Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker, 10-Cup Thermal Carafe, WiFi/Voice, SCA

After about six years of faithful service from my Bunn coffee maker, it decided to start leaking. Not bad considering we make at least one pot of coffee a day, and often 2-3 pots on Saturdays. As much as I loved the Bunn, I was ready for a coffee maker I could program to start brewing while I was getting ready in the morning, and didn't take up quite so much counter space. I had one specific requirement for out new coffee maker. It needed to be SCA Golden Cup certified. After much research it came down to this GE Cafe and the Breville coffee maker that was also Golden Cup certified. The ultimate deciding factors were that the GE Cafe (as expensive as it is) was still about $100 less than the Breville, and it was compatible with my SmartHQ app that I already use with my GE range. I ordered the white Cafe. Not the color choice I really wanted, but definitely easier to convince my wife to purchase it than to spend and additional $40-$50 to get either black or stainless. I know it will take extra care over time to prevent (or, at least slow down) the coffee stains... but it is, what it is. What it is, is a beautiful piece of equipment that certainly dresses up my 80's countertop and log walls. Right out of the box the coffee maker feels very high quality. It was very easy to set up as well. The instructions were easy to follow, and within minutes I had it connected to SmartHQ and brewing the first pot of coffee. Speaking of coffee, it is fantastic. Even though the instructions did not specifically say to, I did run a pot of water through the coffee maker before brewing my first pot of coffee. For my first pot, I followed the instructions to the letter. I used 1 scoop of coffee per cup. I chose the Gold setting to brew according to SCA standards. The coffee that came out was strong, but not bitter. It was stronger than my wife and I both prefer, but still extremely pleasant to drink. Every pot I have made since then has used the ration of 1 scoop for every 2 cups of coffee. That equates to 1TBSP per cup. Not near as strong and black, but still an absolutely perfect cup of coffee to start the day with. I know the SmartHQ is an added bonus that is certainly not necessary. However, I find it very easy to use. I used it to set up an auto-brew schedule for Mon-Fri, and another for Sundays. For Saturday, I don't have auto-brew set, but it is still nice to sit in bed, pull up the app on my iPhone and tell it to start brewing the pot I set up the night before. I know I will have a hot pot of coffee waiting on me. I have only been using the Cafe for just over a week, so I certainly can't speak to reliability over the long haul. I have my reminders set to update this review in 6 months and a year. I will try to update with either pluses or minuses based on how reliably the Cafe is still working for us.

Tl;Dr - I wanted to like this coffee maker but after several failed attempts to produce a good pot of coffee (and some other worrisome quality issues) I'm giving up and returning it for a refund. I'll start with the few positives. The first is that this is a good looking coffee maker. We opted for the black thermal carafe model and I think it is handsome, however as noted by others here it really is more of a "space grey". It really is nowhere close to black so not sure why they would call it that. The other surprising positive is the Wi-Fi connection. The fact that it can get it's time from the network so I don't have to worry about power outages or daylight savings messing up my brew timer is potentially great even though I generally feel like smart appliances are "one more thing to break". Okay onto the bad...first, upon unpacking I found moisture in the machine. I probably should have just stopped there and returned it but I kept going. Upon setting it up, I noticed that the acrylic piece on the front where the knob and buttons are was popping out and not flush as I would expect. I was able to push the piece in and it felt like it clicked in but after running a few brew cycles I guess the thermal expansion of the surrounding metal(?) caused it to pop back out again. On that note, there is a lot of plastic here and based on deep-diving into other reviews I do have concerns about the longevity/durability of the coatings, particularly on the copper bits as I already notice some spots on the carafe handle that look questionable. Most of this so far is cosmetic but all of which should be pristine particularly given the relatively high price of this maker. Ultimately though, this is about the quality of the coffee and I just could not brew a pot that came close to what I was getting from my 10+ year-old Behmor Brazen Plus, which still works but was getting a little long in the tooth. I tried it on Gold and Bold at 2 different brew temps using the same water/ground ratio as I had been in my Behmor and everything tasted watered down. My only explanation is that this brews much faster than the Behmor, and the Behmor has an adjustable pre-soak duration which I found no mention of with this Café model having at all, let alone be adjustable. I believe the lack of pre-soak also leads to the grounds overflowing the paper filter almost regardless of how much is in there. I first tried to make a 10 cup pot with 75g of grounds and the included paper filter could not contain the grounds. I then tried an 8 cup pot with 60g of grounds and still had grounds cresting the filter (and weak coffee). For comparison I use 56g for 8 cups (the max) on the Behmor and get perfect strength and nowhere close to overflowing. I do not have the equipment to measure, but my suspicion is that the flow on this thing is just too fast. I could keep going but the bottom line is that this coffee maker is not good at any price let alone $200-300. Based on most reviews I'm not the only person with this experience but it's also puzzling to see so many good reviews which makes me wonder if there is an overall quality control issue which again, shouldn't exist with an appliance marketed at this premium level.

So after reading some reviews here I was hesitant to buy this machine due to some reviews saying how messy it was. We'll let's just get this out of the way. I have yet to see a mess from this machine and have posted photos showing how good the coffee bed actually looks. In the photo, that is 69g of fresh roasted beans ground right before brewing using a Fellow Ode grinder. Not even close to a mess! Now getting into the actual review. My have to haves for this machine were a timer for auto brewing for the weekdays, SCA approved and a thermal carafe. I have owned other SCA approved machines in the past like the Breville Precision Brewer, the Bonivita 8 cup and the latest was an SCA approved Ninja Machine. If the Ratio 6 had a timer that would have been in the running this time around. Unfortunately it does not and this machine checked all my boxes so I decided to give a it a try and so glad I did! Without touching on all it's options yet, the one thing the machine needed to do in order to make it a keeper was make a great cup of coffee! If it couldn't do that, then it wouldn't matter how high tech this thing was and all the fancy stuff it could do, it was going back. Well I am happy to say, this machine makes one delicious cup of coffee! My first reaction to my first brewed sip was WOW, this cup is smooth! It was super smooth, sweet and delicious! An 8 cup pot finished brewing in just about 5 minutes which is pretty fast. The thermal carafe definitely kept the coffee hot for an hour after brewing and was even drinkable 2 hours later. Some reviews mentioned they were upset there was no hot plate. No thermal carafe machine comes with a hot plate! That is the reason for going with the thermal carafe. So your coffee doesn't cook and continue to change in flavor. If you want a hot plate, you need to buy the glass carafe. That goes for any coffee machine. If you want your coffee to stay the hottest in the thermal carafe, run hot water in the carafe so when you brew your coffee, you won't be brewing into a cold carafe which will cool the coffee down quicker. Also, the more coffee left in the carafe the longer it will stay hotter for. If you only have one cup left in the carafe, it will cool down quicker then if you have say 4 cups sitting in there. The machine allows you to choose the gold standard setting which sets everything to the SCA approved cup of coffee and no settings can be changed when set to this but for those who like to tinker, the machine also allows you to set the exact temperature of the water from 185° to 205°. You can also change the brew strength between 3 settings, light, medium and bold. I am not sure what this setting actually adjusts as it's separate from the temperature setting. I haven't brewed on anything besides the gold setting so far but I am definitely going to test the other stuff out but the Gold Setting brews a great cup. The wifi option is such a bonus on this thing! It makes setting everything up super easy. Being able to set a schedule for weekdays means I don't need to program the machine every night. If something changes, can just go into the app and change what I need. Have grinds and water in the machine but don't want to brew yet, can just start the brew from my phone when I am ready. It's great. Also hooked up to Google Home with no problem. Like I said though, if the machine didn't brew a great cup of coffee none of this other stuff would have mattered! Bottom line, yes the machine is expensive but if you are reading this review around the time it's posted, it's $100 off right now putting it much closer in price and even better then some of it's competitors! And it make a great cup of Joe! *8 Month Update - Machine is still working great! Have not had any issues and still producing a great cup of coffee. I basically have kept it on the Gold setting and found there is really no need to play with the temp and strength as the Gold Cup produces a great cup. I have been using an 18:1 coffee to water ratio based on the ounces listed on the water reservoir. Fresh roasted whole beans and weighed out. During the week I prep the night before and have a schedule setup in the app for weekdays. In the morning the coffee still comes out great even with grinding the night before. I have yet to experience any mess with grinds overflowing as others talk about and have made pots using up to 74 grams of coffe. Still recommend this machine.

Other than looking good, this machine is awful. We had a Ninja coffee maker for over 4 years before it needed replacing. When we purchased this we did so to match our fridge. But after a short amount of time we saw and tasted the shortfalls. The reservoir isn’t removable leading to water always standing in there. Despite descaling many times, wiping the inner plastic reservoir, disgusting green and black mold just grows and grows. When you remove the inner carbon filter basket holder (also caked with green mold despite many cleanings with a wire brush) the part where the coffee drips is filled with black mold. Not to be mistaken for coffee. It’s definitely mold. Since the plastic top cannot be removed, mold, coffee and/or other particles get stuck und the and there’s nothing you can do to remove. No wonder my husband and I have been experiencing stomach issues for months. We’re ingesting this stuff! The coffee doesn’t stay hot at all despite the stainless carafe. We’re now getting tons of grounds in our coffee despite having tried multiple filters. Overall - really bummed out with the quality of the machine and the coffee it brews. The brass rim is corroding, all sorts of water corrosion on the lid…save your money and get a ninja, or anything else other than this.

This product was good until it stopped working. DO NOT BUY if you are not looking forward to buy another one next 2 or 3 years. The aesthetic of this coffee machine is amazing. It will make your kitchen look luxurious. Also, for its functionality it makes great coffee and keeps it hot in the coffee pot (or carafe). Why I am giving this product a 1 star? After using the coffee maker for 2 years I got an "ERR" error in front of the cofee maker and tried to troubleshoot and do all the neccesary things to make it work. Apparently that error message pertains to the coffee pot not making good contact to the base of the coffee maker and if it does not detect it will not work. I called customer service support to get assisstance or even help from a technician to repair it and the customer service representative stated that they cannot send a technician because "They dont carry the replacement parts for this type of repair" I asked what else can it be done and she stated that "We can only go by our manual and it seems that you already completed all those steps". So just for awareness, if you are looking to buy this product I want to say that is very nice and it works great until it decides to not work anymore. I suggest going with another brand or machine and see if they have a better customer service for this type of coffee machines (specially when you are dropping $250+).

Very nice smart coffee maker. While the app could be clunky at times, the quality of the coffee it brews is excellent. After almost 3 years of daily use the thermal pot (which I love - keeps coffee hot all day long) looks a but worse for wear, but overall this product has impressed me and my family. I would never by a "dumb" coffee maker again - I love being able to use an app to program multiple days/times or simply start the coffee from my bed when I wake up early. This coffee maker only needs to be turned on, since it brews into a thermal pot there is no heating element so once it's done brewing (which takes <5 minutes for a full pot) it just turns off. Having done a lot of research into smart coffee makers, there is a suprising dearth of options. This one is pricey, but likely the best one available as of today.

Coffee.... What is Coffee? The process of applying hot water and pressure to a roasted and ground coffee bean! People have been drinking coffee for centuries. Made in many different fashions. Most of which create the same result. So when it comes to a coffee machine, what is going to set you apart from the other coffee makers is pretty much just going to be design. Still applying hot water and pressure to roasted and ground coffee beans. As for the final result, it's going to be the bean that's the star of the show. How it's roasted and how it's ground. That's It! When I was looking for a new coffee machine, I knew what I was getting into. The machine needed to meet the aesthetic of my kitchen. A timer for delayed brewing and a thermal carafe for mobility and a hope of easy clean up. Every other feature would be pointless. I found all of the necessary criteria I asked for in this machine. Every other feature on this including and especially the Bluetooth feature is absolutely pointless and should be removed from future models. Water temperature should just be 200dg. and that's it! Anyone who believes a variation on this probably thinks starbucks is good coffee anyway! It's not the temp of the water.... It's the bean you choose!! Cooler or warmer than 200dgs. is another pointless pursuit. Waking up in the morning to a freshly brewed pot of coffee, ready for the drinking is one of the great joys in life. Taking the carafe with me back to the bedroom is a non negotiable feature I simply can't do without! I needed to trust my bean squeezins will still be drinkable for the next couple of hours. It is! My previous maker's carafe was a little thicker and kept the coffee hotter longer but this one is very adequate. This Cafe' brand Coffee Maker has hit all my required marks. And just like the human face, it's the nose of my kitchen. I see it as I walk into the room. And she's pretty! The Italian influence in design, anchors my kitchens old world with modern twists as the eye darts about taking it all in. I particularly love the machines ability to be cleaned and dried... Dried is a very important aspect of coffee makers. The water reservoir in particular. Getting in there and drying this space with my hand before it begins to calcify and yellow, was a very important variable in my choosing this machine. Most are narrow and unreachable. This is a part of any other well kept kitchen that stands out from across the room if the tank is cloudy and yellowed. A pimple on the nose of my kitchen if you will.... Auto set for time, time of brew and temperature are a little clunky in their execution. And temperature should not have be a concern in this makers abilities. 200dg. That's it! Get on with your life!! Don't quite know how that made it through the R&D phase of development. This could have been much simpler without interfering with the integrity of the look or function. In the end of this tiresome review ... I fully recommend this coffee maker. I've waited several months to make a review so it wouldn't be a knee jerk impression. Once I dialed it in... Please note, that only took a few minutes not an online search for a tutorial on how to, it was pretty much ready, aim , fire. I've been enjoying seeing her sitting in her place of honor in my kitchen as well as her morning gifts of liquid courage , to take on the events of the day!

Makes a good cup of coffee and looks pretty on the counter, but the machine is sloppy, water and coffee dripping everywhere they shouldn’t be. After brew completes, coffee drips out when the carafe is removed. Water collecting on top of the machine from brewing steam. Coffee only hot enough right after brewing, doesn’t maintain heat well in the insulated carafe so that I’m microwaving every cup after the first one. After one month of use, the brewing complete notification sounded but when I removed the carafe to serve, the video shows the flood of coffee pouring out. If it’s this bad one month in, I’m not willing to see how bad it gets later on as many reviewers said it didn’t last much past one year. Would not recommend, such a poorly designed machine, tired of cleaning up after it.

Beautiful machine that makes great coffee.

This comes up in your search results from the UK but it is not clear it’s a US product with a US electrical setup. Maybe I should have guessed from the 110v but to be honest I didn’t actually remember what UK voltage was, I had to look it up. Anyway, after blowing up two adapters, I finally found out I need a £99 step down transformer, which is huge and expensive, in order to power the thing. It makes great coffee, it does. However you have to prop the water and coffee areas open every day to dry them out, otherwise it’s going to make dank coffee really soon. I had raised my coffee-making ability to an 8/10 using thermal carafes, descaling, using filtered water and really good, fresh beans. This machine takes it to 10/10. Is it worth the hassle to get the upgrade? With a UK plug yes, but for me I wish I hadn’t bothered.

Muy fácil de usar, extrae el café con muy buen sabor, se puede controlar la temperatura, el tiempo y el número de tasas. El rociado del agua es tipo regadera lo que humecta uniformemente el café. Además el café se mantiene en la garrafa térmica. Se pueden también controlar los parámetros con la aplicación del celular. Muy buena, la recomiendo ampliamente.

About 1 year in I started getting "err 3", which apparently has to do with the boiler, and 6 months later the pump started dying. For example if I set 6 cups, it would brew 3. Then I'd go back and brew 3 more separately. Super annoying. For the price it is definitely not worth it. Been trying to have it warrantied (the boiler issue) But getting a complete run around for months with no success. It's beautiful and I love the wifi start but would not recommend.

Me encanto mi cafetera. Además de lo obvio, que es ser una cafetera muy bonita prepara un excelente café. Tienes opciones para adecuar la temperatura deseada, el nivel intensidad buscado y se puede configurar via WIFI. Aún no la he integrado con Alexa, basicamente por que no le encuentro utilidad a eso. Mi ritual de café tiene un nuevo aliado con esta maquina.