Breville Smart Grinder Pro
The Breville Smart Grinder Pro is designed for coffee enthusiasts who value control and consistency in their coffee brewing process. With its wide range of grind settings and precision timing adjustments, it caters to various brewing methods. Its intelligent features such as an LCD display and Dosing IQ technology simplify the grinding process, while its direct-to-portafilter grinding capability adds convenience. This grinder balances high performance with user-friendly design, making it ideal for both beginners and experienced coffee brewers.
Product Highlights & Features
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60 Grind Settings: From espresso-fine to coarse French press grinds.
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Dosing IQ Technology: Adjust and program grind time in 0.2-second increments for accurate dosing.
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LCD Display: Displays grind setting, time, and number of shots or cups.
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Direct Grinding Options: Grind directly into a portafilter, container, filter basket, or paper filter.
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Accessories Included: Two portafilter cradles (50–54 mm and 58 mm), grind container with sealing cap, cleaning brush.
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Sturdy Build: Brushed stainless steel body ensures durability and sleek aesthetics.
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Warranty: 2-year limited product warranty.
Technical Specifications
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Breville |
| Model Number | BCG820BSS |
| Grinder Type | Conical Burr |
| Grind Settings | 60 |
| Capacity (Bean Hopper) | 18 oz (1.1 lbs) |
| Wattage | 165 Watts |
| Voltage | 110–120 Volts |
| Dimensions | 6.28″ L x 8.46″ W x 15.33″ H |
| Weight | 6.39 lbs |
| Display | LCD |
| Included Accessories | Portafilter cradles, grind container, brush |
| Warranty | 2 years (limited) |
| Country of Origin | China |
Final Verdict
The Breville Smart Grinder Pro stands out for its versatility, precision, and ease of use. Its wide range of grind settings accommodates multiple brewing styles, while the Dosing IQ system ensures accurate dosing for consistent coffee quality. Though some users report minor messiness and static during grinding, its performance and build quality outweigh these drawbacks. Ideal for home baristas seeking control over their grind and brewing process, it offers excellent value at its price point.
⭐ Overall Rating: 4.5/5 – Highly Recommended for Coffee Enthusiasts.
DT –
Nice Electric Burr Grinder
For years I’ve done grinding with a hand grinder, and honestly I’m convinced that’s the best/quietest/cleanest way to grind your own coffee. But with a new baby and increased work scheduled constantly hand grinding finally got to be too much. I settled on this one for a number of reasons:1) The Breville brand. I’ve always found their appliances to be good quality with well thought out designs.2) Based on review videos online this seemed to be one of the quieter electric grinders.3) Easy to use interface with more than just a simple timer.4) Capable grinding different sizes from French press coarse to finer grinds for drip and aero press with plenty of setting to fine tune for personnel preference.So far it’s been a great grinder and It seems to be of quality build. Definitely feels sturdy.Do not expect whisper quiet, I do not think that’s ever going to be a thing for electric grinders, but it was definitely quieter than some of the others I’ve seen. My newborn infant gives it zero thumbs up… because he’s somehow still asleep while in the same room 20ft. away, but YMMV. For me that’s a decent sound level.The grind levels are great. There are almost too many to chose from, but it does give you plenty of options to find your perfect grind. I use a drip brewer during the week (automated/quicker) and a pour over (preferred) on the weekends. I’ve found different grind levels that I like for both. And having so many grind size options means it’s easy to adjust for bolder/lighter coffee as needed.My only real issue with the grinder, and this seems to just be another thing for electric grinders is the mess. Breville tried to make it a close fit between the output shoot and the container that catches the grinds, but some does escape, and some of the grinds static cling to the inside of the lid and jar. All to say, you end up with some on your counter when you grind and when you open the container to move the ground coffee to your preferred brewer. Nothing a quick wipe with a paper towel can’t take care of.One last note: Most electric grinders, this one included, run based on a predetermined time. Cheaper ones leave the amount of time up to you to figure out. The Breville bases the time on number of selected cups and your grind size. If the time doesn’t match up for you, it’s easy to reprogram the machine to a time that better matches your expectations. Personally I still find it easier to weigh my beans first (a cheap 500g scale is highly recommend, and had many uses in the kitchen) then place them in the hopper. This way even if your timing is off you still end up with the right amount. Either way you choose, I believe this is a great grinder for the money and hopefully will last for many years like the other Breville products we’ve had over the years.
48 people found this helpful
Galactic Bard –
Excellent grinder
This is my first REAL coffee grinder. Until know I’ve been using a cheap blade grinder.This has really taken my coffee to the next level! And combined with my new Breville Precision coffee maker, my coffee is now much more flavorful and delicious.This machine has excellent build quality. It feels like it will last forever, with no cheap or easily broken pieces.The amount of options you have as far as grind size is amazing. It’s actually more than the 60 they claim, as in addition to the 60 settings, you can also adjust the upper burr; I think there are 7 or so settings for that, so that extends the upper and lower ends of your grind sizes a bit.The timer programming is really clever, and I imagine is a way to give you the precision that you would get with a grinder with a built-in scale without the higher cost. Each cup and shot setting has a preset grind time that you can adjust as you wish and save your new setting. What I’ve been doing is weighing my beans with a 200g scale, and then grinding them, adjusting the programmed time each time until I get each cup size perfect (e.g. 4 cups, 6 cups, 8 cups). Once I have this dialed in, I won’t have to weigh the beans anymore. It’s best to do this with each different type of bean you use (and possibly even different batches, as bean density will never be constant). But once you got this dialed in, you could put a pound or more of beans in the hopper and not have to weigh them anymore. I’ll probably keep weighing them, as I’ll be trying different kinds of coffee, and I don’t want to keep beans in the hopper anyway for freshness sake.As others have mentioned, I got the AIEVE Silicone Bellow, which fits between the hopper and lid perfectly. I use it to blow extra grinds out of the chute after grinding, to help minimize the grinds left in the chute.The grinder isn’t too loud, much quieter than my blade grinder. I also like that you can also manually grind if you don’t want to mess with the timer.The controls are very easy to use.I love how the plate at the bottom is held by a magnet and snaps out, so you can easily clean off any grinds that fall on it.The only downside with this machine that I’ve seen is with the grind container that comes with it. It’s plastic, so grinds stick to the inside surface due to static charge. The top also doesn’t fit under the chute perfectly, so you do get some grinds spilling in the back, but since the tray comes off easily, that isn’t a big deal. The tray is even shaped in such a way to make it easy to pour any grinds on it into your filter basket. It would’ve been nice if the grind container were made of stainless steel, to minimize the grinds sticking to it. I try to get the grinds off the sides with my finger, and into the filter basket, but I can never get them all. I may end up getting a 250mL steel breaker, but I feel like I shouldn’t have to do that.I do like that the grinds container has markings for making espresso, drip coffee, and French press coffee. That’s a nice touch. The lid also can seal with an attached stopper cap, so you can keep grinds in the container, I guess, though I don’t know why anyone would want to do that. Seems to defeat the whole purpose of grinding your coffee fresh in the first place. It’s just unfortunate that with such an otherwise-stellar machine they’ve given us a grind container made of plastic, so the grinds stick to it. Also the stopper for the lid seems unnecessary and pointless, and it would’ve been better to have a lid that more perfectly mates with the chute to eliminate mess.I did try grinding directly into a coffee filter, and that didn’t work well at all and made a mess.All in all I’m very happy with this machine. My only quibbles have to do with the grind container. I just feel like for the cost and quality of this machine, they should have provided a better grind container. Everything else with the grinder is so well thought out, and then the grind container wasn’t thought out at all. But it’s still not enough to give this machine anything less than a 5-star rating.
16 people found this helpful
SnoududeSnoudude –
Perhaps not a perfect grinder but very versatile for a beginner.
Admittedly I’m somewhat of a coffee “novice” – though I’ve been drinking coffee for almost 4 decades – my coffee making experience has been limited to mainly automatic drip or “pods” – honestly, I’ve not been too interested in good coffee or as in a hobby until very recently. My wife wanted an espresso maker and shortly afterwards down the rabbit hole I went. Our first purchase was a Breville Barista Express espresso machine which has a built-in grinder and works well enough for the task but may not produce grounds coarse enough for other coffee making methods (pour over, french press, drip, etc.) so rather than just live with the inexpensive blade grinder we already had I looked into a grinder that would give us that level of control and flexibility. After watching hours of reviews online my conclusion was that if I wanted to spend about four hundred dollars (grinder plus, a good set of burrs, and shipping on top) I could get a better grinder for espresso than the built-in with the Barista Express but my non-pressurized shots with the built-in grinder are pretty decent if I don’t mind saying so. Which lead me to finding a grinder that my family can use for different coarse settings (easily) and doesn’t require complicated re-adjustment to get to another brew method. The “easily” is the main thing – so in my opinion a “stepped” grinder is a good choice and one that’s not specifically designed for espresso. I’ve only used the grinder a couple of times for espresso where I was trying different beans and wanted to leave the built-in grinder un changed.Some notes and observations:- the burr set appears to be the same as the stock built-in one from the Barista Express – Breville’s web site seems to confirm this though only the upper/outer burr is available for purchase (when it is available).- I’ve not had to adjust the upper/outer burr itself – some people have reported that the factory setting is 4 and others say 6 – I’m an engineer so I’ve been tempted to tinker with it but I’ve been making far too good coffee to change things unless I have to.- there is a bit more “loss” with the stand alone grinder than with the built-in one – what I’m seeing is about .2 – .3 grams with the Smart Grinder Pro and maybe a tenth of a gram with the built-in grinder although I’m almost always grinding coarser with the Smart Grinder Pro – perhaps there’s more being held back due to that. Most coffee I make with the Smart Grinder Pro isn’t weighed it’s volume measured so I typically grind a little more than I need so “retention” isn’t an issue.- the Smart Grinder Pro is a little larger than what I’d thought when I’ve seen it in pictures and on video. absolutely not a deal breaker but if you’re really tight on counter space you may want to measure things out or plan to re-arrange things.- there WILL BE grounds flying about – I’ve gotten in the habit of placing a towel under the grinder to catch the larger grounds that try to “escape” that makes cleanup a bit easier – you may not have this issue if you’re grinding for espresso but for press, pour over, or drip they tend to jump out of the grinder’s cup.- the display is easy to read and clear to understand – my eyesight isn’t the best in the morning before I’ve had a cup – you can easily tell what the grind number is and where it falls on the “scale”- cups/shots and grind time is somewhat redundant – I think a lot of reviewers have called that out – it’s not really an issue to start/stop/pause the grind process this feature is probably the only real “gimmicky” one – I suppose that the time or cups/shots would vary depending on grind size but as long as it has completely ground your beans and you’ve stopped the machine well then there you go.- this comes with a nice cup for your grounds, two portafilter adapters (54 and 58 mm).- the coarse / fine grind setting adjustment knob isn’t the nicest use “experience” – the knob does feel a bit “plasticy” and “cheap” – I really don’t expect a milled solid piece of stainless or anodized aluminum at this price point but I wonder how well this will hold up to years of use.- the price is a bit “high” for a conical bur grinder however – lots of ones at half the price (around $100) seem not to last as long, are more complicated to adjust or return to a setting that you can remember for the brewing method or has features such as the portafilter adapters. The ability to glance down and see that the grind number is in the range of the brewing method I’m doing is worth the extra money.The bottom line (for me at least) was that this grinder has gotten very good reviews by established “coffee folk” for good grinder for people starting out their coffee journey. Is this the G.O.A.T. grinder – I don’t think so. Is it even the most consistent one – I don’t believe so either – spending about $50-80 more for a flat vertical burr grinder along with a better set of burrs would likely give you better grounds but for someone who wants to grind some beans that’s either not “into it” or who is just getting started I think this one makes a lot of sense. This likely will not be my last grinder – I’m certain as I become more skilled and discerning I’ll want something “better” will I get rid of this one (give it to a friend / relative or donate it) probably not – there will be times where I want to grind a bag or three of beans for a large gathering and I’ll dig the Breville Smart Grinder Pro out for that job – until then I’ll be making 8 cups at a time with my Mr. Coffee and enjoy trying pour overs, french press and other methods.
135 people found this helpful
Dave –
IMPRESSED!
update: 4April25It’s still running great. I though I would add this when a I read a couple of reviews that complained that it was messy.. Simple solution, get a dosing funnel. Keeps all grinds going into the portafilter.6 year update- 19 November 2024:Still working great, no reliability issues. I have adjusted the burrs once to account for wear. I see no reason not to expect another 6 years of trouble free use.6 month update- 7July19:Still delighted, have not experienced any problemsI had to buy a new grinder because I need one that will produce a fine enough grind for a non-pressurized espresso. After some research I could only find three below $250 that can do this. This one, for $180, and the Baratza Virtuoso, for $140 and the Compresso Infinity. Reading the reviews for the Baratza it appears that you first have to get instructions from the internet on how to adjust the shims on the burrs to get very fine, (what the …?) This alone is worth the extra $40 for this one.After opening the box I was impressed with the build quality and attractive appearance. It produces consistent and even grinds, that alone is worth the $180. There are 3 features that surprised me. The first being the LCD panel, I figured this was unnecessary and perhaps cheesy, well it works great and is very useful. The second is the grind time control. I was thinking this would be a poor substitute for a built-in scale, but that is not the case. I sometimes keep it simple and make my espresso with a pressurized filter, and since grind fineness is not so critical, I use grind size setting 15, it just so happens that this size happens to grind my medium roast beans at 1 gram per second (I have a digital kitchen scale to establish this) so to make pressurized espresso I set the grind to 15 and the timer to 14 seconds and I consistently get 14 grams of perfectly ground beans! I am still playing with what grind works best for non-pressurized so I haven’t yet established what time I will need to get my 18 grams. Bottom-line, the timer is a perfectly adequate substitute for a built-in scale. The third feature is the option to dispense grinds directly into your portafilter. I figured this would be useless as it would be messy and with all the grinds left on the counter I would end up with fewer grams in the filter. Wrong again, it works great! It puts 99.9% of the grinds in a neat mound in the middle of the filter, much better than I can do by hand. With the grinds in a neat mound in the middle of the basket I can tamp them down without spilling any grinds (again, something I can’t do when putting grinds in the filter by hand)!Between even and consistent grinds, including the very fine grind size needed for non-pressurized espresso, the timer and the ability to dispense grinds directly into the filter, this is a fabulous grinder at this price and I think can hold it’s own with machines at twice the price. Some complain about uneven grinds at the coarse setting. If all you want is French press coarse grinds then you don’t need an espresso focused grinder, save yourself money and buy the Cuisinart DBM-8 for only $40.Finally, the issue of reliability. All I can say for sure is that mine came in great working order, and while I have not had it long enough to vouch for long-term reliability, since it is solid and well-built I see no reason that it won’t be reliable. But if you are still worried, consider this. If you look at the reviews for most grinders and espresso machines you will see that about 2/3 rds of the scores are 5’s and 4’s, with between 15% to 20% being 1’s, primarily bitching about reliability and warning you not to buy whatever it is. Well in this case ¾’s give it a 5 or 4 and only 12% are 1’s. I see this as a testament to it’s build quality and reliability … just sayin’.If I experience issues in the future I will post an update.
41 people found this helpful
Christopher S. Cornette –
Important to know – disregard some bad reviews
There are many bad reviews here about this grinder seizing or stopping, and a few even that talk of a burning smell… this is an easy problem to get around.Bottom line, this is a truly superb entry level grinder with one major drawback that is easily overcome. I’ll get into what makes this grinder great in a bit, but first, the one thing you NEED TO KNOW if you buy this model.If the grinder slows down or stops grinding before it has run its cycle, PAUSE THE GRINDER. You do this by pressing the button on the right. Then remove the hopper (consult the manual – this is easy to do). Remove the upper burr (also easy to do – read the manual). Dump out any beans inside the grinder (just pick the machine up and turn it upside down – I dump the beans back into the hopper). Brush out the lower burr area (Breville supplies a small brush for this). Put the upper burr and the hopper back together. Restart the grinder (press the right button). It will complete the remainder of the cycle that was paused. You may wish to manually grind a bit more to make up for any lost grounds.Why does this happen? The motor in this model is a bit underpowered. It can get hung up while grinding. It is rare, but there it is. It’s happened to me once in months of daily use. When it happens, follow the steps above and you should have no issues. It’s what I did, and the grinder went right back to flawless operation like it had never happened.Why is this still a great grinder? It’s pretty simple – the ONLY thing that matters about a grinder other than reliability/durability is how consistent the grind is (how uniform is the size of the individual specks of ground coffee). The better the consistency, the better your coffee will be, period.This model **absolutely excels** in consistency. Hands down, independently tested, it blows every grinder in this price range out of the water with more than twice as much “optimal” size grounds as compared to the next best make and model. You can spend 2 or 3 times this amount and still not get a more consistent grind than you will with this guy. Where it counts, this grinder is the king, unless you want to spend far far more for a true professional model.Some additional nice features:—With a bit of experimenting, you can dial in exactly how much coffee you want it to grind per cup (for drip) or per shot (for espresso) and easily program that amount in so you don’t have to think about it again. Once that is done, you can simply tell it 1 or 2 shots, or how many drip cups (up to 12) that you want to make, and then you can ALWAYS grind the EXACT amount of coffee you need. This means you can always make coffee with only freshly ground beans without ever wasting a single bean. That is pretty awesome.—You can experiment with up to 60 grind sizes to dial in exactly what you want. Personally, for espresso, 15.8 seconds at size 14 grind gives a perfectly dialed in double shot on my Breville espresso machine. For drip, I’m liking the mid 40’s, but I haven’t decided exactly where yet. The difference from one setting to the adjacent setting is really hard to taste with drip coffee.—If you don’t need super fine espresso grinds but want courser grounds than setting 60 will give you (to get French Press just so), you can adjust the upper burr (easy to do – read the manual). There are 4 more positions that will adjust all 60 settings and make them coarser. Conversely, if you want even finer espresso but don’t need the coarsest settings, there are 5 more positions of that upper burr that will make the whole range of the machine finer. One video review I saw said this makes for 600 grind settings, but I’m sure most of those 600 are overlapping. It’s at least 69 different grinds possible, at any rate.—Large hopper. Not as big as a professional grinder’s hopper, but you can put a full pound of beans into this grinder with some room to spare.—Cleanly removable hopper. In order to remove the hopper, you twist a knob to “lock” it. This closes down the feed ports at the bottom so no beans will fall out when you take the hopper off. If you want to get crazy, you could buy a second hopper (or more) and switch between espresso and normal coffee easily (although the first few beans ground will be from the previous hopper, left behind in the burr, unless you dump them out when switching). The removable hopper also makes it very easy to clean after it starts to get oil buildup (which can contribute to the machine seizing up).—Magnetic removable catch tray. Grinds get everywhere, and this makes cleaning up of (most) loose grinds very easy.—Magnetic portafilter holders. You get two, one for the standard 58mm PF size, and one for the smaller PF’s found on Breville automatic espresso machines. You can set your portafilter in the holder, and grind right into it without any mess. There’s even a button so you can set the portafilter in, then activate the grinder by simply pushing on the portafilter.Some things that could stand improvement:—More powerful motor… that would make this grinder just about perfect.—Could be a bit quieter. It’s not especially loud, as grinders go, but it’s not the quietest I’ve owned either. But a more power motor would probably be louder, so they may have been trying to find a balance here between powerful and quiet.—The included catch “cup”. It seals airtight, which is nice, but the mouth does not line up with the grinder port when it’s inserted fully. Push it too far back in and the metal lid sticks to the magnet designed to secure the portafilter adapter, but if you line it up just right with the grinder port, the vibration of the grinder tends to make it to slide out of place during grinding. The fix is to just grind directly into your filter, or take the lid off the “cup” and set it all the way in to catch your grounds.OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:—If you mainly make drip or pour-over coffee, and/or espresso, this grinder is unbeatable unless you can afford a true professional model. Stay vigilant if it binds up (again, that’s rare but potentially damaging for the motor). But if you take good care of this grinder, and spend some time customizing the settings, it will deliver superior grinds in exactly the amounts you need, every time.—If you primarily make Press coffee, and really like extremely coarse grinds, then there is probably a better choice for you out there.
908 people found this helpful
Robert Martin –
Amazing coffee grinder! I’m a Breville Convert!
This grinder replaced my dearly departed Baratza Encore which worked tirelessly for me for 4 years before giving up the ghost. I was leery of switching to something different but now I am glad I did. This unit is a step up in quality, functionality and ease of use!One piece of advice: get the silicone bellows made for it and use it! This solved the only problem I had with the unit initially: that a significant amount of grinds stay in the chute after grinding. That stuff gets nasty and can spoil the next batch you make unless you clean it out. And cleaning it out with a brush is tedious, messy and wasteful. Better solution: install the bellows and give it a couple pumps after each use. The extra grinds are almost completely removed from the chute and are added to your dose where they belong! No waste. No mess.As far as the grinder itself goes, I have nothing but positive things to say. It’s fast, quiet, accurate and produces consistent sized grinds. Plus it’s easy to tweak +/- for any dose level you desire. AND the unit remembers all your tweaks. Very impressive.I cannot sympathize with reviewers online who spend time sifting grinds out, measuring them with calipers or looking at them under a magnifying glass. My questions were probably more like most of you: Is it easy to use and clean? Yes! Do the grinds look consistently sized by eyeball? Yes! Do the grinds look consistent from one use to the next? Yes! Can I tweak the grinds up or down in tiny increments easily? Yes! Does the coffee I make taste awesome? YES!I try not to be swayed too much by those who are over-analyzing and trying to impress you and themselves with their supposed superior senses. In reality they might just be trying to justify the $100s they dropped on grinders that produce identically tasting coffee. That or they’ve crossed the fine line between enthusiast and freak 🙂
80 people found this helpful
Robert D. –
BobD
Very nice grinder
TawmusTawmus –
AWESOME GRINDER!!!!!!!
I bought this two years ago waiting for my existing grinder to die (which sounded like it would not be long); however, it kept grinding away until two weeks ago. I WISH I HAD OPENED THIS TWO YEARS AGO!!! This grinder is fun to use and grinds much more finely than the old one. I use the Casabrew Ultra espresso machine (LOVE IT!!) and I was stunned at how much better my shots are with the grind from the Breville; I do not understand how the grind can make that much impact (I will do some research later).Not only does this have a superior grind but I am enjoying the customization of it (grind duration, granularity, etc.) on the intuitive, easy to use LCD display and controls. I also love the feature where it automatically turns on and starts grinding into the portafilter when it is slotted into the grinder!!! Plus, it looks GREAT on my home office espresso station.I just hope it is durable.
One person found this helpful
Ishmam –
Great for beginners
Things i like1.Good grind uniformity20. Easy to use because of display3. Auto timing, cup/shot size when changing grind settings . The range of grind by coffee type4. Comes with all the accessories needed5. Good quality coffee wide range of grind settings6. Great espresso qualityThings i don’t like1. Very messy grinder2. Too much plastic for the price3. The retention of coffee is bad4. Grind knob feels cheap5. No grind by weight7. Grind for drip coffee isn’t good enough
3 people found this helpful
Pbchef –
Definitely worth the price
Fantastic grinder, I thought it was a bit pricey but it really isn’t. Very high quality build, many precise adjustable settings. Built to last. Been using it multiple times daily for 7 months and it’s worth every penny! Easy to take apart and clean. Been using a French press for years but recently an Aeropress. This is my fat the best grinder I have ever owned