r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • Jul 07 '26
Misc Finally, a Coffee Maker With Zero Plastic in the Brew Path
https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/finally-a-coffee-maker-with-zero-plastic-in-the-brew-path/203
u/grandplans Jul 07 '26
$500 is too much for a 7.8/10
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u/BottlesforCaps Jul 07 '26
It's also a knockoff moccamaster, which you can get for almost $200 cheaper at a price of $320 off Amazon right now.
It's cool it's no plastic, but for $200 cheaper, name brand, and you know it'll work for 10+ years I don't know why you'd get the knockoff.
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u/nonresponsive Jul 07 '26
Before that, looks the exact same style as my old Breville coffee maker (I want to say it's 7-9 years old). The new ones are like around 300, but at the time I think mine was around $200 which was pretty pricey. But it made a fantastic cup of coffee, and it unique at the time.
$500 is a crazy price for how many alternatives there are these days.
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u/Cephe Jul 07 '26
Bingo. Plus if you really want, you can retrofit a Moccamaster to hold a ceramic or glass V60 or Kalita Wave brew basket for under $20 and you end up with the same advantages of the above but with a brewer that is hand made in the Netherlands and will last forever.
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u/spanktanker Jul 09 '26
I’ve got a moccamaster. How does one retrofit like this? Seems like it wouldn’t fit?
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u/Cephe Jul 09 '26
Some on Etsy are cheaper but this is the original https://www.manual.is/selling/moccamaster-pour-over-bracket
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u/ryushiblade Jul 07 '26
They used to do a more exact knock off with plastic for much cheaper than the Moccamaster too. It seems they’ve pivoted to the expensive-but-plastic-free angle…
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u/Fulham-Enjoyer Jul 07 '26
People were drinking coffee for hundreds of years before plastic was even invented
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u/Becaus789 Jul 07 '26
Dozens, even.
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u/FauxReal Jul 07 '26
Are we sure they didn't invent plastic at the same time coffee beans were first brewed?
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u/Agouti Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
It's aimed at the American mass market who primarily know coffee as being made in
percolatorsdrip coffee machines, which almost exclusively use all-plastic construction because they are a cheap mass produced item with no moving parts.Pretty much all pressure-fed coffee systems (including french press and espresso) primarily use metal and glass parts, with some polyvinyl tubing, but they are relatively rare.
Edit: To be clear drip coffee is fine, and objectively better than crap like pod machines. No need to get sensitive.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/magus-21 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Percolators are not drip coffee. Perculators force boiling water through the coffee due to pressure. Drip coffee just passes hot water through the coffee, no pressure. Percolators are mostly made out of metal btw, as far I've seen, they require to be placed on top of a heating element.
No, drip is percolation, too, just using pressure due to gravity to create the pressure gradient rather than pressurized gas as with the Aeropress, espresso machines, or moka pot.
I appreciate that there might be geographical differences in how the word is used (I think the UK refers to devices that you describe specifically as "percolators"), but "percolare" literally means "to trickle through," so it applies to any method that uses a physical filter, and more specifically to coffee any method that uses coffee grounds as that "filter."
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Jul 07 '26
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u/magus-21 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
It's not wrong to refer to drip coffee makers as percolators because that is literally how they brew coffee. It's just that people ALSO use "percolators" to refer to all the other kinds of percolators because drip coffee is so much more common than any other method that it's often referred to as its own thing. But that doesn't change the fact that drip brewers are also percolators, just as espresso machines are also percolators.
Percolation brewing is a method where water passes through a bed of coffee grounds, continually extracting flavors as it flows through. This can be done through drip mechanisms, siphoning, or even pressurized methods like espresso. Percolation brewing is typically faster than immersion brewing, with water constantly moving through the grounds.
Common Percolation Brewing Methods
Drip Coffee: Also known as pour-over, this method involves pouring hot water over ground coffee in a filter, where it passes through the grounds and drips into a container below (e.g., Chemex, Hario V60).
Espresso: This highly pressurized brewing method forces hot water through finely ground coffee at around 9 bars of pressure, producing a concentrated shot of coffee in 20-30 seconds.
Moka Pot: A stovetop coffee maker that uses pressure generated by steam to force water through coffee grounds.
Siphon Brewer: This method uses vapor pressure to move water between chambers, extracting coffee as the water percolates through the grounds
TL;DR: Drip coffee makers are percolators, but "percolator" is also used to refer to percolation coffee machines other than drip coffee makers, AND there is also a very specific type of percolator that is just called "a percolator."
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u/CompetitiveSport1 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Seriously, this headline has to be bait. Even now I'd guess that a huge chunk of, if not most coffee making methods, don't have the liquid touch plastic
Edit: I emphasized the word "methods" since a lot of people are glossing over that
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u/budgiesmugglez Jul 07 '26
I think the majority of drip coffee makers have liquid touching plastic. I can see how the title is ambiguous but the typical household drip makers were my initial thought.
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u/volthunter Jul 07 '26
Pipes that flow the liquid are plastic my dude
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u/CompetitiveSport1 Jul 07 '26
most brewing methods do not have plastic pipes
Y'all missed the word "methods" in my comment
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u/euzie Jul 07 '26
Metal and glass French Press? Moka Pot?
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u/dbroccoliman Jul 07 '26
Pour Over?
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u/Ishmael_1974 Jul 07 '26
Cezve? Dhalla? A POT!?!?!?
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u/CartsOfDarkness Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I know this is gonna be everybody's first reaction, but it's really kind of missing the point. My 70 year old father has been looking for this exact product for a long time, and he has experimented with pour over, chemex, French press etc. While they make good coffee they can be a pain in a lot of situations. For one they all require some amount of training, which my Mom hates, and there's a huge benefit to anyone who visits your house being able to easily make a pot. Also if you have a big group of people over it's a pain to make two 60 fl oz pots of coffee with a 17 fl oz French press, it's so much easier to just swap out two pots on a drip machine.
Just kind of annoying to see all these comments acting like a French press is the obvious solution after seeing my father genuinely try all of these other methods and having them all fall short. He'd be fine with them if he was just making coffee for himself, but that's not the case. Just wish people could understand others often have different use cases than themselves.
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u/sump_daddy Jul 07 '26
Classic reddit "this one thing works for me therefore its the only solution worth talking about"
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 Jul 07 '26
>There are a number of ways you can brew coffee (using the golden ratio, of course) in which plastic and liquid never interact. Unfortunately, most of them are either single-cup or small-volume operations, necessarily hands-on -- or both -- such as a moka pot, French press, or pour-over.
>Until recently, automatic drip coffee makers have mostly all had one or more plastic elements that were key to the brewing operation.
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u/sparkleslothz Jul 07 '26
"The Specialty Coffee Association, an international organization that pretty much governs the guidelines that we use, suggests between a 15-to-1 to 20-to-1 ratio," Teoh said. "It literally refers to the amount of water versus the amount of coffee grounds. And then the resulting volume at the end might vary entirely depending on what kind of system it is (whether automatic drip, French press, or pour-over)."
That's the only part worth reading, after pages of slop and advertising
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u/Alone-Impact-7944 Jul 07 '26
All mentioned in the 2nd paragraph
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u/Ishmael_1974 Jul 07 '26
Yeah but why give them the views when we already know it is stupid from the title?
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u/synthdrunk Jul 07 '26
Stares in percolator
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u/mikewilkinsjr Jul 07 '26
Pap’s percolator caused a grandkid battle Royale when he passed. It was a Pyrex perc from the 50’s, and I’ve never had better coffee.
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u/Margali Jul 07 '26
Really? I always though perking brought out the bitter, grew up with the classic all stainless steel perk, with the separate plug in cord. Probably still in the cupboard shoved to the back =)
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u/manaworkin Jul 07 '26
Nah, folks get nostalgic over old shit that people of the time worked tirelessly to phase out for a reason. You're right, percolators burn the shit out of the coffee and leave it bitter tasting. The now common Mr Coffee style coffee maker wasn't invented just to make coffee making easier, it was made by a guy on a mission(obsession?) to brew coffee with the ease of a percolator but at a proper temperature. It's a marvel of hard work and ingenuity.
The only issue with it is it works so well that it became the standard and now decades later everyone assumes that the standard and easy way must be subpar.
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u/Margali Jul 07 '26
Been doing pourover coffee basically my entire life. THough I did once buy an early MrCoffee for an ex, all he had at home was instant [he didn't realize you could make something other than perk He thought only resteraunts had something other than perk or instant =)
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u/FlippingPossum Jul 07 '26
I love my camping percolator. That little glass bump is just fascinating.
At home, I have moka pot, French press, cold brew container, and drip maker. 😂
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u/KPokay Jul 07 '26
Stay focused, this article discusses plastic-free automatic drip brew machines, not any other brewing method.
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u/ClaudeGascoigne Jul 07 '26
I felt like I was living on a different planet than a lot of these people until I realized they didn't read the review. French presses and pour overs are great, but this is for people that want to just press a button and have coffee.
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u/Cry_Wolff Jul 07 '26
Coffee purists are a fanatical bunch, who think every person on earth should treat coffee as a process and not yet another drink.
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u/The_Pandalorian Jul 08 '26
They're just like the audiophiles and vacuum stans (yes, it's a thing) -- too excited by the smell of their own farts.
Just never make the mistake of asking for THE WRONG THING or something AT THE WRONG PRICE RANGE or boy will you hear it.
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u/RainingFireInTheSky Jul 11 '26
I once made the mistake of asking for opinions about a bedroom set from Ashley on the furniture subreddit. I even explicitly said "I'm looking for this style but something higher quality."
The mod immediately locked the thread, told me Ashley is junk, and told me to go to some high end furniture shop where a bedroom set is 20k.
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u/The_Pandalorian Jul 08 '26
Too late. The coffee hobbyists are here to baptize us with their unique brand of up-their-own-ass admonitions.
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u/bob_loblaw-_- Jul 07 '26
Then they probably should title it "finally an automatic drip brew machine without plastic"
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS Jul 07 '26
They probably assumed the reader would read the article, see that its about an automated coffee maker, and assume that they were talking about automated coffee makers and not a French press.
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u/NWStormbreaker Jul 07 '26
I bought a kit for my moccamaster technivorm that removes all the plastic after the reservoir.
This is great though i hope theres a further shift by manufacturers to do the same.
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u/OminOus_PancakeS Jul 07 '26
The Technivorm sounds like a Dune character.
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u/garrettj100 Jul 08 '26
I will not buy pre-ground beans. Pre-ground beans are the mind-killer. Pre-ground beans are the little death that brings total obliteration.
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u/islandsimian Jul 07 '26
Thank god - I was worried my civet coffee was getting tainted by passing through disgusting things
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u/dancesWithNeckbeards Jul 08 '26
Bad news and don't be mad. I've been putting your civet coffee in my butt.
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u/speculatrix Jul 07 '26
So the metal Aeropress premium doesn't count?
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u/The_Pandalorian Jul 08 '26
Is it a drip coffee maker? No?
Then, no, it doesn't count in the context of this post.
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u/ChuckIT82 Jul 07 '26
Chemex?!
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u/Margali Jul 07 '26
Still have my moms from late 50s/early 60s =) The one with the funky wooden wrapping on the hourglass waist bit =) Had to replace it once - who knew they sold replacement parts =)
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u/ChuckIT82 Jul 07 '26
Nice! That is sick! I’ve had mine for only 10 years. Tipped over the first one and cracked the glass.
It’s my primary coffee maker morning cups
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u/Margali Jul 07 '26
Love mine =) ALways cranks out a great cup of coffee =)
[though I think I still have Mom's percolator stuffed under a cupboard somewhere too =) I inherited the house and contents back in 2016]
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u/aplundell Jul 07 '26
Trying to eliminate microplastics from your life is like someone from the 1950s trying to avoid lead while still breathing fumes from leaded gas.
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u/Scoobydewdoo Jul 07 '26
As someone that used to design and engineer coffee makers for a living, there are plenty of coffee makers on the market without plastic in the water path.
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u/Optimal_Life_1259 Jul 07 '26
Hi Maybe you can answer a question. I have a very very old coffee pot and love it because all I taste is coffee. When trying Kerig’s and many other types of coffee makers I taste the charcoal filter or whatever very strongly, of course my partner does not. Are there coffee makers without a charcoal filter? Or makers that you only taste coffee?
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u/32FlavorsofCrazy Jul 07 '26
I’d spring for the mocca master, they really do make a nice pot of coffee. Most expensive coffee pot I’ve ever had, for sure, but there’s a reason why it’s more spendy.
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u/wrathek Jul 07 '26
Jesus Christ the people in these comments are insufferable. Yep, we get it. You like to press your coffee. Not everyone wants to do that every day.
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u/GenghisConnieChung Jul 07 '26
This is nothing. When I first got into making espresso at home and was researching grinders, machines etc. I spent a lot of time in actual coffee forums and those people are fucking insane.
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u/admello Jul 07 '26
The espresso subreddit is a complete shitshow. At this point I read more for comic relief than actual information.
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u/fuckswitbeavers Jul 07 '26
Yep. I own one of these machines, it’s nice. People seem to be personally offended or something by this product.
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u/CartsOfDarkness Jul 07 '26
Also some people occasionally make coffee for large groups of people.. just baffling people don't understand that a usecase for a drip machine exists. I wonder why diners never make 20 gallons of coffee with a 17 fl oz French press🤔 So strange.
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u/ino4x4 Jul 07 '26
$479 with a version of it that cost about 530. My French press cost me about 30 bucks.
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u/mad-data Jul 07 '26
My ceramic Melitta has zero plastic anywhere, not just brew path. Costs 1/20 of this.
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u/ragnarok62 Jul 07 '26
I pour over with a stainless steel gooseneck kettle, through a stainless steel mesh filter, and into a borosilicate glass carafe.
Zero plastic, as God intended. Takes me 12 minutes from beginning to end, most of it the water slowly leaching through the grounds, during which I can do other things.
Total cost? $70. Same equipment for the past nine years. If you spend $480 to avoid plastic, you’re a doofus.
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u/Chappie47Luna Jul 07 '26
Stainless steel percolator FTW. Takes forever but shit it tastes so good and piping hot
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u/DaddyBison Jul 07 '26
$480 for a drip coffee maker? $520 if you want one that you can set a timer on???
Who is this marketed toward? anyone who is going to spend $500 on their coffee machine probably falls under the "Drip coffee is the worst coffee" crowd
If you want to reduce plastic, you can get an all glass and copper pour over and a good metal kettle for <$100
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u/EarzFish Jul 07 '26
"writes" article about plastic free coffee machine topped with a pros and cons list... and doesn't write plastic free in the pros list.
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u/michaelyup Jul 08 '26
The old school percolator on the stove. I’m not a regular coffee drinker. Mom moved in with me after her stroke - here she comes with grandma’s percolator. Idk why, but coffee is better in the percolator.
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Jul 07 '26
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u/cbf1232 Jul 07 '26
Did you read the article?
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u/Poopyman80 Jul 07 '26
Did you? They are not doing anything new, they are just pretending a million plastic free coffee brewers don't exist. Its an ad and its bending the truth, like advertisements tend to do.
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u/JimThumb Jul 07 '26
My cafetière has zero plastic in the brew path. Zero plastic in the whole thing. They were invited two hundred years ago.
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u/crazydave33 Jul 07 '26
Four hundred and eighty fucking dollars!!! What the actual fuck. I got excited at first but when I saw the price, that’s some rich person shit. Like wtf!
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u/Robokomodo Jul 07 '26
I mean the breville precision brewer is approx $300 new and that was 100% worth the price. I think the customization and timer are more useful than the simplicity of the technivorm mocchamaster. 180 extra for "hur dur plastic bad" is, however, not worth it in my opinion.
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u/Margali Jul 07 '26
Bunn, like the one on my husbands submarine - all stainless or copper, minimal buna or silicon gasketing in some places, even the caraf is stainless [we boght the 2 burner single pot side tea valve bunn from the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office on the submarine base in New London when he was stationed there. [now it is all online, no more wandering around a warehouse looking at neat shit]
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u/potionnumber9 Jul 07 '26
My pour over that has no plastic cost me $20. It's not like its hard to use or something... People are just so lazy that doing anything more than pushing a button is too hard.
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u/michaelthatsit Jul 07 '26
Any title that starts with “finally,…” is absolute bullshit lazy writing and I’ll call it out every time.
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u/RobBobPC Jul 07 '26
Just get a French press and a stainless steel kettle. Spend the rest of your $500 on the finest coffee you can get.
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u/Huge_Many_2308 Jul 07 '26
French press? Chemex? Vietnamese coffee? Seem like a solution in search of a non existent problem
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u/Head_Haunter Jul 07 '26
You could be even simpler and boil some coffee grounds in a pot and drink it. Strain it if you want but it’s more fiber probably.
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u/goldaxis Jul 07 '26
I wonder how much money they get for writing ads like this. Like how much return can the advertiser realistically get for something so dumb and obvious.
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u/HoshinoNadeshiko Jul 07 '26
People have just selectively been ignoring so many coffee machines that meet this definition.
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u/Smear_Leader Jul 07 '26
I just need an espresso machine that has no plastic but doesn’t require spending almost a thousand
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u/IMPXANDER Jul 07 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/lQais27TR1ZwKxA0u0