How to choose an electric coffee grinder?

Electric Coffee grinders in Indian kitchen are used to grind spices

Usage

In the olden days, the spices as well as roasted coffee beans were ground by using Mortar and Pestle. These items items were pounded by the  pestle to reach the desired coarseness. The spices for the pickle need to be pounded very coarse. The Garam Masala should be pounded medium. The coarseness for coffee depends on the type of brewing method used and the level of the roast for optimum flavor.

Types of Grinders

There are three types of grinders made for home usage.

Blade Grinders

These are the cheapest of all the three varieties. These grinders have stainless steel mounted just like a typical electric blender. The angles are optimized for small volume. The blades rotate at speeds from 20,000 to 30,000 rpm chopping the beans/spices. You can grind up to 4 ounces of coffee/spices at a time. The output is a mixture of from very fine dust particles to large grinds. The high speed of the blades may give a burnt taste to the coffee beans/ spices.

You can use this type of ground coffee for drip coffee makers. The dust may clog the espresso coffee makers.

You can use to grind Garam Masala except for Punjabi style which is more coarse.

Burr Grinders

These grinders have a cylindrical shaped wheel that spins at 10,000 to 20,000 rpm crushing the coffee beats/spices between the wheel and another cylinder. The crushing surface has burrs and made of steel. You can grind up to 8 ounces of coffee/spices at a time. There is no dust produced. The out put is coarse.

Burr Grinders are best suited to grind almost all types of blend spices for various Garam Masala, Chat Masala and even pickles. 

The ground coffee is suitable for most of the Electric Coffee makers on the market.

Conical Burr Grinders

These grinders have a conical shaped wheel that spins at 300 to 500 rpm crushing the coffee beats/spices between the wheel and another conical shaped cylinder. The crushing surface has burrs made of steel. You can grind up to 8 ounces of coffee/spices at a time. The output can be selected from fine to coarse.

The low speed preserves the best aroma of the coffee beans and the grind coarseness can be selected to suit the brewing process.

Recommendation

I recommend buying a good Burr grinder. They are priced in between the Blade type and Conical Burr grinders. They will meet all spice grinding needs, as well as coffee grinding needs for Electric Coffee Makers. The Burr coffee grinders are noisier than either the blade type or the conical bar type grinders.