Had a lot of requests for grinders from my post on espresso machines, so here it is!
The charts show how many people (across all of reddit in the past year) mentioned each espresso machine positively, negatively, or in mixed light.
How it's ranked:
- Final rankings use a combination of Wilson Score (same algo behind Reddit’s “Best” sort, Amazon’s “Top Reviews”, Steam’s game ratings etc) and net positive volume.
- So both volume and consistent sentiment are needed to rank. A machine with only 1 review that happens to be good (100% positive) won’t outrank one with 100 good reviews.
- Idea is to show what’s most discussed and consistently supported vs critiqued. Less about what is "best", and more about what's most tried and tested. Hopefully it a useful data point esp for folks who dk where to start.
What's best for you depends on your use case:
Different people have different needs, so I’ve segmented the mentions by relevance to a handful of use cases to make it more meaningful (swipe images to see)
| Use case | Example comment |
|---|---|
| Entry-level espresso | … I got the DF54 V2 a week and a half ago. Super easy to dial in and use with my Breville Bambino…I am getting vitually 0 retention. Occaisionally .1 or .2 grams and often none … My only complaint would be the power button could be a little more sensitive. Other than that, I am 100% satisfied with how easy to use and how consistent the grinder is … u/Intrepid_Elk_9048 (source) |
| Light roast espresso | …I can now taste the different flavours and can grind fine enough for lights and decaf (was basically at chirp in old grinder ). My coffee tastes more alive now – it’s bright and even with the i200D burrs, I still get a good amount of body. It’s also excellent at changing between espresso and pour-over as in retention is near zero so no purging needed… u/Espresso-Newbie (source) |
| Multiple brew methods | … easy as cake to dial in and switch to pour over, moka, drip, and back to espresso, which is required by my household … u/emogu84 (source) |
| Pour-over clarity | However if you're not interested at all in espresso then the Fellow Ode 2 is probably the best option here for filter coffee. It has flat burrs instead of the conical burrs you usually get in hand grinders and common electric grinders – and many people prefer flat burrs for filter coffee because they tend to produce a more uniform grind size, which can lead to a cleaner tasting cup with more clarity. u/08TangoDown08 (source) |
Additional notes:
- Mentions are deduplicated – each person is only counted once, no matter how many repeat raves
- Non specific mentions get divided between models – e.g. “I love my Encore” is split between the Encore ESP and regular Encore.
- I did use LLMs to help analyze the large volume of data – it wouldn't have been possible to do so manually. I hope this doesn't break the recent rules! It's more about the data than anything else though.
Thoughts? Anything that seems surprising or off?
by heyyyjoo
25 Comments
As somebody about to purchase a Casa, happy to see its stock rising..
This should an annually updated report that gets pinned.
Good work!
This is awesome! Wish I had this when I was looking to get my first grinder. Super helpful
Nice info. Now do hand grinders.
Btw where can I see the comments breakdown for each?
How come nobody seems to be talking about Eureka grinders (anymore)?
Very cool. I have Encore ESP myself and very happy with it. In terms of visualization it would make more sense IMO to have the size of the bars done by the %, not the absolute count (with 100% being the max fill).
Seem way off–I have personally made enough comments on what a POS the DF54 is (mine failed completely after a few months with zero support from espressooutlet) that it should have offset any number of positive comments. Just trying to warn people about what a hunk of garbage it is so they don’t waste their money following the hive mind.
Saving this post. Will come in handy when recommending grinders to fellow enthusiasts.
Kinda weird that people overlook the Ceado Life series. I’ve had my Life X for about 3 weeks and I couldn’t be happier
Nice, but honestly the results look heavily biased towards what is common, available for a long time and affordable (most posts). E.g. a Baratza Encore really should not be at the top of a pour-over, light roast or multi purpose grinder list.
Surprised the gevi velpro hasn’t gotten more traction even though the timemores are so popular since it’s cheaper and they seem almost identical to me.
gevi velpro is a silent heater.
Floored to not see the Eureka Zero 65 AP anywhere on these lists.
E55 mentioned, yaaaay. Got the Pro, neat machine.
Further confirmation that I need a Philos in my life
Do one on hand grinders
You realize that Reddit is astroturffed with df review bots right? (Not just df , but a large amount are df)
Did the Opus not make the cut?
Happy to see the StarSeeker finally make it on this list. It’s been drastically overlooked compared to the df series.
DF54 is the best value here in SEA, cost $200, Encore cost $350, DF64 cost $300. Niche cost $1300.
DF54 will clog if you dont know how to maintain is or you are too lazy to maintain it.
I love the effort, but I think the end result leaves some things to be desired. For example the non-ESP Encore ranks highly for the “multiple brew methods” and “pour over clarity” categories, but the Encore is not known for either of those things. It’s not designed for espresso at all, so it’s really only suitable for drip. And it’s conical burr profile heavily prioritizes body over clarity for pour over.
That’s just the one issue I spotted, but there may be other discrepancies. I’m wondering if the reason it ranks so high in those categories is because you split the points when the comment was ambiguous between the ESP and non-ESP models.
Eureka Mignon Zero 55s > DF54 in terms of quality at the same price point
Still baffles me that the Baratza ESP is so widely recommended.
It’s basically a last resort if you hate manual grinders and literally can’t afford anything else electric. It has about a 2 click range usable for espresso, and has awful retention that can both subtract AND ADD up to 2g of coffee to/from your dose (yes even when tapping and bellows-ing with the lid).
I thought I might occasionally use it for convenience over my J-ultra handgrinder, but it’s not even worth it.
I would appreciate some kind of normalization re volume. The DF54 and 64 keep getting mentioned so much because they sold so many items because of their price. Objectively the 64 is better than the 54 for example.
Uh, the 064S has an exceptionally *clean* workflow, one of the main reasons I bought it. So that’s very very wrong. The knocker mechanism drops grounds and fines straight into the dosing cup. It avoids all of the mess brought on by angled chutes and bellows. In fact you also barely ever need to clean the grinder because it’s built so tightly and doesn’t need RDT to achieve low retention.
The main knock on the grinder is actually the fact that beans sometimes don’t go fully into the burrs, easily solved by a quick slap to the top of the hopper.
Otherwise it’s pretty much been perfect for me.
If you check Lance Hedrick’s big grinder showdown video it’s the only one he rated as S tier (check comments)
Obligatory: I’m not astroturfing, just a dude. Check my post history you can see me waffling about whether to buy it or not a few years ago lol