Breville Precision Brewer Thermal Coffee Maker, 60 oz. Brushed Stainless Steel, BDC450BSS

The Breville Precision Brewer Thermal Coffee Maker is excellent! I like a very strong cup of coffee, so I was a little worried that a coffee maker that brews as quickly as this does wouldn’t turn out a strong cup. It definitely delivers. I’ve used both the My Brew and Gold settings, and I like both. Even though I like very strong coffee, I find that I don’t need to use as many scoops as the instructions tell you to. (The scoop is included.) I like that I can fit my hand inside the carafe to clean it. One thing that bothers me is that the water tank isn’t completely empty after the brew cycle, and it’s not detachable. I’d have to unplug the whole machine, and drain it into the sink every time I use it, but I don’t have time to do that every day. Also, the clock resets every time you unplug it. I like that it’s not oversized, even though it has a 60 oz. capacity. I read some reviews that said you need a tamp mat because of the vibration against your counter. Mine rests on a laminate countertop, and does not vibrate enough to necessitate a tamp mat. It’s not overly noisy. I like the signal that goes off to let you know it’s finished brewing. There are two volume settings for that, or you can turn it off. There’s no drip from the carafe’s spout after you pour your coffee, but there is a drip from under the filter basket when you remove the carafe, which is common in my experience. The instructions that come with it are very thorough and easy to understand. There’s supposed to be a test strip to test the hardness of your water. That was missing from my box, and I’m still waiting to receive it from Breville. Apparently, once you set the level of hardness of your water, the machine lets you know when it’s time to de-scale, which I think is a great feature. I appreciate that there’s no filter I have to replace regularly. Overall, I think this coffee maker is 100% worth the splurge.

Please note this review only reflects the unboxing, two pots of coffee, and trying the 1 cup mode. I am disappointed with this machine overall. Initial setting you are supposed to do a litmus-type test to determine how hard your water is and then set it accordingly. Mine did not come with the litmus like stick, so just left it at the default. Then you have to flush it. Setting this thing is done very differently than any of my prior pots, and although not terribly difficult it for sure is not intuitive either. When I did the initial flush, less than 2/3 of the water went through. It appears from the paperwork that it should have emptied the full 60 ounces of water. I ran the rest through using the fast cycle. I then set to program it so my coffee would be ready when I woke up. Again, not intuitive. You have set the basket or cone setting, somewhere in there be sure to set it to “gold cup” or fast or whatever your choice is, set the clock and finish with pushing a very small button that designates that the auto program is turned on. Once you hit this button then you can set the time for the pot to go off. Again, not intuitive, but once you get used to navigating the menus it is not hard.

Pot did go off at the right time. I didn’t realize it was still set to fast, and I assume it is because that is what I put it on the evening before to finish flushing the water. I used the recommended amount of coffee which was ground fresh when I set it up. The coffee was terrible. Now in defense of the pot, I clearly need to simply adjust how much coffee I use, as either the recommended amount was just too much or maybe just too much for the fast setting. That can be fixed though. The one positive is that it truly brewed 60 ounces in the 7 minutes or so as promised. That was awesome given I woke up too early so it started literally the minute I went to go check it. So didn’t have to wait. When brewing it flashes brewing. When finished it starts a timer counting up. 2nd pot- used less grounds and the gold cup mode. Much better. Not $300 better, but a very good cup of coffee.

The controls for this and the lcd screen all sit on the left side in the rear area. This makes it difficult to read the settings since the font is small and not located closer to the user. I keep my pot on a clear tray so it is easy enough to slide out to make it easier to read, but it is the first pot where I couldn’t get to the settings and such very easily. Odd. I am sure there is a good reason for that, but it is irritating to use as a result.

Coffee temp was fine and the carafe did hold it plenty hot enough for the hour or so we kept pouring from it. I have not used it enough yet to know if it will be consistent or perhaps have problems with temperature day in and day out. Second morning pot came out better using the Gold mode and my normal amount of grounds- but it is just an ordinary cup of coffee. Nothing that would warrant buying this pot if you are buying it for a premium cup of java. It is fast though and that might be reason enough alone to keep the pot. If you are an iced coffee maker this is a mode for that and I could see the convenience factor being useful, albeit it still takes 10 hours.

I LOVE the 1 cup mode! I was Ok with paying so much in large part for this option. I can’t stand Keurig coffee, but we keep one due to needing a quick fix at times. I made 1 mug full- now mugs are all different sizes obviously, but the one I used is 16 ounces. Since you get to measure your own ground coffee you get to decide how much to use not to mention save the money on the pods. I timed it- cold filtered water in (use the cup you will drink from to measure out what you need), grounds in the cone lined with a paper filter, setting put to the “cone” instead of the basket, and finally the “fast” setting. 31/2 minutes and I had coffee and it far exceeded anything that came out of a Keurig. Other reviewers mentioned it made a mess, consequently, I flipped over one of my bowls to use as a platform to get the mug close to the dispursement of the coffee. My FIesta mug is fairly wide on top as well, but no mess at all. I would have to do the math, but the savings on not replacing a Keurig and just pod savings alone will over time help to justify the price of this pot not to mention free up counter-space.

Now for some reason I thought when I bought this it had a grind feature. Hence, I thought I could put in whole beans and it will grind fresh for me. Wow, the disappointment- but my fault as I didn’t buy the model I thought I was buying. But hey, it is here now so giving it a try. IF it delivers amazing coffee once I figure it out ,I will just use my dedicated grinder. Not a huge deal, but I wish it had that feature.

Now that I have used it a few days I have decided to keep it. Not because it is the end-all-be-all for making coffee, but because it is wicked fast. This morning we polished off pot number 1 and decided to make a second right before leaving for work- it is so fast that this is not a problem at all.I can’t go back to a regular pot now due to how fast this thing is. I also think part of the coffee issue is straight forwrd- we normally use a bold bean, but now this pot brings out more of the different notes and I am getting more of that dark roast flavor. Too strong, so will switch to other roasts and I suspect it will then be a beautiful cup of coffee. If not, it will still be a wicked fast cup of coffee!

Es perfecta tanto para una taza como para toda una jarra. Me encantó, tiene el tamaño justo y luce genial en la cocina