The 9 Best Quiet Coffee Grinders for 2022

Waking up to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee is the best way to start your day, but nobody likes to be shocked awake by a noisy coffee grinder. Trust me, I’ve been on both sides of that. 

Whether you need the quietest coffee grinder available or you just need a relatively quiet top-of-the-line coffee grinder, this article should help you find your best quiet coffee grinder. I’ll include some manual options, a few electrics, and lots of commentaries to help in your decision.

Quick Answer: Best Quiet Coffee Grinders

Blade vs Burr Coffee Grinders

Coffee grinders come in two main varieties, one using blades and the other using burrs.

Blade grinders operate much like a blender, with spinning blades that chop beans apart instead of grinding them. These grinders are cheaper than their burr counterparts, which has made them quite popular. However, they create a less consistent grind, and the grind size that they produce is controllable only by changing how long the grinder runs. 

Instead of blades, burr grinders have serrated plates that oscillate against each other to grind the coffee beans. This produces a much more uniform distribution of particle sizes than blade grinders, resulting in better coffee regardless of what brewing method you use.

Burr grinders allow you to control the grind size, usually having at least 12 and sometimes upwards of 100 grind sizes, ranging from fine (espresso grind) or extra-fine all the way to the coarse grind needed for cold brews and french presses. This level of control means you can use the ideal grind for your percolator or drip coffee maker and your favorite espresso beans.

When it comes to noise, burr grinders are usually quieter. There are some blade grinders that manage to muffle their noise (more on that later), but aside from these rare cases, a burr grinder is usually your better option for a quiet coffee bean grinder. Burr grinders come in two main types — conical and flat — and conical burr grinders are almost always the quietest.

Manual vs Electric Coffee grinders 

I’ll just go ahead and state the obvious: electronics make noise. Manual grinders will generally be quieter than their electric counterparts. If you want the absolute quietest coffee grinder available, you should definitely go with a manual grinder.

Further, manual grinders are generally smaller, making them great options for travel or for homes with limited counter space. They are not generally difficult to use, especially if you get a quality hand grinder. I’m no powerlifter, but I have never had a problem using a decent manual grinder.

The size of most manual grinders is great for travel, but it’s less than ideal if you want to make a large pot of coffee. This is why many people opt to use a manual grinder as a supplement rather than replacing their electric grinder. If you need to make a single cup of coffee or espresso before anyone else wakes up, a manual grinder is a quiet way to get that done.

Best Quiet Coffee Grinders

Best quiet coffee grinder: Baratza Virtuoso+ conical burr coffee grinder

This machine’s sleek appearance works in a professional setting or your home kitchen, and its compact design won’t take up a lot of precious counter space. Baratza knows how to make a quiet electric coffee grinder, and they don’t sacrifice quality in the process.

This machine’s stainless steel conical burrs provide a highly uniform particle distribution, and you can choose from 40 grind settings to get the best grounds for your preferred brewing method. The display allows you to dial in the runtime that will give you the amount of grounds you need, and it can be set at intervals of 0.1 seconds. 

If you are looking for a quiet coffee maker, you probably also want one that you can use without turning on all the lights in the house. The digital display and LED backlit grounds bin on this machine make it easy to use in low light situations. 

One of my favorite things about Baratza is that they pride themselves on making very fixable machines. They firmly believe that consumers shouldn’t have to replace old machines when things go wrong, so they offer the parts and service necessary to keep your grinder working far longer than the typical competitor’s appliance.

Quietest coffee grinder, electric: Krups Silent Vortex

There are exceptions to every rule. This is the grinder that proves stainless steel blade grinders can be quieter than even the quietest burr coffee grinders, but only when they are heavily muffled. The Silent Vortex is not perfectly silent, but it’s the quietest electric coffee grinder that I’ve ever seen. If you absolutely must have an electric grinder, and you need to keep noise to a minimum, this grinder could be your new best friend.

This nearly silent blade grinder produces enough grounds for 12 cups of coffee. Cleanup and transferring grounds are made easier by the dishwasher-safe grinding bowl. It is a blade grinder, so you won’t get any grind settings. You can control the size of the grind by running the grinder for longer or shorter periods of time, but don’t expect a uniform result. 

Best premium quiet coffee grinder: Baratza Vario-W grind by weight flat burr coffee grinder

If you want to adjust the amount of coffee produced with a typical coffee grinder, you change the grind time. This is not the most intuitive method, and it’s certainly not the most precise. Baratza’s Vario-W grinder replaces those grind time measurements with a built-in scale that allows you to grind by weight instead.

Between the 230 grind settings and grind-by-weight feature that claims accuracy within 0.1 grams, this grinder gives you all the tools you need to easily make exactly the grounds you need for any use case. The tinted hopper and tinted grounds bin limit the degradation caused when coffee beans are exposed to light for long periods of time.

Flat burr grinders are generally louder than conical burr grinders, but this machine is impressively quiet. If you want a high-end grinder that won’t wake the neighbors, it’s hard to find a better option.

As with all of Baratza’s machines, this one is made to last. You’ll pay a bit more upfront, but the quality build and easily replaceable parts mean this coffee grinder will last many years longer than cheaper models.

Best manual coffee grinder: 1Zpresso Q2 manual coffee grinder

Electric grinders are convenient, but you’ll never find one that is as quiet as a hand coffee grinder. When you want that first cup of coffee without waking your roommate, you probably need a manual grinder. 

One of the biggest downsides of manual grinders is that they often have fewer grind settings, making it hard to dial in the perfect grind size for your needs. The 1Zpresso’s 60+ grind settings buck this trend, giving you a level of control that you won’t find in the typical manual grinder.

The 1Zpresso is very portable, and it can easily be taken apart for cleaning and other needed care. The ball handle is very comfortable, and ergonomic comfort is important when you are using a manual grinder. 

The primary downside — and this is true for most manual grinders — is that the 1Zpresso only makes a small amount of coffee at once. It holds about 1-2 cups of coffee worth of beans, so this likely won’t replace a larger electric grinder. But if you just need a quick cup of coffee in the morning before everyone else wakes up, you can make it quickly and silently using the 1Zpresso.

Best quiet budget grinder: Kona manual coffee grinder with ceramic burrs

If you want a high-quality budget grinder that won’t make a ton of noise, there aren’t a lot of options out there. This manual grinder is so cheap that I just ignored it at first glance, assuming that there must be something wrong with it.

Well, it turns out I’m the one that was wrong — Kona somehow managed to bring the quality of a mid-range grinder to the budget market.

Its 18 grind size settings don’t offer a huge amount of flexibility, but there are enough options to work with most basic brewing methods. The size of Kona’s grinder makes it an ideal travel companion, and it holds enough beans to make about 3 cups of coffee. The simple design makes this an incredibly easy grinder to clean and care for. 

One note of warning: there have been reports of quality issues with the Kona’s handle. These issues are rare, though, and customer service has done a stellar job of addressing them.

Breville BCG820BSS Smart Grinder Pro

I am obsessed with technology. I blame the sci-fi shows that I grew up on, especially Star Trek. If you are like me, and you like a sleek, digital display instead of analog settings, this is the grinder you want.

The full-width digital display on this Breville grinder shows your selected grind setting, the grind time, and the number of cups or shots that you’ll be able to make with the grounds. Both the 18-oz hopper and the grounds bin are tinted to avoid light-induced degradation of the beans. If you prefer espresso, there is a portafilter holder that you can use in place of the grounds bin. 

This grinder has 60 grind size settings, which is enough for a wide range of coffee brewing methods, and the stainless steel conical burrs offer a high-quality, uniform grind for any of these grind sizes.

KitchenAid burr coffee grinder

Okay, so this one looks weird. The design was clearly inspired by KitchenAid’s famous mixer line. 

This machine is incredibly durable, and it is built to grind at 450 rpm to minimize frictional heat build-up during the grinding process. Friction doesn’t just produce heat, it also produces noise. By optimizing for less heat, KitchenAid significantly reduced the overall volume of this grinder. It’s not the quietest model on the market, but the noise level is well below average.

Beyond durability and volume reduction, there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles with this grinder. It has only 18 grind size settings, which is low for an electric grinder.

Capresso Infinity conical burr grinder

Capresso may have made the most inconspicuous countertop grinder in history. This thing just blends into the background in virtually any kitchen. 

There are a few ways to reduce the volume of a coffee grinder. In the case of this one, they do it by grinding the beans slowly. It’ll take a little longer to get grounds from this machine, but that sacrifice in speed earns you an impressive reduction in the overall noise level. 

Beyond noise reduction, there’s not a lot going on with this grinder. Its 16 grind size settings don’t give you a lot of options for an electric grinder. 

JavaPresse manual coffee grinder

This is one more great option for a manual coffee grinder. It exists somewhere in between the Kona and 1Zpresso models that I talked about above. Its 18 grind settings offer a decent — although far from impressive — level of precision for a hand grinder. 

As a manual grinder, it is significantly quieter than any of the electric grinders on this list. It is also very portable due to its size, and the build quality is excellent. The most common complaint is rust forming on the handle, but that shouldn’t be an issue with proper care.

Final Verdict

Silence is golden, but these quiet coffee grinders are what really shine. Okay, that was terrible, but you get my point. There are excellent options for grinding coffee beans that won’t wake the neighbors.

Be sure to consider when and how you’ll be using the grinder before you purchase. Manual grinders, for instance, are always going to be the quietest options, and they are great for making small amounts of coffee or traveling with. But they are not the most convenient for heavy use. Fortunately, there are quiet electric coffee grinders available as well.

Whether you need the absolute quietest coffee grinder out there or you just need your top-of-the-line coffee grinder to be quieter than average, I hope you found some great options in this article.