Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I think the Moccamaster is the perfect example of the placebo effect. When people *think* something is good, even if it isn't, they will convince themselves it is. After our Cuisinart coffee maker died after many years of service, I wanted to get a better coffee maker. Our household drinks coffee on a regular basis and I wanted something that will provide us with more flavorful coffee. After a lot of research, it seemed like the Moccamaster was The One. Super positive reviews on Amazon. Great reviews from various publications. How could we go wrong? Plus, considering, at the time of this writing, it cost $330 and was hand built, it must be the best there is. So I ordered one. Upon receiving and setting up this very expensive machine, what immediately struck out to me was the low quality components this coffee maker was made of. The coffee basket was cheap plastic, which is held in place by two tiny plastic pieces on the plastic arm above the carafe. You can even read the numerous reviews that mention these little plastic pieces breaking off in transit. The carafe is made from thin plastic, and thin and flimsy glass. I seriously thought I was going to break the carafe when I was using it. In my opinion, this carafe belongs on a $15 coffee maker, not a $330 one. Our Cuisinart, which cost $70 a decade ago had a far sturdier and solid feeling glass carafe. To make matters worse, if you break yours, the replacements are expensive. There are two flimsy plastic lids you put on. One for the coffee basket, and one for the water reservoir. Aside from the fact that they are both also flimsy hard plastic, you have to take both off when making a pot. You also have to take off the coffee basket. So to make coffee you have to take three pieces off. Couldn't they have used a hinge of some sort to keep these lids in place and allow you to open them without taking them off? The base itself seemed okay, no complaints about the quality there. However, the location of the thick power cord also seemed strange because it came out of the left side of the coffee maker. So if you position the machine in front of you, like most people would, the cord just sticks out from the side. It really should come out the back. Now, aside from the flimsy cheap plastic and odd cord positioning, is the more important part: brewing quality. You would think for $330, this thing would brew some amazing coffee. Alas, it fell short here too. The shower arm in this coffee maker, i.e. the metal thing at the top that drips the hot water on the coffee grounds, does not work very well. The arm has a lot of holes to allow the water to spray all the grounds. However, in practice, at least half the time during the brewing cycle, water comes out of the first few holes only. What this results in, is the hot water is mostly being dripped over the left-to-center portion of the grounds, leaving a lot of the grounds without much drip. I have observed the brewing process numerous times, and have consistently observed the coffee on the right side of the filter get slightly soaked initially, then rise to the top and sit there without any more water running through. Essentially, if you want the water to really cover the coffee properly, you have to babysit the grounds and swirl them around during the brewing process with a spoon to allow proper coverage to occur. There is even a 3rd party shower head out there, that is an attempt to fix this problem. A $330 coffee maker should not need 3rd party components to make it work right. I even contacted Technivorm support asking about this, and here is the verbatim quote from their response: "Water will gradually saturate from the center of the basket into the grounds on the perimeter. At the end of the cycle, the grinds (sic) will be damp, but may not be soaked or have been fully submerged." Huh? So it is normal for a $330 coffee maker to leave coffee grounds with minimal, or even no water during the brewing cycle? Are you kidding me? This was not only an observation visually, but also in terms of taste. I used a good burr grinder, and tried various grind levels. I have used quality beans, roasted anywhere from the same day, to less than a week. Without mixing the grounds manually, I could never get the Moccamaster to brew a highly flavorful cup. Even while mixing manually, the coffee did not turn out as good as I would expect. The Bonavita coffee maker I have replaced the Moccamaster with has produced noticeably more flavorful coffee, using the exact same coffee beans, grinder settings, coffee quantity, and water. And, without doing anything manually. Oh, and it cost less than a third of the Moccamaster price. In order for this coffee maker to command its very high price, I think the following improvements need to happen: 1. Improve the shower head so that water drips evenly and actually extracts flavor from all the coffee you're trying to brew. 2. Replace the cheap flimsy plastic with better quality, more durable materials. Seriously, most of the parts on this machine would not feel out of place on a $20 Mr Coffee. 3. Improve the usability by reducing the number of things you have to take off to brew coffee. Hinges for lids, etc. 4. This is the most minor one: put the cord on the back of the machine. The reason I mentioned this coffee maker is a placebo is that I cannot fathom how anyone can describe it as having a high quality build. The flimsy tinny glass carafe alone reeks of cheap quality. I also don't think the quality of the brewing is worth anywhere close to the $330 price tag. This leads me to think that people see this machine, see things like "hand built in the Netherlands!", the very high price, glowing reviews from some folks, and convince themselves it must be good. I bought it hoping it would be all that, and it wasn't. The placebo did not work on me.