Vacuums Reviews

I used it the first time for almost and hour and it worked like a champ. The cover is a little hard to get shut and you almost feel like you are going to break it, but I found it easier if you push one corner down at a time. It is great the instructions even say that you can reuse the bags, which I haven't done yet but is a nice money saving idea. It is a great product and even better because of the price. Rival definitly lives up to its reputation.

Bought this pot with high expectations and was very disapointed. Unit is hard to clean and the coffee is nothing exceptional. After 5 months of use it began double brewing, which which leaves a bitter taste. It now sits in the trash can.

After years of being a 5 or 6 cup a day person, 4 years ago I got the big Santos and discovered what great coffee the vacuum process makes. So good that I find I only want 1 cup in the morning now. The automatic drip "brown water" we have at work just isn't worth drinking after a good cup of coffee.

But the quality issues (or maybe design flaws) can't be denied. After about a year (barely within the warranty) the pot on the big Santos cracked and the company replaced it. A bit more than a year later, the pot cracked again. So I bought the "mini" and was happy again. After a bit more than a year that pot cracked, and I got another one. After a bit more than a year again, that pot started to trip my fuses - so I bought a new "state of the art" (and very expensive)drip machine thinking I would just learn to like drip coffee again.

After two months of drinking drip coffee, and never being satisfied by it, I visited this site and saw a message about making sure there was never any liquid left standing in the pot because it could leak into the heating elements. I got out the mini again and can report that for 3 months I've been happily enjoying good coffee again. Letting it get good and dry between uses seems to have solved the problem.

I have had a mini-Bodum for about 5 years. It brews an excellent pot of coffee--although I find the measure spoon (1 measure per cup) is too strong for my taste--I use about 1/3 less. (I get the best results with Starbucks Verona coffee ground on no. 5 setting.)

Yes, the machine will break eventually--I had to replace the nylon filter after 4 years, and finally the rubber vacuum seal failed on the original pot, so I bought a new unit. Never had problems with the heating unit. But what do you expect? It's made of plastic. For $60 I can afford to replace the unit every 4-5 years.

Bottom line, its better than drip coffee, and a whole lot cheaper than buying an automatic espresso machine.