List of Weed Grinder Brands
Zachary McCreedyWhile ZAM is a relatively new cannabis brand, our goal is to bring value through innovation. And while we aim to be the best at this, it would be wrong to say other grinder brands haven’t propelled the industry forward as well.
In this article we’ll list all the notable weed grinder brands that have advanced the grinding experience with a functionally innovative design.
Herb Grinder Brands
- ZAM Grinders
- Santa Cruz Shredder
- Brilliant Cut
- Kannastor
- Qubus
- Herb Ripper
- Ma Ma P's
- Phoenician
- Mendo Mulcher
- HOJ Klip
- Cali Crusher
- Flower Mill
- Lift Innovations
- Space Case
- SLX
- United Machining
Why Create a List of the Top Grinder Brands?
You might wonder why I, the owner of ZAM Grinders, would create this list full of other grinder brands — my competitors. I felt I had to.
If you look at the best weed grinder articles through-out the web, you’ll notice that very rarely do the lists line up with the actual truth.
Focus on Brands, not Advertisers
What you often see is a list populated with grinder recommendations based on Amazon’s affiliate system. The list will only describe the cheapest grinders that sell the best on Amazon, and therefore companies with a budget more fixated on advertising than innovation will make the list.
I couldn’t find a comprehensive list of the top cannabis grinder manufactures that strive to innovate, so here’s my attempt to fix that.
Why Advertise Your Competitors?
From a brand’s perspective, it may seem counter-productive to highlight these other weed grinders, but I think you, the customer, are better off seeing what options are available. Maybe this is foolish, but I believe you will still consider my brand of grinders after reading the list.
Not because my grinders are the overall best in every category, but because I’m confident it's the overall best small weed grinder designed for portability and micro-dosing. We also sell an affordable steel grinder.
The Industry Has Grown into Specialized Grinder Designs
It’s important to realize that not every grinder is going to be within your budget or have all the specific features you want. The cannabis sector has grown large enough to warrant specialized grinders that cater to a particular demographic.
My goal will be to dissect these specializations, and provide an overview of each grinder’s unique characteristics. At the very least, I’ll list the grinders you should be considering if you’re truly looking for the top herb grinder brands on the market.
ZAM
We just released our new grinder! It's called the ZAM FullMag, it's a threadless herb grinder that's completely magnetic. No center posts anywhere.
You can even customize the magnetic strength required to open and close the grinder!
First off is my brand, ZAM. ZAM is a new grinder brand with our first grinder being released in early 2021.
It’s a skinny 1.1” wide, 5-piece modular grinder made from anodized aluminum 6061. Some interesting features include an air-tight, water-tight additional compartment above the grinder’s teeth, and a patent-pending magnetic design that provides twice as much room for grinding weed while simultaneously preventing jamming.
The ZAM 1.1” is designed to grind and store smaller amounts of cannabis for on-the-go. In addition, the ZAM grinder comes with two removable Teflon (PTFE) inserts giving you the option to de-bowl external stems or grind directly into a small, anti-stick bucket. (This bucket can be used for storing concentrates too)
ZAM Grinders for Sale:
- 2.5" 2-piece stainless steel grinder
- 1.8" 4-piece stainless steel grinder
- 2.1" 4-piece stainless steel grinder
- 2.5" 4-piece stainless steel grinder
- 1.1" 6-piece aluminum pocket grinder
- 2.1" 3-piece aluminum threadless grinder
- 2.1" 4-piece aluminum threadless grinder
Santa Cruz Shredder
The largest and most well-known cannabis grinder brand is Santa Cruz Shredder. They offer aluminum 2-piece, 3-piece, and 4-piece designs, as well as a relatively new all-natural hemp grinder.
They’ve been around for years and have dominated the industry with their now-classic but different tooth design, and uncommon inside-lip lid design. Santa Cruz Shredder is a well-known favorite.
Brilliant Cut
The Brilliant cut is a 3-piece weed grinder made from 7075 anodized aluminum, and features a unique all-magnetic design. Center magnets placed in the collection chamber allow the grinder to magnetically close without fear of cross-threading of jamming.
The Brilliant Cut also features an uncommon lid design only shared with one other grinder, one of the other heavy-hitters — Santa Cruz Shredder. Last but not least is the attractive top aesthetic from which the Brilliant cut gets its name.
Kannastor
One of the older grinder brands still around, Kannastor makes uniquely modular weed grinder. They were one of the first grinder brands to experiment with popularizing a 5-piece weed grinder and were one of the first to offer additional different sized grind plates.
Kannastor was eventually sold and became a part of Ryot, a larger cannabis accessories company.
Qubus
The Qubus made the scene after going Viral on Erik Khan’s Youtube channel.
It’s made from anodized aluminum 6061, has a unique cube shape, and is completely held together by magnets. O-rings surrounding the inside edges also make it completely air-tight, water-tight. A unique removable bucket screen allows you to easily transition from a 4-piece grinder to a 3-piece.
Herb Ripper
Herb Rippers are a stainless steel grinder and a recent favorite growing in popularity. With a classic overall design and uniquely shaped teeth, this grinder is many "go-to" for a classically designed stainless steel weed grinder.
Mama P’s
Mama P’s are some of the largest grinders available on the market, and the most expensive. Featuring a built-in lighter…and that’s it. It won a High Times award, so I felt it should be here.
Phoenician
Phoenicians feature a unique aesthetic designed to help grip the outside surface, as well as a unique triple locking wedge mechanism designed to facilitate easy opening and closing of the grinder.
They also have some versions that feature a spot on top of the grinder to store a pack of rolling papers.
Mendo Mulcher
Mendo Mulcher is a old-time brand that has been around for years and has garnered respect by creating consistent high quality products. Those Mendo’s designs follow the basic design inside-and-out, the grinders are cherished by many.
Hoj Klip
The Hoj Klip is a Danish made weed grinder using a horizontal blade action to slide your cannabis up. It comes with a sleep black form connected solely by magnets and made from anodized aluminum with steel blades.
Cali Crusher
Cali Crusher weed grinders are another brand that has been around for a while. They offer more affordable weed grinders that wouldn’t make this list, but also premium grinders featuring their quick-lock mechanism.
Flower Mill
The Flower Mill grinder is another 4-piece grinder that has been making waves recently with their innovative lid design, and stainless steel options — though they offer a more affordable anodized aluminum as well.
*Known to cause aluminum metal dust issue. Buy at your own risk.
Lift Innovations
Lift Innovations was the first weed grinder to pioneer a new horizontal blade-cutting mechanism that attempted to cut the weed rather than shred it. With a successful crowdsourcing campaign their product quickly became well-know, but the brand was bogged down by copy cats and a difficulty in rising price.
The lift is considered one of the best weed grinders on the market for its ease of cutting/turning.
Space Case
The “OG” of weed grinder manufacturers, Space Case is one of the most well-known cannabis grinder brands for simply providing a consistent high quality experience. They haven’t changed the design of their grinder in the last ten years, and I’m not sure they ever will.
Made in America from anodized aluminum 6061, Space Case was everyone’s favorite grinder 15 years ago. This ancient titan still holds claim to a spot.
SLX
SLX is a weed grinder brand that was the first develop a ceramic coated grinder to prevent sticking in the chamber. Grinder maintenance is one the most important aspects for many people when considering a grinder, SLX thought to remove at problem.
Made from anodized aluminum 6061, the SLX is a favorite among those who hate cleaning their weed grinder.
United Machining
Another steel grinder working its way into everyone’s hearts is the United Machining steel grinder. After a couple iterations United Machining has succeeded in designing a high quality, thread-less, steel weed grinder that people love.
United Machining’s grinder is made from 303 stainless steel and features a kief screen bucket system with opposing magnets designed to keep everything secure.
Different Types of Weed Grinders
The cannabis industry has exploded, and in a very short time period the number of different herb grinder brands has exploded as well. However there are only two major types of weed grinders — manual, and electric.
Electric Weed Grinders
These are weed grinders that operate using a battery and don’t require manual turning of the lid. These can’t contend to the experience of higher-class manual grinders, but if you’re interested you can check out our list of the best electric weed grinders.
Manual Weed Grinders
These are most likely the type of weed grinder you’re looking for. They’re reliable, easy to maintain, and are generally made out of better, stronger materials.
Manual weed grinders can then be separated into categories depending on the mechanism used to separate the cannabis flower. After that, specific features can be highlighted that distinguish each grinder’s best-use and compatibility with your goals.
Different Types of Manual Weed Grinders
Manual weed grinders only have a few different variations in how the weed is actually dissected. It's either cut with a standard tooth design, pressed until broken-up by a toothless design, or finally sliced by the horizontal blade design.
Each of these designs has their benefits and drawbacks, and all three are found in the top weed grinders on the market.
Standard Tooth Design
There used to be only one grinder design, the standard sharp tooth design which you’re likely familiar with. These aim to cut the flower into smaller bits which then drop through the holes placed around the bottom.
Toothless Pressure Activated Grinding
These are the grinders without grinding teeth. These aim to break the flower up rather than cut it. Longer holes with serrations are placed along the bottom edge and corresponding serrations on the roof of the grinder ultimately break the herb up and allow it to pass through the holes/slits.
Horizontal Bladed Fan Grinders
These are grinders that use a flat blade to slice off bits of the flower as it rests along the holes. Rather than the force of teeth or the pressure from being squeezed between holes, these aim to press your flower into a confined space and then slice off bits at the fan turns.
What Makes a Weed Grinder High Quality?
First off, check out the full article on determining a grinder's design quality, if you're interested in this topic.
The major factors that influence grinder quality are: the manufacturing process (CNC, casted), tolerance used (how specific/consistent the grinder was CNC’d), material type (wood, acrylic, zinc, aluminum, steel) and grade (ex. Aluminum 6061 and 7075), grinder size (2 piece – 6 piece), and grinder complexity (special add-ons, unique attributes/surface finish/aesthetics)
I could go further and break down all the available grinders in each material type, but any high quality grinder is going to be made out of aluminum 6061 or higher. Therefore plastic grinders, wood grinders, and low quality aluminum shouldn’t, and won’t, be considered in the running for the best herb grinder. Sucks to suck.
Why Aren’t Pure Aesthetically Awesome Grinders Included in the List?
Go look on Amazon and you’ll find hundreds of different grinders all with minute differences in appearance. The truth is all, or most, of these grinders are made out of low quality aluminum or zinc, and they're CNC'd with poor tolerances. They don’t try and improve the function, or the experience of grinding cannabis, they simply wish to throw a new cover on an old product.
That’s no-bueno. We’re trying to discuss the best brands that have pushed the cannabis grinder sector to new unexplored areas, not those just looking to make a quick buck.
Cheap Weed Grinders
Cheap weed grinders have their place, but not here. This is a list for some of the most expensive weed grinders in the world. Maybe you simply don’t care about the materials used and you’re happy with a gas-station weed grinder that will get the job done, but hopefully you still have some standards, right!?
Many people view weed grinders as a commodity and couldn’t fathom buying a $100 weed grinder. That’s fine, but these grinders have no place being considered the “best” unless you’re specifically looking for an inexpensive weed grinder. In which case, check out our article on the best cheap weed grinders.
What's the Best Grinder for Kief?
This mainly depends on the quality of kief you want to collect. Weed grinder screens are measured in microns. They can be confusing, read this article to learn more about herb grinder screens.
Want to skip all that and get right to the good stuff? Click here for a more in-depth article on the best grinders for collecting kief.
So Who Makes the Best Weed Grinder?
ZAM does of course!!! But really your choice is likely going to be one of the grinder brands listed above. The brands listed above have not only demonstrated their ability to take risks in designing new things, but also have a reputation for standing by their products.