I have been making cold brew coffee for about 20 years now. In that time I have tried various methods, often tedious and/or messy. This rapid brewer provides an experience very comparable to a traditional countertop coffee maker. Fill with water and ground coffee, press a couple of buttons and walk away. Come back in 15-20 minutes for ready to drink coffee and a cup of grounds to dispose of. Since there is no paper filter, you will need to rinse out the screens, but that's pretty simple.

The pro: it makes good cold brew coffee. The con: THIS MACHINE IS LOUD. It uses a loud vacuum pump to force water through the grinds. We've had to exile it to the utility room with the door closed, and it is too loud to use in the morning. The note: This device has quite a few plastic parts that require cleaning after use. If you crack one of them you may have some trouble getting the part replaced. The oddity: it takes a lot (6+ oz? per the manual) of coffee grinds to properly fill the 40 oz carafe with cold brew. I've been using the lowest of three provided settings and stepping back the amount of coffee it uses to fill the carafe, as the top two settings are stronger than I need. The improvements: they should consider some metal parts, make the carafe and the grinds vessel snap into place with a stronger click, and maybe use some sound isolation for the pump if they can't find a less noisy unit. I'm still learning how to use this thing tho it seems straightforward.

Durability:I've had this coffee maker for around 9 months, and it's working just as well as the day I bought it. It's fairly easy to clean, although you need to make sure you aren't too rough around the mesh, you can push it away from the plastic and have to glue it back (with a food safe glue of course). I did recently break the bottom edge of the outer well, and it does still work and sit on top of the maker fine. This isn't a failure of the material, I accidentally dropped it in a rather spectacular fashion that I seriously doubt they're testing for in a QA lab.Ease of Use:This thing is pretty damn simple to use. Setup the machine in a permanent location on your counter near an outlet, suction cupping it down, and plug it in. After, take your ground coffee and put it into the inner basket and assemble it on top of the machine. Then you fill the carafe with the coldest water you can get your hands on, slide it in to a satisfying 'click'. After that, all you do it select your strength and hit start!In terms of cleaning, it's very easy to clean, just rinse thoroughly with water most days, and give it a decent washing once a week. It rinses out so easily that if you're brewing coffee every day or every other day there's not much need to seriously soap it down each time as long as you empty the used grounds after brewing.NOTE: The mesh will get discolored after a while, it still is clean, just stained from the coffee, looks gross, but it's fine.Flavor:I will say, most people I know who drink cold brew definitely like strong coffee, and so you'll want to use the "BOLD" setting on the machine to get a full-strength and full flavor coffee. This takes about ~15 minutes which is longer than the 9 minute advertised time. Still MUCH quicker than making it the night before and letting it steep in the fridge for hours!The actual coffee comes out flavorful and smooth, of course your mileage will vary with your choice of bean. It's perfectly respectable coffee and to be honest, if you think "Starbucks" when you think cold brew, this machine is about on par, which for my purposes is more than enough for my daily cup. If you're looking for something to match the boutique cafe down the street where they've memorized your name and order, you're likely going to need to double or triple your budget for that kind of coffee machine.Feature Suggestions:Honestly, I'd love to see an option for this with an even larger carafe, say 60oz! It'd also be nice to have a more premium version that can be hooked into a water line directly.Lastly, I wouldn't mind this hypothetical premium version using metal for the top assembly that holds the coffee grounds, would help with keeping it clean and increase the durability a bit more.Overall Review:This is a fantastic cold-brew machine and I'm very happy with my purchase. I've suggested it to friends, family and co-workers looking to cold brew at home. The price is a tad high, but it does go on sale frequently enough. If you love cold brew and are trying to save your wallet from the clutches of Starbucks, you can't go wrong with this machine. While you're at it, get a coffee grinder and by your coffee whole bean, it'll last longer and taste even fresher!

So there used to be a point at which during the Brewing phase the unit would stop and then the peristaltic pump would reverse so that it could drain the Brew filter on top..Well at some point it decided it was no longer going to do this and so I have modified with a switch to force it to reverse the pump so it properly drains the Brew container on top where most of the best coffee ends up being trapped..Without this reverse cycle not only does it not drain the upper Brew container but it also never purges a line and may trap bacteria in the machine..The company needs to remedy this situation this is really bad and isn't only very annoying and inconvenient and wastes coffee but it could be dangerous to the customers health!I know numerous people this has happened too and I decided to get to the bottom of it and I have a video on YouTube on how to remedy it.