13 Weed Grinders That’ll Ensure the Good Stuff Doesn’t Go to Waste

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Cram your hard-earned Runtz in a shitty plastic grinder, crank it around a few times, hear some some grinding, hear some clicking, and hear some squeaking. Open it up and see nothing’s really been ground at all. Dish out the chunky weed into a rolling paper or bong and that first hit—which should be a perfect, beautiful experience—is a bit stiff. You need help. Something in your weed-smoking arsenal is failing you. The answer? It’s your grinder.

This is one worth-the-investment weed accessory. Get a good one in stainless steel with diamond-cut blades and you’ll be set for years of smoking (or baking, decarboxylating, etc.) the goodies like Snoop Dogg with his pipe. Get a better one in a brushed gold or walnut finish and you’ll readily place it on the coffee table with stoner pride. So yeah, get a good cannabis grinder. (Ahead you’ll find some tips on how to pick). And the following 13 best weed grinders—most with three or four pieces to mince bud, sift pollen, and store the results—will elevate your puff-puff-pass ways.

Silver Gilded Grinder

Smoking weed alone is cool, even preferable sometimes, but nothing beats getting together with friends to share some bud. For such an occasion, you need a big-boy party-size grinder. The Gilded Grinder from Sackville & Co. is exactly that. This extra-large, extra-deep grinder is perfect for a crew, and like the other Sackville & Co. grinder, it makes a great piece of home decor.

Another small benefit of the shape is that it solves the grip issue you get with smooth grinders. The indented shape gives you good leverage and grip.

GR8TR V2 Jar Body Grinder

Kannastör’s grinder is a mix-and-match marvel with extra storage, two removable screens, and the option to break it down into a more portable size. Better yet, it comes with two interchangeable grater plates (hence the name) so you can pick your coarseness—fine or medium. Made with hardened aluminum in a matte design that looks real nice. It’ll last you.

Marble Rolling Tray Set

You don't want to have an high-design, super functional grinder and then use an old manilla folder as a rolling tray. If you don't already have an equally good-looking rolling tray, this set from Houseplant is one of our favorites. The grinder itself is fine. It's a simple three-piece build—top, teeth, and chamber. The teeth are well-cut, and the aluminum stays sharp. It does the job.

The real draw is the look of the full set. The gold-tone aluminum of the grinder and the ashtray pair so well with the marble rolling tray. This is something that can live on your coffee table, and it won't make the place feel like a college apartment.

Tectonic9 Grinder with Dispenser

The large Tectonic9 leans to the Inspector Gadget side of things. You put the weed into the chamber and grind it up, standard procedure. But accessing it is what is pretty damn nifty: That silver dispenser flips up from underneath the grinder and fits over a hole (which you manually open and close). Tip, and freshly ground herb neatly falls out through vibration. No need to stick your brawny finger in.

Tabletop Grinder

We love a fun pop of color, but in the weed world you rarely get a tasteful pop. It's normally tie-dye, neon, or, like, slime green. Edie Parker bucks the trend with this lovely tabletop grinder.

The whole green, off-white, yellow, and black color scheme looks great on a coffee table or tucked away on a bookshelf. Within the grinder, it's everything we love—sharp teeth, a kief screen, and decent sized chamber. It cut through every strain we threw its way. We loved just about everything on this grinder.

Our notes are only small ones. First, the shape is a little too smooth, so gripping is sometimes difficult. The outside is rubberized, and that helps a bit. But, a little cut in on the top portion would be nice.

Walnut Grinder

If you’d call your personal style modern and refined, then here’s a grinder to match it. Made from hand-turned walnut with a solid aluminum core, it is an accessory worthy of top-grade flower. Furthermore, its grip is ergonomic, and it has a large basin to catch the debris. You’ll proudly display it on the coffee table while you wait for the next sesh.

Our downside here is with the chamber. It's fully black, which looks amazing, but in practice it makes it just too dark in there. Once or twice we had to go grandpa mode and shine a phone flashlight to make sure there wasn't anything hiding out in the corners.

Large Spice Grinder

The grinder is nearly as big as the palm of your hand, great for when you have a considerable amount of bud and don’t need to be discreet. A turn or two with the sharp teeth will make short work of your tightest nugs, nice and smooth. The only catch is that it doesn’t come with a kief catcher.

Edie Parker Tabletop Grinder

Usually when a grinder is brightly colored, it’s to look like Baby Yoda or Rick and Morty. This one from Edie Parker, however, does a pop of color in a tasteful contrast with white and black.

It’s a four-piece build, so it catches your kief, and the teeth are sharp enough to get the job done.

3-Piece Shredder Grinder

This one is all about the teeth—perfectly set and constructed to give you a lifetime of consistent grinds. This Santa Cruz Shredder is spoil-yourself territory for stoners. Known for its unique tooth design, it churns out perfectly ground, fluffy weed into a canister sealed with extra-strong magnets. You buy it once, then never have to worry about buying a grinder again. Choose from a range of vibrant colors.

Only downside here is the branding on top. We prefer something a bit less in your face, but you can't be too picky when the performance is this good.

Aerospaced Grinder

Higher Standards makes some tough grinders—all out of solid, aircraft-grade aluminum—but this one might be the most useful. At only 1.6 inches across, it’s best for travel; and instead of a predictable design, it looks like it belongs to the engine of a 1961 Jaguar E-Type. Despite the small size, it is a full four-piece set, and the diamond-shaped teeth can pulverize weed into a fine powder.

Storage Container with Built-In Grinder

Looking like a pharmacy bottle for medicine that may or may not be prescribed, the Medtainer is airtight, watertight, and scent-trapping, with a grinder built into the cap. Handy, and very fitting for “medical” marijuana.

OTTO Electric Smart Grinder

Here’s where things get wild: a smart grinder. Eliminate user error altogether. The Otto automatically adjusts to the herb, sensing exactly what grind is required for the best results. Then it funnels what it grinds directly into a paper cone for easy rolling. (You can skip this step.) Of course, then you’re stuck with machine maintenance—charging, storage, cleaning, all that. Nevertheless, it’s a cool gadget.

Rechargeable Electric Grinder

Why bother moving your wrists at all? That's quite a chore. Lonzen engineered an electric grinder in the discreet shape of a pen, made with stainless-steel blades that can blitz at a velocity of 24,000 RPM (!) through bud in merely seconds, dispense it neatly, and store whatever’s left over. And there’s even a glass viewing window for you to marvel at the grinding process. Just push the button and go.

What to Look for in a Good Weed Grinder

Pieces and layers: A no-frills, inexpensive but solid two-piece grinder—the OG—that only grinds is adequate for doing the weed. And that’s where the upgrades start. You can get a grinder with diamond-cut teeth that’ll slice and dice the marijuana into a fluffy mound. You can get one with a mesh screen that’ll sift out the chunks and preserve the extra-potent pollen. And a big upgrade is a grinder with a storage compartment that’ll ensure not a gram of the bud goes to waste. Basically, the more pieces it has—ideally at three or four—the better, especially if these extra layers come with kief catcher and/or pollen scrapers, which they do most of the time.

Ease of use: Within all those pieces should be legitimate upgrades to the grinding experience. Modern-day corpo weed is so dense and sticky, you need a serious grinder to do the job. A good number and pattern of sharp teeth (which all these grinders have) will ensure you are actually cutting your weed, not just putting pressure on it until it squeezes together. And beyond the teeth, the grinder needs to be easy to take apart, so you can clean and empty it without any trouble.

Material: Per usual, you’ll want something that can last. But for weed grinders, a durable shell alone won’t cut it. The teeth need to be as durable and razor-sharp to mill even the thickest nugs into a nice grain for rolling and packing.

Size: 2-inch, 2.5-inch, 3-inch. When you see these specs, note that they're referring to the size of grinder as determined by the diameter of its loading disc—where you stack in the cannabis herb—not the length (unless stated otherwise). As with most good things, the bigger the better—meaning the more flower you can load in for a big-sesh grind. And the 3-inch mark is where a large grinder hits.

Smoking Weed and Social Justice Reform

Now, we'll take the opportunity to pair this guide with an always-crucial reminder to smoke responsibly. We don't mean legally; we're no sticklers for the word of the law, especially when the law itself is outdated, unjustly enforced, and trending towards decriminalization or full-on legalization. We mean, support grassroots legalization and social justice efforts in the cannabis industry, and buy from BIPOC-owned dispensaries or companies that give back to communities when possible. It's an easy choice to make. Do it for the culture.

Why Trust Esquire?

No one combines our taste level and product expertise like us. Other outlets will only tell you to buy stuff that looks good. People on Reddit tell you to only buy stuff that performs well. We marry those two sections and recommend products that we'd actually spend our own money on.

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