Customer Reviews

Zojirushi EC-BD15BAFresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker

5 star:		(438)
4 star:		(241)
3 star:		(102)
2 star:		(96)
1 star:		(163)

 

 

I've spent several weeks week getting to know the Zojirushi Fresh Brew... and for the most part, I'm quite pleased. It has some foibles [which I'll get to in a moment] but on the whole it's a very capable coffee brewer. More, it's one of the very few home models I know that can brew 8 cups of just-roasted coffee at a proper 2 tablespoons per cup ratio without fuss, and - this is important! - maintain proper brewing temperatures throughout the entire brew cycle.

The details...

Zoji has been making vacuum pots and the like for nearly 100 years, and they've been making an assortment of rice-cookers, tea brewers and hot water dispensers for decades. While this is, I believe, their first home coffee brewer, they've got more than a little experience in kitchen electrics. They've put that experience to good use.

If you've ever brewed up a thermos full of coffee using a big Melitta filter cone then this setup will look pretty familiar. For all intents and purposes, the Fresh Brew simply adds an automated hot water delivery system to the mix... with a few improvements.

Improvement number one: not only does this system brew into an all-stainless thermal carafe [no hot plate here, thankyouverymuch] but it also insulates the brew basket. What good is it, after all, to heat up all that water if it's just going to get cold while you're brewing? This is huge! This is important! This is... well, I'm excited about it, okay?

Improvement number two: the Fresh Brew features an accurate gauge of water volume. When it reads that you've got 8 cups of water in the brewer's reservoir, it means it. Mind you, we're talking 6 oz. cups of water -- that's the way the coffee world measures a cup [unless you're Bodum and then it's 4 oz.].

Improvement number three: the Fresh Brew is patient. The biggest pain about the manual pour-over method is that you've got to wait to add more water, especially if the coffee is really fresh. Fresh coffee blooms with its charge of CO2! Faced with a full basket of coffee that was literally fresh from the roaster the Zoji didn't overflow, nor did it heave grounds into the water dispensing shower-head. More, the grounds were thoroughly saturated; no dry spots.

So where's the foibles?

Like a great many autodrip brewers the feeder tube that comes from the Zoji's heating element to the shower-head takes a straight path right through the water reservoir. For most brewers this is a game-over situation... the heating element simply can't overcome the heat exchange that occurs en route to the brew-head. On the Zoji, the heating element *does* get hot enough... provided that the water you've placed in the reservoir is not *too* cold.

Example A: In the office using the "unchilled" spigot on the water cooler, I draw off 48 ounces of water for the reservoir and brew a pot. Throughout the brew cycle water temperatures in the brew basket range between 195 and 200 degrees F. The result is a lovely pot of Ethiopian Yrgacheffe that is sweet, floral and lemony.

Example B: At home I draw off 48 ounces of water from the water filter in-line with the refridgerator. The temperature of the water in the reservoir is about 40 degrees F. and the resulting temperature in the brew basket never tops 185 degrees F. The result is an icky pot of the very same Yrgacheffe that is bitter, murky and flat.

The moral: mind your initial water temperature and you'll do just fine.

All in all, the Zojirushi Fresh Brew is capable of making 8 cups of coffee that's on a par with manual pourover methods. Better, really, as it insulates the brew-basket to better maintain water temperatures.

We purchased this machine last month, after much research, to replace a 6 year-old Cuisinart basic model. We were looking for a well-made thermal carafe machine at a reasonable price. We found it!

We can't find enough good things to say about it! Of course it is very stylish looking and it fits nicely on our counter under our standard size cabinets. Yes, you have to move it out to fill the water chamber and basket, but big deal! I can do that!

It is extermely easy to program with just enough controls to make sense.

It makes good hot coffee that stays nice and hot for a good while. While it may not keep it scorching hot like a model with a hot plate, which also continues to cook and burn your coffee, it is definitely hot enough! We made some coffee one morning and didn't finish it. We purposely left it in the pot while we were gone and upon returning home at 5 pm, the coffee was still amazingly warm. It was not hot enough to want to drink it, but we were amazed at the heat it had retained.

We think this model is extermely easy to clean and doesn't have lots of parts that look as though they might break. Not only does the basket where you place your filter and grounds come out, but so does the container which holds the basket. It lifts up and you can rinse it out. The slots that hold this container also have holes in the bottom so junk doesn't collect. The lid on the carafe works easily and the secondary lid is nice too.

We also think this machine makes the coffee extremely quickly!

We have seen absolutely no leakage problems or overflow troubles. And for sure this model can use the standard #4 cone filters. I called the maker before purchasing it to make sure. It sticks up a hair over the edge of the basket, but it has made no difference and has caused no problems.

Overall, this is a great buy so far! We went back and forth on which model to buy and finally decided on this one. We love it!

I was looking for a coffee maker with a large capacity, unbreakable carafe, auto-shut-off, pause-and-serve, and a programmable timer. I found everything I wanted
with this Zoji.

It has a stylish, brushed stainless carafe that stays cool to the touch and has no breakable glass liner like some carafes have. The base has an easy to read water-level display, with markings up to 10 cups, but it has a larger capacity than my old 10 cup Braun. It also has a cute little elephant on it!

The 1.5 liters works out to approx. 51 ounces, or just over 6 (8-ounce) cups. My old "10 cup" coffee maker held about 5 8-ounce cups. I never have quite figured out what counts as a "cup" in coffee terms, but it seems to vary between 4 and 6 ounces.

This is a pretty tall (15 inches) coffee maker, and you have to lift the lid to add the coffee and the water. Since steam comes out of the top, I pull it out from under the cabinet when it's running. If you have shallow counters, this could be a little tricky.

The only down side, in my opinion, is that it uses the hard-to-find #3 filters. I've gotten around it by cutting about 1 inch off the top of my #4s. I also had a little trouble getting the lid off the carafe when I screwed it on too tight - I had to put a towel over it to get a good grip. Those minor details aren't enough to cost it a star, though.

I'm not sure how long coffee stays hot in this carafe, because we drink so much coffee around here it doesn't stay in there very long. I did sleep in one morning, though, and the coffee that was automatically made at 6:15 was still hot at 7:30.

Overall, I am extremely happy with this coffee maker. I have hot coffee ready for me whenever I get up in the morning, and I never have to wonder whether I forgot to shut it off when I leave the house.

I really wanted this machine to work - nice design, good features, good price.

The first one I got had the little carafe cap broken. Not a big deal, I emailed the company and they promised to send me another one. About a week later, the unit simply stopped brewing. I called the support line for troubleshooting and they told me to send the unit back for replacement.

I sent it back and Amazon shipped another one out promptly. Everything was fine the first day, but when I picked up the carafe the next day, the bottom came right off in my hand exposing the innards of the seal mechanism for the thermos. The spot welds all along the rim hadn't taken and the carafe literally came apart in my hands.

Again I called the company asking if this was normal. Again they told me to return it and "give them one more chance". So I tried to - like I say, I really wanted this machine to work.

Unfortunately the response I got from Amazon was:

"As it seems that the problem with this item is more widespread
than we originally thought, we are not able to send another
replacement."

Probably just as well, after going through 2 units in under 2 weeks, the chances of the third one lasting anywhere near as long as I'd want it to are about nil.

So you can roll the dice and perhaps get yourself a good one - I did it twice and unfortunately got 2 lemons in a row.

Buyer beware.

(I never did get the replacement cap from the first one. When I called about that, the rep I spoke to told me that they get so many calls that it's impossible for them to follow up on each one to make sure it was resolved. I can see why they're overwhelmed with support calls and it's even more disturbing that customer service lets things slip through the cracks like this...)

(about a month later)
I replaced this with a Braun KF600... the choice is obvious having had both machines: the Braun is simply a better designed and better constructed machine for about the same price. Save yourself the hassle and buy it instead. It takes up less counter space, has a gold cone filter instead of the ill-fitting #4 paper filters, there's no twist cap on the carafe to fight with...
To be fair, it doesn't have a timer. Not a big deal for me.

I have owned A LOT of coffeemakers over the course of my 50 years (alright I didn't own many the first 15 years or so,) and I even sold them back in 2000 when I worked in the housewares department of my local Filene's department store. As I stated in the title of this review, I believe that the Zojirushi Fresh Brew is better than any of those other brands; not because it has more bells and whistles (it doesn't), not because it's better looking (it is), but because it makes the best cup of coffee I have ever had.

The unit heats the water to a near perfect brewing temperature of 185 to 190 degress. The brew time is also just about ideal; it brews a 50 ounce carafe in 9 1/2 minutes (Zojirushi calls it a 10 cup carafe, I call it 2 1/2 cups, but I use a 20oz mug). The coffee comes out nice and hot, and neither too weak from too short a brewing time, nor scalded from too long a brewing time.

The Fresh Brew uses either #4 paper filters or a #4 gold filter. The original design used a #3 filter, and the filter holder is a little small for a #4. If you moisten the filter (as you really ought to anyway) before putting it in the holder, it fits perfectly. I've tried brewing coffee in this machine with both a gold filter and an unbleached paper filter; personally I prefer the coffee brewed with the paper filter (the gold filter allows more particulates to get into the coffee).

To get the best cup of coffee possible, you will want to grind your coffee finer than you probably have been. I have found that one step up from Espresso gind gives me the best flavour. Also, the single biggest reason people get a bad cup of coffee out of any coffee maker is that they don't use enough coffee. In this machine, I use 1 3/4 scoops of coffee for every 6 oz of water, so for a full pot I use 14 scoops.

On other machines I've owned (Krups and DeLonghi in particular), the water reservoir was so long and narrow, that it was difficult to fill it without flooding the counter top. Not so with the Zojirushi, the reservoir has a nice, wide, opening.

Also, unlike some other coffee makers, the thermal carafe of the Fresh Brew has a pouring spout, so the coffee goes in your cup/mug, not all over the counter. The carafe itself is an insulated, double-walled, stainless steel, thermal carafe. Absolutely no heat is transmitted to the outer surface of the carafe, which of course means your coffee stays hotter. Also, since it is a thermal carafe, there is no heating element in the base of the Fresh Brew. This means that there is no chance of the coffee being "burned" from sitting on a heating pad for too long. Don't leave the carafe on the Fresh Brew if you plan to leave coffee in it for any length of time. The carrafe has a top which you can put on, closing the opening where the coffee runs into the carafe. Sealed like that, the coffee will stay hot and fresh all day, but the top prevents the carafe from sitting on the coffee maker.

As for the bells and whistles, the Zojirushi only has a digital clock and a programmable auto brew feature.

On top of everything else, the Zojirushi sells for about half to two-thirds the suggested retail price of the other brands. How can you go wrong? With the Zojirushi Fresh Brew, you get the best possible cup of coffee (in my opinion) for about half the price of other coffee makers.

We've been searching for months for a quality thermal coffee maker. They all have had their problems, as you see in the reviews of many of the other machines.

We finally decided on this one, and we love it. It is so easy to use, and it doesn't suffer from the problems that we experienced with other ones (overflowing, poor pouring, doesn't stay hot, etc). I don't know why there aren't any other good ones on the market that we could find.

It brews 10 cups, makes great coffee, keeps it hot much longer than any of the other thermal machines we've tried, and uses less coffee to make the same strength cup.

You'll read some of the other reviews about how the #4 filter doesn't fit. That's not even a problem. The filters are just a tiny bit too big, and it's no big deal. It works just fine and we do not even consider it an invconvenience. You don't have to fold the filter as some others suggest. You just hold the filter in place when you swing the arm back.

This is a very good machine. When you consider the alternatives (of which we have not found any), this is an exceptional machine.

I have never written a review in my life, but for this product I have to. I had been looking for the "perfect" coffee maker, I wanted it to be fast, hot, and smooth. I wanted a stainless thermal carafe with staying power and a large capacity. Well,. . . I found it !!!

This coffee maker is fast, the coffee is hot and smooth. The thermal carafe holds plenty, and I just had some, 2 1/2 hours old, still hot ( with cold 1/2 & 1/2 added )!!!

There is no spilling when you pour, and no overflow when you brew. Because of the higher brew temperature, my coffee has more flavor with the same amount of coffee that I normally use.

I bought a universal #4 Gold Filter at Williams Sonoma, it fits perfectly.

There was a small problem with the shipping, not Amazon's fault, but Amazon adjucated it quickly and fairly.

In conclusion, buy this coffee maker, and buy it from Amazon.

5 Stars for both !!!

You simply cannot go wrong with this one. Trust the reviews... this isn't a trick. After much research, I decided on this coffee maker, purchased from Costco online for 62.99 plus tax and shipping. Best thing I could have done with $75.88! Got the Swiss Gold Coffee Cone Filter #4 (KF4) and Krups Fast Touch beangrinder too. Makes a helluva cup of coffee.

I am confident that my setup can take the pepsi challenge with virtually anything else out there in the same price range.

This was a great find, thanks Amazon!

When we bought our first one a couple of years ago, I picked it because it was one of the few carafe coffee makers with a timer function. I'm now buying a second one because my parents liked it and were disappointed with the similar unit they got from Krups.

The basics:

1) The carafe approach to keeping warm coffee available is definitely the way to go. The "burner plate" approach is aptly named. Continually cooking your coffee to keep it warm just burns off all the good flavors and leaves you an acrid swill that you've got to be desperate for "something like coffee" to drink.

2) The timer function is the way to go for a morning cup. Set it to go off with your alarm clock, and you have the sound and aroma of fresh brewing coffee to help get you up out of bed.

The Specifics to this unit:

The upside:

1) The carafe works wonderfully. My parents first tried a Gevalia unit and then a Krups. The Gevalia carafe leaked (badly) within a month. Dad likes his coffee hot, and Krups carafe cools off the hot coffee too much. I guess he could warm the carafe with hot water before brewing his coffee, but then what's the point of having an automatic timer? Also, the Krups carafe has a very wide spout which spills a lot. Their Krups works like new, but they asked me to buy them one like mine because they are fed up with these issues.

2) The pause and serve mechanism works very well, and gives every indication of extreme longevity. Mine is a couple of years old and no problems yet.

3) 10 cup capacity and "bubble sight column" is very easy to read, if you want fewer cups.

4) Oh, back to the carafe, it does NOT cool the coffee down a lot (a common complaint with carafes) and yet it keeps coffee warm for a long time.

The downside: These are not nearly enough to knock a star off the score, especially after seeing the "competitive" units other brands offer.

1) The brewing basket isn't exactly suited to a size 4 filter. I used to buy size 4 and trim the whole batch when I got them home. Now I don't even bother. I just make sure the bottom of a no. 4 filter is pushed firmly down into the bottom of the basket before adding the coffee grounds. The top of the no. 4 filter is about a quarter of an inch too long, but so what? I just close the top which folds/bends the excess filter down a little bit. This does not prevent the top from closing properly and does not affect the brewing whatsoever. Don't overreact to this "problem" and it's not a problem.

2) The pour spout pours a little slow. Make sure the dot on the lid is aligned with the dot on the spout (would be nice if the dots were another color than black, as it took my wife a few weeks to even notice there WERE dots...) and you'll get your coffee plenty fast.

3) The narrow neck on the carafe makes it difficult to clean out the inside. You'll need a long bottle brush or something to scrub the inside.

That's all I can think of on the downside. Minor details, if you ask me. I really recommend this coffee maker. If ours breaks, I'll be back to buy a third one!

The design of the carafe on this maker is good; the mouth is a bit wider than most, but you will still need a bottle brush to really clean it. There is even a secondary carafe lid to prevent air from entering the carafe after you have brewed a pot.

I bought mine at Costco for less than Amazon, and the latest revision of this model (Model EC-BD15BA) states that you can use the readily available #4 cone filters. I think Zojirushi realized that #4 filters are easily found for the American market.

The unit is easy to program for timed brewing, and the water level indicator is easy to read.