Naturephotoguy—September 8, 2025
I bought this coffee maker after seeing an article stating that the editor of Food and Wine wouldn't use anything else. I had some trepidation after reading Amazon reviews saying it was unreliable and hard to clean. I've had it for several months now, so I can't speak to long-term reliability, although It has worked flawlessly for me. But what I can say is that I've never drunk better coffee from an automatic coffee maker (for the best coffee, use an AeroPress, but I'm not often willing to go to the trouble). I buy freshly roasted beans from a local gourmet roaster, and this coffee maker lets the great quality shine. I usually brew just a single cup of coffee at a time. The GE Cafe Grind-n-Brew that I owned previously made anemic single cups. The Breville will make them as strong as you want; indeed, its controllability is one of its best features. Now, as to complaints that others have registered. Some say that grounds get stuck in the rubber conduit between the grinder and the brewing basket and won't make it to the brewing basket, so the coffee brews weak. That will not happen if you are punctilious about cleaning the basket and drying it thoroughly before brewing more coffee. If the rubber conduit is wet or has a buildup of coffee oils, ground coffee will stick to it and block coffee from getting into the brew basket. Others complain about the need to clean the shiny vertical disk that opens and closes to allow coffee to come from the grinder. You have to do it, but it only takes a few seconds per brewing session. I do wish I could toss the brew basket into the dishwasher, but it doesn't take that long to rinse it out and put it in the draining rack to dry out between uses. The carafe is a weak spot, IMHO. You really do have to preheat it or your coffee will not stay hot. Moreover, it has to be turned nearly upside down to pour a cup, and the design makes it difficult to pour that last cup and to clean it well. You may reasonably decide that this coffee maker doesn't provide enough added value beyond a garden variety Mr. Coffee or equivalent to justify the cost. But I was comparing this to a Jura 6 or a high-end Philips or DeLonghi at more than twice the price. It won't make espresso, but for standard brewed coffee, this coffee maker does a superb job and to me is worth its high price. Read more
jg—July 14, 2016
After reading many, many reviews this coffee maker ended up the winner to replace my fairly cheap machine that was showing age with electrical problems, and the Breville toaster works so well we just had to get another one of their creations. First and foremost, I was not happy giving up cone filters for the basket type and it took a while for me to give in to that, but in the end it's not that huge a deal. Aside from the horribly designed carafe that drips no matter how you pour it and has to be tipped upside down and shaken to try and get all the coffee or water out (when rinsing), my biggest issue is with the grind size. I have been using an old Braun coffee grinder for over 20 years and like my espresso roast coffee ground into a powder to use for my coffee (European style) and despite the adjustable grind control, this coffee maker just will not do a fine grind. My first attempt at using the default settings was pretty surprising as I couldn't believe the amount of coffee it dumped in the basket for just half a pot. It was ridiculous. So I used the calibration feature which lets you weigh the amount of coffee ground in 10 seconds and input it into the settings (which disappear after each power fluctuation, just like the time) to reduce the amount it was grinding for each strength level. I also thought maybe there was a piece I could shim or adjust to get it finer, but cleaning the whole thing (it comes apart in many pieces for cleaning in a very clever manner) actually made it worse because I think I added more room for the larger grounds to fit through the teeth. Also, while cleaning out the grinder I noticed there were a lot of grounds that stay stuck in the chute each day so unless you disassemble everything and clean it every day, the first coffee that hits the basket is the stuff that was sitting there for around 24 hours getting stale. Getting ready to brew is quick and easy, but cleaning up is a little annoying. The point where the basket meets the grinder is up under the top of the coffee maker so unless you have really tall counters, you have to bend over (maybe get some artificial lighting too) and get a cloth of some sort in there to wipe up the wet grounds. There's also a cute shelf below the rotating disk that seals the grinder from the basket to catch grounds, and that shelf can be pulled out for cleaning. Then after getting rid of the grounds and rinsing out the lid (I use a little dishwashing liquid as well to get rid of the oil from the grounds) then it all has to be dried before putting together for the next run. Therein lies another of the issues I have with this coffee maker. All my previous coffee pots I could just leave half open or partially disassembled to dry, but this one goes together one way and one way only. So you either have to lay the pieces all over the counter or dry everything off with a paper towel -- every day. One additional topic on cleaning has to do with the water reservoir. There is no access to where the water is stored and no way to see or clean it. The convenience of this machine is great and like other Breville appliances it has great engineering and thought into the design, but for me a few key things keep it from being great. Bottom line, I expected more for a $300 coffee maker. Pros - No more ground coffee everywhere on the counter to clean up in the morning - Awesome user interface to control making coffee - Water tank can stay full and it only uses enough for the amount of coffee being made - Works excellent for individually brewing almost any size cup - Grinder disassembles nicely for cleaning - Basket seals cleverly to allow coffee and water to enter with little mess - Emits almost no steam during or after brewing (I'm not sure where it goes) Cons - Have to use a napkin or paper towel to clean up wet grounds off coffee maker and basket every morning - Can't pour coffee without dripping on the counter or down the carafe - Custom settings disappear after each power fluctuation - Time disappears after each power fluctuation (auto start time was saved though) - No way to "open everything up" to dry - Grind chute holds a lot of coffee which ends up sitting there getting stale - Uses LOTS of coffee with default settings - Requires more cleanup than any other coffee making system I have ever owned - Takes up a lot of counter space Pictures show awesome display and controls, finest grind possible, things inside (behind filter basket) that need to be cleaned. Update: After using this machine for a number of months now, I can definitely say this is going to be the next appliance replaced in our house. And I am downgrading it to one star. Multiple times I have awoken with little to no coffee brewed in the morning for various reasons. - Since the beans in the grinder feed only from the front, sometimes they don't feed at all (see picture) and there is about 1 cups worth of beans ground into a 10 cup carafe of "coffee" (this has happened with all sorts of roasted types, oily and dry). - Since the bean hopper is smoke colored its tough to see in there at night and occasionally it will just run out of beans (because it uses SO many beans) and I won't find out until the next morning (when I'm running late of course and don't have time to go through the whole cleaning process required to make another pot of coffee). So the result is I have to take the top off the hopper ALL THE TIME to see what is in there and to redistribute the beans to the front so they will grind properly, totally negating the reason for keeping beans out of the air for freshness (not that the lid is anywhere near airtight to keep beans fresh anyway). - Sometimes a bean will jam the grinder and it just doesn't grind. Of course I don't find this out until I try and figure out what the issue was THIS TIME and possibly end up wasting beans to try and make it grind something. I also noticed that the "grind control" knob (at least on mine) rattles like crazy while it is grinding and makes more noise than the grinder. If I put my finger on the knob while it is grinding, it's amazing how much less noise it makes. I was actually going to put a piece of tape over it, but since you have to open the top of the hopper a couple times a day that would be even more annoying than the increased noise. I still can't get over how little control over the grind size you have and how much coffee this thing goes through to make a decent cup of coffee (see picture of massive amount of grounds in filter). I'm about ready to get my 30 year old Braun grinder back out and deal with cleaning it up instead of all the cleaning required for this coffee maker (the whole reason I got this coffee maker was to reduce the need to cleanup bean dust flying everywhere). Speaking of the cleaning, I have never washed coffee grounds down the drain before in my life (on a regular basis), and I am very uncomfortable with how much coffee you have to wash down the drain to clean this thing out on a daily basis (be prepared for at least an extra 10 minutes a day). Every other coffee maker I've had I would just crack the filter basket open on and let it dry out during the day so it could get composted, but there's no way to do that with this machine. Taking the hopper out and cleaning the grinder out is a mess. When it is all fresh and new it comes apart great and looks like it was really well thought out, but I don't think any of the engineers actually use their own product. I went back and read through the instructions and started laughing when I realized they want you to use a vacuum cleaner and waste a handful of beans just to disassemble the grinder. I've been using a spoon to scoop out all the beans left under the hopper when it gets removed, and that takes quite a while, but coffee beans are like gold -- you don't just throw them away because its inconvenient to pick them up. Finally, the carafe not being able to pour without dripping all over the place is driving me nuts. I was actually going to make a video of all the different ways you can try to pour to keep it from dripping and how the carafe still spills coffee either on the counter, down the front of the carafe, or in the coffee maker. I'm pretty close to just heating up a nail and forming a real spout on it. This thing was certainly a waste of $300, maybe someone will be happy buying it at Goodwill. Read more
