Does anyone notice a slight metallic taste in drip coffee brewed with water from the Buono V60 drip kettle?

The Hario Buono V60 is made from stainless steel which, by nature, does not impart a taste to the water. Food grade stainless steel is made to be non-reactive.

If you had already thoroughly cleaned your V60 upon receiving it, the taste you are sensing is either coming from your water, filter, or heaven forbid, your coffee. What kind of water, filter, and coffee are you using?

Thanks for responding. I'm using filtered water, Allegro Sumatra coffee from Whole Foods, and IF YOU CARE brown paper filters, the same as always. It just seems to taste different from the coffee made with water poured from the tea kettle.

I cleaned the sh#t out of mine - as I could see shavings and specks, and by sh#t I mean 10-15 times.

All I wanted was a coffee!

I do care in fact, and unless you got a mysterious bad batch of filters, those are probably fine.

What I would recommend is that you give a rigorous scrubbing to your kettle followed by a descale to get any potential manufacturing residue off. Personally, I have little experience with the Hario brand, though their reputation is sound with or without my endorsement. I have experienced with some household equipment that manufacturers recommend a descale before use, so that's the only reason I would say so in this case.

Regarding your coffee, how are you storing it, and what is the roasting date?

Regarding your water, I am having trouble finding a water quality report for LA and surrounding areas, but from what I can tell based on the USGS Water Hardness MAP, the water is very hard over there. A filter does not remove hardness, usually just chlorine and some other organic materials. What kind of filter are you using, and when did you last change it? They do get funky if left in use too long. Also, loose carbon filters actually form channels (much like poorly distributed ground espresso) and can cause the water to flow through already saturated areas of the filter, rendering them quite ineffective.

Can't say for sure what the cause would be regarding taste differences, but the Hario kettle is made of 2 different thickness of metal - sides & bottom are not the same, and I don't know for sure what they are made of...that said, there are alternative dripper kettles to the Hario, ones that do not have shavings or oil from manufacture, and do not require descaling before use...

As an aside, hard water makes good coffee...at least ours does!

The tests were always with the same water, same coffee, same filters. The only difference was what the water was heated in and poured from.

I soaked the Buono V60 drip kettle in vinegar water for awhile and then washed it extremely well with dishsoap and hot water. Success. In most recent taste test it did not produce a metallic taste.

Thanks.

I had a funky smell and taste from my kettle as well when I first got it. Soap and water never could remove it, vinegar is a good idea. I ended up boiling the whole kettle in a pot of water, and then soaked it in Cafiza to remove the smell. I think it is some kind of coating or oil on the kettle from factory.

I had a funky smell from my kettle when I first got it too. Normal, considering I'd bought an olive oil pouring kettle that still had the remnants of old olive oil in it when I found it at a thrift store. I used a lot of hot vinegar and water and got all the oil out of the kettle, and it now makes a great pouring kettle. I guess this is the long way of saying that I agree with Jeremy's recommendation to use vinegar.

As an aside, I've found the kettle to be an easy way to fill my Gaggia Factory boiler with water. I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't think of this earlier, or on my own (I read or heard someone mention this) but I'm glad now not to have to find or keep a funnel handy for this common task, since the kettle is always nearby on my coffee counter.