Ceramic Burrs Vs Steel Burrs

Ceramic burrs advantages.

Ceramic burrs vs steel burrs.

The burrs heat up during the grinding process and this heat tends to change the taste of the ground coffee. 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. Or so the argument goes. 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 disadvantages. Last twice as long as steel burrs before requiring replacement. And from what i have heard from people out there. 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.

Baratza rates theirs for 750 pounds of coffee but reports indicate that they may be good for up to 2500 pounds. Ceramic burr are less thermally conductive than steel this means these burrs transfer less heat than steel burrs see below on heat. 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 transfer less heat compared to steel ones this means that the type of burr used can affect the taste of coffee.

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. I haven t noticed this myself and i m not sure the argument would even apply to hand grinding. The lifespan is about half the time per pound of coffee as the ceramics but most can be replaced. That s not because steel is inherently better than ceramic but because of the manufacturing process surrounding them.

Since ceramic and steel burrs have different heat conducting abilities. The lifespan of a burr grinder depends on its quality and the burr material. Steel burrs though usually stainless steel can still corrode depending on the type of steel used. In general ceramic burrs tend to last longer than stainless steel burrs.

In general for most people brewing at home i d say that steel burrs are better. Stainless steel burr grinders typically make it through 500 to 1 000 pounds of coffee. Where as you typically want a harder steel for mills you also want something corrosive resistant but often a compromise needs to be made between one of the other. Ceramic burrs are harder than steel and last on average about twice as long as steel burrs.