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Comment by rdoherty | Hacker News Reader

Under $100 - Ember mug. No more reheating coffee a few times/day or trying to drink cold coffee. I was surprised at how much I enjoy it. A nice napkin holder that is easy to pull napkins from. Vertical magazine/tablet organizer. Whiteboard next to my desk. Anything simple that makes a frequent chore or task 50% easier.

Under $1000 - Twice/week 'house helper' who does dishes and laundry. My wife travels a few weeks/month and we have 2 kids. Having someone do all the dishes and laundry saves me at least 5hrs/week.

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Okay, this is the fourth Ember recommendation I've seen, so I'll bite. Why is it better than an insulated carafe and an insulated mug?

It keeps the drink at a specific temperature indefinitely.

With an insulated mug, you aren't putting more heat into the drink but just trying to keep it for longer. In my opinion, insulation works great for cold drinks (I use a giant insulated cup for my cold drinks) but not so much for warm drinks.

The old (maybe incorrect) advice I was always told was that continuing to heat the coffee fouled the taste, hence the recommendation to use an insulated mug/thermos as opposed to a Mr. Coffee style warmed carafe. What makes this gadget different/better?

It would foul the taste because in an open carafe it distills the brew via evaporation.

If you don't let the water escape the taste stays fairly stable.

I meant concentrate, my mind is broken due to a cold and for some reason I'm not seeing an edit pathway on the mobile app I'm trying. Apologies.

That makes sense. The mug version of Ember (https://ember.com/products/ember-mug-2) is open on top, which seems like a fancy Bluetooth version of an old-school mug heater.

I could see the sealed one (the "Cup") as working better though.

Much of coffee's flavour comes from a balance of acids and oils. These, particularly the oils, are sensitive to temperature. But unless you're drinking your coffee all day, you're unlikely to notice it. Real spoiling sets in after several hours at the kinds of heat you're probably running your Ember mug at. Most drip brewers with heating elements for the pot keep the temperature too high (often just below boiling). A steady heat is much better for the flavour than reheating. (This is what I remember from working at a coffee shop way, WAY back when I was at university.)

Yeah. I make tea in a 68 oz Zojirushi thermos. I don't do this a lot, but if I make it at night it's still reasonably warm in the morning.

The thermos has a sipping cup on top that I can pour a couple oz of tea into.

It will hold my coffee at the perfect temperature all day. Also if the battery runs out I can put it on its charger and after ~5 mins it will start heating my now cold coffee back up to temperature. I thought it was kinda gimmicky too before I bought it but I am surprised at how great it is to have perfect temp coffee all the time.

Why do you take all day to drink a coffee? Mine is definitely gone by the time it gets cold in an insulated mug.

Sometimes I forget, sometimes I need to run an errand or take the kids to school or any number of things happen.

Who does the dishes? Do you mean cooking?

Dishwasher should take care of all dishes.

I mean washing pots & pans and things that can't go into the dishwasher and loading and unloading the dishwasher.

Everything can go in the dishwasher at least once. ;)

But, on a more serious note. Over the years I've replaced everything in my kitchen that isn't dishwasher friendly with something that is. I do not want to waste the small amount of free time I have doing any dishes.

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