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Comment by Kirby64 | Hacker News Reader

As much as I admire DIY'ing issues to fix... this seems like a lot of effort and cost that could be easily fixed by buying a different coffee maker. The author even says the UI sucks, which is not the case for many other options on the market.

Buy one with a thermal carafe (so you don't have a hot plate at all, and also your coffee will taste much better than sitting on the hot plate all day...), and buy one that has a proper timer that has AM/PM.

The reason hot plates turn off is twofold: safety, and the longer its on a hot plate the worse the coffee tastes.

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Conversely, use any $5 dripper with a physical on/off switch, then plug it into a smart plug. Keep the dripper always turned on, and use the plug to do all the smart stuff. I do this, and it’s so much easier to manage than whatever janky UI Breville came up with.

Do you have issues with GFCI outlets? I use a Z-wave smart plug for this exact use but find it often trips my GFCI circuit. Anything similar?

Let me tell you - it is devastating to wake up without the coffee you are expecting!

Mine’s plugged into a regular outlet. Maybe try a GFCI smart outlet?

This is more of a hacking log and less of a discussion about good coffee machines.

The author was trying to see if they could.

Yep hotplates burn the coffee and I cringe when people say they need them on longer than 25m

By many measures, drip coffee comes out of the machine pre-ruined, so I don't see the real problem with ruining it further when you have to drown it in heavy cream and sugar to make it palatable in the first place.

But I'm probably a different person, I like the ritual of making my morning hot beverage of choice. It takes some time, sure, maybe even time that could be spent sleeping, but it also makes my day better to kick my sleep addled mind into gear doing a task it's done a thousand times instead of something actually challenging or important.

I love my fancy pour overs and specialty coffee espressos, and I still can appreciate a drip coffee made with clean water and fresh beans. I'm not sure why you'd say it's "pre-ruined".

Modern, good quality 'drip machines' are just automated pour over machines (Breville Precision Brewer, Technivorm Moccamaster, or any number other much cheaper options). Not sure why you'd call those 'pre-ruined' by any means. They can make pretty much just as good of coffee as a manual pour over such as a V60/Chemex/whatever.

I share your cringe. While I don't use a drip coffee maker anymore, some of the burned flavor can be mitigated by placing 3 coins/pennies on the hot plate to limit contact between it and the carafe. It's worth the $0.03 investment.

The MoccaMaster has a half-carafe setting that is basically just a lower hotplate temperature and it works well for me.

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