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Comment by ValentineC | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand: if you drink 1-2 cups of coffee a day, and don't mind putting in some elbow grease — a manual grinder like a Comandante or Kinu often produces much better grinds for the same price, since money can be allocated towards a better burr set instead of a motor.

I've had a few friends whose only experience with a manual grinder was a Hario Skerton or its clones, and get turned off manual grinding because of how bad the experience is. The pricier hand grinders have much better UX.

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Absolutely. Much prefer a small hand-operated device that I can easily store in a cupboard to a big heavy device with a cord that needs to be near an outlet and takes up counter space all the time.

I have come to really, really resist buying plug-in kitchen gadgets. I have a few, such as a toaster and a kettle, that I actually use. For anything else I've found that they just end up living in the back of a base cabinet and I forget that I have them.

Life hack: link your manual grinder to a drill. Now you have a automatic grinder that’s reasonably priced and have a superb burr.

Have not tried this myself but I was told by a professional this is way cheaper and better than any automatic grinder below USD$1000, if you’re spending around $200 for a top end hand grinder

I hear an electric screwdriver works too. :)

Grinding coffee beans manually helps me get that little bit of arm exercise though.

The main issue with doing this is the potential to damage your grinder. Your arm has a built in torque limiter, has a feedback loop and only operates at a low speed. If you want to do this with a drill I would recommend one with a torque limiter and a variable speed so you can use it at a low speed.

There are also other niceties that proper electric grinders give you.

I was ready to go all-in on manual grinders. But their supply chain completely evaporated in the pandemic, and I could not find one I wanted anywhere. For months. That ended that.

What brands were those?

It looks like 1zpresso and Timemore are readily available, at least, and the 1zpresso JX Pro is top-of-the-line.

Kinu was the worst offender, and Comadante nearly as bad.

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