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Where Do Electric Grinders Outperform Manual Grinders? What Should You Pay Attention to When Grinding Single-Origin Coffee Beans for Pour-Over?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, In pursuit of long-term brewing stability, most enthusiasts will splurge on electric grinders, primarily to avoid the frustration of excessive fine powder from manual grinders! Additionally, beyond ensuring consistent grinding quality, another reason for purchasing an electric grinder is the convenience it offers.

Why Start the Grinder Before Adding Beans

In pursuit of long-term brewing stability, most friends will directly invest in an electric grinder (hereafter referred to as an electric grinder), mainly because they don't want to be troubled by excessive fine powder from manual grinders!

Secondly, besides ensuring stable grinding quality, another reason for purchasing an electric grinder is to save more effort, such as skipping the exhausting process of using a manual grinder. You only need to find the bean inlet and powder outlet, put in the beans, and turn the machine on and off~ However, there are still some details to pay attention to during use, because once overlooked, the wear and tear of the grinder will be much faster than expected. For example, a question raised by a friend who visited the shop today: "Why do you always start the machine first and then add the beans when grinding coffee beans? Wouldn't it be the same the other way around?" Good question! Because this is one of the key details of electric grinders!

Why start first and add beans later when grinding? This is mainly a detail to pay attention to when using single-origin grinders! If the order of the two is reversed: adding beans first and then starting the machine for grinding, it will be relatively easy to damage the burrs!

Machine startup requires a certain amount of time, just like when a vehicle accelerates from a standstill, it doesn't instantly reach the target speed! The same principle applies to electric grinders, even if this time is only a brief 1 second. When we start the grinder, it takes about 0.5 to 1 second for the burrs to go from stationary to stable rotation. If coffee beans are added before this, the beans will be in the gaps of the burrs, adding certain resistance to the grinder's startup. The impact of this resistance will affect the burrs. Initially, due to sufficient power and sharp burrs, it won't cause too much impact! But as the number and duration of uses increase, the wear defects of the burrs begin to emerge. When one day you're unlucky and the burrs encounter harder beans, the grinder might experience jamming or shutdown! These situations mostly occur in household small electric grinders with insufficient power and low rotational speed.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends that friends using electric grinders start the machine first when preparing to grind coffee beans, and only pour in the beans when the grinder is running stably for grinding. This can reduce burr wear and decrease the probability of malfunctions~

Regular Cleaning is Also Important

Just like cleaning coffee machines yesterday, cleaning the grinder is also very important. Proper cleaning and maintenance are the best ways to extend service life! However, electric grinders cannot be easily disassembled like manual grinders for detailed cleaning, so we can divide grinder cleaning into daily and regular aspects. Daily cleaning only requires simple cleaning, with an occasional deep cleaning. Daily cleaning: After our daily use is complete, we can use an air blower to blow air at the bean inlet and powder outlet of the grinder. Because there will definitely be a certain amount of coffee powder residue in the dead corners of the grinding chamber (this is why grinders "wash the burrs" before each use), the purpose of blowing air is to blow these residual particles out of the chamber.

But pay attention to safety, it's best to cut off the power or ensure the grinder is in a non-started state before cleaning! Regular cleaning: Blowing air can only blow away non-sticky coffee particles remaining in the chamber, while some sticky particles and oils are substances that air blowing cannot remove! So we need to disassemble the machine for deep cleaning.

The specific operation for disassembly needs to consult the corresponding customer service for that electric grinder or the instruction manual~ After disassembling the grinder, remove the burrs and wash them with clean water, then quickly wipe them dry! By the way, wipe other corners and edges inside the grinding chamber with a clean cloth, and finally reassemble. If friends are not particularly skilled at hands-on work, there's no need to worry, as grinders also have dedicated cleaning tablets just like coffee machines. The specific operation is to directly grind the cleaning tablets as if they were coffee beans. During the grinding process, they will carry out substances remaining in the burrs. Maintaining a cleaning frequency of once every 1-2 months is sufficient!