KBGT

KGBT - same experience (outside of the plate/carafe) a couple years ago but i keep it around hoping one day something. There was one YT review where a couple did a blind comparison of brewers - MM did not do well - and they were surprised and went back to do a second MM brew again and all the sudden it was tops. Thats suspicious and perhaps could be a dial in issue … for all the other brewers that didn’t perform as well too. I think it all comes down to profile tastes and expectations. I really like the breville precision but also wouldnt mind trying an aiden, ratio or xbloom.

I thought i understood this brewer to do well with beans on the darker side. But i too was underwhelmed with the moccamaster kgbt. The definitely semi-automatic for me. The grind needs to be fine enough to allow the bed to be saturated evenly but drain timely. Schrödinger’s lidded quantum brewer basket. Is the bed even or fully wet? Dont look. Just cover & enjoy.

I upgraded from a Moccamaster to an Aiden. I've owned two different Bonavita, an Oxo 9 cup, Oxo 8 cup, and a TechniVorm KGBT. The Aiden is far, far superior to all of them, and when brewing single cups is better than my best V60.

The Aiden is my favorite coffee maker ever, and I have owned quite a few (Melitta Clarity, 2 Bonavita, Oxo 9 cup, Oxo 8 cup, and Technivorm KGBT). It excels at both single cup and batch brew. There is an issue with the flow meter getting clogged but Fellow is very good about supporting it and replacing the machine if this happens.

The only issue is that the new thermal carafes are glass lined instead of being vacuum stainless steel. They are delicate and easily broken, and are not covered by warranty at all. They cost about $85 to replace if it gets broken.

Not sure why you got downvoted. The showerhead of the TV sucks, full stop. It's a design that should have been corrected years ago, and they haven't. Stirring the coffee bed is basically required if you are doing a full batch brew. You can get away with not stirring if you are doing a smaller brew - say 20oz or so. But even still the coffee it makes is good, but not great. I feel like a shill, but the Aiden does a MUCH better job brewing than the TV, but does not have the longevity or simplicity of the TV.

Ok so I wrote this awhile back when asked about coffee makers I've owned. Bottom like - the Oxo 8 cup was the least favorite of all the coffee makers I have ever had. ------- It's been years since I've had a Bonavita, and it was from the old company rather than the new one. I owned both a cone filter Bonavita (TH1800?) and the flat bottom one (1900TS?). I had once done a comparison between the Oxo9 cup and the Bonavita, and the Bonavita just produced slightly richer tasting coffee overall, but the Oxo 9 cup was a great coffee maker. The Oxo 8 cup to me was a disaster - it absolutely would not extract evenly - every brew, unless you stirred it, would have entire sections of coffee that never got saturated. It's like they designed it for coffee that wasn't ground well, and they expected the basket to fill so all coffee got wet - with my grinder the water would just flow on through. For the time I had it I had to remember to stir 3 minutes after starting the brew or the coffee sucked. With the Technivorm, I was pretty disappointed after wanting one for so long, with how "hands on" you had to be to get the best brew - the showerhead bar design does not do a great job of initial wetting, so I always found myself stirring after the first minute just so all the coffee would get saturated. Flavor wise it was pretty comparable to the Oxo 9 cup. I did not notice a huge difference between the two. What shocked me with the Aiden was on the first brew. My in-laws were visiting for Christmas and I had some cheap pre-ground coffee that I'd been making in the Technivorm. Considering that everyone was adding creamer to it, it didn't matter much. On a whim I brewed the same coffee in the Aiden as a lark for the next pot, and the improvement in flavor was drastic - like I could actually drink it black compared to the previous brews on the technivorm. Effectively with the Aiden you get two brewers in one: You have a very capable batch brewer that does a terrific job - I use just regular Bunn 12 cup filters. But where it shines is on the single cup - bloom, full saturation, and totally customizable settings for ratio, temperature, and number of pulses. But you don't HAVE to do any of that and can just use their standard settings based on coffee roast level. Essentially you can have it both ways - either super easy, or as detailed as you want to be. And it's consistent - my v60? Never consistent. But this is essentially the same every cup, unless you tweak a brew parameter. In an Aiden 2.0 I think my two main requests would be for a light in the water reservoir - its VERY hard to see how much water is left unless your kitchen is fully lit - and for a removable drip tray. It does drip quite a bit after a single cup brew, even if you remove the basket since there is a lot of condensation. A removable tray would make this easier to clean. The lid to the water reservoir could use some work too - it works quite well, but it just feels very flimsy.

Not an expert or authority, but I have owned one (KBGT). It does brew very good coffee, but other coffee brewers out there can as well. The difference with the Moccamaster is that many people consider it a buy-it-for-life purchase. They are hand made (https://youtu.be/W8_NXtwr-qg). They maintain ideal brewing temperature throughout the brew (this is a big deal). But if you aren’t using good coffee beans, and grinding with a decent grinder, you will be missing out on the best tasting coffee. Pro tip: either get one during Amazon Prime Days (even if you don’t get it from Amazon and instead find somewhere to price match), Or get a used one and if there’s anything wrong and not working you can send it in to Moccamaster, and for a relatively small fee they will fix it completely and test it! I do not recommend getting one from Ali Express, etc, as it may not have the same quality internal components. If it seems too good to be true, it could be a knockoff, so beware. The water heater/boiler (see video) is the secret sauce in the Moccamaster. And the company makes a high quality product and stands behind it. Edit: thanks for the upvotes! Edit 2: regarding the shower head/sprayer. I made sure it was sitting level -which wasn’t hard, but if it isn’t level, or any scale builds up because of your water, or never cleaning your coffee maker, the shower will come out unevenly. Even when it is level, the shower head doesn’t always wet all the grounds during the bloom; unless you intervene (I don’t usually and the results are very similar). Regarding the bloom - mine does the bloom or pause automatically, but you can use the on/off switch I suppose to get a longer bloom-but then the water boiler cools down with the power off. Regarding the coffee - when I got it set up, I used good coffee beans and had to play with the quantity and grind size to get the flavor I liked. Typical stuff. Whatever the shower head does or doesn’t do, and the length of the bloom is or isn’t, it makes coffee I am quite happy with. In the end, it is not the only coffee brewer out there - I’ve had darn good coffee from a cheap Mr. Coffee if you get it right. The Moccamaster is well built, dead simple with only the on/off switch (KBGT), has a powerful 1400w excellent water heater/boiler, and gives me an easy more consistent result than other methods. I’m a fan of the design and quality, and the coffee it brews is legit to me. Again, I really appreciate the upvotes!

I wonder if this is more for the KBGV as opposed to the KBGT (which I have). My KBGT is about 15 years old, has had pretty much zero issues, feels plenty sturdy, the grounds are always fully saturated and the coffee is perfect every time. I’ve seen some complaints about the new glass lined carafes, so I’m staying away from replacing mine for now but my machine is a coffee lovers dream and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I have zero experience with the KBGV, so no idea if the build quality of that is any different.

Ok that’s fair. I have the KBT with thermal carafe (the 2018 update not the newest) and it is super sturdy, feels very solid, nothing cheap about it at all. Can’t speak to the newest iteration

Lmao what an awful take. I’ve had mine for 15 years and it looks and functions like a brand new model. The copper boiler does exactly what it’s supposed to do and I get perfectly brewed coffee every time with a simple flick of a single switch. My kid loves it so much he’s asked me to buy him one for when he goes off to Yale in the fall. It’s an amazing machine and is well worth the price.

I got the model with the thermal carafe for $230 and five interest free payments of $46 a month. I hated giving Amazon the business, but I’ve had my eye on one for over a year and this was by far the best deal I could find.

Yes, different models. $159 was for the base model.

I just started doing this and its amazing. I got over my ‘must grind beans in the morning’ and realising I’m just using normal ok beans nothing fancy. Now I grind and set up before bed and the coffee is waiting for me. Moccamaster KGBT thermal carafe so no burnt coffee.

we have the thermal carafe - hotplate isn’t good for coffee and I think it turns off in an hour or so? Carafe holds its temperature pretty well (more so if you put on the sealed lid). It doesn’t have a timer but it does have a mechanical on switch - so ours is permanently ‘on’ and then we use a smart switch to turn it on at 6:30am in the week and 7:00am at weekends. Setting up the night before is part of our evening routine so no need to fuss with grinding beans or anything in the morning.

No had no issues. Effectively it gets no power and it’s a simple flip switch so entirely mechanical. The only thing to be careful of is that the carafe is pushed into place as that presses a little button - it won’t start brewing if that’s not pressed as it’s used to detect if you removed the carafe. Only had it about six months but it’s been fantastic

don't buy the KBGT version, the carafe sucks