Zojirushi EC-YGC120 Coffee Maker, 12-Cup, Stainless 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 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!!

Without a doubt, after many years of trying different brands, this is the coffee maker I wish I had purchased many years ago.There are some cons to owning it, and I will get into that later, but for now I want to focus on the quality coffee this unit makes.So, with two uncles who are chefs, I learned a long time ago that an oil slick on top of black coffee is not good. Apparently, the oil slick occurs when the water temperature is not well regulated. Indeed, this machine makes coffee with almost no oil slick at all -- even with inexpensive beans.I do not grind my own coffee. I buy it ground on the spot or pre-packaged. I purchased five different varieties of coffee ranging from $6 to $23 per pound to use with this machine and all have been excellent when brewed with this masterful piece of equipment.I drink black coffee. This is an expert machine for preparing black coffee. I am sure with cream or sugar it is just as exceptional.The pros: The detachable water tank makes filling so easy. It is beautifully designed for filling and placement. The lid is rigid and goes on or off without any hassle and the tank is wide enough inside to clean easily.There is a speed mode that makes the same quality coffee as the full length cycle. The manual refers to it as being noisier, which would be an issue maybe in a one room Japanese apartment, but is not loud enough to even consider here in a big house. The coffee finishes well on either setting.The coffee this machine makes is just wonderful. Enough said.Now to the cons: So, when I read the manual I learned that water for this machine needs to be less than 200ppm mineral -- meaning my local tap water is no good - I would end up with scale, clogs and a useless machine. So, I purchase distilled water for .99 a jug and that makes four pots of coffee (8 cup) approximately - I can live with that.The permanent basket in the machine is very good, but it has a really fine mesh and it takes a bit of extra effort to fully clean it each day. I would not change this, but I make coffee at 5AM - and maybe it would be a bit more ideal if the machine came with a cleaning brush that would get particulate out of the filter quickly.The stainless steel carafe is double walled, somewhat insulated, and will keep coffee hot for the typical amount of time most households would want. I would say it stays up to temperature for a bit more than an hour before it starts to cool. I like that there is no glass pot with a heating element, but if I were having a party and needed hot coffee over a longer period of time, this might prove a bit of a challenge. For me, ordering a second carafe will probably make it so I can have a fresh run all through the party.Summary: I would recommend this coffee maker to anyone who enjoys good coffee. The most impressive thing about it is the ability to make lovely coffee out of cheap beans. I will probably never buy expensive coffee over ten dollars a bag again, as the difference in this maker between $10 and $23 coffee is negligible.If you are using expensive beans today, this coffee maker will pay for itself by allowing you to enjoy more economical coffee over the course of its life.Using distilled water with less than 2ppm mineral, I am confident this machine will last a minimum of five years with daily use. I am super thrilled with it.

After reading reviews for many other coffee makers on Amazon.ca in the $100-200 price range, my partner and I felt discouraged. Too many bad reviews. Then we increased our price range to around $250 and bought this excellent ZOJI Rushi EC-YTC100XB.To save you time on research, here's why we rank the Zoji Rushi Programmable coffee maker 5 STARS:EASE OF USE:This Coffee Maker is intuitive and easy to use and also comes with a manual. The reservoir is removable for easy filling, as is the coffee basket. PLUS it comes with a metal filter that you can remove if you prefer paper filters.PRO-TIP - Filters: The manual warns not to use both metal filter and paper filter together. Simply choose one way or the other. This is because "double filtering" on any coffee pot will result in water not passing into the carafe, and thus grind/coffee overflow will happen. Easy to avoid: Don't double-down on your filters. :)PRO-TIP - Water: Use filtered water, and do not EVER use your coffee pot to fill your reservoir. This is because you do not want oils from your cofee to get into your machine. That will decrease the life-span of the machine and will make your coffee taste bitter.PROGRAMMABLE TIMER:It is programmable up to 24 hours, so your coffee is ready before your clock alarm wakes you. I don't know about you, but Monday mornings are always a little bit easier if my coffee is ready as soon as I step out of bed. It beeps once when the coffee has finished brewing, so you'll hear it.HOW LOUD? Like a microwave sounds when it's done.INSULATED STAINLESS STEEL METAL CARAFE:The ZOJI thermal pot has kept our coffee hot for (at least) 3 hours. We drank it all during that time, so we can't attest to a longer period.HOW HOT? If you're a coffee connoisseur, you'll know that coffee shouldn't be McDonald's grade hot, as that can harm the actual taste of your beans (and lead to burns). The ZOJI Rushi kept it hot enough for "latte style" creamer amounts, without reducing the heat level that much. Still warm and delicious.SMOOTH COFFEE THAT'S NOT BITTER:Due to the precise heating of the ZOJI, and the use of filtered water, the coffee tastes so smooth and rich without a bitter aftertaste. It would taste even better, once we upgrade our grinder to a conical burr grinder. So, if you're a serious coffee lover, and you've found a burr grinder you love, please let me know in your comments!MAKES ICED COFFEE:Just tried it and it's rich, not at all bitter. Drinking mine black now. No sugar needed.PRO-TIP - iced coffee brewing: If you make iced coffee in the metal carafe, DO NOT put the ice in the carafe before brewing. Wait until after brewing to add the ice. (They explain in the guide.) Stir. Then add more ice to your glass.EASY TO CLEAN:PRO-TIP - gentle cleaning. Use a dedicated soft-bristled bottle brush for your coffee pot interior, lid, and basket. This ensures that no other flavours are introduced to your pot. Use a minimal amount of soap.When rinsing, do 1 rinse, dump out the water, then a 2nd rinse where you "swirl" the carafe as you pour out the water. This makes sure that no soap remains around the "lip" of the pot. Repeat this "2nd rinse" method until the pot shows no more soap bubbles.DURABILITY:We just got it this week, so time will tell. However, I can confirm that the parts look durable and if you follow the cleaning/care directions, I'm guessing they will last a while. I'll let you all know if/when this new ZOJIrushi coffee maker stops working.Enjoy your brew and I hope this was helpful.

I had to replace my 12 year old B&D thermal carafe coffee maker that died. I wanted a durable, reliable, well made drip coffee maker with a good thermal carafe, that makes excellent coffee.I looked around, concluded I would have to pay a bit more for a really good carafe, and wound up choosing the Zojirushi. I've had it for about 4 months now and drink an 8+ cup carafe every morning. With my favourite beans, fresh ground, it provides very flavourful coffee that the carafe keeps hot for as long as I need to finish it.It is well designed for easy filling of the water tank and reading water level, and easy cleaning of all parts. I prefer my drip coffee without fines so I use paper filters in place of the reusable basket, and for me that works fine. It is a little taller than I expected but still fits fine under my counter top cupboards. A thoughtfully designed, easy to use, high quality machine that delivers exactly what I want. I am very pleased so far.4 years of use now, and I wouldn't change anything I said previously. It still looks like new and still makes 8+ excellent cups a day. I've used several different beans and results with all were very good. Only suggestions for optimal experience are 1) descale the machine every 3 months, and 2) warm the carafe before brewing.

This has been the best coffee maker we have owned and we do like out coffee!! It costs more but worth it. The best feature is the ease in which it can filled with water...the detachable container can be filled and put back into the unit, which makes filling a lot more convenient. We use the filter provided as we like strong coffee, and there is a feature to speed up the brewing time when in a rush. The timer unit is also easy to put on the night before so the coffee is waiting for us in the morning! Very pleased!

We got some gift cards as wedding gifts and, as people who'd always used either $40 coffee makers or French presses, wanted to treat ourselves to a fancy, expensive machine. Thank goodness we held on to our cheap, trusty old Black and Decker drip machine, because here are the highlights:- Can't change the heat setting once it's on (i.e. from "hot" during brewing to "warm" once it's done and you just want to keep it warm)- Can't turn it back on to keep coffee warm either, if you try turning it off and on again or after it times out and turns itself off (it won't turn back on unless you have added water and coffee)- Overflowed repeatedly with both paper filters and reusable filter basket. This was not human error.There were other issues too, but I honestly can't remember. I was just glad to get this haunted/possessed appliance out of my house.