OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder , Silver

Great grinder for the price, I tried several grind sizes and that works well.

There is only one issue, and this is why it has only 4 stars:
Grinding 15 g of coffee, you’ll get initially 13 g, ~ 15% missing that remains in the grinder.
This is poorly designed as the inside of the grinder allows for some coffee to stay inside 🙁
So if you grind occasionally, the next time you use it, you’ll get 2 g of old coffee from the previous time.

I was initially sceptical of this grinder because of reviews that said it didn’t handle oily beans well and is hard to clean. That has not been my experience at all. Coincidentally, right after the grinder arrived, a friend gave me a bag of dark, oily beans. I was hesitant at first but am now most of the way through the bag and there is no accumulation inside the grinder at all.

I did prepare for the worst by figuring out ahead of time how to disassemble the burr mechanism. It is a piece of cake – no need to remove the hopper, no tools required, and the fine/coarse setting isn’t affected. Once the inner cone is removed, you can see that there is a straight, voluminous path to the output bin, which was a relief after my previous grinder.

I brew with an Aeropress, so I use a pretty fine grind. It was easy to find a suitable setting (about 2/3 along the coarse/fine scale, so lots of range left if you need a really powdery grind.)

Next: noise. Again, I recall seeing this mentioned in some reviews. I honestly don’t know what these people were expecting. In my workplace we have two burr grinders (a Rancilio Rocky and a Mazzer Mini Electronic.) Compared to the Rocky, the Oxo is way quieter and takes much less time. Compared to the Mazzer I would say that the Oxo is perhaps a bit quieter and takes about the same amount of time to grind a double-shot’s worth of beans.

I generally keep my beans in the bag and only put into the grinder as many beans as I need right away, so the big hopper isn’t useful to me.

The switch/timer works well: there’s a central button and a dial around the outside that lets you configure how long you want the grinder to run. Once you’ve figured out how long it takes to grind a couple of shots’ worth of beans, you can leave the timer in that position forever. If you want the grinder to stop before the timer expires, just press the central button again. (I saw one review in which the reviewer complained that there is no way stop the grinder without unplugging it – not so!)

One other thing that I appreciate: the ground beans drop into a metal bin, which eliminates the static electricity that causes grounds to fly everywhere with my old Delonghi.

So, to summarize: it’s reasonably fast, unexpectedly quiet, seems well designed, and is easy to use. Considering that the Rocky and the Mazzer in my office each retail for ten times the price of this Oxo, I feel that the Oxo is great value.

Things that I’d change:
* There’s nowhere to store the cord. The (commendably sturdy) cord doesn’t play well with the other things in the cupboard when I take the grinder out.
* The output bin sits on a little shelf on the front of the grinder, but the keeper doesn’t reliably stop the bin from sliding off of the shelf. So when you pick up the grinder, you have to remember to hold onto the output bin with your spare hand.

Update: after almost a year of daily use, the grinder is still working great and I still love it. Occasionally I take the mechanism apart to check for accumulation, but I haven’t found any yet. Very happy with this purchase!

40年程手引きミルを使っていましたが、手を痛めたので初めての電動ミルとして購入。
臼型としてはリーズナブルで使い勝手もいいです。心配していた静電気の影響もほとんどなく手入れが楽です。

(I am an ex professional barista.)

CONS:

-The grounds container doesn’t lock into place and will sometimes vibrate out during grinding. This is the only serious flaw with the product, and I feel it’s a minor one. I’ve gone through many of the reviews and it seems that it’s simply a matter of construction inconsistency. Most people’s containers “click” into place; a minority do not. I was just unlucky enough to get one of the ones that don’t.

-You can’t remove the bottom burr to clean it. They really did do their best to make this easy to clean and I appreciate that you don’t have to undo a bunch of microscopic screws just to clean your burrs, but I really wish I could remove BOTH burrs to give them a thorough wipe-down. It’s difficult to clean the one that’s stuck inside the grinder. The other lifts out easily by a cute little handle.

PROS:

-High quality, consistent grind. The brewing methods I use most all hover around the medium grind range, so I haven’t really tested the extremes of coarse and fine. Can’t speak to those. But as far as the medium ranges, it grinds beautifully and consistently. That’s what matters in the end, right?

-The beans feed very well, even for single dosing. Never an issue.

-As mentioned above, the ability to clean the grinder is taken into account in the construction. No need to delicately deconstruct the whole thing and keep track of a bunch of itty bitty screws and springs. The top part of the grinder and the top burr simply turn-and-lift out, and then turn-and-lock back into place. So nice.

-It’s aesthetically pleasing and takes up little room on the counter. All the materials have a quality feel.

-It isn’t super noisy. All grinders are gonna make noise, to be sure, but as far as grinders go, this one has a pretty gentle sound. I’ve definitely used my fair share of grinders that made me feel like my brain was going to vibrate out of my skull, and this one has a polite hum by comparison.

-The price for this level of quality is unbeatable. I can’t even believe I paid less than one hundred dollars for this. Real talk, folks: these are steel conical burrs. Solid construction. 40+ grind settings. Did I mention steel conical burrs? I never thought I would own something like this for less than $250. You cannot beat this price point/quality intersection. You just can’t. This grinder is price-meets-quality king.

USAGE:

You’re working with three variables: time, grind, and amount. There are two popular approaches to working out your dose.

Method 1: You leave ‘amount’ as the open variable. With this method, you dump all your beans in the hopper and store them there. You then adjust grind and time until you’re getting the right dose at the right grind level.

Method 2: You leave ‘time’ as the open variable. With this method, you only deposit the amount of beans you plan to use for each dose, adjust the grind as needed, and let it take whatever amount of time it takes. You’re adjusting the amount and the grind, rather than adjusting the grind and the time. (This is called “single dosing.”)

Go to any coffee forum, and you’ll be pages of debate about which of these methods is superior. Honestly, you should use the method that feels best for YOU.

The reason I bring it up here is because people seem anxious that Method #2 will damage the burrs over time, since you run them all the way to empty every time you grind.

Here’s my take: I use Method #2, because I feel that the beans start to taste stale if left in the hopper. (Everyone’s tastebuds are different; there’s no right or wrong.) This means that I let the burrs run until I hear the sound change from a low growl to a high pitched growl, which indicates that the burrs are grinding empty, and then I manually stop the grind.

I honestly don’t see any issue with this, and I don’t feel any anxiety about it. Think about it: if you’re cleaning the burrs between bean swaps, you’re letting them run for several seconds on empty anyway. Even the manufacturer instructions tell you to do this when cleaning the burrs! The only difference here is that instead of intentionally running them on empty for several seconds to clean them, you’re running them on empty for one single second every day/dose. I’d never recommend doing that on a fine espresso setting, but as long as you’re in the medium-to-coarse range, I don’t see any possible ways the burrs could damage each other. There’s no way the burrs are touching at that distance, regardless of variables like heat expanding the metal and other things coffee nerds like to debate about.

I hope this review was helpful. I’ll update in a year to let you know if this grinder held up through daily use.

The OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder in Silver has truly transformed my coffee experience. From the moment I started using it, I noticed a remarkable difference in the taste of my coffee.

One of the standout features for me is the ease of setting the grind size. Whether I’m brewing espresso or a French press, I can effortlessly adjust the grinder to achieve the perfect consistency. This flexibility is a game-changer.

The noise level is pleasantly low, especially for a burr grinder. I can grind my beans in the morning without waking up the entire household, which is a huge plus.

Another great feature is the airtight storage, ensuring that my coffee beans stay fresh for longer periods. It’s the little details like this that make OXO a trusted brand.

Cleaning this grinder is a breeze. The design allows for easy access to all the nooks and crannies, and it doesn’t require constant maintenance.

In summary, the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder has enhanced my coffee-making routine. It consistently delivers great-tasting coffee, is simple to use, and keeps beans fresh. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase.