Most people who love coffee also tend to love sleeping.
Grinding coffee is noisy, and noise is the antithesis of sleep.
Fortunately, there are devices running at a nearly silent level, so you won’t wake up your family or partner when preparing your morning brew.
To help you out, I have curated this list of the best options on the market!
How To Choose a Quiet Coffee Grinder
First things first: what do you want from a grinder?
Do you need it for home use, or will you also use it on trips?
Should it be able to grind for espresso, or are you only doing filter coffee?
All the same, requirements that you’d want from a normal coffee grinder, you should also keep in mind when choosing a quiet coffee grinder.
At the end of the article, I’ll dive more into all these things. But for now, take a list of the options I have curated for you.
| Coffee Grinder | Grind Settings | Burr Size | Grind Speed | Grind Retention | Hopper Capacity | Portafilter Holder | Digital Display | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timemore C3 | 38 | 38 mm | 0.4-0.8g/sec | 0.1g | 20-25g | No | No | 430g |
| 1Zpresso Q2 | 90 | 38 mm | 0.5-1g/sec | 0.1g | 20-25g | No | No | 405g |
| Fellow Ode v2 | 31 | 64 mm | 1.5-2g/sec | 0.3g | 80g | No | No | 4.5kg |
| Eureka Mignon Silenzio | Stepless | 50 mm | 1.4-1.8g/sec | 0.5-1.0g | 300g | Yes | Yes | 5kg |
Timemore C3
The new and upgraded entry-level grinder from Timemore is a solid choice if you want a good all-around performance combined with almost-silent coffee grinding.
It’s a manual grinder, so you’ll have to do some hard work. But that also means you can use this grinder without waking up the whole house.
The design is lovely and won’t take up much space in your kitchen compared to its electrical counterparts.
Timemore C3 is overall great value for the money.
See more reviews1Zpresso Q2
1Zpresso Q2 has a lot in common with the option from Timemore; it’s also a manual coffee grinder, but it’s just a small upgrade in most aspects.
The Q2 also comes with a new burr compared to previous iterations, and this new burr works for espresso and produces a cup profile that provides even more cup clarity.
The Q2 is also a manual grinder, which means it’s almost completely quiet. You’ll be able to hear a bit of a muffled grinding sound, and that’s it. If you’re grinding coffee in the kitchen, your partner will still be able to sleep soundly next door.
See more reviewsFellow Ode Brew Grinder
If you don’t like having to grind your coffee beans manually, then Fellow Ode’s Brew Grinder might be the perfect solution for you.
This is an electric grinder, and it does everything you would expect from such a device.
The Fellow Ode looks minimalist and modern, and it’s easy to clean as well. It’s one of the quieter options available on the market. I would go so far as to say that it even has a pleasing sound, but if you’re trying to get some sleep in the morning, you might disagree.
That being said, I have been using it in the kitchen, for a few months, without having any complaints from my girlfriend, who’s been sleeping next door. So you could say that it passed the real-life test.
This is a flat burr grinder, which is good, as it usually offers better consistency and, overall, a more flavorful cup.
You can adjust how fine you want the ground coffee to be, but the grinder will not be able to do espresso.
The Fellow Ode Brew Griner is a great option for those who want a simple, good-looking grinder that your partner will also approve of.
Check out my full review here
See more reviewsEureka Mignon Silenzio
All the grinders in the Eureka Mignon series are quiet, but a few stand out even more since they have built-in “silence technology.” The Silenzio is excellent in this regard; it’s probably the quietest espresso grinder on the market.
The motor and the grinding chamber use special technology to dampen sound extremely well.
This is unique: Coffee grinders are usually noisy, especially espresso grinders, since they need to run at a high RPM and rely on aggressive burrs.
Silenzio, as the name indicates, is just silent.
This is the grinder if you want to brew espresso without waking up the whole house!
See more reviewsManual vs. Electric Grinder
There are two main types of grinders: Manual and Electric.
A manual grinder requires you to grind your coffee beans with hand/arm power, while an electric grinder uses a motor.
It makes sense intuitively that electric grinders are going to be way noisier.
First, they have a motor that will add to the sound level. But a second point that shouldn’t be overlooked is that they run at much higher RPM than manual grinders. Most electric grinders operate around 1000-1400 RPM’s. With this kind of rotational force, it’s no wonder it can be noisy when the burrs cut into the beans.
On the other hand, you’re probably not going to exceed 120 rounds per minute when you’re hand grinding, so the force, and consequently, the noise, will be significantly reduced.
A good rule of thumb is that manual grinders are noiseless grinders, whereas electric ones are not—however, there are no rules without exception. The electric grinders in this article are pretty decent.
Popular grinders to avoid
If noise is the main concern, there are a few grinders that I would warn against.
The Baratza Sette is the first grinder that comes to mind. It’s a great grinder in many aspects, but the noise level is not one of them. It’s loud as a jackhammer and will most likely wake up the whole house. Avoid at all costs. In general, most of Baratza’s grinders are rather noisy since almost all use a lot of plastic in their construction. This doesn’t work to dampen sound very well.
The DF64 is the second grinder that comes to mind. The grinder is not that bad when you use it with stock burrs. But many people equip this grinder with SSP Multipurpose burr, which turns it into a cacophony of noise and screeches.
GENERAL FEATURES
As mentioned before, you should consider many other things when shopping for a quiet coffee grinder.
- Brewing method: What brewing method will you be mainly using? Espresso requires a special grinder, whereas pour-over-focused grinders should be optimized for this brewing.
- Single dosing: Is that something you value in a grinder? It’s been one of the hottest trends lately. If you don’t mind spending extra money, then get yourself a single-dose grinder. They’re easy to clean and maintain and give you a consistent dose every time due to low retention.
- Flat burrs or conicals: Flat burrs, besides being more consistent, are typically quieter when it comes to electric grinders. But flat burr grinders are also more expensive.
Final Verdict
In conclusion, I’d say that all of the grinders on this list are pretty decent. Some are better suited for certain tasks, but none of them could be considered noisy.
I recommend either a hand grinder or one of the models in the Eureka Mignon series if noise is the primary selection criterion.
FAQ
Yes, there is. However, they can be hard to find, so read this article for a full guide. But a good start is by looking at manual coffee grinders since they all tend to be quiet.
Burr grinders are generally pretty loud if they are electric. However, the manual versions are usually not noisy.
Also, as far as I see it, there’s no alternative to burr grinders. Blade grinders also tend to make noise, plus the coffee just doesn’t taste very good if you use one of those.,
It’s because they have to spin at a very high RPM. Imagine a powerful motor, hundreds of flying beans, and a set of metal burrs crushing said beans. That’s just a recipe for a noisy environment. That being said, coffee grinders are not noisier than comparable appliances; for instance, a powerful smoothie blender is just as noisy.
