Breville Smart Grinder Pro: An Intelligent Grinder for Coffee Beans

The great flavor and aroma you enjoy in a cup of coffee not only depends on the type of coffee beans you use but also on how well you grind your beans for extraction. After hours of research on Reddit and Facebook groups, we’ve done our research on why you should consider the Breville Smart Grinder Pro. Its hefty price means it’s filled with the latest technology like the dosing IQ which determines how much coffee to use.

Let’s look at the features and benefits, pros/cons, and all the information you need to decide if the Smart Grinder Pro is ideal for you. 

Precision Grind Setings

Breville The Smart Grinder Pro

• Stainless steel conical burrs designed to minimize grinding heat and protect the essential oils in the coffee bean
• 60 precise grind settings from the finest Espresso to the coarsest French Press Grind. Voltage: 110 120 Volts. Power: 165 Watts
• Precision Electronic Timer allows users to adjust grind time in 0.2 second increments and consistent dose every time
• 18 ounce coffee bean capacity with locking system for easy removal, storage, and transfer of the bean hopper
• Grind directly into portafilter, grinds container, gold tone filter basket or paper filter
• Portafilter cradle small 50 54 millimeter; Portafilter cradle large 58 millimeter

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Our Quick Review

About Breville

Breville is a household name connected to the most trusted home appliance around the world. Its popularity as a household product resembles that of Colgate for toothpaste or Kleenex for tissues. Name any kitchen product, and people will automatically mention Breville first, then any brand-specific. There’s a reason they are well-known as they’ve been around nearly a century. 

Breville is the fruit of constant product innovation and manufacturing of a small home appliance company in Australia founded in Sydney (where the headquarter is currently located) in 1932. Aside from state-of-the-art coffee machines, Breville is also a home appliance manufacturer of innovative grinders, toasters, blenders, microwaves, toaster ovens, and kettles.

Overview of the Breville Smart Grinder Pro

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is a coffee grinder you can get for under $200. It employs stainless steel burr grinder that will grind your coffee beans to the ideal types for drip, French Press, espresso, and cold brew. It has an attractive stainless body and compact appearance, thanks to the magnets that lock the grinder container in place for a no-mess grinding.

The Good

What’s remarkable with the Breville Smart Grinder Pro is that it can grind coffee beans for different coffee-based beverages, particularly drip coffee, French Press, espresso, and cold brew. It doesn’t require scales to measure how much it can grind. Instead, a digital timer does the math in calculating the ground volume of the coffee beans. This smart grinder is also made of stainless steel and has an LCD screen.

The Bad

The Smart Grinder Pro is not for on-the-budget coffee drinkers because it’s an expensive grinder. Though it’s a programmable grinder, you can only take advantage of it when you grind for the number of espresso shots or cups of coffee. If you’ll be grinding beans for brewing pots of coffee, then the smart grinder can be difficult to adjust as no scale is included. To produce sufficient amounts of grounds, you’ll have to keep holding the button down to grind manually. Many find it difficult to operate and often make mistakes when grinding beans for drip pots.

The Bottom Line

If you want a high-class burr grinder with all the bells and whistles, this is your machine. The IQ technology is a time saver and you’ll be incredibly accurate with your measurements. However, if you’re going for regular coffee and prefer to use a scale, this machine isn’t for you.

Features of the Breville Smart Grinder Pro

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Build Quality

The Smart Grinder Pro offers a good ground consistency with its 40mm stainless steel conical burrs. It grinds good enough for single-serving espresso, drip coffee, and cold brew. Compared to its Italian espresso grinder counterparts, it feels lighter and less durable with plastic as its prime built component. However, its main body is made of stainless steel, making the overall grinder a stable unit while it does its thing.

Another notable build feature of the Smart Grinder Pro is its two portafilter holders. These are 50-54mm portafilters and the traditional 58mm portafilters. These inclusions are removable and lock in place with magnets. It also comes with a magnetic base plate just if you spill coffee dust as you grind beans into the portafilter.

This grinder machine is coined as “smart” because you can access and customize the settings through its blue LCD panel mounted at the center of the device. You can digitally control the grind time, grind settings, and the number of espresso shots or cups with the dedicated button/dial just below the LCD panel.

Grind Consistency

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is a good burr grinder for single-serve coffee drinks with the grind consistency it offers and other qualities worth noting such as:

Grind Settings Galore

Experimentation in grind consistency that suits your ideal coffee is possible with Smart Grinder Pro’s 60 grind settings.

Adjustable Top Burr

Grinding fine to coarse coffee beans is made easy with the top burr that you can manually adjust from the default setting to your customized setting. Such adjustment helps the burr grinder to extend its service life.

Manual Grinding

You can manually control the grind time when you keep the activation button engaged. Make sure that the pressures are maintained from the portafilter. 

Pause Function

The Smart Grinder Pro allows you to pause grinding midcycle to even out the grounds in your portafilter and continue grinding the remaining amount once you hit the start button.

Automatic Grinding

You can effortlessly activate the auto-grind function by simply sliding the portafilter under the grind chute. You can push it back until the switch clicks to start grinding.

Programmability

The Smart Grinder Pro has Dosing IQ Precision Digital time settings that allow users to select the optimal grinding time for each espresso shot within the setting. The grind time setting allows 0.2 seconds to give you freedom in controlling the grind time.

To enable the desired grind time setting, just hold the program button and wait for the grinder to beep twice. Once you hear the beeps, you have successfully saved your custom grind time.

Ease of Cleaning

Cleaning a Breville product is always accessible. When cleaning this grinder machine, you need to unlock the hopper and pull it off to remove the top burr. The Breville grinder machine comes with a cleaning brush that you can use to eliminate whatever residue stuck in the top burr.

Durability

The Smart Grinder Pro is made of stainless steel and durable plastic with a look and feel that it will last for a few years with regular use and cleaning. Its conical burrs are also made of stainless steel, while the body panels are made of plastics sitting cozily in the steel casing. 

Yet, this machine’s downside is that it’s a great tool built with much electronics that can end up with many faulty settings and a call to customer support. 

Ease of Use

The Smart Grinder Pro is also a user-friendly beginner grinder for coffee lovers who grind their beans to prepare drip coffee. It’s also a beginner’s grinder for dialing in an espresso grind for a single-serve cuppa. If you’ll be preparing the grind for your French Press,  it’s best to adjust the top burr between 9 to 10. Likewise, program the settings to the coarsest grind in your LCD screen for a potent French Press grind.

It has a neat and tidy cord wrapped under the grinder for easy storage of the power cord. It also features portafilter holders for stable, hands-free grinding. 

The number of possible combinations to fully customize the grind settings can be mind-boggling if you aren’t a Breville appliance user from the start. So, if it’s your first time using this smart machine, it’s best to get used to the routine of using it:

• Check the removable components of the grinder machine if it is properly attached.
• Plug the grinder machine to the nearest outlet.
• Load the removable hopper with coffee beans
• Choose the grind settings you prefer using the side-mounted dial.
• Pick a grind time and use the dial under the LCD display screen
• Press the start/pause button to start grinding the beans into the portafilter. If you want to even out the beans in the filter mid-cycle, you can press pause and press the button again to continue the grinding.

And here’s the exciting part in using the grinder machine by Breville – adjusting and programming the grind time with the Dosing IQ technology allot a 0.2  second increment for the total control and perfect dose that you desire!

With Breville’s innovative grinder machine, you can program the settings to any four categories: Filter, Percolator, Espresso, and Plunger. Also, you can alter the number of shots or cups to grind for a while. The Breville Smart Pro will calculate and settle the best grinding time.

Likewise, other features to look at when using this conical burr grinder are:

• Manual-grind button: You can find the manual-grind button right where the portafilters slot in. If you want to control the dose to make large pots, press the portafilter until you hear a “click” and it starts grinding. Take note that when you remove the portafilter, the grinder machine will stop.

• Start/Pause button: The start button also serves as a pause button, which allows you to pause the grinding mid-cycle to even out the beans before finishing the grind cycle.

SPECIFICATIONS

Here’s the specification of the Smart Grinder Pro to determine if it will fit in your small kitchen spaces:

• Capacity: 18oz Coffee Bean
• Dimensions and Capacity: 6.3″ x 8.4″ x 15.3″
• Construction Materials: 
  • Housing and conical burrs are made of stainless steel, body panels are made of durable plastic.
• Grinding Mechanism: Stainless steel conical burrs are installed in the machine to minimize grinding heat that could rip off the essential oils of the coffee beans.
• Warranty: 1 Year Limited Product Warrant
• Power and Voltage: 165 Watts (110-120 Volts)

ACCESSORIES

The Breville Smart Grinders includes the following accessories:

• Portafilter Cradle –Small 50-54mm. 
• Portafilter Cradle–Large 58mm. 
• Grinds Container with Lid and Sealing Cap 
• Conical Burr Cleaning Brush

Impeller issues with older models!

Impeller issues of the Breville Smart Grinder Pro question the machines’ durability and warranty. Many users complain that the rotor underneath the conical burrs wears out after 1-2 years of use. Such issues of a small component of the grinder lead to more significant problems like clogging, in which it ceases the motor to operate. If this happens, your grinder is rendered useless.

Worst, Breville doesn’t sell the vital part of the grinder to replace the broken ones. Though Breville installed sturdier impellers in the newer models, it’s still unclear if the impeller issues were also fixed since Breville doesn’t make any comments about it.

Yet, DIY repairs make use of a “mod” to get the coffee grinder working again. A Reddit user commented that a 3D printed plastic impeller works wonders with the older version. At the same time, other Breville SGP users combine its use with Bambino Plus while customizing the grind time to 12.2s at 15oz.

What Others Says

Reddit user dr_bepis finds the Breville Smart Grinder Pro worth the bucks since it can make fine espresso shots. The filter meets the standard and intuitive to use. However, it added that the Smart Grinder Pro price would also enable him/her to buy a cheaper alternative in the guise of JX Pro or a Eureka Mignon grinder to get better grinds.

Chaigo1, also a Reddit user, expressed its concerns about Breville SGP for its inconsistency in grinding very fine espresso on some harder coffee beans. Yet, it works fine with robust beans.

Using the grinder, Anders of Reddit recommends using fresh coffee beans on Breville Smart Grinder Pro to ensure that it will not clog in your machine. That’s because old, stale coffee is very porous, pressuring in the filter basket for portafilter.

Looking for the ideal roast to use with your coffee grinder? Check out some of our favorite coffee bean articles to help you choose the right coffee:

• Our 15 Best Dark Roast Coffee Beans
• Our 11 Best Light Roast Coffees To Buy
• 8 Best Sustainable Coffee Brands You Can Trust
• 8 Fair Trade Coffee Brands that Support Social and Environmental Efforts
• The Best Kona Coffee Brands + SCAM WARNING
• 11 Best Decaf Coffee for People with No Plans to Give Up their Coffee Habit

Alternatives

Baratza Virtuoso

Prefer quality over high-tech features? The Baratza Virtuoso outsmarts the Breville SGP with its versatility, grind size range and grind consistency. It doesn’t have mind-boggling grind setting customization and is more straightforward to use. It’s not as cheap as the Breville, but worth the look if you’re going to be using the grinder daily.

High Quality

Baratza Virtuoso - Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

• SPECIALTY COFFEE ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNING GRINDERS - Baratza grinders are preferred by coffee professionals and backed by Baratza’s world class support.
• DIGITAL TIMER and BACKLIT GROUNDS BIN - a 40-second digital timer, adjustable to a tenth of a second, and an LED backlit grounds bin to dose ground coffee accurately and consistently.
• 40 GRIND SETTINGS - With enhanced commercial-grade conical burrs to help you explore an extensive range of brew methods (espresso, Aeropress, Hario V60, Chemex, French Press, and automatic brewers).
• STYLISH - A sculptured metal top and base give the Virtuoso+ a modern image that highlights your coffee corner.
• WARRANTY/QUALITY PARTS - Engineered with 40mm hardened alloy steel burrs manufactured in Liechtenstein, Europe, plus a powerful DC motor. This combination creates a consistent grind and durability ensuring the longevity users have come to expect from the Baratza brand. The Virtuoso+ is backed by Baratza’s world class support and a 1 year warranty.

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Baratza Encore

Want a cafe-quality grind consistency? The flat burr grinder is an amateur-friendly coffee grinder that offers a higher quality grind consistency. Though it’s half the cost of the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, the quality output and ease of use are worth the bucks.

Low Cost Alternative

Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder White

• SPECIALTY COFFEE ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNING GRINDERS - Baratza grinders are preferred by coffee professionals and backed by Baratza’s world class support.
• GO-TO ENTRY LEVEL GRINDER - Baratza’s best-selling grinder, with its small footprint, is THE choice for brewing coffee at home. Available in White and Black.
• USER FRIENDLY - A convenient, front-mounted pulse button, plus a simple ON/OFF switch make it easy to grind fresh coffee.
• 40 GRIND SETTINGS - Commercial-grade conical burrs help you explore the extensive range of brew methods (compatible with espresso, aeropress, Hario V60, Chemex, French Press, and automatic brewers).
• WARRANTY/QUALITY PARTS - Engineered with 40mm hardened alloy steel burrs manufactured in Liechtenstein, Europe, plus a powerful DC motor. This combination creates a consistent grind and durability to ensure the longevity users have come to expect from the Baratza brand. The Encore is backed by Baratza’s world class support and a 1 year warranty.

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Rancilio Rocky SD grinder

Care about reliability over features? If you want a low-key grinder when it comes to maintenance but can prepare high-quality grinds, the Rancilio Rocky SD is one of the multipurpose home grinders to choose from. It is built to last from the heavy-duty motor to its sturdy metal body.

Heavy Duty

Rancilio Rocky Espresso Coffee Grinder

• 50mm commercial grade grinding burrs. Grinds directly into porta filter for simple operation
• Powerful 166-watt direct drive quiet operation motor. All units are tested prior to packaging which might leave a small trace of coffee residue.
• Tinted hopper with a 0.65lb capacity. Please check the FAQ section under the Product Details
• Simple variable grinder adjustment control.
• ATTENTION: Each unit is factory tested with real coffee beans and some coffee powder may still be present upon unboxing.

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FAQs

Verdict

The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is not for beginner users. Yet, it offers a huge learning curve for people who want to experiment on taking full control of its 60 grind settings and grind time increments. 

If you want a high-class burr grinder with all the bells and whistles, this is your grinder 100%. The IQ technology is a time saver and you’ll be incredibly accurate with your measurements. However, if you’re going for regular coffee and not pour-over or espressos, then consider the Baratza Virtuoso.

Precision Grind Setings

Breville The Smart Grinder Pro

• Stainless steel conical burrs designed to minimize grinding heat and protect the essential oils in the coffee bean
• 60 precise grind settings from the finest Espresso to the coarsest French Press Grind. Voltage: 110 120 Volts. Power: 165 Watts
• Precision Electronic Timer allows users to adjust grind time in 0.2 second increments and consistent dose every time
• 18 ounce coffee bean capacity with locking system for easy removal, storage, and transfer of the bean hopper
• Grind directly into portafilter, grinds container, gold tone filter basket or paper filter
• Portafilter cradle small 50 54 millimeter; Portafilter cradle large 58 millimeter

Check Latest Price

Learn More

Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API or Directly from the Manufacturer. #CommissionsEarned

Learn more about other Breville coffee machines and tools that can help you make the best coffee at home:

• Breville Oracle Touch Review: Best-in-Class Automated Coffee Machine
• Breville Precision Brewer: The Do-it-All Drip Coffee Maker

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