Mr. Coffee Coffee Grinder: Is It Worth Buying?

The Mr. Coffee coffee grinder is a basic blade grinder that costs between $15 and $25 and does exactly what you'd expect at that price. It chops coffee beans into uneven pieces using a spinning stainless steel blade, and while the result is better than buying pre-ground coffee from a bag that's been sitting on a shelf for months, it's far from ideal. If you're looking for the cheapest possible way to grind whole beans at home, a Mr. Coffee grinder will work. If you want good coffee, you'll outgrow it quickly.

I'm going to give you the full rundown on these grinders, covering what they do well, where they fall short, and at what point it makes sense to upgrade. I've used Mr. Coffee grinders alongside burr grinders costing 10 times as much, so I can tell you exactly what you're gaining and losing at each price point.

Mr. Coffee's Current Grinder Models

Mr. Coffee doesn't make a huge variety of grinders. Their lineup is small and focused entirely on the budget end of the market.

IDS77 Electric Blade Grinder

The IDS77 is their flagship grinder, if you can call a $20 product a flagship. It has a 4-ounce bean chamber (enough for about 12 cups of drip coffee), a single push-button lid that activates the blade, and a stainless steel cutting blade. The whole unit is about 8 inches tall and weighs just over a pound.

It's dead simple to use. Pour beans in, push the lid down, hold until the grind looks right, release. There are no settings, no dials, no displays. Your only variable is time: hold longer for finer, shorter for coarser. This simplicity is actually its best feature. There's nothing to break, nothing to configure, and nothing to learn.

IDS57 Compact Blade Grinder

The IDS57 is a smaller version of the IDS77 with a 2.5-ounce capacity. Same blade, same mechanism, smaller footprint. It's designed for people who grind 1-2 cups at a time. The price is usually $2-$3 less than the IDS77.

The Discontinued Burr Grinder (BVMC-BMH23)

Mr. Coffee used to sell a conical burr grinder for around $40-$50. It had 18 grind settings and produced notably better results than their blade models. Unfortunately, it's been discontinued and is only available secondhand. If you find one for under $30 used, it's worth grabbing. The burrs are decent for the price, and it handles drip and pour-over grinds competently.

Blade Grinder Performance: What You're Actually Getting

Let me be direct about what a blade grinder does to your coffee.

A blade grinder doesn't grind. It chops. The blade spins at extremely high speed and randomly smashes into beans. Some beans get hit multiple times and turn to powder. Others get barely touched and remain in large chunks. You end up with a chaotic mix of particle sizes in every batch.

I've dumped blade-ground coffee onto white paper next to burr-ground coffee, and the difference is immediately visible. The blade-ground sample has visible dust alongside pieces the size of cracked pepper. The burr-ground sample looks like uniform sand.

This matters because particle size controls extraction rate. Fine particles extract quickly (in 1-2 minutes), while coarse particles extract slowly (over 4-6 minutes). When you have both in the same brew, the fine particles become over-extracted and bitter while the coarse particles remain under-extracted and sour. Your cup ends up tasting muddy, with neither clean sweetness nor bright acidity.

That said, freshly blade-ground coffee still tastes better than pre-ground coffee that's been oxidizing in a bag for weeks. Fresh grinding, even imperfect grinding, releases volatile aromatic compounds that disappear within 15-30 minutes of grinding. So yes, a Mr. Coffee grinder improves your coffee versus pre-ground. It just doesn't improve it as much as a burr grinder would.

Getting Better Results From a Blade Grinder

If you're committed to using a Mr. Coffee blade grinder, these techniques genuinely help.

Pulse and shake. Don't hold the button continuously. Press for 2-3 seconds, release, shake the grinder to redistribute beans, and repeat. This gives beans that were stuck at the edges a chance to move toward the blade. Seven to eight pulses with shaking produces a more consistent result than 20 seconds of continuous grinding.

Grind in smaller batches. The chamber works best when it's half full. Overloading it means beans at the top never reach the blade. Grind 2 tablespoons at a time rather than filling the entire 4-ounce capacity.

Match your brew method to your grinder's strengths. French press and cold brew are the most forgiving methods for uneven grinds. The long steep time helps compensate for particle inconsistency. Pour-over and drip are moderately forgiving. Espresso and AeroPress are the least forgiving and will produce the worst results with a blade grinder.

Sift your grounds. If you're willing to spend 30 extra seconds, pour your ground coffee through a fine mesh sieve. Remove the dust that passes through and the large chunks that stay on top. Use only the middle layer. This is basically manual particle sorting, and it genuinely improves extraction quality. You'll waste about 15% of your coffee, but the remaining 85% will brew much more evenly.

When to Upgrade (and What to Upgrade To)

There are clear signs that you've outgrown your blade grinder.

You can taste the difference between your home coffee and cafe coffee, and it bothers you. Your coffee tastes harsh, bitter, or simultaneously bitter and flat. You've started buying better beans but can't taste the improvement. You want to try pour-over, AeroPress, or espresso.

Any of these signals mean your grinder is the bottleneck, not your beans or your brewer.

The most common upgrade path from a Mr. Coffee blade grinder goes in one of two directions.

Budget upgrade ($90-$100): Hand grinder. The 1Zpresso Q2 or Timemore C2 are hand grinders with steel burrs that produce grind quality comparable to electric grinders costing $200-$300. The trade-off is manual labor: 45-60 seconds of cranking per dose. If you make one cup at a time, this is the best bang for your buck in coffee.

Standard upgrade ($170-$200): Electric burr grinder. The Baratza Encore ($170) and Fellow Opus ($195) are the go-to recommendations. Both use conical burrs with adjustable settings and produce consistent grinds for drip, pour-over, and French press. The Encore is better for long-term durability. The Opus looks nicer and grinds quieter. Our best coffee grinder roundup has detailed comparisons if you want to dig deeper, and our top coffee grinder guide covers the premium options.

Cleaning and Care

Mr. Coffee grinders need minimal maintenance, but ignoring them leads to rancid-tasting coffee.

After each use, wipe the blade and chamber with a dry paper towel or soft cloth. Coffee oils are invisible on stainless steel but they go rancid within days. Those rancid oils coat your fresh grounds and add a stale, cardboard-like flavor.

Once a week, grind a tablespoon of uncooked white rice through the grinder. Rice absorbs oils and pushes out trapped coffee fines from the blade mechanism. Wipe clean afterward. Don't use water inside the grinding chamber because moisture causes blade corrosion and can damage the motor.

If you use the grinder for spices (which is fine, blade grinders work well for spices), dedicate it to one purpose. Coffee-flavored cumin and cumin-flavored coffee are both bad. If you want to grind both, buy two Mr. Coffee grinders. At $20 each, it's worth having a dedicated unit.

FAQ

Is a Mr. Coffee grinder good enough for drip coffee?

It's acceptable, not good. You'll get fresh-ground coffee that tastes better than pre-ground, but the uneven particle sizes produce a cup that's less clean and balanced than what you'd get from a burr grinder. For drip coffee specifically, the difference between a blade grinder and a $170 Baratza Encore is noticeable in every cup.

How many cups can I grind at once with a Mr. Coffee grinder?

The IDS77 holds 4 ounces of whole beans, which yields about 12 cups of drip coffee using standard measurements (2 tablespoons per 6 ounces of water). However, for better consistency, I'd recommend grinding only 2-3 cups' worth at a time and storing the remaining whole beans for your next brew.

Can I adjust the grind size on a Mr. Coffee blade grinder?

There's no mechanical adjustment. Grind size is controlled entirely by how long you hold the button. Shorter time equals coarser, longer time equals finer. This is imprecise by nature, which is why blade grinders can't match the consistency of burr grinders with defined grind settings.

Why does my Mr. Coffee grinder make my coffee taste burnt?

Two possible causes. First, the blade generates heat through friction, which can slightly burn coffee grounds during extended grinding. Use short pulses instead of continuous operation to reduce heat buildup. Second, coffee dust from the blade grinder over-extracts rapidly and produces bitter, burnt-tasting flavors. Sifting out the dust before brewing helps significantly.

Bottom Line

The Mr. Coffee coffee grinder exists for one reason: it's the cheapest way to grind whole beans at home. It does that job. It doesn't do it well by any standard that a coffee enthusiast would apply, but it does it. If you're spending $12 on a bag of supermarket beans and brewing drip coffee, a Mr. Coffee grinder is a fine match. The moment you start buying specialty beans, exploring manual brew methods, or wondering why your coffee doesn't taste as good as the cafe down the street, the blade grinder is the first thing to replace. A $90 hand grinder or $170 electric burr grinder will change your coffee more than any other single upgrade.