Breville BDC400BSS Precision Brewer Drip Coffee Maker, Brushed Stainless Steel, Glass Carafe

Makes great coffee, a couple of added features and it’d be perfect
I’ve only had this coffee maker for a few days now, but the resulting cups of coffee speak for themselves. I’d always wondered why coffee I made at home never tasted as good as coffee I’d had out, then saw some reviews for this (and similarly designed) coffee makers explaining that standard drip brewers boil the water as part of the mechanism for getting the water up to the grounds, and that boiling water burns the coffee and makes it bitter. Sure enough, the coffee from this maker isn’t bitter in the slightest and tastes much, much better than anything I got from my previous ones (a Cuisinart, two Hamilton Beaches, and a Braun). It also makes coffee very quickly, I’ve got it on the “Strong” setting and it takes a little less than 10 minutes to brew a pot, compared to nearly 20 for the Braun it’s replacing. I haven’t tried “Fast” mode yet, but presumably that’s even faster.It’s quite tall, tall enough that I was worried about clearance issues between my countertop and the cabinets above, but it fits with a couple of inches to spare. Make sure to measure if you’re going to be putting it in a similar place, this is easily the tallest coffee maker I’ve used.The UI is also one of the best I’ve used. There are only three controls – a start/cancel button, a dial that can be pressed like a button, and an “auto on” button, then with a pretty nice little LCD screen. The menus are pretty intuitive, certainly moreso than the Braun I was using. Setting up what strength I wanted my coffee and which filter type I was using was very easy. Setting auto-on was extremely easy. Hit the auto-on button, turn the dial until the LCD shows the time you want it to turn on at, hit the auto-on button again.Speaking of which filter type, it can be used both with basket and cone filters, it’s got an adapter that goes into the grounds basket for cone filters. It also comes with a gold re-usable basket filter.There are a few reviews complaining that it’s loud. I did not find that to be the case. It does have an audible pump, but it’s about as loud as a quiet aquarium pump. It’s significantly less loud than the burbling and popping from my previous coffee makers that comes from the water boiling. I live in a small townhouse and previous coffee makers would wake my wife and I up if we set it to brew before the alarm, whereas I can’t hear this one at all in our bedroom. I also saw complaints about it demanding to be descaled mid-brew and refusing to work until it is descaled. I’m hoping those are similarly overblown, but will update the review if/when that becomes a problem.The one thing I don’t like is the inability to set the amount of time it keeps coffee warm, or to extend that time if you want to keep enjoying the pot of coffee you made earlier. I’d love a way to be able to at least have a button that says “I’m not done drinking coffee, please keep it warm for longer.” However, that seemed to be a feature lacking in pretty much all the nicer coffee makers.Now, if it can last longer than two years without breaking down, it will outlast all my other coffee makers. The one it’s replacing made it 21 months before dying. Here’s hoping.

DO NOT BUY THIS MODEL – NOT WORTH THE MONEY
UPDATE to this Review:This coffee pot continues to disappoint. It’s seriously poorly designed especially given the price point. My $80 former Cuisinart coffee maker was WAY better.1 – First issue – REFILL TANK ERROR Code – After using my buddy ChatGPT for guidance on how to fix the never-ending ‘Refill Tank’ error code on my new Breville DBC 400.Fill the tank with distilled water and let it set for at least 3 days. You need to help the crummy plastic they use on the tank to ‘age’ and seal to reduce the amount of static that’s created when there’s water in the tank. I prefill my machine at night so I can just hit the Start button on the morning. The walls of the tank would be covered with bubbles each morning and thus confuse the sensor. Therefore, the Refill Tank error code would present and the machine would not work.Initially I’d run a bamboo chopstick around the sides of the tank and over the sensor to eliminate the bubbles. That works, but it’s a dumb process to have to use. The distilled water trick has helped. Fewer bubbles and the machine actually brews coffee.2 – NEW DISAPPOINTMENT WITH MY MACHINE – 30 MINUTE KEEP WARM – Realized this morning, that even though the KEEP WARM function is turned ON – it only keeps the coffee warm for 30 minutes! When the instruction manual provided NO guidance, again I asked Chapt GPT. Here’s what it shared:”BDC400 Keep Warm Is Fixed at 30 MinutesBreville quietly limited the BDC400’s warming time to a preset 30 minutes.Only the BDC450 / Precision Brewer Thermal and the Glass Carafe version in some markets allow adjustable warm time up to 2 hours.So on your BDC400:KEEP WARM = ON → stays warm 30 minutesKEEP WARM = OFF → heating plate doesn’t activateThere is no menu option for duration, which is why you aren’t seeing it.⭐ Why yours doesn’t offer the 2-hour optionBreville split capabilities across very similar model numbers, which is why the manual can be confusing.The BDC400 (U.S.) uses a fixed heating-cycle length for safety and UL energy requirements.Only companion models offer the 2-hour selection.”So my option to have a pot of coffee stay warm for longer than 30 minutes is to buy a thermal carafe which will keep it warm for 15-30 minutes longer. So stupid!********* ORIGINAL REVIEW:This is the second time I’ve true this coffee maker. The first one I received, the lid to the coffee pit was installed incorrectly and couldn’t be removed. So I returned it.This replacement unit doesn’t work. It continuously shows the refill tank error message. I’ve researched and completed the factory reset 3 times. After the first two resets, it’d work. I could make one pot of coffee. After this 3 reset, I’m getting the refill tank error message again and the factory reset won’t clear it.For a new unit, this is unacceptable. Amazon doesn’t even want it back – so that tells me there are a LOT of other people with issues with this machine too.