There’s a central front pulse button in the center of the device while the power and grind setting are on the top and the side. Grind Adjustment: Perfect for grinding fine for espresso but equally as good when grinding for filter and aeropress. Several Wirecutter staffers who own and use Baratza grinders at home report cleaning at less frequent intervals—say, every two to three months or every six months—without any noticeable ill effects on their machine’s performance—you just don’t want to let it go for years, because coffee oils will go rancid or stale, and those aromas are nearly impossible to get rid of. The timer on the Virtuoso+ does make the grinder a little less straightforward to use than the Encore, especially if you’re not using the timer to grind the same amount every day.

With better machines, you should see fewer fines and boulders and more grounds that are in your target range. Conical burrs are more of a V shape, with the center burr fitting into the outer burr, both of them also lined with sharp-edged grooves that cut up the beans as they press together. A timer would also allow you to turn on the machine and walk away, knowing the machine would stop at a certain point; this is convenient but not essential, since grinding enough coffee for a full pot usually takes less than a minute. This sounds complicated at first, but it is not very hard to master, especially if you’re the only one using it every day. Grind Adjustment: Turn the hopper and with 40 settings you can quickly adjust from fine for espresso to coarse for French Press.We also paid attention to ancillary issues such as whether the machines were especially large (could they fit under upper cabinets? If you remember that it’s for non-espresso home brewing, it’ll put both blade and manual grinders to shame without skipping a beat. The efficient DC motor keeps your beans cool, even during extended grind times, while a combination of electric and gear speed reducers slow the burr to 450 RPM, ensuring a smooth bean feed and reducing noise, heat and static buildup. The rings of these burr sets are lined with knobby protrusions that look more like teeth than sharpened grooves, and they act like teeth, too, chewing and breaking beans instead of cutting them. Basic: There aren’t any “convenience” features such as dose controls or timers, which isn’t a surprise since the Encore is the most basic model from Baratza.

The C2 did well in our grind consistency tests, because it uses a custom-designed steel conical burr, rather than the ceramic burrs common in the Porlex and many other lower-cost manual grinders. Of course, the Fellow Ode is significantly more expensive, but if you're planning to keep a grinder for many years, it makes sense to stretch the budget a bit.To find the right grind setting on each machine for a taste test, and to test for grind-size consistency, we used the Kruve coffee sifter and guide. Being able to replace all kinds of parts—such as the entire burr set (not just the top), the bins, and even the motor—is also a plus. Featuring 40 individual grind settings, from fine to coarse, the Encore can please any palate with its gamut of accurate and repeatable grind settings.

We learned that the Encore is now slightly quieter than the OXO when the machines are running empty (by about 5 decibels), but slightly louder than the OXO (by about 2 decibels) when the two machines are actively processing beans.

First and foremost, every electric burr grinder is going to be better than a blade grinder (for reasons discussed above) and better than a manual system for the reasons of physical labor.

We visually evaluated the EK43’s grinds, and we used the Kruve sifters to see which home machine could best replicate the EK43’s consistency. Some people suggest workarounds, like gently slapping the hopper’s lid before you remove the bin or even better, placing the machine on a tray. What’s worse, when you have both too-fine and too-coarse at the same time (which is the basic problem of blade grinders), this means you’ll never get a good cup. Unlike blade grinders, which randomly blitz coffee beans into smaller and smaller pieces, burr grinders cut coffee beans between a set of two grooved burrs, the same way flour is milled. The top-ranked manual grinders, those with the broadest range, best design and most precision, are still more expensive than our budget pick, but there are now at least a few options at the lower end that produce excellent results.The C2 is the lowest-cost grinder from coffee gear company Timemore, whose manual grinders are well-regarded among coffee experts. You might lose some complexity and aromatics with pre-ground coffee, he said, but you won’t get bad, off flavors. In our tests we looked for machines that had easily removable parts—particularly around the burr set—to allow for regular cleaning and, if necessary, replacement.