Methodology

How we test coffee tampers

Every number on this site comes from a check we can describe and you can repeat. This page sets out those checks, so you can judge the figures rather than trust them.

Our criteria

1. Fit before anything else. A tamper is judged first on whether it matches a basket. We list sizes by the measurement that matters, the inside diameter of the basket, and we say which common machines take which size. A tamper that is 2mm undersized leaves a channel around the rim, and no amount of technique closes it.
2. The stop, measured by what it claims. A calibrated tamper is only useful if the load it delivers is the same every time. We report the calibrated load exactly as the manufacturing specification states it, in this case 15 lb, and we say plainly that it is fixed rather than adjustable, because that distinction is the single most common misunderstanding about this category.
3. Price against the whole category. In August 2026 we catalogued 45 competing calibrated tampers across specialist coffee retailers and the first page of the largest marketplace, excluding kits, mats and stations, and converted every price to one currency on the day of collection. That survey produced a median of $43.86 and the three price bands published on our home page. It is repeatable: the sources are public and the date is stated.
4. Ratings read in full, not sampled. We read every rating rather than the first page, and separated them by the exact variant purchased. That matters here: some of them turned out to relate to a tamping mat rather than to the tamper, and those are not part of any figure on this site. What we publish is the tamper's own record.
5. Specifications traced to source. Every figure in our specification table appears on the manufacturing sheet for this exact tamper. Where a figure is not specified, it is absent from the table. We publish a tamping load and a collar range, because both are stated on that sheet. Any figure that is not stated there stays off the page rather than being estimated from a photograph.

How to read our figures

Two of them carry a date, and the date is part of the figure. The calibrated load is reported exactly as the manufacturing specification states it. The $43.86 median was collected in August 2026 and reflects that month's prices. Both are published with their source, so you can check them against the market whenever you like.

What backs the order

Every order carries a 30-day money-back guarantee with free return shipping, so the judgment that matters is the one you make with the tamper in your hand. If it does not fit your basket or does not suit your grip, send it back and we refund it.