Xxxxxxx—November 7, 2015
Some of the negative reviews almost caused me to pass on this brewer. I am glad that I decided to buy it, anyway. I am experienced with coffee and brewing methods. I have been drinking specialty coffee for years, have all the equipment, used to roast my own beans, blah blah. I have pourovers, vacuum brewers, and French presses. My go-to brewing method has always been French press. But I was always a bit envious of my son-in-law's Technovorm, which makes a great cup of coffee. I finally decided to break down and get a Technivorm, but when I checked the price I learned that it has gone up by nearly $100. So, I came across this device, and bought it. Here is my review: Coffee quality is excellent, as good as the Technovorm, in my view. One of the criticisms is that this brewer is not SCAA sanctioned, and this concerned me because I was afraid that the brew temperature would be inadequate. Not so. This brewer gets to 200 deg. F. Great cup of coffee. An advantage of this brewer, for me, is that I can make a small pot with no loss of brew quality. I can made 12, 18 or 24 ounce pots and all are great. A lot of times I want just one cup, and because I can make a great 12 ounce pot, I don't waste beans. One complaint I read was that it is confusing to put the brewer into the special, pre-infusion mode. I found this claim to be false. With the machine off, you hold the switch down for five seconds. Now you are in special mode (which I haven't used much), and you stay there until you exit the mode (another five second push) or until you unplug the machine. Nothing could be simpler. In fact the entire operation of the machine is simple, an advantage. Another complaint was poor quality. To me, this device is no better or worse, quality wise, than the Technovorm. Yes it's light weight and has a lot of plastic. So does the Technovorm. This is a good looking machine that will not embarrass you counter top. Another complaint was about how the carafe pours. I think this complaint is fair. The carafe is hard to empty completely and does a poor job of pouring unless the top has been installed. My solution is to use the top whenever I pour. It takes five seconds or less to install (it has a one-turn thread). A final complaint is that there is no warming plate and that the carafe dies not keep the coffee warm long enough. Well, no and yes. No, coffee should never be kept warm on a burner because it creates bitterness, and it does this very rapidly - don't do it, better to microwave it, if needed. Yes, the carafe loses some heat, as it has a lot of surface area. It keeps the coffee plenty hot for me, but I would say that an hour is about it. In summary, this brewer makes an outstanding pot of coffee. The brewer isn't perfect. It is merely great. If there is a better option to brewed coffee at a hundred bucks I don't know what it is. Read more
Paul Rako—October 14, 2017
I am not a coffee snob. I drink it with milk. I use Folgers decaf. I refuse to grind my own beans. I prefer to let billion-dollar multinational corporations do the grinding for me. I used to plop three heaping tablespoons of Folgers into a cut-open plastic jug and pour my reverse-osmosis filtered water over it. Then I put it my microwave for 14 minutes. I drained the coffee through a Brawny paper towel into a 30oz Balfor thermal mug I got on Amazon. OK, so a bit savage and feral, but I didn't want to be a total suburbanite with a coffee machine. The Bonavita BV1500TS brews in one-third the time. I bought one of those gold-tone permanent filters so no drinking paper residue. I was delighted to see Bonavita is thoughtful enough to put a 4-pack of filters in the box, so I didn't have to wait for the permanent filter to arrive. I was sure my low-temperature microwave method would be less bitter, but it was the exact opposite. The Bonavita made perfect coffee, and it was my goofy old method that made the coffee taste bad. There is a review on CNET, "Bonavita BV1500TS review: A high-end brand's step-down coffeemaker brews with bitter results," by Brian Bennett. He claims this model makes bitter coffee. He also says he loves the 8-cup model. He notes that he tested with a very touchy coffee known to be bitter. I almost bought the bigger unit based on this. I am so glad I didn't. The coffee I made today was the best-tasting, smoothest, most delicious coffee I have ever had anywhere. I disagree completely with Bennett's review. Maybe it is outdated. Maybe he got a bad unit. Maybe he did not run three carafes through the unit in preparation, as the directions tell you to. Maybe he got the coffee maker on a grumpy day. As an engineer, I can see that the water delivery system needs to cool the water down from boiling before it drips on the grounds. Maybe Bennett left the lid open or blocked the vents or tested in a hot or cold warehouse. All I know is he is dead wrong. His testing was not double-blind, so I don't put much credence in it. The unit came in a couple days, even with regular (not Prime) free shipping. It was delivered on Saturday despite saying it would be Monday. Yeah Amazon. The unit was well-packed, and had a decent little manual included. As noted, I loved they put in 4 filters, although the gold-tone filter came today too, but only after I made the first cup. OK, its fast, and fantastic coffee, and its small and compact. The bad is that while it brews in minutes, you have to wait for the water to drain past the coffee after it stops brewing. No different than any other machine, I suppose. There is a plastic lip inside the stainless steel carafe so it never drains completely. No problem, one factor in getting this one versus the 8-cup model is that there is a glass double-wall thermal carafe available for this model. Its 30 bucks, here on Amazon. I will suffer with the stainless carafe until I do a "treat yo'self" to the glass one. I did love how the top screws onto the carafe, with perfect registration and a lever to open carafe drain. It does have a very restricted flow out of the carafe. Come on Bonavita. This is a drug delivery system. We want it fast. I did not notice any leaking or dripping problems as some others have noted. After I made the three conditioning pots, for the actual first coffee I did not bother to screw on the top. I just poured directly into my 30oz Balfor thermal mug, then added the milk. The perfect temperature of the coffee made it taste even better. This was after adding milk however. No, this is not a shill review. I bought it with my own Social Security money here in the Florida retirement community. I am just so used to being disappointed with products, it was great to get one that exceeded my every expectation. Best yet, I save wear and tear on my old analog commercial microwave, a Sharp R-6300. Search Google for Sharp R-6300 and you can read an article I wrote years ago about that great unit. Next up is a tea-maker I also ordered from Amazon. I hope its as good as this product. Its another way to reduce the usage of my microwave, which I consider irreplaceable. I got so worked up writing this, it occurs to me there is no reason I can't make a second pot tonight, its decaf after all. Now I get to try the paperless filter, yippee. [Update, Oct 2021, four years later.] I still love this coffeemaker. I not only have used it every day, I have taken to brewing tea in it, so that means I use it more than twice a day on average. A family-sized tea bag makes 5 cups, four brews fills the gallon jugs I used to buy at the supermarket. Way cheaper, I can make decaf or caffeinated tea, and no artificial sugar or high prices. I love that it just takes one button press, no "features". I don't want to program a computer with every product I use, I just want to press a button and have it brew and turn off automatically. I don't want a heater under the carafe. I had to buy two more double-walled glass carafes. One I dropped. Good thing, since its pour spout was hand-firmed and way too tiny, it was nearly impossible to pour without dribbling coffee down the side. The second was not properly sealed so condensation formed inside. There is a little glass nipple on the bottom where they are supposed to seal it off, and that was not sealed. The handle is two small as well, but it kinda works. My review for that will be "Italian style, Italian quality." I came back here today since I am considering buying a second one, since I don't want to go a day without the machine, when the first one wears out. I did learn that some people credit the cone filter with better coffee. Oh, I gave up on the permanent filter, it left little grounds in the coffee. I just use a #4 cone filter from Publix. They are cheap and work great. Read more
