Commercial coffee grinder
for a food trailer.
The grinder is the cheapest place to ruin good coffee and the cheapest place to fix it. On a trailer it matters more than in a café, because you are grinding into changing conditions all day — humidity, temperature and vibration all shift the grind, and a machine that cannot hold a setting will cost you consistency by mid-afternoon.
The numbers
- Electrical load
- 250–700 W running Motor startup surge — draws several times this for a moment 3.0A at 230V · fits a 13A socket, but leaves 2.29 kW for everything else
- Footprint
- ~200mm wide × 400–600mm tall including hopper
- New (indicative)
- €400 – €2,500
- Used (indicative)
- €150 – €900
- Checked
- 2026-08-01
Power figures are ranges across models commonly sold into the Irish trailer trade — read the rating plate on the actual unit before you build a load budget on them. Prices are indicative guidance bands, not quotes, and no supplier is named or implied.
On-demand is the right answer on a trailer
A doser grinder holds ground coffee in a chamber, which is fine at café volume where the chamber turns over quickly. On a trailer with uneven demand it means stale grounds during the quiet spells and waste at close. An on-demand grinder grinds straight into the portafilter to a timed dose, which suits variable throughput and reduces waste — the main reason it dominates the mobile trade.
Power draw is small but the startup surge is not
A commercial grinder runs at 250–700 W, which is trivial next to an espresso machine. The catch is the motor startup surge, which can be several times the running figure for a fraction of a second. On a marginal generator that surge, landing at the same moment as a compressor kicking in, is what causes the unexplained mid-service trip. Stagger your loads rather than sizing for the sum of the running figures.
Burr size and heat
Larger burrs grind cooler and more consistently, which matters over a long service. Flat burrs are generally more consistent, conical burrs generally run cooler and cheaper. For a trailer doing under about 8kg a week either is fine; above that, burr size and a decent motor start paying for themselves in consistency and in how often you are re-dialling.
Questions
On-demand or doser grinder for a coffee trailer?
On-demand. A doser holds ground coffee in a chamber, which goes stale during quiet spells and gets wasted at close — and trailer demand is far more uneven than café demand. On-demand grinds to a timed dose straight into the portafilter.
How much power does a coffee grinder use?
Running draw is 250–700 W, which is small. The number that matters is the motor startup surge, which is several times that for a fraction of a second and can trip a marginal generator if it coincides with another load starting.
Do I need a second grinder?
If you run decaf, effectively yes — swapping beans in one grinder means purging and re-dialling every time, which is unworkable in service. A small second grinder for decaf is cheaper than the drinks and time you lose doing it the other way.