I am now drinking far too much coffee.
I bought this machine to replace a dearly loved, dying Capresso machine. I got just under 3 years out of the machine, and I was reluctant to buy another for that reason. I considered the Zojirushi initially, but was put off by reports of the water tank leaking. I decided on and bought a Bonavita digital 12 cup machine from another online retailer. It failed to make hot coffee and went back. At $*** I expect the coffee to come out hot. One of the reasons I loved the Capresso was it made HOT coffee. It brewed at a high temp, and stayed hot.
After staring at many more brewers, I came back to the Zojirushi. I have other Zojirushi products and love them, so I decided it was worth a shot. With a 20% off coupon code, I got the machine for about $119, making the price hard to beat.
Well, I love it. It has all the features I wanted, and it makes great coffee. I actually get better tasting coffee, with slightly less coffee, than I did with the Capresso. And the coffee comes out HOT, and stays that way with the warmer.
It has key features that were important to me, such as a glass carafe and warmer (instead of thermal carafe), pause feature, a programmable timer, and brews at a high temp (which makes a better cup of coffee). I also wanted an auto-shut off. This brewer has all of that.
In addition to my main requirements, this brewer has some other nice features. The display actually shows you to what time you have set the timer. No pushing buttons to double check. You can SEE that you set it.
The warmer has four settings. High, med, low, and off. It also has an auto-shutoff. Turns off after an hour on high and medium. Two hours on low. You can extend the time with a long press on the warmer button. The temperature setting appears on the display. Another really nice feature. Even better, it has a timer that displays so you can see how long your coffee has left on the warmer. It beeps when it shuts off.
The brewer itself has an auto-shutoff in case you try to brew without water in the tank, etc. Really nice feature that I don't plan to try out.
When brewing is finished, the unit beeps to let you know. It's loud. That works for me with bad hearing and noisy dogs. It can be turned off, as can the warmer shut off beeps.
This maker also has the basket type filter set up, as opposed to the V-shaped cone arrangement. I think this ultimately produces a better cup of coffee. Better dispersion of water across the coffee grounds. I bought a reusable filter to go with it.
It is quiet and pretty fast. It does not chug steam or make a racket like my Capresso. That's a bit of an issue with those machines and one of the reasons I did not buy another. This brewer makes very little noise and I have yet to notice it belching steam.
It's really nice looking and easy to use. Easy to clean. Came with a nice manual. Zojirushi has really good manuals, in my experience.
Potential drawbacks:
It's pretty big. It takes up a little bit more room than my Capresso. It is taller and wider. It still fits on my counter with no problem, but you might want to check the dimensions where you plan to put it to make sure you have enough clearance. Because it is wide and tall, I don't have a lot of room to remove/replace the water tank. You want to make sure you have room to get at it.
The carafe is weirdly huge. It holds 12 cups, max, but is WAY bigger than that. I suspect that is due to the water tank and whatever is housed below that. Presumably the pump and the boiler. It may also have something to do with being able to brew iced coffee. There is a tall insert for that. So the carafe has likely grown to adjust for those factors. It's a little strange, but relatively minor. It does make the carafe a little clunky to handle. I keep bumping it on things because it is substantially larger than the Capresso pot, or other pots I have had.
The lid for the pot snaps on and off. I would have liked a hinged lid, but again, it is meant to take an ice thing for brewing iced coffee. Just another minor thing to me, but makes it a little bit more unwieldy to clean, etc. Have to take it off.
Allin all, I really love this brewer and if it hold up, I am going to be absolutely delighted. So far I am very pleased with it and would recommend it.
