REASONS TO BUY
Excellent brew quality
Tons of features
Cold brew setting
REASONS TO AVOID
Expensive
Not for average consumer
Breville Precision Brewer Review
For anyone who enjoys the fullest expression of flavor in their coffee, but the high price tag may deter the average consumer
Though they aren't dishwasher safe, the components of the Precision are detachable, making for an easy clean.
Credit: Laura Casner
RELATED: Best Drip Coffee Makers of 2024
Our Verdict
One of our favorite drip coffee makers is the pour-over style Breville Precision Brewer. This brewer excels at making a flavorful cup of coffee and we love that it has a cold brew setting. The Precision Brewer has endless features and an intuitive interface for total customization. Pre-infusion, water flow rate, and temperature are all adjustable to preference. This brewer is the perfect tool for specialty coffee drinkers who enjoy discovering the unique flavor profiles of their coffees. The Precision Brewer comes with a higher price tag, so it may not be the best option for most. Get the skinny on how it stacks up against other top products in our review of drip coffee makers.
Editor's Note: We updated this article on January 10, 2024, to include new information and test results from our improved test plan.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product Breville Precision Brewer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards |  Best for Full Brewing Customization |  Best Overall Drip Coffee Maker for Most People | Most Consistent Drip Coffee Maker |  Best Bang for Your Buck | Best Drip Coffee Machine on a Tight Budget |
| Price | $330 List $329.95 at Amazon | $80 List $69.99 at Amazon | $200 List Check Price at Amazon | $70 List $69.99 at Amazon | $40 List $36.99 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Bottom Line | With a wide range of features, this brewer produces a quality cup and is a good option for specialty coffee drinkers, but is quite expensive | Easy to use, programmable options give you the tools to brew your coffee to your liking | A decent cup quality and solid consistency at a top tier price | This inexpensive machine gives you a few key features without breaking the bank | An inexpensive brewer that makes decent coffee with programmable functions |
| Rating Categories | Breville Precision... | Ninja 12-Cup Progra... | OXO Brew 8-Cup | Hamilton Beach 2-Way | Black+Decker 12-Cup... |
| Brew Quality (35%) | |||||
| User Friendliness (30%) | |||||
| Ease of Cleaning (20%) | |||||
| Consistency (15%) | |||||
| Specs | Breville Precision... | Ninja 12-Cup Progra... | OXO Brew 8-Cup | Hamilton Beach 2-Way | Black+Decker 12-Cup... |
| Average Brew Temperature | 201.5 °F | 202.5 °F | 196.0 °F | 191.9 °F | 192.2 °F |
| Average Time to Brew 6 Cups of Coffee (minutes) | 5.4 | 8.48 | 5.37 | 7.9 | 7.88 |
| Scheduled Brewing | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Preinfusion | Yes, adjustable | Yes, not adjustable | Yes, not adjustable | No | No |
| Footprint Dimensions (H x W x D) | 12.4" x 6.7" x 15.7" | 14.5" x 9.5" x 8.3" | 13.5" x 7.0" x 10.5" | 13.9" x 12.2" x 11.1" | 8.2" x 12.2" x 11.0" |
| Cup Capacity | 1.5 - 12 cups | 1 - 12 cups | 2 - 8 cups | 1 - 12 cups | 2 - 12 cups |
| Single Serve | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Filter Shape | Cone or Flat | Cone | Flat | Flat | Flat |
| Power Draw | 1650 watts | 1100 watts | 1400 watts | 950 watts | 975 watts |
Show full specification detailsHide full specification details
Our Analysis and Test Results
This coffee maker offers exceptional brew quality through its customizable settings. The Precision Brewer is a great choice for those who appreciate the flavor profile of a pour-over coffee but want the convenience of a machine. More than anything else, the complete adjustability of the Breville distinguishes it from the other brewers.
Performance Comparison
The Precision Brewer offers intuitive controls and a large interface to navigate its seemingly endless settings.
Credit: Laura Casner
Brew Quailty
The Breville impressed us with its adjustability of water temperature and flow rate. Although it's best to brew with filtered water, the Breville automatically adjusts brew settings according to your water quality.
The Breville reaches industry-standard brew temperatures of 195°F to 205°F, with an average brew basket temperature of 201.5°F on default settings. Brew temperature is essential to proper coffee extraction, aka coffee brewing. Therefore, this coffee maker's precise and adjustable temperature controls are crucial to producing top-quality brews.
Credit: Maggie Nichols
The preprogrammed and customizable brew settings on the Precision Brewer provide excellent parameters for any of your brewing needs. The Precision has brew modes from a single-cup pour-over to a 10-hour cold brew cycle.
Good water, accurate temp, and brew time are the key to brewing great coffee. This brewer allows you to customize and control all of these things, giving you the best flavor in your cup.
Credit: Laura Casner
The first brew modes on the Precision Brewer's menu manipulate water flow. For example, the Strong Brew setting slows down the brewer's pump, creating a longer brewed coffee. In contrast, Fast Brew speeds the pump up. The general rule of thumb is that the longer a coffee brews, the stronger the caffeine content will be.
The Cold Brew function is a no-heat setting that slows down brew time to 10-20 hours, different from the Over Ice function, calibrating for ice and cream dilution. The Gold setting reaches the SCA's Gold Cup standards for brew temperature and total brew time.
The cold brew setting allows for no-heat brewing in the brew basket for a set amount of time, 10 to 20 hours, before releasing it into the carafe.
Credit: Laura Casner
Finally, Breville appeases the coffee nerd in us all with the My Brew feature. This setting allows for complete customization over bloom time, temperature, and flow rate. My Brew introduces our favorite customizable element of Precision Brewer, the Pour-Over feature. You can automate your favorite pour-over device by using it in place of Breville's brew basket and carafe in this mode. Just pop into place the provided adapter, and you can brew with a V60 or Kalita brewer.
The customization of this brewer gives you so many options and full control of your coffee experience.
Credit: Laura Casner
User Friendliness
The controls and features of the Precision Brewer are simple enough to navigate. Still, Breville includes informative manuals leading both the expert and newbie into specialty brewing and the unique features of this brewer. The Precision's large interface and knob/button selector offer a very intuitive way to navigate the menu options.
The Precision comes with all the necessary brew baskets and attachments for the various brewing modes. Breville suggests using the cone filter basket with a Number 4 filter for single pour-overs and half batches.
This machine easily converts to support your favorite pour-over device, giving even more options and personalization for your perfect cup.
Credit: Laura Casner
For larger batch brews, a gold-tone reusable filter is provided. A small adapter is also provided to convert this coffee maker to brew using your favorite pour over coffee maker.
The automatic brewing feature makes it simple to wake up to fresh-brewed coffee.
Credit: Laura Casner
Let's face it: grinding your coffee right before brewing will always be the best practice. However, the automatic brewing feature on the Precision Brewer could be your best friend for those mornings when you need to dash out the door. With a total capacity of 60 ounces in about six minutes, using the Precision Brewer is more efficient than manually brewing 12 cups of coffee.
Credit: Maggie Nichols
Brewing 20 ounces or less activates the small cup volume setting. Under this setting, the Precision Brewer determines the proper flow rate depending on how much water is in the reservoir. Breville suggests using the cone filter basket to provide a better extraction rate if you're not brewing the total capacity. The reservoir lid is entirely removable, making this chamber easy to fill.
The cone brew basket helps ensure proper extraction for smaller batches that are 20 ounces or less.
Credit: Laura Casner
The Precision Brewer comes with either the insulated carafe or a glass carafe option with a heating plate. In terms of quality, we strongly recommend the insulated carafe.
Credit: Maggie Nichols
Although this carafe is a little heavy, it does a great job keeping the coffee warm. In addition, the carafe lid locks in place and regulates the pour speed.
I appreciate the double-walled stainless insulated carafe. It keeps the coffee hot while a secure lid provides an even pour.
Credit: Laura Casner
Ease of Cleaning
We found that the Precision Brew was relatively easy to clean but could be made easier. The brewer components are not dishwasher safe, which could be a drawback to some. Overall, the pour-over style brewer makes sanitizing pretty straightforward.
The carafe and brew basket detaches from the brewer, and the opening of the carafe is big enough to clean inside. The easiest to clean is the removable silicone shower head. The flexible material makes it simple to clean by hand. The biggest drawback is the sneak-a-cup feature produces some backsplash. This can lead to burnt coffee that is not always easy to clean.
Single-cup brew methods produced some backsplash, but the single-cup feature is definitely a nice touch on this does-it-all brewer.
Credit: Laura Casner
Consistency
We made five pots of coffee one after the other and measured the temperature of each brew.
The Precision Brewer had decent temperature consistency; there wasn't too much of a temperature difference in these back-to-back brews. The average brewing temperature was 201.5°F — a great temperature for optimal flavor extraction — with a variation of less than half a degree.
The Precision Brewer average brew time was pretty consistent, with an average of 5 minutes 24 seconds. It is important to note that when the machine beeps to tell you the process is done, there is actually around a minute-long wait before the last drops make it through the basket.
This brewer is impressively consistent, hitting ideal temperatures with every brew and giving us a full pot with comparable brewing times.
Credit: Laura Casner
Should You Buy the Breville Precision Brewer?
The Precision Brewer is a bit of a hefty investment for the typical consumer. However, we think it's an excellent choice and worth every penny if you are the type who is endlessly chasing that perfect cup of coffee.
This is the drip coffee brewer that can do it all, including accommodate your favorite pour over filter.
Credit: Laura Casner
What Other Drip Coffee Makers Should You Consider?
While the Breville is a very impressive machine, it isn't realistic for the average consumer to invest so much in a drip coffee machine. A great option that won't try so hard to break the bank would be the Ninja 12-Cup or the OXO Brew.
—Liz Nelson and Kendra Ridenour
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