Breville Smart Grinder Pro Review: Why You Should Consider A Breville

Everyone likes to believe they are the most intelligent person in the room. It may shock you to know that you could be second to the Breville Smart Grinder. With the function of coffee grinders being pretty simple, is the fanfare over this grinder worth the buzz?

If you consider purchasing this grinder, you will label yourself as a coffee fanatic - which is a good thing. You do not merely want a grinder that will do the job, but one that will help you take out the garbage. Okay, so the Breville Pro may not be able to do that, but it can do a lot.

Keep reading for a detailed smart grinder pro review and see if it is worth the purchase, or if your consideration of this model should grind to a halt. We feel you will see that the Breville Smart Grinder Pro will make you feel like a professional barista.

About Breville

Breville, as a manufacturing company, is known for creating well-made products. The only thing is that people have encountered several issues with various products and have had trouble getting a hold of customer service. While Breville considers themselves a leader in the customer service industry, some of their customers disagree.

The technological advancement that Breville offers on products is widely known in the culinary and beverage world. From coffee makers to espresso machines, Breville offers a wide range of products that are both easy to use and aesthetically pleasing to the consumer.

Sometimes Breville makes products with great integral structure, but misses the mark on the inner workings or the added features. They also try to do all product repairs themselves, which drives up the cost of said repairs at the customer's expense.

If you have issues with your product after the warranty expires, you are looking at nearly as much to repair it as you would have to pay for a new grinder. Some other companies are known for better quality products and better customer service.

Having said all of this, Breville is a solid company with solid products at modest prices. The smart grinder pro is priced well below some of the competitor's prices and offers more in the way of extras.

Breville Smart Grinder Pro

There is no doubt that coffee lovers everywhere are having an easier time making a quality cup of coffee or cold brew with the Smart Grinder Pro. There is no pre-measuring needed because it gives you the right dole of ground coffee you require. All you need to do is add the beans, choose the output, and the machine does the rest of the work.

The Breville grinder pro comes with a preset of 60 grind settings in addition to the smart technology it presents. Such a high number of settings may seem overwhelming but you are not likely to use them all. Choose the settings that work best for your taste and figure out the grind times, then the machine will store those settings so you do not have to enter them repeatedly.

Despite being a smart machine and having the ability to store settings, you can override functions to customize it even further to your liking. If you are only interested in grinding your coffee one way, you should look into a fundamental grinder. Do not put money into the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, but rather one that can manually grind.

What We Like

• Retains your preferences so you do not have to keep setting them
• Amazing range of customization and programming
• The Conical burr grinder provides consistent results every time

What We Would Change

• There is no scale needed for measuring coffee
• Can program for shots or cups only (not only pots)
• Manual override is not convenient

Breville Smart Grinder Pro Review

Before we get into specific ratings, let’s go through what this smart grinder can do for you. It has 60 different grind settings to make your cup of coffee exactly the way you like it. The conical burr grinder is programmable to make your mornings even more relaxed.

When choosing your grind setting, you can consider if you would like the coffee ground for a regular coffee pot, shots for an espresso, or ground for a coffee press.

You can choose to grind the bean into your airtight container or the portafilter. If you have not woken up fully before making your coffee, an LCD screen will remind you how many cups or shots you have chosen, grind time, and the grind size you chose.

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro can calculate the coarseness of the grinds to give you delicious results, proving its superior intelligence. The coarser grind is delicious in a coffee press, whereas an espresso requires a finer grind size.

Breville Smart Grinder Specs

• 60 unique grind settings
• 40 mm conical burr grinder made of stainless steel
• The motor is 165 watts
• Bean hopper with 18-ounce capacity and locking system
• 6.4 lbs
• Grind time can be adjusted to 0.2-sec increments with a precision electronic timer
• LCD screen shows the setting you have entered

Design 4.5/5

Continuing on the theory that the smart grinder pro is superior to human intelligence - at least first thing in the morning - here are some specific design elements that make this grinder stand out.

Burr Grinder

The grinder, made of 40 - mm conical steel burrs, translates to a consistent ground for your coffee beans that rivals all other grinders in its price range.

Motor

The motor is 165 - watts and runs the burrs at a rate of 450 RPM, preventing build-up of the coffee beans once they are ground. Some would argue that the motor is a bit loud.

Portafilters

This grinder comes with two portafilter holders. One holder is for 50 - 54 mm portafilters and the other is for the more common 58 mm portafilter. The holders are removable and stay in place using magnets. Most espresso grinders only come with one portafilter.

Hopper

The hopper size is bigger than other machines we have seen. Storing coffee beans in the hopper is not recommended, so the size is nice, but unnecessary. The hopper has a lock/unlock feature that keeps the bean in the hopper, which is a bonus.

Grounds Bin

The grounds bin is made of plastic and fits under the spout. It comes with an airtight lid that is good for storing coffee beans. If you are unsure how many cups or shots worth of coffee grind are in the bin, no worries. There are markings to help you determine how many are left.

Build Quality 4/5

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro has 40 mm conical burrs made from stainless steel. The burrs offer quality grind consistency that is also ideal for espresso. The burr grinders provide perfect consistency to whatever grinding range you choose.

While the inner workings of the smart grinder pro are plastic, the outer shell is made of stainless steel, which gives in some weight and protects the more delicate grinds and inner workings. The grinder will help make the perfect coffee with little effort.

Performance 5/5

The one job a grinder has is to make sure that it grinds the beans to a consistent texture and does not leave large chunks or grinds them to dust. Because the Breville Smart Grinder Pro has 60 settings, this is an area where it performs above most other grinders.

The grinds are not too powdery, which will ruin your coffee when you use a french press. The beans are ground evenly, without substantial bits that would ruin your espresso. The Breville smart grinder gets high marks for grinding consistency, but the 60 settings do not reflect the umbrella of grind consistency for all grinders.

While the Breville coffee grinder is impressive, it misses the mark with the fine grinding ability of the Rancilio Rocky grinder or produces the coarse grinds of the Baratza Virtuoso. If you are creative, you can discover additional settings for coarse grinds, as you will see later on.

Aside from burr grinder being slightly inhibited in its abilities, the grounds the Breville does produce are consistent and with a tasty result. Grind settings, program grind time, and freshly ground beans that are good for a pour over one day, then set for espresso shots the next, are what make this a superior coffee grinder.

Ease of Use 4.5/5

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro blows most competitors out of the water when it comes to settings and perks, but it can all be a little overwhelming when you are just beginning to use a smart grinder of this caliber. You may think that something such as high-tech features would be tricky to use, but unlike many grinders, it's pretty easy.

As mentioned above, the LCD panel displays the grind time and the cups or shots that you have selected. Access for these settings is on the central mounted panel and is easy to read, but it takes a minute to get used to all the steps.

After you have gone through the steps of setting up the machine a few times, you will get to the exciting part of choosing the grind setting determined by the device or technique you use to make your coffee.

The four settings for grinding the coffee beans are:

• Espresso
• Filter
• Plunger
• Percolator

You also can choose the number of shots or cups that you want the machine to grind, and it will do all the calculations and set the grinding time all on its own. Now that is a smart machine!

There is also a manual, built-in button so you can control the amount on your own. You can fill the portafilter, then press it in until there is a click sound. The machine will begin to grind until you remove the portafilter.

A start/pause option allows you to give the grounds time to settle before the grinding is complete. You do not need to do any more than press the button.

One of the reasons this machine is so easy to use is because of the instruction manual. Breville has created their manual with detail that explains each step thoroughly. Breville always supports their products with cohesive instructions that are easy to follow and detail the features and what they are there for. They even include how to make delicious coffee in a french press.

Features 5/5

The Breville smart grinder has an interface that is easy to use. There is a graph that shows the size of the grinds from most coarse to fine. There are also markers to select press, drip, perk, and espresso. The various grind settings are what makes this piece of coffee equipment so unique.

As you move the marker closer to fine, the machine automatically switches the measurement volume to shots. To specify your bean coarseness, you choose to make a certain number of cups, which you can customize to make the grinds to your liking. You can program a lower or higher grind to ratio per cup so that you do not need to adjust it each to your grind beans.

This is where you can fiddle around a bit and discover more setting adjustments to make your bean grinding coarser than the 60 sizes allow. The grinding wheel at the top is set at six (the middle) but can be adjusted between one to 10 to adjust the size of the grinds from coarse to fine. Even so, the Breville smart grinder keeps up with the consistency of the grind like a champ.

As mentioned above, the grinder comes with holders for two portafilters of varying sizes, allowing the grounds to be dispersed directly in the filter. The cup for the grounds screws on instead of snapping, making it secure.

The chute that the grounds dispense from is aligned with the top hole, making spillage unlikely. If you need to store any remaining fresh grounds, there is a sliding cover for the top hole. We also found that keeping the grinds was easy with the removable bean hopper. The hopper can be removed without worrying about spilling any of the coffee at the bottom.

Value for Money 4.5/5 

The Smart Grinder Pro is a reliable machine with a stunning list of abilities. If the 60 settings did not convince you to purchase this smart coffee grinder, perhaps the reasonable price will. Do not misunderstand, the price tag is something to consider because it is not like you are dropping a dime in the bucket. Compared to other smart grinders with much less features, this is a steal.

The options that come with the smart grinder pro are far superior to most coffee grinders. The grinder pro was easy to set to a French press, ground coffee, or fine grind for espresso, without creating coffee dust. The hopper capacity is impressive, as well as the removable hopper.

Whether you want grounds for a pour over, espresso, or drip coffee brewing, this is the best grinder for consistency. The Breville grinder grinding range is beyond expectations.

As well as using burr grinders, the Breville makes it possible for coffee lovers to be satisfied all the time. Most grinders do only half of what this one does.

Bottom Line

Overall, we give the Breville Smart Grinder Pro a 4.5/5. It is a good product, easy to use, and can adjust the grind consistency to suit any product that makes coffee, americano, or espresso.

If you enjoy a cup of coffee once in a while, you may want a simple machine you can use to grind manually, but if you are looking for a new best friend, get the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. If you love coffee and can taste the difference that a good grinder makes, then the Breville Smart Grinder Pro is perfect.

This one machine has all the best features of numerous others on the market that cannot compare. It comes with a higher price tag than many, but the features are hard to match.

If you are only just beginning your journey to making the perfect cup of great coffee or are a seasoned barista, the Breville coffee grinder will help you reach Nirvana in a cup.