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Our budget pick, the Platinum Grinders Herb Grinder, is back in stock. We’ve moved the SharpStone V2 Grinder back to the Competition.
After more than 20 hours considering 32 grinders and testing 12 of them, we found that the Santa Cruz Shredder Medium 3-Piece grinds smoothly and evenly, producing results that work equally well whether destined for a pipe, vaporizer, or recipe. This grinder’s uniquely shaped teeth make quick work of the densest flowers and should stay sharp for years. Its extra-deep collection chamber holds more material than the competition and is easy to empty.
This simple three-piece model offers reliably smooth grinding thanks to durable, sharp, uniquely shaped teeth. Its collection chamber is the largest of any model we tested, and has rounded sides that make it easy to empty.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $50.
In our tests, the four-pointed teeth on the Santa Cruz Shredder Medium 3-Piece grinder quickly and easily broke apart even our stickiest, most closely packed flowers. The three-piece model we recommend is easy to empty little by little thanks to its rounded bottom—far less messy than dumping a grinder out to get at anything stuck in the corners. The pieces of this grinder easily thread together and its top glides smoothly as you twist it. “If I could only have one grinder I would definitely go with a Santa Cruz Shredder,” Buzz of VaporizerWizard.com told us in an email.
This model produced the fluffiest and finest results in our tests—a plus for many vaporizers. Its bonus storage compartment and an optional plate for coarser grinds are unique extras worth the added cost, but not necessary for everyone.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $75.
The small, sharp teeth inside the Kannastör Gr8tr V2 tore through cannabis smoothly without binding and dropped the finest and fluffiest material of any we tried into its collection chamber. That’s ideal for many vaporizers, especially conduction-based models or hybrid conduction-convection models. (If you have a convection vaporizer, you can unscrew the Kannastör’s fine-grind plate and replace it with the included coarse-grind option.) Without adding bulk, the Gr8tr V2’s topmost piece seals off an extra storage compartment that no other grinder we considered includes—a great place to store whole flowers that you plan to grind later. The extra features aren’t necessary for everyone, but if you want a premium grinder, these features make the Gr8tr V2 worth the extra money.
Although it doesn’t feel as well-made and isn’t as smooth to use as our other picks, the Platinum Grinders Herb Grinder gets the job done better than all other inexpensive grinders we tested.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $17.
Given the cost of cannabis and vaporizers, we think that our top picks are worth every cent. But if you can’t justify the extra cost, get the Platinum Grinders Herb Grinder instead. For about less than half the price of our top picks, the Platinum Grinders model gets the job done reasonably well. The biggest drawback to the lower-quality construction of this model is the longevity: Some Amazon customers have noted failures at weak points such as the threads or the connection of the grinding plate. A few customers noted finding metal flecks in their grinders on first use, likely remnants of the manufacturing process. We’d recommend cleaning this budget option with rubbing alcohol before using it for the first time.
This simple three-piece model offers reliably smooth grinding thanks to durable, sharp, uniquely shaped teeth. Its collection chamber is the largest of any model we tested, and has rounded sides that make it easy to empty.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $50.
This model produced the fluffiest and finest results in our tests—a plus for many vaporizers. Its bonus storage compartment and an optional plate for coarser grinds are unique extras worth the added cost, but not necessary for everyone.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $75.
Although it doesn’t feel as well-made and isn’t as smooth to use as our other picks, the Platinum Grinders Herb Grinder gets the job done better than all other inexpensive grinders we tested.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $17.
We’ve covered the best portable vaporizers for most people for a few years, taking input from far and wide to decide what to test. We’ve now done the same for grinders; we looked at best-selling grinders and user reviews on Amazon, read enthusiasts’ feedback on forums, and even sat through video reviews on YouTube. We also got input from two expert reviewers in the field, Bud at The Vape Critic and Buzz at VaporizerWizard.com. Both are prolific reviewers who have in the past given us feedback on the dozens of vaporizers they’ve tried. They provided valuable insights into how to get the most from any grinder.
Despite the rise in concentrates, waxes, edibles, and a host of prepared cannabis products, most people still buy and use regular cannabis flowers—good old-fashioned pot. And most people smoking, vaporizing, or cooking with cannabis can benefit from a grinder. With a grinder you can quickly and easily turn dense, sticky buds into material that will heat evenly and efficiently. If you partake only on occasion, an inexpensive model will do enough to make your rare indulgence all the better. But if you regularly reach for a vaporizer, the investment in a high-end cannabis grinder won’t seem like a stretch and will pay off in the form of more bang for your bud. Though cheap grinders sometimes break, a high-quality grinder is an investment that should last for years.
Most people who casually reach for a vaporizer from time to time probably don’t have much use for separating the kief—the highly potent, crystal-like dust on leaves of cannabis plants—from the rest of the material, so we didn’t focus on kief-catching features like screens.
Be sure to read about the health and legal implications of cannabis use in our guide to portable vaporizers. Just like vaporizers, grinders are legal up until you use them with an illegal substance. Then, they become paraphernalia and are subject to the corresponding laws in your jurisdiction.
We considered the top brands recommended by expert and amateur reviewers alike. We focused on medium grinders in the 2-inch-diameter range—large enough to grind herbs for multiple sessions, but not so big they take up too much space—and looked for three- and four-piece models that let ground material fall through into a collection chamber. Letting gravity do the collection work is easier and less time-consuming than picking cannabis from between sharp teeth (as you would need to do when using a two-piece grinder).
On Amazon, best-selling and top-rated grinders that fit our initial criteria start at just $10, but seeing the difference between inexpensive grinders and models that cost up to $100 when shopping online can be difficult. Glossing over claims about sharper teeth or better materials when staring at pictures is easy, but the difference jumps out at you when you twist a quality grinder in your hands. It threads together with ease, plus glides and grinds more smoothly. We tested 12 models that ranged in price from $6 to $85 to determine the best value for most people based on four main criteria:
No binding when grinding: Some modern cannabis strains can produce flowers with incredibly dense buds that are hard to grind. The best grinders have teeth that will slice through these buds instead of binding while you try to force them through. The shape, sharpness, and number of teeth all contribute to this, but you can’t easily see what works best based on individual user reviews. During testing, we paid close attention to which design details resulted in easy, thorough grinds.
Easy to empty: A good three- or four-piece grinder should let most of your material fall through the holes between the teeth and into the collection chamber. It’s no fun to sit around picking tiny leafy chunks out from between sharp metal teeth. Yes, a knock or two will normally dislodge stuck buds, but sticky cannabis strains can stubbornly cling to tiny crevices. We looked for models that didn’t hold herbs hostage.
Evenness of grinds: Well-ground cannabis will often heat more evenly (and thus more efficiently) than uneven chunks torn by hand. Buzz at VaporizerWizard.com prefers to get a finer grind for conduction vaporizers, like models from the popular Pax line, or something a little coarser that lets air through for convection vaporizers like the Firefly. A slightly coarser grind is more flexible, though. To get a finer grind, all you need to do is give your flowers a few extra twists with the grinder upside down. That will keep it from falling through the holes into the collection tray and makes for finer material when you flip the grinder back over. Because preferences and uses vary, we focused on smooth and even grinds more than granularity in our testing.
Durability and support: A hunk of aluminum isn’t easy to damage, but accidents happen. Acrylic tops can crack and cross-threading two pieces when screwing them together can damage the threads. The pressure-fit and glued-in magnets that hold on the top grinding plate could pop out. Teeth can dull and begin to bind.
In short-term testing, we can’t replicate the type of use and abuse a grinder is likely to see over years of ownership. But in person and side by side, the varying construction quality is obvious. Some models felt cheap, made squeaks and groans when we unscrewed them, and had large, visible seams. The best models, though, felt precision-machined, with seams that disappeared from sight and would quietly glide across their threads. You can fairly assume that grinders made with care and precision should also last much longer. That said, we will monitor the performance of our picks over the long term.
If you’re going to spend more than the minimum to get a well-made grinder, having a company that will stand behind it is also nice. We noted the warranty and support options from each company, too.
This simple three-piece model offers reliably smooth grinding thanks to durable, sharp, uniquely shaped teeth. Its collection chamber is the largest of any model we tested, and has rounded sides that make it easy to empty.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $50.
The Santa Cruz Shredder Medium 3-Piece uses more than two dozen uniquely shaped teeth to help it smoothly cut through dense flowers, dropping ground material with an even consistency into a huge collection chamber.
Santa Cruz Shredder grinders have a tooth shape that differs from that of every other grinder we tried: In our testing we found that its four-pointed teeth work as well as or better than the diamond-shaped teeth in most grinders. The teeth easily shredded each sample we tried, and the top grinding plate rotates so easily it almost feels like it’s floating. The grinding plate and teeth are made of the same piece of aluminum, and the metal’s anodized finish should hold up well to wear and tear. Less expensive models, like our budget pick, often have an unfinished grinding plate that won’t be as durable in the long term. The holes in the Santa Cruz Shredder’s grinding plate are an average size, and they yield a medium-coarse grind that works equally well with vaporizers, recipes, or pipes.
Each time we took the grinder apart and screwed it back together, the threads mated smoothly and never bound up like those of some of the competition.
Because the three-piece model we tried doesn’t have a pollen screen, everything falls into the massive collection chamber. At nearly an inch deep, the dish is two to three times deeper than the collection chambers on other models we looked at, and the corners and sides are nicely rounded, letting you easily pinch out what you need. Even the larger four-piece Santa Cruz Shredder models don’t have this collection chamber, so the extra capacity of our three-piece pick stands out in a crowd.
Bud at The Vape Critic also recommends a Santa Cruz Shredder grinder: “Tons of people have it and love it, and I receive virtually zero complaints,” he wrote. Buzz at VaporizerWizard.com had high praise for this grinder, too. “I use my Santa Cruz Shredder more than the rest of my grinders put together, and if I could only have one grinder I would definitely go with a Santa Cruz Shredder,” he wrote in an email.
Not only are Santa Cruz Shredders highly regarded by enthusiasts for their quality, but if the teeth ever break, the company stands behind them with a lifetime warranty.
We focused on the three-piece model without the pollen screen, but if you want to separate your kief, the four-piece model includes a screen and catcher.
This model produced the fluffiest and finest results in our tests—a plus for many vaporizers. Its bonus storage compartment and an optional plate for coarser grinds are unique extras worth the added cost, but not necessary for everyone.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $75.
If you would appreciate extra, dedicated storage in your grinder or the option to change the coarseness of your grind, the Kannastör Gr8tr V2 is worth the higher price to prepare your pot. The Gr8tr V2 is an update to our previous top pick, the Gr8tr. The newer model is nearly identical on the inside, and grinds just as well as the original. It also carries forward the exceptional feel of quality materials and construction we liked in the first version, adding a facelift for the exterior design. The Gr8tr’s fine, fluffy results set it apart from any other grinder we tried at any price.
The two included grinding plates are a standout feature of the Gr8tr V2. The fine-grind plate has nearly 80 holes, which are smaller than our top pick’s 15 holes. Buzz from VaporizerWizard.com told us that when he wants to maximize the vapor output on a conduction vaporizer, he likes the finer grind offered by the Magic Flight Finishing Grinder. Though we didn’t consider the Magic Flight grinder because it’s offered in only a two-piece design, the holes on the Gr8tr V2 are similarly sized. The plate in the updated Gr8tr V2 is nearly identical to that of our former top pick, the discontinued Gr8tr, so you can expect similar results. As one Reddit reviewer wrote on r/vaporents: “This grind size for me ended up being a perfect all-rounder. I didn’t feel like my convection vaporizers were going to be damaged due to too fine of a grind and my conduction vaporizers still produced very large clouds. To me it is the best of both worlds.”
If you don’t want such a fine grind, or dislike when large bits and stems get stuck in the smaller holes, you can quickly unscrew the grinding plate and replace it with the included coarser-grind plate. (The spare plate can be screwed into the top of the grinder for storage, or kept in a safe spot if you prefer to keep the grinder a bit svelter.) That extra plate has holes closer in size to those of most other grinders, and would be best for convection-based vaporizers that benefit from the extra airflow of more coarsely ground cannabis.
In addition, the Gr8tr V2 adds another unique feature: a second storage compartment in the lid. In every other grinder we tried, the only place to keep anything is in the collection chamber at the bottom. But the free-spinning magnetic top piece of the Gr8tr V2 unscrews to reveal an extra storage area, which is perfect for whole flowers. Plus, if you want something more compact on the go, the top and bottom pieces mate together into a slim storage puck.
When you open the Gr8tr V2, you can tell that Kannastör put a lot of attention into detail and quality. But if anything does go wrong, the company offers a lifetime warranty with email support.
If you’re an enthusiast who uses a variety of vaporizers and smoking accessories, you might consider spending a bit more to get the Kannastör Gr8tr V2 Solid Body w/ Stainless Easy Change Screen version. It comes with an extra piece with a mesh pollen screen for kief collection.
Although it doesn’t feel as well-made and isn’t as smooth to use as our other picks, the Platinum Grinders Herb Grinder gets the job done better than all other inexpensive grinders we tested.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $17.
If you can’t or don’t want to spend the money on our top picks, get the HPlatinum Grinders Herb Grinder instead. For less than half the cost of our pick, this budget option gets the job done. It performed the best of all under-$40 models we tested.
The Platinum Grinder didn’t cut through material as smoothly as our top picks did, but it didn’t constantly get bound up like other inexpensive models we tested. The threading to unscrew the various pieces is equally passable—not as good as our top picks, but less prone to cross-threading than other budget grinders.
In our tests, the Herb Grinder emptied easily enough. Most of our material fell through to the collection chamber, so we weren’t stuck picking scraps out of sharp metal teeth. The threads attaching the top to the chamber are smooth and didn’t cross-thread when we repeatedly unscrewed it and screwed it back together. The chamber itself is about a quarter-inch deep, which isn’t as generous as our top picks, but sizable enough and about average for a grinder of this diameter.
Most of the negative comments from customers on Amazon have to do with durability issues. “The teeth on the grinder are not holding up anymore and the kief catcher screen is already broken” and “grinds really well but the screen fell out” are representative comments. But most budget grinders have similar problems, or worse ones. A few customers noted seeing metal flecks in their grinders when first receiving them, likely remnants of the manufacturing process. We’d recommend a quick cleaning with rubbing alcohol to avoid any issues.
Our previous top pick, the Kannastör Gr8tr, was discontinued and replaced with the Kannastör Gr8tr V2, which is now our upgrade pick.
Lift Innovations offers a three-piece grinder for a similar price as our upgrade pick, but without the extra storage or modular grinding plates that set the Gr8tr V2 apart. Because Lift’s four-piece grinder—which has features and extras similar to those of the Gr8tr V2—was considerably more expensive than our upgrade pick, we chose not to test it.
The Beamer Acrylic Grinder, Zip Grinders Large 4-Piece, and SharpStone V2 Grinder 2-Inch 4-Piece all have plastic features, and in testing them we immediately noticed that these tend to attract more leafy bits than their all-metal counterparts. Given the other quality options, this was enough to rule them out. The SharpStone, in particular, is a popular model, but it became easily cross-threaded when put back together, and we found the grind smoothness and material consistency to be just okay.
In our testing, the Chromium Crusher 2.5-Inch 4-Piece’s teeth took a little longer to finish grinding than those of other models in the price range. The sharp corners in the collection plate, coupled with the textured interior of the bottom piece, made it harder to empty completely without flipping it over and tapping out a mess.
The Golden Bell 2-Inch 4-Piece grinder had a tear in the included pollen screen right out of the box, which is always a troubling sign when trying out new gear. But we tested it anyway, finding that material would often get stuck in the small space between the outer teeth and the rim of the grinding plate.
The Cali Crusher Homegrown 4-Piece Hard Top has a few unique features that we appreciated. Instead of full threading—requiring you to unscrew the lower pieces of the grinder—Cali Crusher uses a quarter-turn twist lock system that was faster than traditional threading but just as secure. In place of diamond-shaped teeth, the radial blades inside did a nice job evenly breaking up our bud without getting stuck. But the Cali Crusher model is nearly twice the price of our top picks.
We also tested the Space Case Medium 4-Piece. Despite its solid performance (and the high praise enthusiasts give the company’s products), we didn’t find any standout features to justify the increased price for the more casual user. But Buzz of VaporizerWizard.com told us that anyone who likes collecting kief should seriously consider a Space Case: “I have not found another grinder that produces as high quality kief at the same rate,” he wrote in an email. Because we didn’t focus on kief, that wasn’t enough to sway us. In our testing, the Space Case grinder produced as smooth, consistent, or fine a grind as our top picks, but the corners of the screen and collection trays are relatively sharp angles that are hard to clear with your fingers. We found our picks offer better experiences at lower prices.
Bud, founder of The Vape Critic, email interview, August 30, 2017
Buzz, founder of VaporizerWizard.com, email interview, September 19, 2017
Mark Smirniotis is the senior editor for Wirecutter’s PC, networking, and mobile coverage. Knowing better than to fall prey to the sunk-cost fallacy, he set aside his econ degree in 2015 to review tech for Wirecutter, work that has included projects such as using wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube men for generator run-time tests.
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