12-Cup Coffee Maker with Podless Single-Serve Function

While everyone else is sweating over the Mochamaster I say save a few bucks and get the oxo barista brain. Same outcome imo for less money.

Well you may not like the machines but the ones that come with two different brew funnels are designed for that. The Oxo 8 and Oxo 12 come to mind but there are others. I think ninja has one. The boiler is not the problem, it’s just the funnel. You might be able to put a small hario in place of the included funnel in the moccamaster and get better results. Just have to experiment.

Oxo is a well made machine but I had the same problem as mastley3. Oxo was great and gave me a refund and even paid for return shipping. I agree it was the silicone gasket and silicone is non-leaching and non-shedding. Also, it was more smell than taste. I have a moccamaster. Its fine but highly over-rated and way over-priced. I think the Ratio 6 could be good but its kind of ugly and I haven’t tried one. The bigger Ratio is gorgeous. Another I will recommend is Bunn HB. Great coffee and great price.

The chinese label may be obsolete but come on, it’s not racist. If you’ve never heard complaints of the plastics being cheap you’ve never visited the moccamaster subreddit. Even technivorm admits they look cheap but says its because they don’t use toxic additives, which is ridiculous because neither do Oxo and most other high end coffee machines and they’re plastics aren’t thin and flexy and are are dishwasher safe.

It really has nothing to do with wattage. All machines that work on what most people call a “thermosiphon” principle (although that’s really not what it is) have to get the water to boiling in order to get it into the coffee. It’s the steam that propels the coffee up and over and into the grinds. So in every machine the water starts out at boiling. So wattage really has nothing to do with it. It’s only heating a small tube of water. The steam that pushes it through lives in that tube. The problem with cheaper machines is the cheap silicone tube that feeds the hot water to the coffee grinds goes through the reservoir of fresh water on its way up. That water acts as a heat sink that cools the water. So the first bit of water is going through a nearly full reservoir. As the reservoir goes down the heat sink gets smaller. So the first water starts out without enough heat and gradually gets hotter as the brew progresses. You can minimize this problem by pre-heating your water but not so much that it melts anything in the part of the machine not intended for hot water. Also don’t use water from your household water heater. Honestly not really worth it. Better coffee makers solve this problem in different ways. Many machines solve it by putting an outer tube around the feed tube creating an air gap of insulation. The Moccamaster and Oxo do this. Other machines like Bunn dump the thermosiphon approach and heat the water in a holding tank above the coffee and open a valve when the whole tank reaches temperature. These are really more ideal from a temperature perspective as long as they get the temperature right before the valve opens. The downside is they take longer because you have to wait until the whole batch of water is hot before you can start brewing. Thermosiphon machines brew the coffee incrementally, heating while they brew. This is why alot of Bunn coffeemakers have a tank that holds hot water 24/7. When you brew you displace the already hot water with fresh water. The way boiler size and wattage come into play in either type of machine is in how fast you get your coffee. Does all this matter? I think not as much as people think it does. Getting the grind size right to match your taste for the machine you are using matters much more. I’ve had pretty good coffee from a $40 Hamilton Beach with a good bean and the right grind.

I don’t think this cold leg is being addressed unless possibly the few models that add the complication of a pump. Honestly gravity feed, heating all the water to temp and then opening a valve is the most effective and elegant design. I suspect the extended brew time is what keeps it from dominating the market. I observed the level come up this morning in my moccamaster (it uses a clear glass tube surrounded by a clear plastic insulating sleeve). I run a few ounces through before I brew to clear the boiler and tubing of the water left in from the last brew and preheat everything. This helps mitigate this cold leg because hot water is left in the tubing and most of the cold water displacing it is filling the boiler, which in the moccamaster is a relatively large piece of copper tubing that holds 3 oz. So if you preheat, the moccamaster would not be very effected by this cold leg. Very interesting. Thanks for your input. The drip coffeemaker is kind of fascinating for its simplicity and effectiveness.

If you consider $140 midrange i would recommend the SCA certified Bunn HB. Downsides: It does not keep a tank of hot water on standby so it takes 15 minutes to brew. Also, the heating tank has plastic walls, which I am not wild about considering microplastic concerns. But it does brew excellent coffee and in my experience is reliable and durable. The Bunns that hold hot water have stainless steel tanks but reviews seem more spotty on them so you might want to shop carefully. The moccamaster makes good coffee but is woefully overpriced and the parts that are plastic are pretty cheaply made. The Oxo machines are well-reviewed and Oxo has fantastic customer service.

Finer grind slows the flow of water through the coffee grounds. Coarse grind lets it flow through faster. Slower flow makes stronger brew but at some point you over extract the coffee and it gets bitter. Faster flow gives you a “weaker” brew and if too weak can taste sour. Because there are hydraulic differences coming from the design of the brew funnel or basket, as well as the rate at which the water is dispensed into it, you have to experiment to find the grind that gives your preferred flavor for any machine you use. They’re all a bit different.

I have a separate grinder and I really think fresh, quality beans make a difference. We have an OXO coffee maker that I love. The key thing is water temp that the machine optimizes for. It makes the best drip coffee. I drink my coffee black, and prefer my homemade coffee on that machine to most coffee shops.

I have been very pleased with my KitchenAid drip coffee maker the past two years. Just prior I tried Cuisinart, OXO, and Braun and was not happy with the coffee flavor and other features like size/configuration. The KA brew is very tasty imo and since it is programmable, I come downstairs every morning to the smell of a fresh pot. It has stainless trim and a sleek glass carafe so it looks nice on the counter as well.

It makes really weak coffee. I had one for 5 years and switched to the OXO (suggested right below this). I was shocked at the quality difference.

Pour Overs are as complicated as you want to make it to be. I dont really do anything that complicated and once I find a technique/recipe that I like, I just stick to it. If you don't count the time that it takes for the water to heat up, it only takes a few minutes to make a cup. I personally enjoy the process and feel like it's a good 5 min break to brew the coffee. I have a good oxo machine for drip coffee but I rarely use it because I only drink 1 small cup of coffee a day. I would say maybe start with pour overs to see how you like it first? Both method basically require a lot of the same gear, like you'll need a scale/grinder for both. The only difference is that you need a electric gooseneck kettle + pour over device (they're not really expensive, v60 switch is maybe $35) vs a drip machine. In the worst case scenario, where you hate the pourover process, the electric kettle is still a great tool to have in the kitchen (if you don't currently have one). The electric kettle has become one of my most used tool in the kitchen because it boils water so much faster than the stove. I wish I got one sooner lol.

I have the OXO that’s going on 10 years of near-daily use and after all that time it’s finally starting to show its age. The coffee in the carafe isn’t as hot as it should be and the red “clean me” light comes on way more frequently. I’ve been looking at the Mocca Master as a potential replacement or, honestly, just another OXO. Anyone who’s owned both have any thoughts? I wfh and tend to drink a pot over several hours in the morning so the one with the heated glass pot is tempting me. But I’ve had such bad luck in the past with warming plates overheating the brewed coffee.