Reddit reviews Bonavita BV1800 8-Cup Coffee Maker with Glass Carafe

Brutally honest answer: not worth your time and your money to make this work because you wont ever get the results you want.

More informative answer: The amount of extraction time during the brewing of a K-Cup is not enough to properly get the full flavor of the coffee. Additionally you have no control over water amount or grind amount. When I had a Keurig I bought one of the reusable holders and despite it saying 2Tbsp I could barely fit 1 1/4Tbsp. The most control you have is the water temperature and even then the temperature is not ideal. Also Keurig's are kind of junky, I had one fail after a year and the replacement was acting up within two months. No matter the grind, temp, bean, etc the coffee will always come out under extracted and not enjoyable.

90% of this sub hate keurigs, myself included, but we often do understand the appeal of them. However you need to be aware with that appeal comes major drawbacks like your experiencing now. They are meant entirely as a no frills way of making coffee for people who just want a cup of a coffee.

This would be my recommendation: If you like the appeal of a no frills coffee setup but want to experiment with different beans then I would consider selling the Keurig to a friend or family member. I would use that money to pick up a higher quality drip machine and a hand grinder. If you don't like the idea of using a hand grinder than maybe consider buying a Baratza Encore but it will cost more (FYI watch the Baratza site, every Thursday they restock the refurbs store so you could get a deal).

I can't say enough good things about this one.

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Bonavita BV1800 8-Cup Coffee Maker No timer but it's better to grind right before you brew. I guess you can get an appliance timer.

I don't think you can get a good espresso machine at that price.

Does she like drip coffee? Because you can actually do pretty well for that much. The Bonavita is supposed to be really good.

Interesting. How would you compare it to http://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-BV1800-8-Cup-Coffee-Carafe/dp/B005YQZT92

I didn't want to do chemex or French press. Did a lot of research on /r/coffee and found the Bonavita to be the only "drip" that equally disperses water like a shower head and heats up to the correct temperature.

I think there really is limited options here.

Cool, so now we have a better idea what we're working with. I can run through some options/limitations and you can take it from there.

• An espresso machine with a built-in grinder (superauto) is going to be way over your budget, so you can scratch that off the list.
  
  
• I don't know of a drip coffee machine with a built in grinder that will actually do a good job brewing.
  
  
• There is no machine that can make even halfway decent espresso and drip. You're going to have to choose here. She can dilute an espresso with hot water to make an Americano, which she can then treat like regular coffee but won't be exactly the same (though probably won't be vastly different once she adds her creamer and sugar).
  
  
• Making an espresso with a machine like the Mr. Coffee you mentioned or one of the De'Longhis is going to be a bit of a faff. She'll have to grind, dose, tamp, brew, and clean. With a bit of practice she'll get this down, but it'll be hard not to get some coffee grind spillage no matter how quick/good she gets at doing it. If she's going to want a latte, the Mr. Coffee will froth the milk for you (but I don't know how well), but if it's a machine with the wand, she'll have to steam her own milk which is another skill to learn (and involves another layer of process/cleanup). Again, this should become second nature fairly quickly, but you'd know better if she'll go through the effort until it gets to that point.
  
  
• My advice, if you don't think she'll go through the hassle of making the espresso/latte, would be to go with this machine which is SCAA certified (long story short: coffee-snob approved) and this or this grinder. I linked BB&B because the Americans on here frequently talk about being able to get coupons fairly easily that knock the price down to $80. So either way you'll get her a very respectable coffee-brewing setup for right around your target budget. Get her some good beans and she'll be leaving home to go back to her dorm and make coffee.
  
  
• If you are going to go the espresso route, I'd definitely go for the Capresso over the Bodum grinder.
  
  Based on the way you've described her tastes, I think she'd probably do ok with 15-bar pump espresso maker, but avoid 'steam' espresso makers at all costs. In the first instance you're making something that doesn't have all the glory of a truly great espresso, in the second case you're making something that shouldn't really be called espresso at all.
  
  Anyway, I hope this is somewhat helpful.

If you want a replacement auto-drip these are SCAA certified. There are also more expensive ones $300-400 range if you are interested.

Bonavita 8 Cup Exceptional Brew Coffee Maker - $125-150

Bunn HG Home Brewer - $90-100

The Bunn has a timer but I'm not sure if the Bonavita does.

Here's a summary of the good automatic drip machines.

If you can lower the "easy" threshold just a bit and give up the programmable timer feature, you can get very good coffee for under $250. Pick up a $70-$90 burr grinder and the well-reviewed (from the first link) Bonavita machine for $130.

This is the one I have. https://www.amazon.ca/Bonavita-BV1800-8-Cup-Coffee-Carafe/dp/B005YQZT92/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1488238735&sr=8-3&keywords=bonavita


I've been using it for nearly three years and it's been great.

Not 100% sure this belongs here - sorry in advance if it doesn't.

The SCAA-certified Bonavita BV1800 is currently $95.43 on Amazon. I've seen the 5-cup model hit that price range, but AFAIK it's as low as it ever got for the 8-cup variant.

The bonavita 1800 is close to that price range. Or in it, maybe, I don't know what the exchange rate is right now

I doubt I would have agreed with this comment so much a year ago. But, then I bought the Bonavita (basically this with a glass carafe). And, I use the scoop from my Aeropress - 1 scoop of finely ground coffee for each cup I'm making.

I finally have strong coffee at home that is easy to make.

It's made all the difference!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005YQZT92?pc_redir=1408028574&robot_redir=1

Check that out.

I've heard the Technivorms are among the best, but also some of the most expensive. I've got a Bonavita on the way (birthday gift next weekend!) which is sort of the cheaper version of the technivorm. I asked this exact question on Metafilter a few months ago, here is that thread. In it someone linked to a video breakdown of drip coffeepots from America's Test Kitchen, and one of the most important factors they brought up was a 1400W power supply to heat the water to the correct temperature. Basically, most home pots don't get the water hot enough, nor do they maintain the temperature with any kind of steadiness, which results in crummy coffee. The one that DOES that, was the Technivorm (or, like I said, the cheaper Bonavita), both of them have 1400W heating elements to get the water at the right temp. I'll let you know how the Bonavita works out for me.

yeah, but as a certifiable coffee snob I feel obligated to point out that the most common kind of coffee maker is not very good at its job in the price range most people expect to pay. Here's mine.

Coffee is awesome. I need more.

They also make a glass carafe version of that, but it looks like in this video they're only considering the insulated ones. I prefer a glass carafe with heater because I despise coffee that's less than hot and I sometimes drink it over a long period of time.

http://www.amazon.com/Bonavita-BV1800-8-Cup-Coffee-Carafe/dp/B005YQZT92

so does anyone have one of these or have any insight? considering pulling the trigger at $129.

edit: glass carafe version is only $149 on amazon so this isn't an insane deal

Get the Bonavita Coffee Maker - http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005YQZT92?pc_redir=1408028574&robot_redir=1