Technivorm Moccamaster KBGV Select Review

The Moccamaster produced an average coffee in our testing. However, we cannot justify the price unless it could make better coffee. Therefore we would recommend other brewers in our review that cost less but perform better for those looking for the best morning cup possible.

Performance Comparison

Brew quality

The coffee we brewed with the Moccamaster did not impress. The Technivrom is nearly industry-standard temperature-wise, which is important for extracting the most flavor from your coffee. Also essential to cup quality is proper water distribution. This brewer does not provide the necessary uniform water distribution needed to brew a quality cup of coffee. The brew head made a distinct rectangular divot in the brew bed, suggesting an unbalanced extraction. However, less expensive coffee makers were able to excel in cup quality by offering proper temperatures and providing a more even water distribution.

User Friendliness

The Moccamaster was also not as user-friendly as we had wished. It features a very simple interface but is not programmable. The interface offers two switches. One switch is to turn the brewer on or off and this switch will not illuminate unless the water is present in the reservoir. The other switch allows users to adjust the amount of coffee they want — four to six cups for around a half pot or eight to ten cups for a fuller pot. The glass carafe has a thin plastic handle that feels cheap and does not provide measurement marks. The flow stream from the carafe is sloppy at a moderate pour rate and more accommodating at a faster rate.

Ease of Cleaning

There are a lot of components to consider when cleaning the Moccamaster. It uses a paper filter, which makes disposing of grinds easy. Unfortunately, none of the brewer's components are dishwasher safe. Nor does the manual provide clear cleaning instructions. The carafe lid opens wide, necessary for cleaning the long spout in the center of the lid. To access the filter basket, you must remove the filter lid, water tank lid, and outlet arm. Long-term cleaning involves filling the water tank with descaling liquid and running a few brew cycles. This process was mostly hands-off and took about 25 minutes to complete.

Consistency

We brewed five back-to-back pots of coffee and measured water temperature stability, brew time, and flavor retention to test for the consistency metric. The Moccamaster averaged a temperature fluctuation of 2.5 degrees between consecutive brewing. This is a big fluctuation compared to more temperature stable models with a variation of only .47 degrees between batches. The Moccamster performs better in brew time consistency with a deviation of 2 seconds between brews. This brewer reviewed well in flavor retention, measuring very similar pH levels between freshly brewed coffee and 2 hours post brewing.

Value

The Moccamaster is one of the more costly brewers in our lineup. Unless you like its unique aesthetics, we don't feel that it is worth the investment. Many other models we tested costway less and make substantially better coffee.

Conclusion