ZojirushiEC-YTC100XB 10-Cup Coffee Maker (Stainless Steel/Black)

This is our second Zojirushi coffee maker. We have enjoyed our EC-BD15 for almost 10 years , but this unit may be on its last leg. I researched many coffee makers including the recommendations made by American Test Kitchen. ATK did not test this model. I was tempted by ATK's recommendation, but I decided to give Zojirushi EC-YTC100 a try. This did not disappoint.The coffee maker gives an option of faster brew time (Time Saver function), which is nice because this shortens brew time, and the brew time is closer to the recommendation by the Specialty Coffee Association (if you care about things like this). This make and model does not have the SCA endorsement, but I don't really care because we get consistent excellent brew results.We use more coffee than what Zojirushi recommends. If you use Zojirushi's table in its manual, the coffee:water weight ratio is almost 1:30. This brews weak coffee. The recommended ratio is around 1:20 or greater. We use about 1:18 ratio, i.e. 1 g coffee to 18 mL water; or if you are used to US imperial measurements, 1 oz coffee to 2.1 cups water (*** the cup here refers to your kitchen measuring cup and NOT the "cup" markings on the coffee maker. The volumes of "cup" markings on coffee makers vary widely among manufactures, but EC-YTC100's markings based on its manual is 1.5 L for 10 "cups" or 150 mL per "cup" marking or 0.6 standard kitchen measuring cup in the US). But you can always adjust to your taste. However, this present a potential problem. At maximum brewing volume of 10 cups (1.5 L), we would need 83 g of coffee (Zojirushi recommends 51 g for 10 cups). This may well be over their design capacity and cause the coffee grounds to overflow. We have not brewed at maximum as we stop at 8 cups (1.2 L) and use 67 g of coffee.EC-YTC100 claims a brewing temperature of 200 deg F, and I measured 196 F out of the "shower head". The "shower head" is the distribution of water as the hot water is dispersed over the grinds. This model has a piece that disperses the water and the water drips over the entire basket instead of a narrow concentrated stream. This allows for better percolation of the hot water through the grinds.With the cap on, the thermal carafe keeps the coffee hot all morning and well into the afternoon. I like this carafe model because the glass coffee model with a warmer tends to burn the coffee as it sits on the warmer.Attention to details is excellent as with all Zojirushi products. The shower head piece, the brew basket, and the water tank can all be easily removed and cleaned. The various silicone gaskets around the carafe cap and the valves can all be removed and cleaned if needed. The removable water tank is extremely nice for ease of filling. The permanent filter works well, but my wife still prefers using paper filter.Occasional descaling is needed using citric acid. The unit will alert you when it needs descaling. Do yourself a favor, buy food grade 100% citric acid in bulk, and you can buy it cheaply here at Amazon with resealable bag. Buy a cheap food scale (I bought Amazon brand for $10). Now you don't have to pay the outrageous price of Zojirushi branded citric acid (30g pouch). You can clean/descale to your heart's content. The scale is nice also to measure out your coffee. It's a kitchen gadget I didn't think I needed, but now that I have it, I really need it.Overall, we are very satisfied with this coffee maker, its design, functionality, and most importantly, the quality of the brew. With proper maintenance, I anticipate another 10 years of ownership.

I have been using this coffee maker for at least 10 years every day before it finally pooped out. It made the best coffee, always hot and strong. The carafe is totally sealed, you have to push a button to release the coffee. It keeps the coffee hot for hours. It has all the great features like a timer, a clean mode and the ability to remove the carafe before its finished brewing. Being the jerk i am I decided to try a different machine (well known brand). It was 30 bucks cheaper and compared to the zojirushi it wasn't worth the cheap smelly plastic it was made of! The coffee was luke warm, it smelled of burnt plastic, the carafe had a wide open nozzle and didn't keep the luke warm coffee it made luke warm. After a few days I sent it back and got the big Z back. Its the exact same coffee maker I purchased 10+ years ago. Why fiddle with perfection?

I really wanted a good quality coffee maker with a removable reservoir and a thermal carafe. This turns out surprisingly hard to find. My husband and I also tried the Ninja and Mr. Coffee before landing here and I couldn’t be more happy with our choice.This makes great coffee that is hot and doesn’t get burnt if it takes you a while to drink. That’s what I want in my coffee maker! The carafe is of slightly better quality than others I have tried in my non-scientific opinion. The reservoir being removable sounds small but is so, so nice. It saves you a step when filling the pot and you can put in the dishwasher. Our last coffee maker also had this feature and we couldn’t go back. We’ve had this now for 6 months, it is going great so far and just overall seems good quality.The only, only thing I have noted that could possibly be a drawback is that it takes a bit on the longer side to brew. 1) I think a good pot of coffee just takes an extra minute. 2) they have a quick brew feature if you’re in a hurry 3) we almost always use the timer feature so it is already made when I get up.Regarding carafes:I see reviews that mention the coffee going cold too quickly. None of the carafes on the market that I have tried are as good as people seem to expect in the reviews. All of the coffee makers that use this feature have some people complaining in the reviews. My opinion is that this one holds heat better than most. Coffee stays hot for a few hours, and like all carafes the less you open to pour the better it retains heat. If you don’t touch it, it will still be piping hot several hours later. The Mr. Coffee option for example, is legitimately much worse than this. I would say the ninja is more comparable but I would still give the edge here.Notes on the competition:The Ninja was unreliable and had some weird quirks. Quirks included having to press a button when you poured mid brew instead of being spring release so if you forget the coffee drips on the counter. Also if you wanted a “custom” amount of coffee (like 3 cups) you have to use a work around since they brew in predetermined whole pot/half pot increments. Also m if you didn’t place the carafe just-so the hole wouldn’t line up correctly and the coffee would spill into the counter during brewing. These quirks coupled with the fact it had a lot of extra features that we didn’t need, but still broke repeatedly soured us on the machine. We had the manufacturer replace 3 machines due to these defects. For example, our first machine the computer chip that read if there was water in the reservoir that broke. The coffee would not brew at all. Instead, giving us an “empty reservoir” error even if there was water. Another had a loud squeaky sound while brewing, and one hothead last had a different error that was caused by some other computer function that we didn’t need. Side note: now that I can compare, the ninja carafe didn’t keep its heat quite as well as this machine, or my old machine in my opinion although it came close.Mr. Coffee was at a more affordable price point, and that was the machine we used for almost 10 years before it broke down. We tried to order a new one since we liked the old machine so much. The reviews were much worse but I took my chances, and they must have switched manufacturers. Cheap quality. You can tell just by the feel of it. The carafe no longer holds heat well at all. But also, they glue the top portion of the carafe to the bottom. Both machines (the first one we had replaced) ended up leaking from the glue portion within a month. This was a problem with our first machine too, but it took about five years to show up and was very minor drips. This was a pretty significant leak very early on. The second machine the whole carafe top portion just came unglued and broke off entirely! We didn’t go for a third one and instead focused on trying to find a better quality machine. Sad to see the quality of that one go, but glad to have found this machine!!