Awesome, quirky, hands-on drip brewer capable of producing the best drip coffee possible. Worth the price, even in light of some astonishingly poor design choices.
Positive Product Points
The amount of control you have during the brewing process is unparalleled.
You can access any part of the machine during the brewing process, and during cleaning. Lots of entry points to get at the water & grounds during a brew, to stir grounds, scoop out excessive bloom, add a touch more water, or adjust the flow rate during the brew.
They don't lie, this makes some extremely hot coffee.
It's built like a tank. I have no doubt this thing will last many, many years.
After all the complaining I've heard about the thermal carafe, it does its job really well: it pours very smooth and easy, and it keeps coffee on the verge of scalding for many hours. Much more effective heat retention than the old Mr. Coffee thermal that I had been using previously.
Negative Product Points
I have no idea what the engineers were thinking with the (great) new-style thermal carafe. With the stopper in, it's about 1/4" too high to fit in place under the filter holder. This is especially perplexing as the carafe holds somewhere around 6oz more fluid than the machine is capable of brewing with a single filling.
Some people will love the aesthetics, some people will hate the aesthetics. There certainly aren't too many modern appliances that this matches look-wise. I think it's really interesting to look at, personally: IF the carafe is in place, which it can't be with the stopper in, so it ends up looking awkward whenever it's in use. Which is pretty much 24 hours a day in this household.
If your counterspace depends on having a deep, instead of wide coffeemaker, you might suffer a bit in usability getting to the water tank without making a mess.
The machine really encourages more hands-on prep and change in your coffeemaking routine than most other machines. Lots of parts to remove to fill the machine, have to remember to close the filter valve when brewing is done. We'll see how many messes I make while half-asleep.
I'd really iike to see a replacement filter basket with both the manual flow switch AND a spring that stops the dribbles when the carafe is removed.
Detailed Commentary
After about four years with a Mr. Coffee thermal model (which made lukewarm, at best, coffee), I felt it was time to invest in something that didn't infuriate me quite as often, and was capable of brewing a superb, hot cuppa.
After tons of research, I decided to go with the KVT-741 due to a few factors:
- It's an incredibly hands-on brewing process, so you can get as geeky as you like. Stir the slurry, add more water, cut the flow to slow. I've got lots and lots of different pieces of manual coffee making gear.. ibriks, presspots, moka pots. Hands-on is great as far as I'm concerned. It puts the operator back into the equation, much like an espresso machine.
- Overwhelmingly, everything I read about this model is that it does its job in spades, and there's a ton of information about these models in enthusiast circles online.
- I'm getting sick of the trend toward throwaway machinery. I really wanted a machine that was built to last a lifetime AND do its job without compromise, aesthetics be damned.
- My parents have an old bunn water dispacement brewer that they've had since I was a kid: 30 years or so, and I helped my father take it apart and clean it last weekend. I haven't seen many modern machines approaching that build quality or reliability, and it really galvanized me to buy something permanent this time out.
So, I had planned on buying a Technivorm thermal model after fairly exhaustive research. Was it as pretty and over-designed as those shiny machines in the big box stores? Hell no. I'm not going to lie: I'm an artist. Aesthetics play a bigger role in many of my purchase decisions than they should sometimes, although Francis Francis' lack of support and repair infrastructure taught me an important life lesson in that regard a year or so ago.
I think the machine has an extremely charming mad-scientist, 70's industrial quality to it, and I'm proud to have it in my kitchen, but do I think it's particularly pretty? No way. Interesting, and attention-grabbing, yes, but not pretty.
At any rate, as a surprise birthday gift, I got the model I was coveting about a month sooner than I'd have purchased it myself, although I did the ordering via Sweet Maria's.
As mentioned in other reviews: it's a lot smaller in person than it looks in those product shots you've been ogling. It's also deceptively light.
It took a bit of rearranging of my coffee/espresso station to get it situated at the preferred "sideways" configuration. I tried it placed like a normal coffeemaker, but I was slopping water around and knocking covers into hard-to-reach spots -- in addition, I couldn't clearly see the power or carafe contact lights.
First start-up, like any other machine, you run 2 or 3 clean-water batches through the unit. As I was using a new swissgold #4 permanent filter, I ran a "seasoning" pot of coffee through using oldish beans before making a pot for drinking.
The unit retains somewhere between 4 and 6 oz. of water, and you'll notice immediately that the "new style" carafe feels like an afterthought. It's about 6-8 oz larger in capacity than the machine can brew unless you add water during brewing, and it doesn't fit under the filter holder with the stopper in (it's about 1/4 inch too high). This falls in the "what on earth were they thinking?!?!" category, if you're keeping score. The carafe, while it pours *great* in my experience, and retains heat very impressively, is quite obviously a rebranded prefab from another manufacturer that just doesn't quite match. This bothers me so much that I'll be buying a Nissan Stainless or Zoji carafe with a brew-through stopper as a replacement (after some very careful measurements). I shouldn't have to do this with a $250 coffee maker, so points off for usability, value and overall just for that one issue.
The ritual for making coffee in this machine has been covered in-depth... just about everywhere, so I'll be brief:
- Add water to hopper (replace lid that comes off completely) - Rinse filter and place in removed filter holder - Fill the thermal carafe with hot water and let it sit - Grind and add 6-6 1/2 *level* technivorm scoops of coffee -- if you do the golden rule 1 tablespoon per 4ish oz of water / 2 per 8oz "cup", you'll overflow the filter holder with bloom if you're using good coffee, and get overextraction AND a mess. After a few fillings, you'll be able to eyeball the amount in a permanent filter. - Replace all the (completely removable) lids and parts on the unit, dump the hot water and put the carafe in place - If you're brewing hands-on, make sure the flow switch is set to "closed" and turn the machine on - If you're brewing hands-off, make sure the flow switch is set to "open" and turn the machine on - If you're hands-on, wait about 30 seconds then stir the slurry a touch. You can set it to slow flow now, if you'd like, for a minute or so, but the coffee I've been using blooms so much that I'm afraid of making a mess. Replace the lid after you stir it up. - Wait 7ish minutes for the brew to complete, and turn the flow switch to off on the filter holder so you don't get random dribbles while you're making your coffee.
The main takeaway is, there are a LOT of removable parts, and you have to remember to open/close the flow valve in the filter holder while you're half-asleep or risk a big mess.
I do wish there was a single "brew complete" beep or buzzer in the unit -- as it stands, the thing will dribble for 10 minutes or so after brewing is complete (requiring you to manually close the flow to pour), and the open carafe design means a ton of heat is escaping if you're not babysitting the unit waiting for it to complete.
I love being completely involved in the process of making the coffee, but sometimes I'd just like to pour water in, add grounds and forget the thing, you know? As an artist and programmer, I know that you *don't* have to sacrifice utility for usability if thoughtful design is applied. I would describe this machine as extremely spartan and utilitarian, and it really could use some real interaction design love: not just a rounded, prettier column (the CD "pretty") model.
I've been hard on the design shortcomings of this machine, but the fact remains that it's still an amazing machine, warts and all. I'd buy it again, but I'm not sure I'd pay a premium ($250 for machine $20 for a permanent filter $50 for a replacement carafe that fits) for this particular model, although I knew about all the faults of the unit before I made my purchase.
Technivorm, if you're listening:
- The carafe. Seriously, replace it, or make the brewer 1/4" higher. Or place the filter holder 1/4" higher. It's a nice carafe, but the fact remains that it just doesn't belong with this brewer, and there are a crapload of easy fixes that don't involve me building a custom platform for the unit.
- Include a permanent filter in the box.
- Add a buzzer and hook it to the boiler switch to alert for brew done.
At any rate, if you like to be extremely involved in making your coffee, this is the machine for you. It's the most utilitarian machine I've ever seen, it brews at ideal temperatures, and you can very easily get to, if not remove every part in the machine that comes into contact with water or coffee. If you're an obsessive, that will make the sale.
I'm an obsessive about half the time, and I'm a guy who needs a kickstart in the morning to even put a coherent sentence together the other half of the time, and this amount of hands-on prep might annoy me or cause a fair amount of mess. Time will tell.
I got exactly the product I knew I was getting, after research, although the carafe issue bothers me to an enormous degree. If I had it to do over again, I might actually get a hotplate model (and I despise hotplates) due to the more unified design, and also the flow spring when the carafe is in place.
Buying Experience
I'll always pay a couple dollars more on equipment to support Sweet Maria's. I think the world of those guys, and they run a first-class operation. Some days I wish that someone would redesign their site so you can actually find stuff like tracking info in their huge wall of text, but I've never EVER had a complaint with their service or delivery times.
Three Month Followup
After three months, the machine is still performing admirably, although I've changed my thoughts about some of the parts.
First up, I've determined that I prefer using paper filters in the filter basket -- I've tried two separate permanent filters in the machine, and both of them flow much slower than a paper filter, and usually overflow the basket -- resulting in grounds in the pot -- if I use "golden rule" proportions of coffee, regardless of grind.
Next up: this is a messy, messy, messy machine from both preparation and pouring perspectives.
I've changed my mind about the thermal carafe that ships with the unit. It's very easy to pour the first cup, if the stopper is completely out of the carafe. With the stopper in, or tipping the carafe past the angle of the first cup, you'll experience split pours that inexplicably get as much on the counter as in your cup, no matter how cautious you are while pouring, even with an enormous cup. It seems that the harder you try to pour cleanly, the more you get on the counter. I'll be getting a nissan thermal 40oz carafe with brew-through lid this week to replace it.
The thermal carafe being too large to fit under the filter basket post-brew results in a ton of drips all over the counter. The closed position on the flow valve works great in theory, but in practice it only stops drips if there's a ton of liquid in the basket. If there's only a little post-brew moisture in the basket, it'll drip the same amount whether it's open or closed.
In the last three months, I've made about five throwaway pots due to forgetting to check the valve position when starting a pot. The basket does have a very functional overflow drain near the top -- but you end up with half the grounds in the pot in this case, and about 12oz of quad strength bitter in the filter basket as a nice surprise.
Bottom line: I loathe this carafe, and I loathe the design choice that keeps it from being under the filter basket after a brew to catch the drips, and I strongly dislike the lack of a drip tray. All of those design choices are remedied with the hotplate model, which even has a pause-n-serve spring on the filter basket, and you don't have to turn the hotplate on if you don't want to. If I had it to do over again, that's the model I'd have gotten -- even though I dislike hotplates.
Now that all of the negative stuff is out of the way: provided that you're paying very close attention during prep, and you're willing to wait 5 minutes after brew's done before you serve a single cup (to keep the drips off the counter), this thing makes fantastic, consistent coffee. It's a breeze to clean everything (fortunate, because the basket is designed such that bloom gets in and on *everything* and every part in the machine needs constant cleaning if you're picky about isolating flavors), and it's truly built like a tank. A tank with some staggeringly poor design choices made, but a tank nonetheless, and again... it makes a truly excellent cup -- but that excellence is very dependent on the operator's attention span, which may be nonexistent for that first morning cup.
I've taken points off of usability and overall since my initial review due to the filter basket and carafe design issues. It's one thing to read about how lame they are, it's another to have to totally engage your mind in the prep process at 6am, and still have a huge mess to clean up because you can't get a clean pour.
