I love my coffee maker; it brews a refreshingly hot pot of coffee and then keeps it hot in the thermal carafe for hours.
I hate my coffee maker; it doesn't consistently brew a refreshingly hot pot of coffee, which means I need to finish the process manually by pouring the rest of the hot water into the grounds basket.

Gina and I love our coffee. We drink big cups of coffee. I have a morning ritual that I've followed pretty consistently since we've been married. Every morning I get up and brew a fresh pot, pour Gina a cup and deliver it to her bedside to help her wake up. Then I pour myself a cup and the day begins.

Coffee, then adulting.

— Anonymous

We are on our fourth coffee maker in eight years. The first was manufactured by Braun and was less than memorable. The second was a Cuisinart that ground the beans and brewed the coffee — it had a thermal carafe as well, so the pot stayed hot and didn't get bitter. It only made ten cups though, and so we didn't have two of our big cups each out of a pot. Then the grinder threw a blade and it failed shortly after.

Our next pot was a pretty simple item — no fancy grinder built in, no thermal carafe, it just brewed coffee. But the pot was, again, only ten cups, and the coffee would get bitter sitting on the heating element. Undrinkable shortly after being brewed.

We also have one of those electric hot water pots. The ladies like an occasional hot tea and the electric pot is quicker than the pot on the stove. You'll understand why I mention this in a few moments.

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

— Steven Wright

The find

A few months ago, Gina and I were in Williams Sonoma. They were having a sale, and one of the tables had cooking implements marked down. One of the boxes was the OXO Barista Brain 12-cup brewing system.

☕

Replace with your photo — the OXO Barista Brain

The OXO Barista Brain 12-cup. Bigger than it looks in the box.

This thing was huge — well, huge relative to our other coffee makers. It was also on sale. This machine usually sells for almost $300, and it was ours for only $100. The first question was, "Does it work?" The salesperson assured us it did, and we were sold. What a bargain. We also picked up a Sous Vide machine, but that's for another post.

We brought it home and cleared away the old coffee maker. There was no ceremony, no words of regret or acknowledgements of fine service — just relegation. The hot water pot was relegated as well. This machine can do both. We plugged it in, scanned the owner's manual briefly, and brewed our first pot to test it out.

Heaven.

Success video — the first perfect brew Replace: embed your video here

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That first pot. It was exactly what we wanted.

Then it happened

It was like this for a couple of days, and then it happened. I set up the brew, started it, and went off to do other morning tasks. When I returned, it was only half done.

Failure video — the half-brewed pot Replace: embed your video here

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Half a pot and a red indicator light. Not how you want to start a morning.

Even worse, there was a red indicator on the control screen. What the heck does that mean? Fortunately the manual was handy, and this time I looked it over a little more closely. That little red symbol means it needs descaling. Simple enough — ran a pot of diluted white vinegar through it later that day and flushed it out with fresh water.

The troubleshooting arc

What followed was a problem/solution sequence that I'll spare you the full narrative of. The short version, in order:

❌
Failure
Same problem next morning. Descaling indicator back. Getting miffed. Considered returning it.
🔍
Research
Went to the internet. Found that at Las Vegas altitude (~2,000 ft), water boils at a lower temperature. The Barista Brain has a setting for this. Back to the manual.
✓
Success
Next morning: it worked. I was full of myself. I didn't have to return it.
❌
Failure — again
Two days later, the descaling indicator was back. Half-brewed pot. Ran cleaner through it. Rinsed. Set up for next day.
❌
Complete failure
Didn't even start this time. Heated the water to boiling and just sat there. Nothing but hot water and a keen desire for coffee. Muttered expletives. Poured the hot water manually into the grounds basket.
🔧
The fix — such as it is
Noticed a small grate in the bottom of the heating pot — the pump intake. Gave it a rap with my knuckle where the pump sits. It started. Stopped again. Another rap. Off we went. The morning routine now includes an occasional knock on the machine to start or keep the water flowing.

It can be annoying, but when I think about other things this is minor. I'll live with it for now.

The verdict

Semi review OXO Barista Brain 12-cup

I love the machine — and maybe, just maybe, it would have worked wonderfully out of the box if it had been brand new when we picked it up. There's no way to know for sure unless we bought another, but it looks like OXO is not making the 12-cup size any longer. They only have the 9-cup on their website now, though you can still find them from Williams Sonoma, Amazon, and other online retailers.

To be honest, I'm not sure I would buy it again. The machine was in new condition when we purchased it — any previous owner would have had it only briefly. If the little pump inside the base is this prone to intermittent failure, it should have gone back to the manufacturer. Maybe this one was a fluke. I didn't see much in the negative reviews online, but I wouldn't give it a firm recommendation.

"Yuck. Yuck! It's terrible and wonderful at the same time! It's like freedom in a cup!"

— Elliot, Open Season

But I do have a dream about what our next machine will be.