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Budget Burr Grinders


john b

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I got my Capresso Infinity yesterday, and fired it up for the first time this morning. So far, it's excellent, considerably better for use with the french press than my old "budget" Cuisinart grinder. The Cuisinart generated a lot more fines than the Capresso, so I had to be pretty careful when drinking to stop before hitting the dregs. There are still some fines from the Capresso, but probably only 10% of the amount from the Cuisinart. Of course, it cost twice as much...

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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  • 8 months later...

The refurb Baratza Maestros were out of stock for a while, but they're available again for $70. Great choice for a entry-level general purpose coffee grinder. I use one at work for pourover almost every day.

http://www.baratza.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=285R

If you don't mind a bit of work, hand grinders can also produce excellent results. The Hario Slim Mill is only $37.

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  • 7 months later...

Is there anything new in the burr grinder world? The Bodum Bistro has good reviews on Amazon for about $20 less than the Capresso Infinity. Any thoughts?

"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

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  • 2 weeks later...

An inexpensive option are some of the manual grinders. I have this one from Orphan Espresso:

http://www.orphanespresso.com/PORLEX-TALL-Japanese-Ceramic-Burr-Hand-Coffee-Grinder_p_2299.html

It's 75$ and makes an excellent espresso grind. Takes about 2 minutes to grind out a double shot.

I converted mine over to a pepper grinder just this morning, amazed at the volume of pepper it cranks out and the top compartment holds a lot of peppercorns, so even if you upgrade in the future there are good things to do with these.

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  • 8 months later...
  • 1 year later...

I have a Hario Skerton, which is great, but man, first thing in the morning, I do NOT want to be manually grinding beans. I have a Zojirushi electric boiler, so the water is ready to go when I wake up. I want my beans to be ready within a few seconds, not a couple minutes.

I do not make espresso, so precision fine grinding is not a concern. Is there a decent electric burr grinder in the $50ish range? Most of what I've seen on Amazon in that range hasn't been too highly rated.

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I adapted a battery powered drill/screwdriver to turn my Kyocera (same as the Skerton) grinder.

It's trivial to do it, and makes using the grinder a pleasure.

After I came up with the modification, I saw that someone else had the same idea and had already posted it on YouTube.

I'm taking it one step further, but his mod might give you some ideas. Take a look at his video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xohgxk4sG3A

Edited by alanz (log)
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either of these will suit your purposes.

i had a similar Braun a billion years ago

but Ive moved on and roast my own on the Alexia PID:

just keep them clean

at BB$B

20 % off w your coupon:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/Cuisinart-reg-Supreme-Grind-trade-Automatic-Burr-Mill/1013265020?Keyword=coffee+burr+grinders

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/Capresso-reg-Disk-Coffee-Burr-Grinder/1018700999?Keyword=coffee+burr+grinders

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  • 4 weeks later...

My Baratza Virtuoso failed after 6 years of daily use, and it was worthwhile to have it serviced for $100 including shipping two ways.

While it was gone, I used a Zassenhaus manual grinder, but that was too much bleary eyed morning effort, so I tried the VitaMix, and it worked splendidly. 

Despite the extreme power of 4 blades, the coffee was not overheated. It takes 11 seconds for drip, and 14 seconds for espresso. The bowl becomes slightly opaque,  but no matter, everything in my kitchen looks well used. V-M will be my spare grinder forever!

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