Ceramic Burrs Vs Steel Burrs

The lifespan is about half the time per pound of coffee as the ceramics but most can be replaced.

Ceramic burrs vs steel burrs.

As far as i know you ll usually find either ceramic or steel burrs. Ceramic burrs are molded so in order to get a high quality ceramic burr you have to a very high quality and very expensive mold. Stainless steel burr grinders typically make it through 500 to 1 000 pounds of coffee. In general for most people brewing at home i d say that steel burrs are better.

The lifespan of a burr grinder depends on its quality and the burr material. And from what i have heard from people out there. In general ceramic burrs tend to last longer than stainless steel burrs. Ceramic burrs run a little cooler than steel burrs and there are some coffee experts who think the extra heat burns off some of the oils and impacts the flavor of the coffee.

Ceramic burrs are more brittle than steel so you could chip the ceramic burr if a very hard rock was hiding in the beans. Steel burrs disadvantages. Baratza rates theirs for 750 pounds of coffee but reports indicate that they may be good for up to 2500 pounds. Heat is an important factor when it comes to coffee grinder burrs because any extra heat impacts your coffee s flavor since it burns off some oils present on the beans.

Malling wrote vario with steel burr have defiantly improved the in the cup result compared to the ceramic type burrs usually found in vario for all the other brewing methods but it s still inferior when compared to a bulk grinder the vario with steel burrs it for people who is on a budget and who doesn t have the space for a bulk grinder. That s not because steel is inherently better than ceramic but because of the manufacturing process surrounding them. Specifically ceramic burr grinders usually last through 1 000 to 1 500 pounds of coffee. Ceramic burrs advantages.

Or so the argument goes. I haven t noticed this myself and i m not sure the argument would even apply to hand grinding. Ceramic burr are less thermally conductive than steel this means these burrs transfer less heat than steel burrs see below on heat. The burrs heat up during the grinding process and this heat tends to change the taste of the ground coffee.

Since ceramic and steel burrs have different heat conducting abilities. Last twice as long as steel burrs before requiring replacement. First off ceramic burrs run a bit cooler compared to steel burrs or in other words they don t heat up as fast or retain heat as much as their metal counterparts. Steel burrs though usually stainless steel can still corrode depending on the type of steel used.