kayanco wrote:Quick question, the Bonavita BV01002US has a clean LED button which "illuminates when it is time to clean your brewer".
Any experience with this? Is it useful?

I'm wondering because the other Bonavita models don't have this feature. Not sure if it's just a gimmick.

Thanks.

Depends on your water soft vs hard. I've had my Bonavita for 5+ years now and use sub 120tds water. No scaling issue. I"ve never had to clean the boiler. The shower head comes off easy for cleaning. I clean that on occasion depending on use.

HB wrote:For future reference, please don't cross-post from other sites to HB. Why is cross-posting strongly discouraged? explains the rationale behind this site's policy. Contributors to this thread may wish to review the thread on CoffeeGeek before replying to avoid needlessly repeating previously provided suggestions.

Hi HB,

I had read that note on cross-posting before I created this thread.

Since I had a very specific question and had much difficult finding a reliable answer, I decided to cross-post.
When I read both threads I'm satisfied that it was the right thing to do. Other than the mention of one machine, there is no repetition.

Respectfully,
Kayanco

redbone wrote:Depends on your water soft vs hard. I've had my Bonavita for 5+ years now and use sub 120tds water. No scaling issue. I"ve never had to clean the boiler. The shower head comes off easy for cleaning. I clean that on occasion depending on use.

Hi friend,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I tried your suggestion and ran about 16 oz of water and measured the temperate. 176 fahrenheit in the carafe. Then I added another 16 oz and measured again. 186 fahrenheit. So there was a clear difference of 10 fahrenheit.

Thanks for this awesome suggestion

I'm starting to like the 8-cup Bonavita. I like it's simplicity and minimalism

I did try the OXO 9-cup machine as well. It has a 2-4 cup setting, but it's not hotter than the Bonavita. In fact even on the OXO, if you run water a second time, it's hotter than the first time. So if I have to run water two times, why not just go with the Bonavita. It's more compact and even cheaper.

We've tried almost all of the available machines in this class at our shop. The winner in our decidedly unscientific testing was the OXO ON Barista Brain. All of the others were returned and the OXO is the one I use at home. The Bonavita's carafe is terrible.

kayanco wrote:Hi friend,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I tried your suggestion and ran about 16 oz of water and measured the temperate. 176 fahrenheit in the carafe. Then I added another 16 oz and measured again. 186 fahrenheit. So there was a clear difference of 10 fahrenheit.

Thanks for this awesome suggestion

I'm starting to like the 8-cup Bonavita. I like it's simplicity and minimalism

I did try the OXO 9-cup machine as well. It has a 2-4 cup setting, but it's not hotter than the Bonavita. In fact even on the OXO, if you run water a second time, it's hotter than the first time. So if I have to run water two times, why not just go with the Bonavita. It's more compact and even cheaper.

Glad that worked out for you. I had a similar temp issue when I first got the Bonavita and contacted them at the time. They got back to me with "our drip brewer was designed to work with 5+ more cups per session" I then came up with this very simple solution after some trial.

redbone wrote:Depends on your water soft vs hard. I've had my Bonavita for 5+ years now and use sub 120tds water. No scaling issue. I"ve never had to clean the boiler. The shower head comes off easy for cleaning. I clean that on occasion depending on use.

Btw, how would you know if you needed to descale the machine? Like what would be the symptoms?

Shouldn't most machines have a scaling LED or indicator? Looks like only one Bonavita machine, the BV01002US has the clean LED (to indicate scaling). And this isn't even their main or popular machine. Their popular machines, BV1901 or BV1900 don't have this feature. This surprises me.

redbone wrote:Glad that worked out for you. I had a similar temp issue when I first got the Bonavita and contacted them at the time. They got back to me with "our drip brewer was designed to work with 5+ more cups per session" I then came up with this very simple solution after some trial.

I agree, very elegant solution you came up with. Thanks for sharing. In my testing it clearly makes a difference.

Can someone please comment on the showerhead difference between two 8-cup Bonavita machines:



The left (smaller) is the Bonavita BV01002US. 12 holes, 11 clustered together and 1 away at the bottom.
The right (larger) is the Bonavita BV1901GW. 11 holes, spaced more apart and covering a larger area than the above.

Does this make a difference?
Why would Bonavita change the showerhead and not keep the same design?

Thanks.

Poor water flow and inability to heat up to desired temp would be key factors for me to de-scale. I do a borescope camera if I needed to look into the machine.
Not an electronics expert but think the scale reminder either works via a scale sensor or a counter, be it water flow or simply time machine is on.

Here's another option. Seems like Chris Baca has success with the breville and a Melita filter for smaller brews. He does indicate that he needs to preheat the carafe first on smaller brews though.