BV1800TH (Thermal Carafe)

This is one question that doesn't seem to go away... Reddit has a serious hard on for the Technivorm Moccamaster, but I'm going to give you another recommendation - Bonavita. I own both, and both are SCA-certified and brew excellent coffee. However, the Bonavita wins for me for the following reasons: * It's physically smaller and shorter, and can fit in more people's kitchen well. * It's easier to clean * It extracts better and brews coffee a couple degrees hotter * Better grounds saturation from better shower-head design vs linear bar design * It's a simpler design * Bonavita carafes are excellent (glass or thermal), Moccamaster carafes are not (their thermal carafes are known to leak from the bottom because of a loose glass liner seal, and both their thermal and glass carafes are known to spill when pouring at a reasonable speed) * Bonavita uses a copper heating element just like Moccamaster, but is a significantly less expensive machine, and therefore much better value. Best of luck whatever you decide. Any SCA-certified machine will brew decent coffee, so enjoy. And both will likely last. I've had my Bonavita for over 15 years, IIRC, and although my Moccamaster is not that old, I have friends with machines for that long without issues. Also, I just want to mention that there are plenty of drip coffee makers whose manufacturers have never paid for SCA certification, but nevertheless brew excellent coffee. So while it's true to say SCA-certified brewers will make good coffee, it's certainly not true to say that non-SCA-certified brewers will not. One of my favorite drip coffee makers is a small 4-cup I picked up at a thrift store decades ago that has no manufacturer markings on it of any kind (so it was likely stolen from a hotel or something similar). It brews truly excellent coffee and cost me $4.99.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, though I definitely don't agree. Pour over is great when I want a single cup and I'm the one doing the pour over (plenty of "baristas" do not do pour overs properly), but I'm usually brewing full pots and the best drip brewers are essentially just automated pour overs anyway. Plus I like not having to babysit my coffee and being free to do other things (like make bacon :) ). For quality, consistency, speed and automation, I much prefer a good drip brewer. As for the others, they all have issues I don't feel like dealing with. Percolators are great as long as you are right there to stop them, otherwise the overextraction tastes like crap (again, just my opinion). Moka pots often have the same issue, though I do love how durable and cheap they are (though the aluminum ones make everything taste metallic to me). French press I generally can't stand as they are a pain to clean, you again have to baby sit to avoid overextraction, they never seem hot enough once done, and I prefer a generally brighter cup with less sediment. Regarding the lid on your Bonavita - I'm having trouble picturing what you've described. What model did you have? As I mentioned, mine is around 15 yo, used every single day, and still brews like day one. I'd like to think your issue isn't systemic, and would be interested to know more. How did your lid fail twice? Regarding the lid having to be separate, I'm not sure what you mean - are you talking about the inability to put the lid on the carafe once the Mellita filter basket is on top of the carafe when storing it? Most people I know would just drop the lid inside the filter basket (on a BV1800, which is what I have) if they were going to store the brewer.

Glad you like it, but even in its category I wouldn't call it the best. Bonavita machines are also SCA certified, easier to clean, less expensive, less tall (allowing them to fit under cabinets Moccamaster cannot), also last forever and also brew excellent coffee. I definitely prefer them.

It may or may not have copper, but where I am, this coffee brewer sells for more than a Moccamaster. Even if it didn't, though, you can get copper internals in much less expensive brewers than a Moccamaster - my BonaVita has copper and even now they sell for less than $200 (It was about $100 when I purchased it many year ago). And I firmly believe the BonaVita makes better coffee than the Moccamaster (I have both, and have done direct comparisons.)

Modern coffee makers die because the guts are cheap, no matter how pretty the front panel looks. At the end of the day it's just a controlled water heater, and most companies cut corners where you can't see them. Look for a metal‑lined heating tank. The plastic boilers scale up and crack, then your machine is landfill. You want a simple bimetal thermostat. The electronic thermistor setups drift, or the board cooks itself after a few years of heat and steam. A mechanical pump or a gravity setup with real silicone tubing will outlive the PVC tubing that hardens and starts leaking. If you really need a timer, stick to old‑school membrane buttons. They’re about the only electronics that don’t give up early. Bonavita’s 8 cup with the older controls or the Behmor Brazen Plus get you decent internals without the Monolith‑from‑1982 look of the MM. Skip the touchscreens and the “smart” phone junk. That’s always the first thing to die, and none of it makes the coffee better.

Technivorm Moccamaster is good but it has dry spots so you need to stir with a spoon during extraction. AFTER PAYING $250 for it. Bonavita has shower head so this problem doesn’t occur. Ratio Six has too shallow a bowl and coffee grounds can float up over the side unless you use a coarse ground. So you’ve paid $350 for a drip machine where you can’t fine tune a grind for best flavor. Using higher wall Bunn paper filters helps a little bit. Love the Clever. Lobe the Bonavita with thermal carafe. Love Chemex. Love Technivorm with thermal carafe. Sowden Soft Brew works kinda like a French Press but makes a smoother coffee.

You won’t go wrong with a Bonavita. Priced fairly. Ratio 6 is not good. Moccamaster doesn’t have a shower head so you get dry spots and need to stir.

If electric go Bonvita because it has a shower head for even distribution

At the SCA Expo in Houston last year, I met the original developer and his sons who now work with him. The company, Smartco is the same. Distribution is different now. That is all. Respect to the age of mine, the most recent one one month. Still has a showerhead still works great. I pick them up on Nellis Auction when offered, shopping coffee equipment for friends. Currently I have a Moccamaster, a Ratio 6 and a Bonavita in rotation. I have to stir the grounds in the Moccsmaster for a second or two as it gets dry spots.

Let’s say you want to make the maximum number of cups. You fill the basket with freshly ground coffee per the recommended ratio to water. The machine starts and the water starts filling the basket. Your fresh coffee starts floating up and suddenly it’s at the top of the basket and going over the sides. You call Ratio and they say “just grind finer”. But you don’t want to grind finer because the best coffee extraction and flavor is at the grind you had chosen. So you are forced to brew half the volume in order for the coffee not to float out of the basket

Bonavita. One button drip coffee, generally very good quality. 

Bonavita w/ thermal carafe