Manual coffee grinder, worth the money?

[hennypenny9]

So I drink coffee every day, but only about two cups. I used to use a drip coffee maker, but found that the last quarter of the bag of coffee was undrinkable because it takes little ol' me so darn long to drink it. I got a Keurig coffee maker, the kind that makes one cup at a time, from the K-cup. I thought it would reduce the amount of coffee I wasted. It's turning out to be too expensive. (DUH! What was I thinking?)

Anyway, I like the thought of grinding my own coffee each day. Or even once a week. The electric ones seem iffy. Either cheap and flimsy, or strangely expensive. If I'm going to invest my money, I feel more comfortable doing so in a good old fashioned manual grinder. But the decent ones are something like $60.

So my question is, should I get the $15 electric one I found on Amazon, and hope it lasts, or save and get the $60 manual one that will never break? Are the manual ones dependable enough to merit the expense? Are they overrated?

 

[keljonma]

$60 seems outrageous to me. I can get a small decent single blade manual for under $20 and a decent double blade manual for under $45.

ETA we drink about 2 or 3 pots of coffee a day.... We got an electric grinder from Gloria Jean's about 10 years ago and it is still running. I don't know what it cost, because it was a gift.

 

[freemotion]

I am not a coffee drinker, but some friends of mine that I stay with in OK City are. Funny thing....they each bought each other the same surprise gift one anniversary....an antique coffee grinder.

They figured out which one worked the best, to their liking, and they have used it every day ever since, for several years now.

I thought it was so cute, screwed to the side of a kitchen cabinet, that I got a repro on clearance at Homegoods and mounted it in my kitchen, just for decoration. We don't even drink coffee!

My repro ($15) probably works, it was packaged with instructions which I folded up and put inside the unit just in case I ever want to use it. Not really the answer you were looking for, but I don't like seeing a post with zero replies.....c'mon, people! You lurkers, too, sign in and give us some of your experience!

 

[big brown horse]

The kids in my classroom used a hand grinder to make coffee for guests. It worked just fine. I had that grinder for years and years. As far as I know, that classroom is still using it! (I got it used at a garage sale el cheap o.)

 

[big brown horse]

I am not a coffee drinker, but some friends of mine that I stay with in OK City are. Funny thing....they each bought each other the same surprise gift one anniversary....an antique coffee grinder.

They figured out which one worked the best, to their liking, and they have used it every day ever since, for several years now.

I thought it was so cute, screwed to the side of a kitchen cabinet, that I got a repro on clearance at Homegoods and mounted it in my kitchen, just for decoration. We don't even drink coffee!

My repro ($15) probably works, it was packaged with instructions which I folded up and put inside the unit just in case I ever want to use it. Not really the answer you were looking for, but I don't like seeing a post with zero replies.....c'mon, people! You lurkers, too, sign in and give us some of your experience!

free,

You so funny!

 

[Tallman]

I grind wheat for bread with my antique coffee grinder. It has metal plates in it - no blades. So if you are a grind your own wheat for flour person, you might want to consider getting a grinder that can do both.

Heck, we have coffee cake, maybe you can invent coffee bread!

I couldn't resist. Sorry.

 

[hennypenny9]

Thanks for all the impute! Tallman, LOL. Hey, with my current bread obsession I could make coffee bread I'm sure!

I spent a while researching other manual grinders. Some are universally hated and are "just for looks" and some are actually good. Guess which are the cheap ones? I found one for under twenty dollars, which has adjustable grinds for drip or french press. For the life of me I can't find reviews for that model, but the brand itself gets good ratings. I bet it's junk.

Anyway, if I picked up the $17 one and hate it, do you think I could grind herbs in it? Like Basil and such? That way I'd have a use for it. I'm not counting out electric, yet. The cheaper one's are so LOUD though. I hate loud. I even hate loud vacuums, music, and cars. Especially in the morning. Maybe this is why I'm leaning toward a manual? Though if I took a step up in price they are quieter.

 

[keljonma]

If you use a grinder (manual or electric) for coffee, you will have to completely clean it out so the herbs don't taste like coffee. Sometimes running bread through them helps - depends on the model and how it is built.

 

[big brown horse]

I grind wheat for bread with my antique coffee grinder. It has metal plates in it - no blades. So if you are a grind your own wheat for flour person, you might want to consider getting a grinder that can do both.

Heck, we have coffee cake, maybe you can invent coffee bread!

I couldn't resist. Sorry.

Make the bread IN the coffee can...coffee bread! It works with some types of breads...good for gifting.

 

[Tallman]

Correction!!!!!!!!! My grinder is a flour mill! I looked all over the Internet for a picture of an Arcade Mfg. No. 1, but all I ever came up with were coffee grinders by Arcade. I emailed an antique dealer and he sent me a picture that shows that mine is an Arcade flour mill. I tried to copy and paste the picture on here for you, but it didn't work. Anyway, I just wanted to make the correction and let you all know that I grind my wheat into flour with a genuine, cast iron, dyed in the wool, antique flour mill.