Last Updated on February 11, 2023 by Marie Cooper
The OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is one of the top selling grinders on the market today and it’s totally worth the money. It’s not an expensive machine, so don’t expect to get the same build quality, results, and features you’d get from the more expensive models, but it’s good enough to produce uniform grounds for the average coffee enthusiast.
Here are the reasons why this product is worth the money:
Reasons to buy the OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
- It has 15 settings that span the entire range of grind texture – fine, medium, and coarse so you can adjust your grind size for your preferred brewing method, whether you want coarse grounds for French Press, or fine for espresso.
- It doesn’t just offer you 15 grind settings, it offers you micro settings as well. For example, there are 2 settings between setting 1 and 2, between 2 and 3, etc., which enables you to grind beans to the exact size you want.
- The most important part of this machine, which is probably the part you care about the most, is the conical burrs. These are 40mm burrs and made of stainless steel to ensure they last a long time, but more importantly, they produce the uniform grounds you’ve come to expect from burr grinders.
- Its push to grind feature means you don’t have to set it up every time you turn on the grinder. Your previous settings are saved by the timer so you can begin grinding with the push of a button.
- The hopper holds 0.75lb or 12oz of beans and has a UV tint that protects your beans from sunlight and keeps them fresh.
- Its grounds container is large enough to contain 110 grams of ground coffee, which can be used to make 12 cups of coffee.
- The grounds container is designed to reduce the buildup of static electricity.
Cons
If you’re unlucky, you could end up with a slightly flawed model. This flaw prevents the grounds container from locking into place, but it only exists in a small percentage of units. Most units don’t have this flaw, and OXO can send you a replacement bin if you contact them.
Another disadvantage you should be aware of is that the bottom burr can’t be removed. Not really a disadvantage, but some users would consider it one.
OXO Brew Amazon Ratings
Out of a maximum rating of 5 stars, customers like you voted according to the features of this grinder and rated each as stated below (at the time of writing this, ratings may have changed by the time you read this article).
- Overall rating: 4.6 stars (more than 13,700 ratings, 79% of which are 5-star ratings)
- Quality of material: 4.6 stars
- Ease of use: 4.5 stars
- Durability: 4.5 stars
- Ease of cleaning: 4.1 stars
- Noise level: 4.0 stars
- Airtight storage: 4.0 stars
OXO Brew FAQs
- How much noise can I expect from this machine? It’s loud, that’s not debatable, and all grinders generate noise. However, it’s not extremely loud and it beats some other grinders in quietness.
- Do I need to worry about static? No, you don’t, so long as you don’t have electrical wiring issues in your home. The grounds container is made of metal which significantly reduces static buildup, and any static electricity generated while working flows to the ground through your earth connection.
- Does this machine produce good results for espresso, Aeropress, and French press? Yes, and it allows precise fine-tuning thanks to its micro grind settings.
- Is this product easy to clean? Yes, it is, and the upper burr can be removed easily too. You can also clean the bottom burr, but you can’t remove it.
- Does the grounds container fit securely? Yes, it does. You simply push it in and clicks into place, keeping your grounds safe from flying out.
- Can I grind for one cup of coffee? Yes, you can by taking advantage of the timer.
- How much beans can the hopper hold? 0.75 lb, which is equal to 12 ounces.
What Do Users Have to Say About this Grinder?
Reviewer 1 — “Not Bad”
Dean begins their review of the Oxo Brew burr grinder by talking about their previous one, a KitchenAid product that they have pretty much nothing good to say about. They talked about how its glass bowl would break often and they’d need to go to a lot of trouble to get a replacement bowl. As if that wasn’t enough, the bowl on this KitchenAid machine excelled at generating static instead of reducing it. It’d generate so much static electricity regardless of how well it’s placed, and as a result of this static electricity, they’d have a messy counter with coffee grounds all over it by the time they were done grinding.
Being in a similar situation, a product like the Oxo Brew would seem like a breath of fresh air, which it truly is for anyone who isn’t satisfied with their current grinder. So, Dean began to search for grinders that generate the least amount of static as that was their biggest concern. At first, Dean was looking for one that doesn’t produce any static at all, but if you have a decent amount of experience with coffee grinders, it’s easy to realize that is impossible. All of them generate static electricity, so your best bet is looking for one with the least static, not one without.
Dean got this model and began to use it, and they’ve been satisfied with it so far, both in terms of producing the right amount of grounds for the amount of coffee needed and producing evenly-sized grounds. A pot of coffee is the quantity Dean normally brews and they didn’t get the grind time right the first time. But as they continued to use the machine, they eventually figured out how to set the timer to produce the right amount of grounds for a pot of coffee after a few more attempts.
Dean also talks about how quiet this machine is compared to their previous model. Of course, it’s noisy since it’s a grinder, but compared to their previous machine, its noise level is very low. And now it’s time to talk about static! As mentioned previously, these types of machines all generate static, but the Oxo Brew is designed to eliminate it and this is explained in the product’s user manual. The static electricity generated during the grinding process disappears seconds after grinding.
Therefore, if you wait a short while before taking out the grounds container, there won’t be any static electricity left to cause you any problems. Dean did exactly this and it worked. Problem solved!
One little complaint that Dean has is that the bean hopper isn’t airtight. But this shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t plan to store beans in the hopper for several days. It has a UV tint though that protects beans from sunlight, so that should go a long way toward keeping them fresh for a little while.
Reviewer 2 — “Great Customer Service”
This second reviewer loves how great Oxo’s customer service is. They’d been using their grinder for 2 weeks before the grounds container’s polycarbonate top broke. All they did to get a replacement was call Oxo and ask for one. They got one immediately and the only requirement (which wasn’t really a requirement but a kind request) from Oxo was that they sent the damaged one back to them so it’d be analyzed by their engineering lab in order to find out what caused the damage and obviously to prevent it from occurring again.
Aside from the excellent customer service, this reviewer also has other things to say. They talk about how easy it is to grind again without having to set the timer each time you need to use the machine because it keeps your last setting. You only need to push the start button each subsequent time unless the amount of grounds you need has changed compared to the last time.
The size of the particles is also consistent — something that every burr grinder that is worth the money should be able to achieve. Consistent grounds is actually one of the main reasons people buy burr instead of blade grinders. Another benefit this reviewer mentions is the absence of static electricity thanks to the machine’s ability to dissipate it. Not having to deal with this annoyance is enough reason to buy this.
This customer had used 3 other burr grinders from different brands before buying the Oxo Brew and they name this one as their favorite of all 4, the most convenient to use, and the one with the smallest footprint.
Reviewer 3 — “Excellent with Minor Flaws”
Maradon, who used to be a professional barista, begins their review with a disadvantage. They complain about not being able to remove the bottom burr, even though Oxo has done a great job with the ease of cleaning by making it easy to lift out the top burr without having to unscrew a bunch of tiny screws.
However, as an ex-barista, it’s understandable why they’d want to be able to remove the one at the bottom as well in order to clean the machine as thoroughly as they want. This shouldn’t be a cause for concern for the average user. You can also clean the bottom burr even though you can’t remove it — being able to remove it just means you’ll be able to clean it more thoroughly.
Maradon mentions a lot of advantages in their review, nevertheless. The advantages include beans feeding well even for single dosing, consistent and great quality grind, easy to clean and take apart without dealing with a bunch of tiny screws and springs, and more. You can gain access to the burrs for cleaning and remove the top one by simply turning the top of the grinder and lifting it.
This is a beautiful machine too, Maradon notes in their review. It has a small footprint and a quality build in addition to that. Its sound is gentle, not overly noisy and annoying like some grinders can be. For less than 100 bucks, it’s a steal to get a burr grinder with steel conical burrs at this price, according to Maradon.
