I've been watching immersion drippers for awhile but the prices up in Canada seem way too high. For some reason, the Bonavita is now on sale for $30CDN on Amazon.ca which is way cheaper than even US prices (and lucky Americans can even deduct another 20% or so due to currency exchange). So I ordered one (although it is taking forever to ship-- "in stock" seems to be open to interpretation!).

I've noted a common complaint is the plastic lever breaks for many people. I don't have the dripper yet, but I thought I'd ask if anyone has fabricated something to reinforce or replace that lever. From photos, it seems to me the weak spot is the slender portion up to and around the screw hole. It's puzzling they would make this thinner as it's hidden inside and is the point of weakness in the mechanism.

I'm also interested in hearing about any accumulated brewing wisdom with this device. The last related threads here are pretty old.

I roast my own coffees and have recently acquired a bunch of Guatemala and Colombia microlots from Seb at Cafe Crema and I'm roasting them to about 415F for brew (and batches of 425F aimed for espresso). I have a Bunn G1 stock and Melitta #4 filters ready to go.

Thanks!

I've been using my Bonavita immersion dripper almost daily for close to a year now (I love it!). The lever and stopper are still working fine with no noticeable degradation.

Check the threads on the Clever dripper for lots of brewing tips and recipes. The only difference is that the ceramic Bonavita has more thermal mass than the plastic Clever, so it does need to be preheated before adding the coffee grounds and brew water.

The pressure of the spring on the part that closes will eventually crack. My Bonavita dripper was a couple year's out of warranty when I called for the part. Bonavita told me to fill out a warranty claim anyway with a pic of the dripper and a pic of the broken part. I received the new part promptly. I now store the dripper with the valve open to minimum the time the spring is putting pressure in the closed positon.

Thanks everyone.

Today preheated and rinsed, brewed 19g Guatemala light roast coffee medium ground, 300g water right from boiling, top on, a little stir at 0:45 prob not needed, 2:45 before drain. Done around 4:00. Amazingly sweet coffee that had been a bit bland in a Kalita. Fun! Tried a second one a bit finer too.

I might try heating the brewer up more and use a coarser grind.

Ran my wife through the steps and she'll try it for her morning coffee this week.

She gets more aromas than I ever do. Will be interesting to hear what she experiences,

Wish I had discovered this earlier but CDN prices were too high.