Breville Precision Brewer Drip Coffee Machine BDC450BSS, Thermal Carafe
| Asin | B078RQVQF1 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 9"D x 14"W x 16"H |
| Weight | 10.63 pounds |
| Manufacturer | Breville |
Shopping Cart
Breville Precision Brewer Drip Coffee Machine BDC450BSS, Thermal Carafe
| Asin | B078RQVQF1 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 9"D x 14"W x 16"H |
| Weight | 10.63 pounds |
| Manufacturer | Breville |
Rachel M. Barnes –
I researched coffee makers for a long time before deciding to splurge on this one. My husband and I are definitely coffee snobs, so we wanted to be sure to get a machine that met our tastes and expectations. Added to that, our daughter will only drink cold brew and we did not want multiple coffee makers in the house. We are all delighted with the results and have found this to be some of the best coffee we’ve ever had.
I will share that we did encounter a problem with the machine initially. About every other pot of coffee we brewed wound up spilling over onto the counter. I assumed operator error and tried multiple ways of correcting how I was setting it up before we concluded that the top of the carafe was faulty. I contacted Breville and they mailed us a new carafe and top the same day. They could not have been nicer to deal with and stood by their product. I will buy from Breville again as I found their customer service rivaled their product results.
Tyler Friedson –
I was excited about this purchase, however, there is an issue with the water tank. Received the box on Saturday, after the initial set up etc made an excellent, cup and then pot of coffee, hot and very good! Then there was an error message that said “fill tank”. Read all the trouble shooting and tried to call customer service. No customer service on the weekend. Wiped the tank (sensor) and got it to work. However, after three calls and multiple emails with customer service on Monday (on hold for 45 mins) They told me my water is too clean. I have a whole house filter, they said it is NOT recommended to use filtered water. WHAT? My water is too clean? I don’t have an option for infiltered water… I have tried everything. Breville was no help, I will have to return the Breville Precision Brewer Drip Coffee Machine BDC450BSS, Thermal Carafe, since it doesn’t recognize my filtered water as there is water in the tank but it will not brew. It’s an intermittent issues which is all the more frustering! The thermal carafe held the coffee hot for hours, BUT I don’t want the added expense of going to buy bottled water to make my coffee. They should say that in their information. They recommend a MIX OF TAP (unfiltered) and bottled water. If this isn’t an issue for you, then you will probably be ok. However, since the tank is not removable the only way to empty it with this fill tank error, is to unplug it, move it to the sink and turn it over to spill out the coffee. FILL TANK ERROR was unresolved after a factory reset with customer service. They told me there is nothing I can do but to mix the water. BUYER BEWARE.
Shane –
Do you love coffee? Do you love drinking a lot of it? Do you want the option to fine-tune your brew? This is the coffeemaker for you.
In truth, I’ve had it for a month and haven’t messed with all the settings. I just set it to “Gold” mode and brews an amazing pot of coffee every time. Setup is not as difficult as some would have you believe (a popular review site didn’t recommend it for this reason), and once you’ve decided on the right coffee-water ratio, the gold brew mode is really all you need. I haven’t tried the Fast mode as Gold produces 60oz of coffee in less time than it took my old machine (Oxo) to make 45oz. I suspect that’s due in part to the boiler/pump, which sounds like the one Breville uses in their espresso machines. The noise seemed a bit odd at first, but hey, if they’re going to share parts to save on production costs, I’m not complaining. It’s like buying a Fiat and finding out they use engines from Ferraris.
The carafe has a wide mouth so it’s easy to clean, and the spout doesn’t dribble, unlike most of the thermal brewers I’ve owned. It keeps the coffee hot for several hours, but if you’re down to the last 10oz and it’s been 4 hours since you brewed it, you might find the temperature a bit lower than you’d prefer. The 10oz before it are still piping hot 3 hours after brewing. Blame the laws of thermodynamics, I guess.
Regarding the coffee-water ratio, I don’t know how Breville/SCAA decided on it, but it’s truly an absurd amount of grounds for the volume of coffee you want to make. Seriously, my coffee snob friend who roasts his own beans says it’s ridiculous to use 99g for 1.8L/60oz of water. I experimented with different ratios, but oddly enough, the timed presets on the Breville grinder I bought a week later seem to produce the best coffee, and they’re far less than what the coffee maker manual suggests.
The only other (minor) annoyance I can think of is the fact that it requires commercial-sized paper filters, if you’d rather not have solids in your coffee. Regular basket filters will overflow, as will the included reusable filter. Fortunately, the commercial filters are less than $.02/each on a popular website you’ve probably heard of, if you buy 1000 at a time. On the plus side, I won’t need to remember to buy more of them for 2-3 years, and it’s not like they’ll spoil before I’ve used them all.
Amazon Customer –
First thing I noticed was the packaging of the coffee machine was superb, reflecting the pride the company has in their product (a box in a box in another box!)
. The coffee maker was easy to assemble, and the directions and suggestions for brewing were easy to understand. It has a beautiful, smooth stainless steel finish.
There are a lot of options for the serious coffee lover, but I suggest you try the gold setting first. The coffee brews quickly, and stays hot in the well insulated carafe for about 2 hours. It is delicious and tastes just the same 2 hours later. I like that you can put the carafe anywhere, the coffee will still be hot and delicious an hour or two later. The carafe cleans easily with warm water and a mild dish detergent. The opening is wide enough to put an average size adult hand inside to clean. The basket comes with a cone insert for brews of less than 6 cups,. For larger brews the basket comes with a gold mesh filter or you can use a paper filter. The cone requires a cone-shaped paper filter. I recommend Melita brand. I have used this coffee maker every day for three weeks and now my favorite setting is Strong, with 6 level scoops of ground coffee, and a water level of 6 cups. I use good quality, freshly ground coffee and use the scoop that came with this coffee maker. This is the best coffee maker I have ever purchased.
Ottar –
I’ll start off by saying that I did a couple of weeks of research before purchasing this coffee maker. I watched youtube videos, read blogs, statistical data, and scoured other reviews on Amazon and other sites. I considered this machine, the Cuisinart CPO-850, and the MochaMaster Technivorm. Ultimately we went with this machine because the Cuisinart seems to have a common electronics issue and my wife wanted to be able to pre-program for auto brew in the mornings and the Technivorm can’t do that without a third party timer.
So about the machine:
It is beautiful! It is quite tall and doesn’t fit under our 16″ counter tops, but we were happy to put it out in our limited counter space where it is quite a show piece. It seems sturdily made and all of the parts are high quality. As other’s have said, not having a removable water reservoir is a bit of a pain, but not a deal breaker. The machine makes very good coffee, but that is only when we can get it to brew.
After running through the initial purging cycle and setting the hardness (we have very hard water but have a reverse osmosis water filter) I loaded the machine up with RO water and coffee and set the timer for a brew the following morning. Much to my chagrin there was no brewed coffee in the morning. I tried to manually start it and was presented with an indicator telling me to fill the already full tank…. Huh… I went through the guide book troubleshooting and cleaned the water fill sensor, replaced the water, still no brew.
I scoured the internet, the Breville product support page… nothing… The only thing I could find on Breville’s site was that they recommend using filtered water..
In one of the comments/reviews on Amazon I saw someone mention that the machine uses a charged ion sensor to determine the tank volume… that got me thinking that perhaps the Reverse Osmosis water doesn’t have enough total dissolved solids for the machine to register. I tried using our chlorinated tap water and the machine worked just fine, although the coffee it produced was not so great (we will chalk that one up to our water not being the best right out of the tap). I thought that there must be a setting to adjust to get this to work, after all, the supposedly best brewer in the world wouldn’t be so limited as to not let you use RO or distilled water for brewing. I tried mixing 1/4 tap to 3/4 RO water, but that didn’t work. I tried half and half, also didn’t work.
I wrote to Breville Support and they responded after a couple of days saying, “yes, the machine won’t work with RO or Distilled water and that they recommend using tap water” I didn’t bother writing back to say that on the product web page it specifically says they recommend using filtered water.
I have to say this blows my mind that this over-engineered system for determining water level is so fragile. We’ve had float arm switches for more than 100 years that work just fine, and if Breville had gone with something like that it would have worked fine.
I’m going to try to make up a batch of SCA approved water with TDS of 150 parts per million with baking soda and epsom salts. I have a very accurate .0001 gram scale and a TDS meter so we will see if the machine will work after I doctor the water. If I can get it to work with that I think we will keep it, as there really isn’t anything else out there that would work for our situation, but if the machine still won’t reliably read the water level after all that, it is definitely headed back.
Galactic Bard –
I’ve always used cheap $20 Mr. Coffee makers, and they’ve lasted me for many years. I only decided to replace the last one because the water chamber was getting gross from over a decade of use. I was going to buy another cheap coffee maker, and my wife convinced me to buy a nicer, higher end coffee maker, and I’m so glad I did!
It’s been a bit of a journey, as this is the third coffee maker I’ve bought. The first one was a Mr. Coffee “Optimal Brew” coffee maker that I returned because I got an obviously-used coffee maker with a broken piece and greasy fingerprints all over it. The second was a Cafe Grind and Brew, which honestly is an over-priced piece of junk that leaks all over the place due to a glaring design flaw (see my review on that machine for more). So that one got sent back as well.
I finally settled on this beauty, and I love it. It is of much higher build quality than the Mr. Coffee, which was a cheap mostly-plastic machine that I doubt would’ve lasted long, and I doubt even more that it would make better coffee than the $20 machines I’ve had in the past. It’s also much nicer build quality than the Cafe machine, which although it was nicer than the Mr. Coffee, was poorly designed and not build to last.
This machine is built to last, and it’s very thoughtfully designed. There are so many little features that make this so nice to use, and it’s obvious a lot of thought went into the design. The water chamber isn’t removable, but it’s large enough it won’t be difficult to clean. It also has markings not only in “cups” but also in ounces, which is super helpful. It also has markings for maximum fill for a single cup cold brew, cone filter brew, and max size flat-bottomed filter brew. It also comes with a reusable flat bottom filter for brews of 9-12 cups, as well as an insert to use cone filters for 1-8 cups. You can also use flat-bottomed paper filters for the 9-12 cup brews. It also came with 10 flat-bottom paper filters, which is nice because they’re larger than the ones I had for my previous 5-cup machine. The only things it doesn’t come with are paper cone filters and a reusable cone filter. The paper filters would’ve been nice, but they’re not expected, and I prefer a paper filter to the reusable filters anyway.
I love that this machine can make iced coffee and cold brew coffee, which is a really cool feature. You can only make 4 cups of coffee with those two methods, though. But 4 cups of iced coffee (which really comes out to more 2 cups of coffee minus the water you lose to the grinds) is enough for my wife and I to each have an iced coffee once you fill the glasses with ice (which you definitely want to do, as the iced coffee is brewed at double strength).
It has a clock and a timer that can be set for a future brew. It has the SCA gold standards set in, which is what I’ve been using, but you can also set up your own specifications for water flow rate, water temperature, and bloom time. Combined with a good grinder, you can really dial in your perfect cup of coffee.
It even came with a test strip to test my water hardness, so I know how to set up the machine. It has, I think, 4 different hardness levels you can set, which controls how often the machine reminds you to do a cleaning with a descaler. It’s really nice that it reminds you, as I never remembered to descale my previous machines as much as I should have. (I also used to descale with vinegar, so that tells you how much I didn’t know about coffee!) No other machine I tried came with a water test strip or way to set your water hardness in the machine.
The thermal stainless steel carafe is much nicer than the Mr. Coffee and Cafe ones were. It keeps coffee hot for hours, especially if you preheat the carafe with hot water first as recommended in the manual. My coffee is so hot it steams my glasses when I drink it! No more having to reheat my coffee in the microwave halfway through a cup.
The thermal carafe is also a game-changer compared to previous machines I had with glass carafes and a hotplate. The coffee ended up tasting nasty after an hour or so of hold time. With the thermal carafe, the last cup of coffee is just as tasty as the first. The lid of the carafe is also much better designed than the Cafe one, which would get water trapped inside you couldn’t get out, that would’ve become a breeding ground for black mold.
No this does NOT have a hotplate, because it has an insulated carafe! All those people who complain about it not having a hotplate are exposing their ignorance, as no machine with an insulated carafe has, or should have, a hot plate. If you don’t understand why, do some research, which you should be doing anyway if you’re going to bother with, and spend the money on, a more advanced coffee maker like this.
Clean up isn’t too bad with this machine either, and much easier than the Cafe machine. The Cafe had too many pieces, all of which were cheap plastic destined to break in time (as all GE products are). Yes, this machine has plastic pieces, but they are a higher-quality, thicker, denser plastic than the Cafe and Mr. Coffee machines.
This machine is much more on par with the commercial grade coffee makers I used when working in restaurants in the past. Yes, it is more expensive than the other two machines, but money spent on the Mr. Coffee and Cafe machines is wasted money, as they have low build quality and are designed to break much sooner than you’d like. This machine will last years and years, and is money very well spent if you love coffee.
Michael J. Moreno –
This will be my initial product review based on unboxing it and having tried it out once. I will update in 6 months and then a year. Let’s get the major concern some may have with this machine, the sticker shock. Yes, it is pricey. Yes, the juice is worth the squeeze on first impressions. I have owned a number of coffee makers over the years (Cuisinart, KitchenAid, most recent was a Keurig Duo Plus) so this review is in comparison to those. I decided to replace the Keurig as it was no longer making a full pot no matter how often I descale it and I am diligent on doing that. It was also leaking water, from where I could not determine, but that might explain why it would not brew a full pot despite the water tank still having plenty in it.
This coffee maker is solidly built. The thermal carafe is heavy, so it is properly insulated. The water tank is big with a big opening and clearly marked and legible water level indicators. The basket filter basket is big and easy to insert and it does not have to go in any specific way. It will click in place if you insert it straight on, sideways, maybe just not upside down. Much more solid feeling than the Keurig. It fits perfectly under my cabinets as well and despite it’s size and heft, takes up less real estate than the Keruig or any of the others I have had.
Set-up is easy, just read through the manual first, which has clear and concise instructions. Measuring your water hardness is easy as well. The dial on the front to set the time, water hardness, brew style, filter basket style, etc is easy to read and navigate. Setting up the auto-start function is also a breeze (yes, heretical as it may seem to java purists, I use this setting during the week to have my coffee ready by the time I am out of the shower and ready for my first cup while I log in to work). The Keurig was pretty much easy to use to brew coffee but set-up was not. The method to set the time was not the easiest. Setting the auto-start time was very convoluted to say the least.
Brewing coffee – I used the Gold setting as that is the express purpose of this machine and other top-tier machines, brewing coffee according to SCA standards. We use Farmers Brothers coffee as that is what most restaurants in our area use and we like the taste of that particular coffee (again, java purists will be mortified, but like with wine or beer, drink what you like). While the coffee in our previous makers was good, it never achieved that restaurant flavor (most restaurants use the Bunn coffee brewers and while I have not seen them indicate they brew to SCA standards, the quality of their brew is pretty dang good). With the Breville, the taste matched what I taste from this brand of coffee at restaurants. It was delicious! And it was hot! With the Keurig, I would have to microwave my creamer to warm it up, otherwise the coffee would cool down too much. Not with the Breville. Furthermore, I drink a cup at home and on the days I have to go to the office, I pack a cup to go in a Contigo cup. With the Keurig, when I got too work, about a 20 min ride, the coffee would be warm but not hot. Today, I arrived at the office and the coffee was still hot. And still as tasty as the first cup I had at home.
First impressions are important and the Breville has made a good, strong first impression. Time will tell if it can maintain the lofty standard it set but I will update review.
If you are on the fence. buy it. The juice is worth the squeeze.
LaneM –
idateacher2 –
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!
The Dawg –
Yes, this is an expensive coffee maker. Yes, it is worth the pricetag. This is going to be lengthy review, but I really had to dig deep to decide to spend $300 on a coffee maker and wanted to weigh my options with you. For me, I only seriously considered 3 makers: the Breville (which I bought), the Technivorm Moccamaster, and the Bona Vita.
I love coffee, and several other makers (french press, espresso machine, etc.) this is hands down the best maker. I had gotten really mad with drip brew makers over the years. I had 2 Mr. Coffee in college, since have used two different Cuisinart makers. This maker has restored my faith in good drip-brew coffee. I recommend 2 different sources to help you shop for a coffee maker. James Hoffman on YouTube did a review of this maker that really persuaded me to get this particular maker. America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Country Gearheads reviewed their coffee makers (although a year or so before this particular product was launched). Between those 2 sources I was in between the Technivorm Mocca and the Breville Precision Brewer. The America’s Test Kitchen Review of drip brew coffee makers is what inspired me to look at a higher end product, as they identified so many of my issues with previous makers that I have used. America’s Test Kitchen also cited the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) and their “Golden Cup” standards for a good cup of coffee, these include consistency of temperature of brew water and ground coffee to water ratios. My big issue with the Mr. Coffee and Cuisinart products is that they just do not hold enough grounds to make a great pot of coffee (our Cuisinarts had to be loaded lightly to avoid having the grounds spill over into the pot and water tank). America’s Test Kitchen identified the ground capacity along with water temperature issues as a key in making a consistently good cup of coffee. Again, even though they did not review this specific coffee maker, the details of their segment on this helped me with the decision process, especially pointing me towards the SCAA Golden Cup info.
Without getting into a deep comparison, here is why I chose the Breville over the Technivorm and Bona Vita. The primary factor was the volume of brewed coffee. The Moccamaster and Bona Vita make 40oz of coffee. I live by myself now, and 40oz is a perfect amount for me, but should I have guests over, 40oz could go pretty quick, and who have to make multiple pots of coffee… The Breville will make up to 60oz at a time and has the option to make less coffee that is still of high quality for 40oz. So this was the biggest draw for me. I personally drink 2-3 12-14 oz cups a morning, so any of these makers would be enough, but I wanted the extra capacity. I mentioned that Breville has an option to make more volume of coffee or less. This is achieved with a cone filter insert (that is included) that fits a standard #4 cone filter paper. Breville recommends this insert for 40oz (8 cups) or less of coffee, and you simply remove the cone filter holder insert and use either the included gold mesh basket filter or large basket filters.
Breville also offered an option that the Moccamaster did not (unsure of BonaVita) and that was the option to do a delayed brew, I can load the grounds before bed and wake to freshly brewed coffee (I have used this feature once, but it is nice). The Breville adds a little more options and customization to the mix compared to the Technivorm. The Breville offers 5 preset brew options: FAST, GOLD, STRONG, OVER ICE, COLD BREW. It also offers the option to tweak and adjust and create a personalized brew setting manually adjusting temperature, speed of brew, soak time, etc. The GOLD Brew Setting meets the parameters set forth by the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America), the Technivorm meets these standards as well. The Technivorm has an on/off switch. The friend who owns one has attached a timer to the machine so he can load it at bedtime.
Having had hands on both the Technivorm and the Breville, there is a good build quality on both products, neither feels cheap. The Technivorm is more solid, and I would expect that it will last much longer due to the simplicity and quality. The warranty is also better for the Technivorm. Ultimately the ability to adjust the settings and the 20oz of extra brew capacity sold me on the Breville.
I have had this product for a month and a half and still love it. I don’t think that I will ever be able to go back to a cheap coffee maker. I have used this with my favorite variety, some local varieties, but I have also used my favorite cheap coffee (Wholefoods 365 Pacific Rim $11 for 1.5lbs). This really does elevate coffee. I previously had only used the hot plate and glass carafe brewers, and I do think the insulated carafe helps significantly.
Bottom line: do you spend $300 on this coffee maker? Yes, if you drink and use your coffee maker almost daily, I think that this is worth the investment. Especially if you are a bit of a coffee snob. If you simply want coffee to taste warm and brown or use Folgers, I would look at a less expensive machine. If you do not need timed brew, and more than 40oz capacity, I would choose the Technivorm over this product. If you just cannot spend 300 on a brewer, the Bona Vita is good option.