The topic says it all - it looks waaay cool, and I am ready to take my 20% coupon down to the BB&B to try one. I have been using the newest version of the Brazen, but the carafe does not hold temperature very well, and I am not really in the mood/have time to preheat and go thru extra steps just to use an 'automatic' machine....

TIA for your thoughts.

Impatient even without the help of caffeine......


Mark

Ahh yes, impatience Been there...many times. The 9 cup and 12 cup have very little reviews as of yet. Your best bet is to go to Amazon and see the reviews there. My estimation is that 9 cup may have an edge based upon the reviews on Amazon. But what I cannot figure out is if the 9 cup has programmable pre-infusion, or just the 12 cup?

Anyway - let us know what you find. Thanks!

Have you seen this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsAeH7SvIs

The machine looks nice, but I am not sure how this will solve your issue with the carafe. Have you tried to simply preheat with hot tap water?

I will have some hands on feedback on the 9 cup version soon. Bought one online from Kohls. There was a deal that I could not pass up, (30% off, free shipping), plus Kohls has a very good return policy.

Will compare it to my Ottomatic

Cool - keep us posted on the 9-cup brewer. I'm interested!

Hi folks, new here. Hope nobody marks me as a shill and will provide some honest critique to ensure it.

Our Newco OCS12 just died about a week ago and honestly was in need of replacement anyway. My wife and I deliberated a bit over the Bonavita 1900 and the Oxo units since both were available locally at Williams-Sonoma. We did not look heavily at the Technivorm units though maybe we should have at least considered it some. In the end I think I would have been happy with the Bonavita, but my wife was turned off by the lack of a brew through lid, and the need to rest the filter basket on the carafe. The ability to both brew coffee and heat water for tea/oatmeal/warm baby bottles was what swayed us in the direction of the 12 cup Oxo. My stipulation was the SCAA certification. We don't geek out on the coffee brewing too much where manual control is something that we would use on a regular basis, though there was a time that sort of thing would have appealed to me. My wife tends to value simplicity in operation above all else, and I can appreciate that. Maybe that made me shy away (unfairly?) from the Technivorm.

Here are my immediate thoughts, though not a long enough ownership a comprehensive review.

• It's pretty in a modern kitchen appliance sort of way. It's not a Technivorm sort of pretty that looks a bit industrial and retro. Fits in well with stainless kitchen appliances, etc, though it still stands out as it looks like some sort of science experiment. It's big so don't expect it to be something that fades into the background in your kitchen.
• The controls are super simple to operate IMO. Other coffee makers with a half dozen buttons and dials should take note. This is what happens when you take the sort of human interface design intelligence used for the Nest thermostat or the OG iPod and apply it to coffee. Not as simple as a coffee maker with just an on and off switch, but a lot easier than any programmable unit I've ever used. Easy to recalibrate the kettle scale, change brewing temp, account for high altitude, set the brewing timer, etc. A lot of thought, and likely a sizeable investment, was put into the industrial design.
• I don't know that you can alter the bloom cycle. It seems to be one of those automatic things where they are catering to people who don't plan to futz with that manually, but would appreciate that it's there.
• The coffee is good - better than our old pot. I don't have the sort of coffee geekdom to quantify this but I'm more than happy with what it puts out.
• Brewing itself (from the point it starts pumping water into the filter basket) is fast and should fall into the recommended time range, but the heating method, which requires heating the entire volume at once rather than passing water over a heating coil, makes the entire cycle take much longer than other units. Expect to wait 15 minutes for a large pot.
• You can do 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 cups. Unless I haven't figured it out yet, you cannot do odd number amounts. We used to do 9 cups as it was the perfect amount for our morning coffee needs. Now we have to brew a bit more than absolutely necessary.
• This seems to require more grounds than our old maker. I don't consider that a negative necessarily as our old one was probably over-extracting with the quality suffering for it. But nevertheless we're blowing through beans at a quicker pace. The included scoop is supposed to measure 8 grams of grounds which is the recommended amount per cup.
• The carafe doesn't keep coffee as hot for as long as our old pot, and tends to benefit more from pre-heating, especially for smaller pots. It's possible our old one brewed too hot and the carafe sucking out a few degrees of heat was OK, but I find it needs that pre-heating to keep coffee decently hot for a reasonable amount of time. It's likely not as thermally insulated. The instructions state coffee should be consumed within an hour to prevent staling, and it appears the carafe was built to this specification.
• Other than the sound of water boiling, it's pretty much completely silent. No pumping or gurgling noises at all. No chimes or beeping.
• I'm somewhat comforted by the sound of a pump purging the plumbing with steam at the end of the cycle, which this coffee maker does not do. This, combined with the fact that it always leaves a bit of water behind in the water pot, means I make a point of dumping it out when it's done and leaving the lid open so it dries. The tubing for the water delivery mechanism runs from the base of the kettle up through the handle, and curves around the upper rim to the spout. No hard reason to doubt this design but since it's so novel I just hope it's built to last. The 9 cup maker is much more conventional in this regard. Filling the kettle at the sink (and dumping it) is convenient.
• The filter basket looks well designed, brew pause works fine, uses pretty conventional looking 12 cup filters, so maybe a Bunn filter would work just fine.

Overall I'm impressed with the unit. I appreciate the thoughtful design for sure. I see them selling a lot of these to folks with some disposable income that don't plan to go down the rabbit hole of coffee geekdon (I say that lovingly). That it's sold at BB&B should be ample evidence of that. If it keeps folks away from Keurig, all the better.

My wife is bummed that the coffee isn't hot enough after 3 hours, I'm not as affected by that as I'm pouring my thermal mug shortly after it's brewed and heading out the door. The length of the brewing cycle is something that will matter more to some than others. If you need 12 cups volume and value the ability to brew coffee and hot water simultaneously, this one is the better bet, otherwise the 9 cup unit should be in line in term of volume with the Bonavita and Technivorm, and avoids the issue of the lengthy brew cycle.

We're looking at the matching grinder, as the ability to grind an exact amount of cups (or grams) rather than an analog dial is an improvement over what we have (Capresso Infinity). It's also designed from what I can tell to avoid spraying grounds all over the counter, which is one of our annoyances. We don't need espresso grind and I understand the Oxo unit may not be as suitable as some for that purpose.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for the excellent review. I have the 9 cup version and getting the feel for it. I agree that the interface is simple and effective and the coffee tastes good.

So, being Mr. Impatience, I did buy one using the 20% off coupon from BBB. I liked the fact that the water 'pitcher' could be used just as a heater.

Took some time to get the grind and quantity right to get a tasty cup, then the brewer started throwing a descale alert,and would not brew the whole amount required..... After a week of light use? I have an undersink 3-cannister filter, so I think the water is not too hard.

I cannot abide this amount of maintenance, if it is not a defect, and if it is defective, I'm not sure I want to put up with trying another sample. I wish the smaller one had the removable water pitcher..... oh well. And, btw, the machine is too dumb to be able to brew an odd number of cups. wtf?????


How is the ottomatic? it looks way cool, but I really need something to do 20-24 OZ of coffee and keep it hot for a hour-- is that too much to ask for? How about the small Bonavita? Ottomatic? anything else come to mind?

Thanks!

fzman wrote:..., but I really need something to do 20-24 OZ of coffee and keep it hot for a hour-- is that too much to ask for? How about the small Bonavita? ...

Thanks!

My wife has a 24 oz 5 cup Bonavita which she cranks up when I am out of town. Loves it. It does produce a very good cup if you are into auto.