Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker

Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker is a sleek, European styled programmable coffee maker that scores high with coffee lovers and convenience lovers alike. The Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew coffee maker brews directly into the included 1.5 liter stainless steel thermal coffee carafe so it keeps your coffee hot without burning it.

Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew coffee maker

Product Description
The Zojirushi Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker features a stainless steel thermal coffee carafe, a 24-hour programmable timer, an easy-to-read digital display and a clearly visible water indicator level so you can see exactly how much water you’re putting into your coffee maker. It has all of the features that discerning coffee lovers have come to expect in automatic coffee makers, including a pause and serve feature that halts the brewing process for 30 seconds so that you can pour yourself a cup of coffee while the Fresh Brew coffee maker is still brewing.

The Fresh Brew coffee maker is programmable so you can wake up to fresh-brewed coffee, or have your freshly made coffee greet you when you get home from work in the afternoon. The stylish black and silver design is modern with bold Art Deco curves that fits into most modern kitchen designs. At about $90, the Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker isn’t cheap, but it delivers quality coffee and has features offered by far more expensive machines.

Specifications:

Product: Zojirushi EC-BD15 Fresh Brew Thermal Coffee Maker
Type: Automatic coffee maker with thermal carafe
Size: 15 x 9 x 12 inches
Weight: 7 lbs
Features: 1.5 liters capacity, thermal carafe, auto-shutoff, pause and serve, timer,
Uses: #4 cone coffee filters
Includes: Coffee maker, 1.5 liter stainless steel thermal coffee carafe

Pros:

Where do I start? The Zoji coffee maker is pretty, makes great, HOT coffee and keeps it hot for a long time without burning it. There’s no burnt coffee like you get on a coffee maker with a heating plate. The stainless steel thermal coffee carafe is a heavy, high quality thermal carafe with no glass liner to break – I still remember the time that I went to make coffee in my boss’ prize Cuisinart thermal carafe only to find that the glass liner had shattered, rendering it completely useless. That won’t be a problem with the Zojirushi coffee maker.

Zojirushi has been making small appliances and thermal pots for decades, and their experience shows in the design of the Zoji Fresh Brew coffee maker. The filter basket and holder lift out for easy cleaning, for instance, and fits back into the coffee maker easily without any kind of fidgeting round to seat it properly. The pause and serve feature is a blessing for us impatient coffee drinkers – and unlike a lot of other coffee makers, the filter doesn’t fill up and dribble wet coffee grounds all down the front while you’ve got the pot out from under the spout.

Best of all, if you start with normally cold water – i.e. from the tap cold as opposed to from the fridge cold – the Zojirushi Fresh Brew coffee maker heats it up nicely and keeps it at the right brewing temperature (between 185 and 195 F. throughout brewing. In fact, the filter basket housing on the Zoji Fresh Brew is even insulated so that your water doesn’t cool down during brewing.

The programmable timer is easy to operate. If you’ve struggled with some of the programmable coffee makers that can only be set up to brew on time by a software engineer, you’ll really appreciate the clear, easy to read and easy to follow directions for setting up your Zojirushi Fresh Brew Coffee Maker to start your coffee before you get up in the morning.

Cons:

The Zojirushi will fit under a standard cabinet on your counter, but it’s tall enough that you have to pull it out to fill the water reservoir, and the water reservoir doesn’t pull out for cleaning. That’s pretty minor, though, when you compare it to all the pros.

The Final Verdict:

The Zojirushi was rated high in Consumer Reports round-up of thermal carafe coffee makers, and there’s a good reason for that. The Zoji makes good, hot coffee and makes it fast. It’s easy to use, pretty to look at and durable. I’d give this one five stars if we used a star system to rate coffee makers here!