The OXO Brew 9 Cup Coffee Maker is a popular option that has a price point that lands it firmly between high-end and mid-range, however it’s build quality and features lean more toward the high-end. The brewer is SCA Certified, which is an important feature and brews by pulsing hot water over the grounds, rather than having a pre-infusion followed by a constant flow of water like many other brewers we have reviewed. This results in high levels of extraction which means you will likely need to refine your grind size. I noticed this when using the same grind size between my Ninja CM401 and the OXO Brew 9 Cup that the OXO tended to be much more extracted. OXO also makes an 8 Cup brewer that is non-programmable, however we liked the fact you could program the OXO 9 Cup to brew automatically at a set time. 

Other than setting the brewer for large or small brews, auto brew is the only programmable feature on this machine. You do not have the option to adjust brew temperature or length of brew. The operation of the machine is simple, but not intuitive. I had to refer to the manual to learn the basic features. I own other OXO products as well and with those, I am able to operate the machine intuitively. Brew temperatures were very good and held between 190F-195F, SCA certified machines need to brew within a certain range in order to obtain their certification. 

The brewer itself has a pretty large footpoint and is quite tall, if you are placing it under a standard height kitchen cabinet you will need to pull the machine out in order to open the water tank (non-removable) or filter basket housing, not a big deal normally, but I like to keep them open to air dry, however on this brewer you cannot open both at the same time and opening either would interfere with opening/closing of your kitchen cabinets. 

The included thermal carafe feels high quality compared to the Zojirushi carafes that I have. However, as is the case with many thermal carafes, it is hard to pour out the last bit of coffee without removing the lid and turning it almost all the way upside down. The carafe includes a silicone straw to help prevent stratification in the brewed coffee to mix the coffee as it goes through the #4 size cone filters. The brewer has an auto drip stop so you can only brew into the provided carafe.

Overall, a solid brewer at a good price point. If I mostly brewed larger batches, I would definitely consider this machine. I normally only brew 1-2 mugs worth of coffee at a time so I use the Ninja CM401 quite a lot to brew directly into a mug or small server. This machine will brew until the water tank is empty, so have a look at our recipe charts for how much water and coffee to use with this machine. This brewer’s cup units are 5 oz of water so you can brew a maximum batch size of 45 oz.

Click here to read the manual.