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Coffee Grinder
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this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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If you've had to refurbish a dozen Encores, that doesn't sound very durable. Bunn G1 = buy once, use forever. It's a commercial grinder like you'd see in a grocery store. No home user will ever cause significant wear on one of those things. I've seen them on craigslist in the 300 range fairly often. I don't have one because it's too big for my tiny kitchen.
I don't know where to get a Baratza Encore for $60 even used. They are $150 new. Hmm I do see one on Craigslist for $75 right now, so that's pretty close. It's a good value in a cheap grinder, but it's not BIFL in any meaningful sense of the word that doesn't include "keep fixing it forever".
Re Skerton: I don't remember exactly how I got it, but I didn't understand at the time what crap they were. I used it a few times and got an Encore which I still have, which has broken twice so far (once replaced under warranty, once I bought a repair part from them). The Encore doesn't suck but it's light duty and semi-disposable IMHO.
Again if you think of spreading the grinder cost across say 5 years (that's not long for a BIFL item) and compare it to the cost of the coffee you're going to run through it, that helps put the initial price tag in perspective.
I resell electronics and a lot of related stuff so I have gone through a lot of items over my career. My insight into what breaks and what doesn't comes from seeing hundreds of used items weekly. I've handled many many brands of grinders and refurbished a bunch of them. I have 2 Baratzas I'm selling right now and sold a Hario earlier today. I also sold another Baratza part this week.
I never claimed the Baratzas don't ever break, but the motors last decades and everything else is cheap and simple on them, they are made to be serviced, which makes them extremely good value. This is why they are a good recommendation for the super cheap price. I know iof no sub $100 grinders that don't have some problem eventually. Think of the price tag. A $60 grinder is dirt cheap.
Baratza Encores currently cost about $60-75 on eBay on the lower side of the price range That would be a used working machine covered by a money back guarantee. A couple have sold for just $50-55 in the past 90 days.
I don't dispute some of what you're saying about a commercial grinder like that $1200 Bunn G1, but that grinder only has 7 grind adjustment settings. It's really not comparable to an espresso grinder. The special feature of the Bunn is grinding a pound of coffee in 30 seconds. Like you can't get an espresso shot calibrated with that style of machine. Of course, that's not a home machine and it's not really designed for the purpose of a careful grind size / weight. However, end of the day, that grinder is $475 for a used model. If a Baratza lasts 20 years for $60, is a Bunn 10X as good?
The OP question wasn't about seeking a cheap grinder, it was about seeking a BIFL grinder. I can accept that there's no realistic way to get both without being lucky.
I seem to remember there is a way to get stepless adjustment for the grind size in a Bunn. Also the Encore isn't much of an espresso grinder either.
Incorrect. The encore has 40 grind size levels. It is literally an espresso grinder.
It might not be the best espresso grinder made but it's the best entry level brand at this price. You will only be disappointed by comparing it to machines multiple times the cost. It is not a 5 star machine but its not terrible.
Do you know what the difference is? Between a general purpose grinder and an espresso grinder?
The OP was asking for a BIFL grinder with a maximum budget of $100.
Um lol no, it doesn't work like that. Doing 40 or 400 or for that matter stepless is mechanically trivial in a grinder. If that was all it took, nobody would buy Kafateks.
That doesn't sound BIFL to me, if you buy it today and then upgrade to a better one when you can afford to. While not being absolutist, BIFL to me means that you have a reasonable expectation that it is the last one that you are ever going to buy. So the gear has durable enough to last that long, and good enough that you feel that it will always meet your standards.
Yes, OP didn't ask about espresso at all. Espresso is a huge money sucking rabbit hole that I wisely(?) avoided entering back when I was into this kind of thing. It's a permanent upgrade treadmill. I have several aquaintances with Kafateks, Lyn Webers, machines of the week, lab instrumentation, microscope photos of coffee grounds, etc. I decided not to care. Once in a while I go to the local cafe and have a Slayer shot and I'm satisfied. I don't have to be able to do that at home.
As for the Encore, well, you've had a dozen broken ones in your shop. I'm not an abusive or especially heavy user and I've broken two of them myself. It's an ok grinder but BIFL doesn't come into it, it just doesn't. It's nice that you can get repair parts from them today but do you really expect the company to exist (and not be absorbed into some evil conglomerate) through your entire lifetime? The Forte (Baratza's semi-commercial model at around $800 new) might be a plausible BIFL grinder for the average person. Basically you want a grinder made for commercial or industrial duty, so its service interval (however many thousand pounds of coffee it is supposed to grind before needing major repairs) is larger than a home user is likely to use in their lifetime. If I had unlimited funds I'd probably want a Kafatek, but mostly because I think they are cool.
Baratza was founded in 1999. Do they still sell repair parts for the grinders they were making in those early years? The part that failed on my second Encore was the burr collar, a weird shaped piece of plastic that probably can't be gotten anywhere else. Maybe I could 3D print one but that's beyond the call of duty.
Also don't forget that lots of Encore users like to upgrade the burr to the one sold in the next higher (Virtuoso) model. I never bothered doing that with mine.
Yes and I'm asking for a flying pony. I think it's best to give a realistic answer, which is that what they are asking for does not exist. That happens in every area of life and adults are supposed to be used to it and not get upset. There's a Bunn G2 on Craigslist right now for $275 and that's totally BIFL after a mod or two. There's also a G9 for under $200 but my coffee nerd buddies advised against that model. We don't have to be like AI chatbots who tell hapless humans what they want to hear even if it's nonsense.
It's not completely impossible to keep it under $100 if you see something that is being thrown out from a restaurant or whatever. But that's a matter of luck.
Interesting opinion.
What makes this a better grinder than the $60 Encore? Like how is it so vastly better?
https://www.baratza.com/en-us/product/100-120v-d-shaft-motor-for-flat-burr-grinders-sp0100771?sku=SP0100771
https://www.baratza.com/en-us/product/100-120v-motor-for-conical-burr-grinders-sp0100799?sku=SP0100799
Because they use the same internals. Same exact motor. Just has a different shape on the output shaft.
I wonder if the Forte breaks as easily as the Encore?