed a small repair to the Doser lever spring. I changed the burrs a couple of times and gave it to a friend and it’s still running perfectly as a 40 year old workhorse. Not fancy but quite solid. The only real weak point is some plastics on the case, but they sell replacements. The designs have been fairly maintained over the years and parts are available. I’m pretty sure that if I bought a new Rocky it would outlive me today. A used rocky is about $125 USD @ eBay, street price for new is about $275. They are not the most finely adjustable if you want to fully nerd out on espresso but you can make a damn good shot.
I’ve had my Baratza Virtuoso since 2014-ish and was able to replace the burrs last year. Recommended.
I have an oXo and it works really well and is around $100. Plus you can pick them up at target.
Ive had an oxo burr for about 10 years now, I did replace the burrs but turns out they’re almost identical to the ones a higher end brand uses, so I ordered theirs and fit them in. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% satisfied with the grinder as a whole, the removable bean holder is a little fickle to reattach when there’s bean particles in the grinder. But hey it still works and I use it every day
Please note that burrs will become dull after some hundreds of kg of coffee. But that’s okay, they are made to be replaceable and there are companies selling high quality replacement burrs.
At that price point, you’re probably looking at a Chinese hand grinder. The good news is that these are actually really solid products. I have a hand grinder from Timemore that I’m more than happy with, and have been using for 4+ years without issues.
Chinese for less than $100? You should be able to get basically any hand grinder for less than that. Plus if you’re willing to do a little restoration, I see tons of them at antique stores in the US for like $20.
Of course you can get any hand grinder for less than that, but if you’re specifically looking to get a high-quality grind and want something that lasts for a long time, your options become more limited. This is where the Chinese brands come into play.
It’s too early for me to really recommend it as I’ve only used my current burr grinder for coming up on 5 years, but I’ve had a good time with my De’longhi KG79. I was using it up to multiple times a day at a point, and at no point have I had problems with it, except that it’s not exactly precise both in measuring coffee amount or very fine control of coarseness. If those factors are important to you I suspect you need to go above $100, otherwise you’ll have weigh the coffee yourself like I do.
One thing is certain, those cheap plastic blade grinders you can get for real cheap, they’re definitely not “for life”.
You can’t get a buy it for life coffee grinder under $100, or even under $200 unless you buy a manual one.
For a manual one: Burr grinder, steel conical burr instead of ceramic (still will likely last longer than a ceramic one) and because grinding by hand absolutely sucks, get one you can attach a drill into instead of using the manual handle.
If you want a quality bifl electric, you’re going to have to find used or spend over $200
We have an older version of this (so take this with a grain of salt, maybe the fixed some of the problems):
https://madebyknock.com/products/aergrind
And I can’t reccommend it. Grinding fine coffee is very hard and exhausting and the bottom bit is not screwed on but has some kind of mechanism that makes that part always almost fall of when grinding. Thanks to it being round and metal it would also be very hard to hold tight without slipping when the plastic ring around it at some point breaks. Would not but again but we have it and I’ll keep using it.
Ascaso used might be worth looking at. I’ve had one for over 15 years and its still going strong. I can see a few on ebay for under 100.
I picked up a handheld burr grinder maybe 20 years ago. Not even sure what I spent but I’m pretty sure it was under $50, no apparent brand.
2nd hand eureka
I got a cheap Secura burr grinder that has lasted me years without issue
