Ambiano Electric Gravity Salt and Pepper Mill Set

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated for 2025. 

Rachael also contributed to this post. 

“So it’s for lazy people.”

That’s what my adolescent daughter said when she looked over my shoulder and saw me researching electric gravity grinders. On one hand, I understood her point — after all, these would seem to be devices meant to take all of the labor out of grinding up spices.

On the other hand, I can see the virtue of electric grinders, especially if you’re someone (say, someone older) who can’t easily operate a grinder. They might also be useful if you need to be able to grind up salt or pepper with just one hand.

And, let’s be honest: the idea is also kind of cool, and there are times when kind of cool is a good excuse for an item.

Regardless of the reasons, here’s the basics on this device — an electric gravity grinder starts grinding when you tilt it over, and stops when you tilt it back. It’s a one-handed way to grind salt or pepper.

It’s a niche item, which of course makes it just the kind of thing Aldi would drop into its middle aisle.

The Ambiano Electric Gravity Salt and Pepper Mill Set is an Aldi Find. Each store gets one shipment of these, and once they’re all sold out … well, they’re all sold out. Aldi doesn’t do the online shipping thing, so if you can’t find these in stores, you won’t be able to get them until they come back, assuming they come back.

These were most recently scheduled to arrive in stores September 24th, 2025.

The set costs $12.99 in 2025. That’s also what the set cost in 2024 when we first wrote about it. You’re probably thinking this is cheap, and, if you do, you’re right. Amazon currently has a bunch of them, including many in the $14-$19 range, but Aldi undercuts them. Granted, it’s not clear how Aldi’s set compares in terms of features, but Ambiano appears to win out on price.

In 2025, the set comes in black and white (pictured above) or different shades of green. We bought the green.

Here’s more information:

• Features gravity sensor grinding with one-handed operation
• Automatically grinds when turned upside down
• Modern design
• Grind coarseness is adjustable
• Includes 12 AAA batteries

This set comes with a two-year warranty serviced by Tempo, which is a common Aldi warranty service provider. For service, call 866-235-5029 or email serviceusa@tempo.org.

Using the Grinder Set:

When you open the box, you’ll find the pair of grinders, plus a sheet with contact information if you need to use the warranty service. You’ll also find a single-page manual and two plastic-wrapped 6-packs of AAA batteries.

The manual offers a small amount of assistance. The instructions for use are as follows:

1. Remove the base.
2. Remove the battery holder.
3. Insert 6 AAA batteries into the inner casing. Pay attention to the +/- markings. (Maybe we missed them, but we didn’t actually see any markings.)
4. Insert the battery holder, pay attention to the guide (we don’t know what the “guide” is that the manual is talking about), turn and lock until in place.
5. Remove the lid of the grinder.
6. Fill salt/pepper into the opening and replace the lid.
7. Turn the grinder over for seasoning. It will grind automatically.

The manual also offers a couple of tips for care, including the fact that the mills need to be kept away from water and excess steam. To clean them, wipe with a dry cloth, and do not immerse them in water.

It’s also recommended to keep the mills at least 80% full for best use. These don’t hold a lot of salt and pepper. For testing purposes, we poured salt and pepper from some Trader Joe’s grinders into the Aldi grinders, and they only held about half of the contents of the TJ’s grinders.

We have some thoughts. First, the base screws off so you can remove the battery compartment and add batteries. We found the base to be a little difficult to unscrew, as there isn’t a lot to grab onto for leverage. The batteries can also be hard to keep in place in the battery compartment.

In addition, when the manual says to “remove the lid of the grinder” in order to add salt or pepper, we weren’t quite sure if the lid was the small silver metal piece at the very top. That is not the lid, and you don’t want to try to remove that part. It turns out, the lid is actually roughly the top half of the grinder. You’ll see a seam halfway up the grinder, and that’s where the lid twists off to reveal a small side compartment where the salt or pepper goes.

We think the manual would have been more helpful if it contained some simple illustrations. With that said, we highly recommend watching our video above if you want some tips about how to use these.

Despite the annoyances with the manual, we were excited to use this set. We filled the first grinder and it worked perfectly, grinding out coarse salt when we flipped it over.

However, when we added batteries and pepper to the second grinder, nothing happened. We fiddled with the battery placement to make sure everything was connected properly. We even changed out the store-brand Aldi batteries that came with the set and tried some Energizer batteries. Still, nothing. The second grinder was dead on arrival, much to our disappointment.

While we could try using the warranty service, in our experience, if an Aldi product has serious problems right out of the box, it’s often a sign that a replacement may likely have the same problems. So, we’ll be taking this back to the store for a refund.

The Verdict:

We were excited to try the Ambiano Electric Gravity Salt & Pepper Mill Set. However, one of the two grinders did not work when we unboxed the set at home. Even after doing some troubleshooting, we couldn’t get it to grind. When they work, they’re pretty cool, but since only half of this set works for us, we’ll be taking it back to Aldi for a refund.