What is a good burr grinder?

Go and post your question at Coffeegeek.com.

Should you want an espresso grind, prices will start at around $350 for a Rancilio Rocky

Should you desire everyday, drip style "American" coffee, the Baratza Virtuoso around $150 refurbished will excel.

Yes BUT their motors are meant for grinding one or two pounds of beans at a time instead of an espresso shot or two. Since I brew 24 oz of pourover drip coffee every day, my Baratza grinds for a duration of around 30 sec - 1 minute to get 8 TBS of ground coffee depending on the bean and its roast.

For the espresso afficionado, a good espresso grinder for home use retails in the $5-600 range full retail.

I was always under impression a burr, was a wand grinder with a whip attachment, the commercial ones we have are longer then my arm and are real powerful never used it to grind coffee beans, I wouldnt know how to manage it.

As previously stated, navigate around the following two websites:

1. Coffeegeek

2. Home Barista

Your grinder choice will depend a lot on what kind of brewing system you use.

The better the grinder the less heat it will transfer to the beans when grinding, and the more consistently it will size the "fines" (the grains of ground coffee). Burr grinders, even inexpensive burr grinders, do a better job at these things than (far less expensive) blade (aka propellor) mills. Better burrs do a better job than worser burrs.

Different coffee brewing methods are more or less revealing about the quality of the grinding job. Because the grind is so coarse for "French-press" it doesn't matter at all and a blade grinder is plenty goode.

You seem to looking for a pour-over automatic. Almost all of them, especially those using gold screen baskets, tend to be very forgiving of a little inconsistency or even a little too much heat. You won't discern much difference between an entry level burr grinder and a propellor grinder -- and unless you've got a golden palate and are using very special beans you won't be able to discern any difference at all between an entry level and a higher priced burr grinder. The brewing method doesn't allow that kind of resolution.

As kokopuffs already said, better burr grinders are for espresso. As far as the Barzata he recommends you don't need to spend $150 to get good grinds. No criticism, because in addition to the method it's a good implimentation set in a quality machine.

You can get a burr grinder for less. For instance, a DeLonghi (~$35) or a Capresso (~$50) for instance. On the other hand, these aren't particularly well built and run so fast as to make too much heat.

In your shoes, I'd choose between something like the Solis (or a Barzata, or a KitchenAid, etc.) and a blade grinder and forget about Mr. In Between (the ultra-cheap burr grinders).

A word about Home-Barista.com • Espresso Machine Reviews, Coffee Grinder Reviews, How-Tos and Discussion Forums -- it's all about high-end espresso. A typical home barista "noob" isn't someone thinking about buying a Rancilio Rocky grinder, but someone thinking about making a move up from a Rocky to something better. If that doesn't come close to describing you -- don't bother. You won't pick up much good information on sub $300 grinders or sub $1,000 makers.

On the other hand, coffee geek is certainly more mainstream but you'll have to be careful about separating bad advice from good.

Hope this helps,
BDL

Inoticed a real improvement in my pourover drip coffee when I switched from my Krups blade grinder to the Baratza Virtuoso that features stepped grind settings. Changing the grind from one step to another with alter the flavor and mouthfeel of the brew that even the average palate can discern.

Upgrading to a burr grind from a blade type one results in the biggest improvement in coffee flavor that one can make.