Drip coffee makers have incredible variety. You can find basic machines and filters for a quick cup of joe in the mornings for around $20, and they’ll last for years. Or you can take a look at the high end — where smart machines allow you to customize every bit of the process to get maximum flavor from your beans just the way you like it … at a price.
Two high-end models in particular stand out: the Breville Precision Brewer Thermal Coffee Maker and the Technivorm Moccamaster. They both look fancy, but what’s going on underneath – and which coffee maker is the better option? Let’s compare!
Size and design
Both these models have similar designs, with a glass water reservoir and thermal carafes to help keep the poured coffee as warm as possible before you top off your personal cup. However, there are a couple of notable differences. The Breville model has significantly more onboard controls, including a screen to provide detailed information about your current brew and settings. The Moccamaster, however, focuses more on automatic brewing with fewer digital control options. Also, the Breville model has a notably larger carafe at 60 ounces, while the Technivorm model tops out at 40 ounces.
Note that there are a few variations for each model. Breville has a larger version of its Precision Brewer for offices, for example, while Technivorm Moccamaster has manual and automatic versions. For this comparison, we’re focusing on the most popular models with similar prices to make things a bit easier.
Winner: Breville Precision Brewer Thermal
Available modes
While these coffee makers offer serious quality for your pours, they are strictly filter-based, drip coffee machines. You won’t find any extra modes or features here to steam milk, make espresso, or brew tea. There’s no support for coffee pods of any kind and no built-in grinder. You get drip coffee and drip coffee only. But within those parameters, there’s a lot of customization. Let’s take a closer look.
Winner: Tie
Brew customization
Breville comes out swinging with six different presets, including Gold brew, fast, strong, iced, and Cold Brew. You also get a flat bottom and cone filter basket to experiment with to see which produces the best results. The controls allow you to adjust things like bloom time, brewing temperature, and flow rate, then save your settings as a customized profile you can return to at any time. It’s very rare to see so many options for customizing drip coffee in a consumer device.
As we mentioned, the Technivorm Moccamaster is more focused on automation. It’s a one-button brewing machine. If you want to customize the results, you’ll have to manually adjust the brew basket’s drip-stop to control the speed of coffee flow, but that’s about it. Otherwise, it’s made to create Gold-standard coffee pours every time.
Winner: Breville Precision Brewer Thermal
Brew speed
If you like your coffee fast, then brew speed is certainly one of the more important aspects of any drip coffee maker. Breville’s coffee maker has speeds that will vary significantly based on the settings that you choose. However, if you choose the Fast preset, then it will complete the brewing cycle in less than seven minutes.
Technivorm’s model, meanwhile, is built for speed. The design extracts flavor from the grounds and sends it along in about four to six minutes (the time can vary a little due to factors like the coarseness of the ground coffee, scale buildup, etc.).
Winner: Technivorm Moccamaster
Smart features
In addition to the plentiful customization options that Breville offers, there are also a couple of features that make brewing a bit easier. The coffee maker can tell if you are using a smaller cup and adjust automatically to 20-ounce pours, for example. You can also use the augmented reality app to see how the model will look in your kitchen and if you have room for it. But unfortunately, there’s nothing like Alexa compatibility.
Technivorm once again keeps the Moccamaster simple here. Everything is automated, but there aren’t many smart features to control and no app features. Keep in mind, you can use these coffee makers with a smart plug for some additional control, but they don’t offer much by themselves.
Winner: Breville Precision Brewer Thermal (barely)
Price
These two models are very similar in price, so you don’t have to worry much about which one will save you money. The Breville Precision Brewer Thermal model starts at $329, and the Technivorm Moccamaster at $339. A difference of $10 isn’t really worth picking a clear winner for, especially when models can be affected by discounts and temporary sales.
Winner: Tie
Which coffee maker is worth your time?
We certainly favor the Breville Precision Brewer Thermal for its array of digital controls that allow you complete control over temperature, presets, bloom time for the beans, and more. That approach allows you to tailor your brewing process based on the type of beans you’re using and what you’re looking for in taste and quality.
But there is also something to be said for the easy approach of the Technivorm Moccamaster, which makes your coffee fast and to the Gold standard every time without the user needing to make any decisions or spend time programming a profile. That could be a great benefit for the right users, so we’re definitely not discounting this option.