Fantastic coffee maker, with one important usage tip
I'm an engineer who has worked from my home office for more than 20 years, and coffee is an important part of my day. I typically brew either 6 or 7 pots of coffee at home per week, and I have e-cycled more than my share of coffee brewers that failed after a year or two. I invested in this model after reading a lot of online reviews and reading its documentation, and I'm quite happy with its quality and the quality of the coffee it brews. As an engineer, I appreciate designs that anticipate the need for preventive maintenance as well as repair. The Moccamaster is easily disassembled for cleaning, and easy disassembly also means easy repair. Removable parts fit together with simple, clean interlocks, gravity, and (in one case) friction, and the friction fit drip nozzle arm is metal-to-silicone, not cheap plastic. After months of heavy use, I can see no signs of wear, nor is it becoming loose or sloppy. The coffee tastes great. I would not consider myself a coffee scholar, but I know what I like, and I care enough to purchase whole-bean coffee from a local roaster and to grind each day's coffee fresh in the morning, not in batches. Insulated thermal carafe, rather than an actively warmed pot, is the ONLY way to go if you care about coffee flavor, unless you are sharing with others and will drink a whole pot in a short time. Coffee that is continuously heated after brewing will rapidly acquire a stale, burned taste. It's vile! This carafe is very well insulated. I brew a pot in the morning, fill an insulated mug right away, then replace the open brewing cap on the carafe with the thermal-sealed lid. The remaining coffee in the carafe is still nicely warm at noontime or even at the end of my workday and remains drinkably warm until I finish the last of it in the evening. (For reference, I don't mind if the coffee is just warm rather than staying hot -- it's worth it to avoid the stale taste.) The fully sealed thermal lid is important, and without it the coffee would not stay warm for long. There are some minor things I think could be improved about this model, and one "important usage tip" that I will share with other purchasers here. First, I wish there was a way to slow the rate of water flow into the grounds, to brew a slightly stronger pot of coffee. That's personal preference, of course. This brewer does a nice, smooth brew using water at the correct temperature, but since I take the trouble to buy good coffee, I'd prefer if the water spent more time in the grounds to absorb a bit more of that richness. Second, I'd like to see a pouring lip on the carafe. The carafe is made of spun stainless steel, and the pouring rim is a perfect circle. It works fine with the open brewing cap in place, but once you swap for the thermal cap, you have to unscrew that just the right amount to avoid a wider stream that can miss the cup. The circular lip doesn't really help to narrow the stream, whereas I think a modest outward bend in the lip, opposite the handle, would take care of this problem. I've done some sheet metal work as a hobby and have considered trying this as a DIY modification, but since it's stainless steel I'm nervous about deforming the threaded fitting for the lid. Finally, I'll offer this tip about a problem I encountered, and how I've solved it. Every so often, I found that the coffee would overflow the filter cone and make a mess all over the countertop and floor. At first, I thought the valve under the filter was becoming clogged, but careful cleaning didn't solve the problem. My next theory was that the filter paper was pressing too tightly against the inside of the brewing cone and blocking flow, so I checked to make sure there was a gap at the bottom of the filter paper (there are small plastic ribs inside the cone designed to assure clearance around the sides of the filter). This still didn't solve the problem. I tried varying the grind, thinking perhaps I was grinding too fine and the coffee itself was obstructing the flow, but that didn't help, either. I finally figured out what was happening and solved it. The problem was *too much* gap at the bottom of the filter, not too little! The rate of water flow in this brewer is such that the coffee filter *almost* fills to its brim during normal operation. When there's too much gap below the filter paper, the pool of water and coffee grounds touches the drip nozzles, and there is enough volume displaced that it can overflow the paper cone. *Then* the exit hole becomes plugged, and you've got a mess. The solution was simple: When placing the coffee and filter into the brewing chamber, gently press it down to be sure it is seated fully, and that the filter's seam is bent aside to allow it to settle all the way into the plastic housing. I've not had a single overflow since I figured this out. Aside from the very minor quibbles (not being able to increase brew strength, and the lack of a shaped pouring spout on the carafe), I'm quite happy with the Moccamaster overall, and I am glad I finally spent the money to get a durable, well-designed coffee maker. I debated between four stars and five stars, but the two minor quibbles were not enough to deduct a star from a product that is working very well for me and which I use almost every day. Read more
