Oxo Conical Burr Grinder Review 2023: You Can Do Better…
Whether you’re an espresso or a French Press fan, a burr grinder is best for grinding coffee beans. Finding a grinder brand is easy but getting a product that provides consistency and flexibility is hard.
After getting hands-on with different burr grinders, we’ve found a user-friendly pick that might just be right for you. But is it really worth it? Read our OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder review to find out.
Oxo Conical Burr Grinder Review 2023 Summary
The OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder is a BPA-free grinder made from stainless steel. It comes in a minimalist design, making it a kitchen appliance you can place anywhere without compromising your kitchenette interiors.
While it is noisy and tricky to clean, this conical burr grinder can grind coffee beans with decent consistency and is easy to operate with its intuitive interface. You can select the grind size of your choice from its 15 settings with micro settings included. Best of all, you can use the same settings with no limit as it can be saved and operated with a one-touch button.
The OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder features stainless steel burrs that produce uniform coffee grounds, essential for optimal flavor. It offers 15 grind size settings, catering to a range of brewing methods from espresso to French press, and includes a one-touch start function that remembers your last setting. The grinder has a large-capacity hopper with a UV-blocking tint and a static-fighting container, both designed to preserve coffee quality and freshness.
Pros
Cons
Why Burr Grinders Are Better
Burr and blade grinders are two different grinders that have unique features that make them popular. A burr grinder, either flat or conical, is precise equipment that slowly grinds the coffee beans into even pieces. It is composed of two rotating abrasive surfaces called burrs, where you place the beans in between the burrs to ground.
On the other hand, blade grinders are made of 2 rotating blades (that resemble a blender’s blade and a propeller) that slice the coffee beans into grounds. You can find this blade at the center of the machine.
When you compare burr and blade grinders, the burrs are pricier but they’re worth it in terms of:
- sharpness retention
- precision
- consistency.
Luckily, there are still entry-level coffee grinders from Baratza and Breville. There are also coffee makers with built-in grinders.
Authentic Burrs vs Fake Burr
With the coffee industry flourishing, the number of imitation coffee appliances is also growing The most replicated coffee device in the market is the burr grinder, and if you ignore the details of an authentic burr grinder, you might take home a fake one. So what’s the difference between the genuine and the imitation?
- An authentic burr grinder has sharp opposing cutting surfaces while an imitation has large teeth paired with an asthenic motor.
- With the fake burr, you can wind up grounds but there’s no grind consistency or uniformity, which is recognizable when you grind medium to coarse ground coffee.
- Depending on the material used in the burr, you may get small fragments in your grind along with the coffee.
- You will often encounter misalignment on the burrs because it’s experiencing difficulty breaking up the whole bean, which for genuine burr grinders is an easy task.
Oxo Conical Burr Grinder Main Features
To get a better view of what value you can get from the OXO conical burr grinder, here are its features and benefits:
Dose Precision
The admirable feature of the Brew Conical Burr Grinder by OXO is that it consistently produces a fine grind size by 35% while keeping the fine dust to a minimum. Yet, if you want a more significant amount of uniform grind dose size, the OXO Conical Burr Grinder with Integrated Scale can deliver a grind size close to the ideal range.
Likewise, the OXO Brew Conical Burr is built with durable 40mm stainless steel conical burrs. These burrs let you create uniform ground coffee perfect for optimal flavor extraction.
Noise and Static
The only setback of OXO conical grinder coffee is the loud, jarring noise it creates and the bean hopper vibrating out during the grinding process. The bean hopper doesn’t have a lock to put the hopper into place, so you’d better pay attention while grinding the coffee beans with this coffee grinder.
Build
The OXO Conical Burr Grinder comes with a hopper that can keep up to 0.75 lbs of coffee beans. It’s a non-invasive coffee appliance because it only measures 12×7.4×16 inches and weighs 4.5 lbs.
If you are brewing coffee for a group, you can ground coffee enough for 12 cups because its ground container can accommodate 110 grams of coffee. Yet when it comes to cleaning and maintenance, you might encounter a small problem with the burr at the bottom as it can’t be removed.
On the other hand, OXO has ensured that you can still clean it without having to undo many small screws, which can be daunting to remove and reattach after cleaning. However, OXO coffee grinder users consistently mention that they wish the two burrs could be removed from each other for easier, more thorough cleaning.
Grind Consistency
The OXO Brew Conical Burr grinder has 15 grind settings that allow you to adjust your coffee beans’ grind size that suits your brewing method of choice. The grind consistency of the OXO Brew Conical Grinder ranges from fine grounds for espresso to coarse grind for French Press.
The brew conical grinder has a one-touch timer that saves your most recent grind settings. So the next time you want to grind the same coffee beans you had the other day, you simply push the button to grind.
Aesthetic Design
The OXO Conical Burr Grinder for coffee comes in a functional, minimalist design. The bean hoppers are tinted with UV-blocking tints to ensure the freshness of the coffee beans. The bean hopper is designed to be mess-free, so your countertop won’t be messy with ground coffee spillage.
What Others Say About OXO Brew Conical Burr Grinder
OXO Brew Grinder Alternatives
If the grinds’ quality is dear to your heart in making the perfect coffee cup, Big Cup of Coffee highly recommends the following alternative coffee grinders – all three are a bit more expensive:
Smart Grinder Pro by Breville
The Smart Grinder Pro is a user-friendly, stainless steel conical burr grinder that grinds 74% of coffee beans close to the ideal size of coffee grounds for espresso machines, Chemex, or Drip. Yet, if you’re a French Press user, we highly discourage you from taking this home because it grinds the beans too fine.
Though the Smart Grinder Pro is a high-priced grinder, it works as neat and silent as possible. The device creates a minimal amount of static; that’s why you won’t find any grinds hanging on the grind cup. Even the grinds don’t hang on the chute, so rest assured there won’t be any spillage when you move the machine or remove the grind cup.
The Breville Smart Grinder™ Pro is a versatile and programmable conical burr grinder featuring Dosing iQ technology and 60 grind settings, suitable for a variety of brews from espresso to French Press.
It offers an intuitive LCD display showing grind settings, time, and quantity, and precision digital time for adjustable grind times. Additional features include direct grinding into multiple containers, a 3D interactive setup via the BILT app, and various accessories like portafilter cradles and a grinds container.
Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Grinder
The Baratza Virtuoso+ is a durable, conical burr grinder built with general home use in mind. It has burly components that make it an ideal coffee grinder for a big household, office pantry, or any place where a heavy-duty grinder is needed.
The Virtuoso+ grinds 59% of the ideal grind size for espresso and drip coffee, with 23% on the side, which you can consider perfect or not, and 18% of extremely fine grinds won’t affect the taste of your coffee. This grind consistency rating for a coffee grinder consumer model is quite impressive, especially since the Virtuoso+ is close to the ideal 3-minute extraction time.
The Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is a specialty coffee grinder with a 40-second adjustable digital timer and LED backlit grounds bin for precise dosing. It features 40 grind settings with commercial-grade conical burrs, suitable for a wide range of brewing methods, and a durable build with hardened alloy steel burrs and a powerful DC motor.
OXO Brew Grinder with Integrated Scale
The OXO Brew Grinder with Integrated Scale is a user-friendly grinder that grinds coffee beans with remarkable consistency. It’s a top-dollar grinder that can grind 68% of coffee beans close to the ideal size range and is capable of producing quality grinds for any preferred method.
You can brew coffee multiple times with the same quality consistency and can grind coffee beans you can use with your French Press. Best of all, it can pull out an espresso shot a second faster than the ideal time.
The OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder features a built-in scale for precise measurement by weight and a range of 38 grind settings with durable 40 mm stainless steel burrs.
It has a high torque/low speed motor that preserves bean flavor without overheating, and a built-in overheating detector for longevity. It offers versatile grinding options with a single dial, a no-bean detector, and can hold 16 oz of beans and 125 grams of ground coffee.
Conclusion
The grind size of the coffee beans allows you to have full control of the brewing process. Yet, to extract the optimal taste and flavor of your favorite beans, the grind size’s uniformity plays a vital role. Between the top-tier and entry-level coffee grinders, the OXO brew conical burr coffee grinder is the most user-friendly. The quality of the grinds it produces offsets the price tag of the OXO.
So if you’re looking for a coffee grinder that’s easy to operate with decent grind quality and consistency, the OXO Conical Burr Grinder is your best bet.
Have you tried using the OXO coffee grinders? Share with us your thoughts about our OXO brew conical burr coffee grinder review in the comments below.
The OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder features stainless steel burrs that produce uniform coffee grounds, essential for optimal flavor. It offers 15 grind size settings, catering to a range of brewing methods from espresso to French press, and includes a one-touch start function that remembers your last setting. The grinder has a large-capacity hopper with a UV-blocking tint and a static-fighting container, both designed to preserve coffee quality and freshness.
- 15 grind settings
- Large-capacity hopper
- Static-fighting container
