Hario Skerton Coffee Grinder Review

If you’re on a tight budget but still want to grind the best coffee possible at home, look no further than the Hario Skerton grinder. This is the “best bang for your buck” manual grinder currently in the market.

It’s super easy to assemble and use and comes with a host of different grind settings that can cater to manual pour-over brewing methods to the French Press and everything in-between.

Many people think that brewing high-quality, great-tasting coffee at home is too expensive – This Hario coffee grinder proves otherwise. Here’s my review and a full breakdown of this budget Skerton coffee grinder.

Hario Skerton Grinder Basics

The Skerton’s simplicity is where this grinder excels. There are no confusing dials or unnecessary features that you’ll never use, it simply does one thing, and it does that well – grinding coffee, albeit with a bit of elbow grease.

The Skerton can be broken down into two main sections. The top section contains the ceramic burr mechanism and the crank arm where the handle attaches with a self-screw bolt.

The crank arm also has a “metal sleeve” that locks in place and allows you to set your desired grind setting.

The bottom glass jar attaches and screws to the top grinding section of the grinder, as you grind, the coffee makes its way through the ceramic burrs and falls into the bottom glass chamber. The glass jar also doubles up as storage.

The Skerton kit includes a screw-top that turns your glass jar into an airtight coffee container that can store up to 100g of ground coffee if you don’t intend to use it immediately.

I never use the glass jar for long-term storage as I prefer to grind my coffee fresh before each brew. But you may want to grind up a couple of days’ worth of coffee in advance, so I can see how this lid could be useful.

In the box, you’ll find a rubber ring that attaches to the glass jar’s bottom to help stop it slipping across your counter when you’re grinding.

Also included in the kit is a rubber lid that fits snugly onto the top bean hopper to prevent the beans from shooting out across your kitchen when you start grinding.

What’s So Special About Ceramic Burrs?

The main advantage of ceramic grinding burrs over steel or even plastic found on cheap coffee grinders is there’s less friction produced.

Friction means heat and heat is bad for your coffee, the more heat, the more of the flavorful essential oils will disperse during the actual grinding, never making it to your cup. Another reason is that ceramic doesn’t rust!

I’ve got to give praise where its due and take my hat off for Hario opting for ceramic burrs rather than a cheaper alternative – they’re often only reserved for pricier coffee grinders.

How About Cleaning The Skerton?

The Skerton hand grinder can be broken down into sections, and all of the parts easily unscrew, which makes cleaning super easy.

I wouldn’t recommend washing with soap and water every day, but a good deep clean once a week that requires the grinder to be taken entirely apart should suffice. After each use, I tap out any left-over coffee grounds and brush the grinding mechanism with a dry paintbrush.

Hario Skerton Coffee Mill Instructions

Unfortunately, the supplied Hario Skerton manual I received was not in English! So, unless you’re fluent in Japanese, they will be of little use; the pictures where nice though!

The instructions from what I could understand and with a bit of Googling show you how to dial in some basic grind settings. It requires a bit of skill and trial and error to get the perfect grind for your brewing vessel, but I have done some of the hard work for you and provide a simple chart further down this page.

Operating the Hario Skerton Coffee grinder is as simple as screwing the two sections together, adding your whole coffee beans into the top hopper section, placing on the crank arm, and then tightening with the supplied bolt.

With that being said, I’ll warn you that there’s a bit of fiddling needed with the Skerton if you want to set up your grinder for different brewing methods.

However, I find that I often stick with one brewing method, typically pour-over, so for me, once I’ve set the desired grind setting, I tend not to touch it again.

Hario Skerton Grind Settings

The Skerton coffee grinder offers a full range of different coffee grinds and can produce just about any grind your coffee-soaked heart desires. The one problem I do find is that the coarser you grind, the less consistent it becomes.

This is because when the Skerton is adjusted to the coarser grind setting, the burr mechanism has more “wiggle”; basically, the ceramic burrs are not as tight, so they move more freely.

This issue I can foresee with this slight “wiggle” in the grinding burrs is if you plan on using the Skerton for brewing French Press coffee, which requires a coarse grind.

But even then, the French Press is going to be somewhat forgiving when it comes to the coarse grind, even if it is as uniform as you’d ideally want it so it shouldn’t be that much of an issue.

However, if you do find that you’re not getting a uniform coarse grind you could look at purchasing this aftermarket Hario Skerton upgrade kit that makes a difference; it is strange how Hario hasn’t addressed this problem themselves?

It’s the fine grind setting zone where the Hario Skerton shines. If you regularly brew coffee using a pour-over method (V60, Chemex, Clever dripper) or use an AeroPress, you’ll be blown away with the uniform grind the Skerton produces.

Locking in that perfect grind settings does take a bit of practice. After playing around with the settings dial, I have found an easy solution – I call it the “zero position.”

This requires unscrewing the bottom glass jar and then pushing the ceramic burrs while holding them firmly as you tighten the dial on the top.

Once you are at this “zero” position, you can then turn the adjustment dial to the appropriate number of notches for your brewing method.

It’s not as complicated as it sounds, and once you have your grinder in front of you, it will become much more straightforward and easier to understand.

Simple Grind Setting Guide For The Skerton

Overall Impressions of the Skerton Coffee Grinder

Just because you want to save a few dollars and take the inexpensive approach to fine coffee doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice quality.

The Hario Skerton manual grinder is one of the best in class at this price range. Even though it doesn’t come with all of the bells and whistles found on more expensive coffee grinders, it’s the simplicity and quality parts that make the Skerton a great budget buy.

It’s a great-priced travel-friendly grinder with top-notch ceramic burrs and a high hopper bean capacity.

Even though the Skerton requires a bit of elbow grease and tends to be slightly inconsistent at the coarser grinds, it still delivers acceptable grinds for a wide variety of brew styles.

I have yet to get my hands on the newer Hario Skerton Pro, but I would like to think that they’ve resolved some of the issues I’ve highlighted in this review regarding the inconsistent coffee grind?