Looking for a Grinder Upgrade under $200

[MikeLoeven]

Looking for a better coffee grinder. Been using a Cuisinart DBM-8 for a few years and while its good enough for most things it still has a fine dust problem which can cause problems with espresso grinds as the excess powder can clump and jam the machine. Looking for a electric burr grinder under $200 and was hoping someone can provide first hand recommendations don't really trust online reviews as they are too easily manipulated.

 

[Musicphan]

Baratza Encore... or preferably the Virtuoso but that's a touch over you're budget. The Virtuoso has better adjustment and better burrs but both are great grinders.

 

[jonuk]

Go for the Capresso 560.01 Infinity Conical Burr Grinder - https://coffeforus.com/best-coffee-grinders-french-press/

 

[Kudzu]

How about a refurbed Virtuoso direct from Baratza, with new grinder warranty, for $175? It is the older model, but it is a lot of grinder for the money.

 

[wstsider]

Looking for a better coffee grinder. Been using a Cuisinart DBM-8 for a few years and while its good enough for most things it still has a fine dust problem which can cause problems with espresso grinds as the excess powder can clump and jam the machine. Looking for a electric burr grinder under $200 and was hoping someone can provide first hand recommendations don't really trust online reviews as they are too easily manipulated.

Go with the encore because that’s what I have and I love it!

 

[Musicphan]

How about a refurbed Virtuoso direct from Baratza, with new grinder warranty, for $175? It is the older model, but it is a lot of grinder for the money.

Better adjustments & burrs... if it has the same warranty I would do it... that's a decent price. Its what I have for 'home' use and what I use when I do a mobile pour over stand... works great.

 

[Kudzu]

...if it has the same warranty I would do it...

Musicphan’s comment caused me to go double-check my understanding of warranty and it is not exactly as I thought. The refurb does have a one-year warranty, like new ones, but it does not appear to include shipping both ways like new ones. You can read it HERE.

 

[Musicphan]

I also noticed that the Virtuoso has been discontinued... there now is a Virtuoso + which has some nice changes.

https://youtu.be/XLGNIxKpnh8

 

[jonuk]

Looks great, actually!

 

[peterjschmidt]

Probably due to development and manufacturing cost, many of these coffee grinders actually share the same grinding burrs. I know the burrs in Saeco, Jura, Nivona, Miele, AEG, Siemens, Bosch, etc. are all exactly the same! In other words, coffee from them should be the same too. People who don't open them up will never know.

The nice thing / HUGE difference between Baratza and other brands in the $200 and under price range (especially the stuff you'd find at a department store) is their service dept. They stock parts. They have tutorial videos on their site to help w/ repairs. They have real people who answer their phone and can answer questions/give advice. I bought a Virtuoso on craigslist; it looked brand new but was 2 years old. A few days after getting it home it stopped working. So I called Baratza and explained how the grinder came into my possession and it's symptoms. The fella asked me to take the cover off and held while I did. He then asked what color the 'big round thing' on the circuit board was, and when I said it was green he knew what year it was made and the problems that vintage of Virtuoso was having. He sent me the part I needed to fix it, free of charge and no shipping costs either.

So I always steer people to Baratza, because you can fix them and keep using the same grinder for years.

 

[shadow745]

My issue with Baratza is their grinders are decent, but just made cheaply and rarely last a decent amount of time without something giving out. Almost like planned obsolescence... they are innovative and do offer good grind quality for the $, but the build quality suffers. They seem to rush bringing something new to the market and use failures to enhance the product for the future and some people might be fine with that, but not me. When I buy something I expect it to last years and perform like new for quite a long time and that is possible with some grinders, etc. For several years I had a Vario and it was updated with everything current up until that point and the grind quality was good, retention low, relatively fast, etc. Problem is over time the plastic parts wore down, consistency was starting to suffer, then plastic parts started giving me issues like the hopper cracking very easily where the microswitch was activated and a few other places as well. I made due with it until the circuit board went up in smoke. Baratza never offered to replace the board for me and even though it was only a $25 part and 15 mins. to swap it out myself I ended up giving the thing away to a forum member to use for parts. Thing wasn't worth that small amount for me to fix and continue using as it would be a matter of time before something else would give. Ended up going with a solid built grinder with nearly all metal construction and likely will outlive me.

Granted, this topic is regarding grinders under $200... buying new it's tough to find something really good for that price unless you go with a quality hand grinder, but there are tons of solid used electric grinders floating around for that price range that will outlast 10 junk plastic grinders.