The 8 cup has a smaller footprint on the counter and comes in a thermal carafe or glass carafe with heat plate versions. I have the 8 cup glass and am happy with it. You should pick up their little rapid brewer, too. It makes fantastic cold brew in 5 minutes and hot "soup" as the kids are calling it. It's small cheap portable and genuinely very good.
>price
The one without the warming plate has an insulated vacuum carafe instead of a glass one, and that's what you're paying extra for. The warming plate version has a cheaper glass carafe.
The vacuum ones will keep it hot for a while even if they're not in the machine (so you can brew it and take the whole pot to another room), and won't make your coffee taste burnt after a while like hot plates often do. Downside is being hand wash only.
>Pods
It's saying that it has to ability to brew a single cup, something not always possible on this type of machine, by using a smaller filter holder (included) instead of a k-cup or whatnot.
Both machines appear to come with the accessory if I'm reading the description right, so you can just ignore it as a deciding factor between the two.
> why would the one with a warming plate be cheaper?
This requires a little explaining. Basically: the warming plate costs nothing. The reason the other one is more expensive is because of the carafe: the glass carafe on the warming plate version is way cheaper to manufacture than the thermal carafe from the other one.
(Relatedly: you definitely want the thermal carafe version. Warming plates are the enemy of good-tasting coffee.)
> What exactly is meant by 'podless'? Aren't they both podless?
Yeah you have this right, and it's a stupid word. However, the point they're making isn't "podless", it's "podless single-serve".
Which is still a stupid phrase.
But here's the deal. Pod machines are designed for _single-serve_ coffee: they make one cup. The 8-cup coffee maker linked above (both versions) has an accessory designed to let you do the same: stick a smaller amount of water and coffee in the thing, and brew it into a cup instead of the usual carafe.
The glass carafe version comes with that accessory, whereas the thermal carafe version does not; you have to buy it separately. That is why the glass carafe version says "podless single serve" in its title.
> Is one coffee maker better than the other?
Ish. In general: yes, not all drip coffee makers are created equal, some are much better than others. This is a good one.
However, of the two you linked, you *definitely* want the thermal carafe one. Again: hotplates are the enemy of good-tasting coffee.
I switched over the aeropress exclusively, but prior to that I used the Oxo 8 cup. That’d definitely be my recommendation. Easy to use. Makes good coffee without a lot of bells and whistles. Plus, if she ever needs to make coffee for an additional person, she has the carafe.
I had the stainless carafe. I will say the stainless carafe was a tiny bit annoying to clean since the opening was small, but especially if she’s planning to make a single cup 99% of the time, that’d be no big deal.
I’m on year seven of ownership of my OXO 8cup and still a great machine. The light reminds you to descale, do it. Other than that no maintenance needed than cleaning it.
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.
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.
Top Drip Coffee Makers on Reddit
1
Moccamaster (Technivorm)
KB Series
83% positive of 807 users
Durable, repairable workhorse, but pricey with basic features.
geardog32
