What is the OXO Brew Compact Conical Burr Grinder?
OXO's grinder for people who do not have room for OXO's grinder.
OXO publishes stainless steel conical burrs, 15 settings with 29 micro-adjustments, a 50g bean capacity rated at up to six cups or 30oz of coffee, a plastic body 280mm tall and 100mm wide, and upper and lower burrs that both remove for cleaning.
What a 50g hopper actually changes
It stops you storing beans in the grinder, and that is mostly a good thing.
A large hopper is a convenience that costs you freshness. Beans sitting in a clear plastic tube above a warm motor are exposed to light, air and heat, which is exactly the combination that stales them. The full-size OXO tints its hopper for this reason.
50g is roughly three days of one-cup brewing, so you top it up from a sealed bag instead. That is a small daily chore in exchange for coffee that has not been sitting under a lamp, and it is the same reasoning behind single dosing at the specialty end.
Both burrs coming out is the underrated feature
Grinders go stale internally, and most of them make cleaning hard on purpose.
Coffee oils build up on burrs and in the chute, go rancid, and then flavour everything you grind afterwards. Most grinders let you remove the upper burr; the lower one, where the worst of it collects, is usually fixed.
OXO publishes both as removable. For a grinder that will be owned for years and probably cleaned less often than it should be, that is worth more than another five grind settings would be.
OXO Compact vs Homtone Conical Burr
Two small conical grinders, and the difference is documentation.
The Homtone is the current top scorer in this category, largely because its maker publishes a great deal about it.
The OXO answers with the brand and with cleaning access, and loses on published detail: no burr size, no motor figures, no warranty term. If you score on specification, the Homtone. If you want an OXO that fits in a cupboard, this.
Is the OXO Compact worth it?
Worth it for a small kitchen, and not much cheaper than the full-size one.
The price gap between this and the 12oz model is usually small, so you are choosing on footprint and hopper philosophy rather than on money. If counter space is the constraint, 100mm wide is genuinely narrow.
What you give up is burr size. OXO does not publish a diameter for this one, where the full-size model publishes 40mm, and on a grinder that is the number that matters most.
Who should buy the OXO Compact (and who should not)
Buy it for a small kitchen, or if you would rather keep beans in the bag.
It suits one or two drinkers, a galley kitchen, an office, and anybody who buys small bags of good coffee and wants them fresh to the last gram.
Do not buy it if you grind for a crowd; 50g and six cups is its ceiling and the Hamilton Beach at 16oz is nine times the hopper. And note the body is plastic where the full-size model is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much coffee does the OXO Compact hold?
50g of beans, which OXO rates at up to six cups or 30oz of brewed coffee.
Can you clean the OXO Compact properly?
Yes, and unusually so. Both the upper and lower burrs are removable, where most grinders only release the upper one.
Is the OXO Compact good for espresso?
OXO does not publish espresso capability for this model, so we record none. Its 15 settings run fine to coarse but the maker does not name espresso.
How small is it?
280mm tall and 100mm wide, which is narrow enough for a cupboard shelf.
