What is the Best Herb Grinder - Grinder Analysis

What Herb Grinder is Best?

Grinders come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, and unique features. While some grinders are best avoided for being made with cheap materials, there are tons of fantastic grinders that each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Whatever your preferences are, the grinder that meets them and accomplishes what you need is going to be best. This is different for every smoker and so you should research and figure out what things you want and need in a grinder before starting to shop around.

Best Type of Herb Grinder

Again, depending on what you need or want will determine what the best kind of grinder for you is. However, there are a few different design concepts or features that you should understand before you begin to shop around for a new grinder. Below is a small list of some of the more important considerations to make and what their pros and cons are:

4 Piece Herb Grinder

This is the most common and most popular type of herb grinder. There are four major parts – the lid, the grinder itself, a compartment for the ground herb, and a kief catcher. The separated compartments to store herbs and collect kief are often what makes these grinders so popular. However, if you do not care much for that, then you may be better off with a nice 2 piece. Different kinds can give you different types of grinds (fine, medium, etc).

2 Piece Herb Grinder

2 piece grinders tend to be more portable because they require fewer pieces and moving parts. The grind of the herb tends not to be as ‘fine’ of a grind versus a 4 piece, however, this might be a preference of yours. Because they don’t have a separate compartment to catch the dry herbs as they are ground, you will want to grinder the herbs over a piece of paper, a dollar bill or something else. These are handy, useful grinders for people who prefer to get up and go and just want a simple way to grind their herb.

Electric Herb Grinder

The electric herb grinder functions like a normal, manual grinder except that now you have the ability to use the electricity to do the work for you, plus you will get a nice even, smooth grind. Some electric grinders come with other features that include a vibrating ability that with help the herbs and kief more easily travel from the grinding are, down to the herb storage compartment, and ultimately to the bottom of the grinder, vastly improving how quickly you can collect kief. This is handy for someone who wants to go beyond the basics of having a grinder and get something specialized.

Clear Top Herb Grinder

Clear top herb grinders are useful because they allow you an opportunity to check on the progress of your grind. Particularly, they are helpful to ensure that your manual grind is going smoothly and cleanly and will be consistent. Clear top grinders can also let you see if you overpacked or if some herb is getting stuck or gunked up somewhere in the grinder’s choppers. This makes cleaning simpler as well because you can see in real-time the problems.

Hand Crank Herb Grinder

A hand-crank herb grinder is a compromise between getting an automated chopper and wanting something more out of your manual grinder. The additional leverage allows you to grind more efficiently and easily than by simply twisting the grinder. This is great for those that have arthritis or weaker hands. Just make sure not to overdo it with the hand-crank. Putting too much herb (or too much dense herb) will make it more difficult to grind and the pressure may cause the crank to break. This isn’t because the cranks are cheap – just that they are designed to be able to handle only so much pressure at a time.

Silicone Herb Grinder

Like with other silicone herb products, silicone herb grinders are fast becoming the most popular models on the market. This is because the silicone is soft, non stick but still has the versatility of the metal interior. These grinders come with arguably the sharpest grinder blades, positioned in an optimized design versus older grinder models. Most importantly, these systems being separated makes it much easier to clean – there are no embedded layers like with an all-metal grinder. These herb grinders are able to outperform some conventional metal grinders with less weight and maintenance and should be checked out.

Death Star Herb Grinder

While not equally as powerful as the original two Death Stars, the Death Star herb grinder is just one example of an herb grinder that does more than simply provide a service or function. Herb grinders can come in all sorts of fan related designs and materials and can provide a little pizzazz above the basic utility of grinding herb.

Best Grinder for Kief

At the end of the day, the best kief herb grinder is going to depend entirely on your preferences. Keep in mind, that there are also plenty of things to consider and first, you will need an option with a kief catcher to begin with. For example, a 4 piece herb grinder will serve this purpose much better than a 2 piece. But, in short, the vibrating grinder is the clear winner here. With the press of a button, vibrations with run throughout the entire grinder, rattling the grinder and everything inside, causing particles that normally would stick to some surface, to instead fall downward until it cannot fall any further.

Best Herb Grinder for Vaporizer

Overall, this is mainly going to come down to preferences. For example, if you have trouble gripping a grinder and turning it, we recommend the hand crank or electric grinder options. As a general rule, if you are using a vape, you will want to make sure the herb grinder is able to grind more finely for a vaporizer than what is needed for a bowl, pipe, or bong. That is because with a finer grind, you get more surface area which will help the herbs vaporize more evenly. Another consideration to make is that some vaporizers will come with a built-in grinder and this might be more cost-effective. Or, some will need a smaller, more portable fine herb grinder because most vapes are easily portable (except for desktop vapes).

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