Chemex

Why r/BuyItForLife recommends Chemex

72 mentions from real owners

• #1Dec 22, 2025

  Bunn coffee makers no luck here

  have you tried pour over? a chemex and a kettle will last you a lifetime. i suppose you could get a fancy electric kettle but i cant help there also your coffee will taste better and not as burnt

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• #2Dec 3, 2025

  Affordable, high-quality coffee maker

  Could we worth getting a Chemex. You put a paper filter over the glass body and make nice coffee. Can put in dishwasher. Lasts 20+ years. No electronics!

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• #3Dec 2, 2025

  Thank you BIFL Community, Looking Forward to Great Tasting Coffee for a Looooong Time!

  Get you a chemex. Works great. It’s a simple piece of glass

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• #4Oct 7, 2025

  Looking for a coffee machine that lasts forever

  Chemex pour over.

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• #5Oct 7, 2025

  Looking for a coffee machine that lasts forever

  If you don't need a machine specifically you can do a Chemex. Had mine for 7 years I think. Then I've also had a mocha pot for 8 years. They both work flawlessly and have so little that could possibly even make them break other than just dropping them. I don't have experience with any coffee machines though

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• #6Oct 7, 2025

  Looking for a coffee machine that lasts forever

  Chemex

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• #7Oct 7, 2025

  Looking for a coffee machine that lasts forever

  We use a pour over(Chemex) or a French Press. 10+ years at this point with almost nothing to break or fail. Get a electric kettle and it'll make life easier.

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• #8Oct 7, 2025

  Looking for a coffee machine that lasts forever

  Just kidding, I just saw your budget is $250, so I agree with everyone else– you can’t go wrong with a Chemex or Bialetti or something in that realm

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• #9Oct 7, 2025

  Looking for a coffee machine that lasts forever

  Hard to screw up a chemex, pour over, or aeropress.

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• #10Oct 7, 2025

  Looking for a coffee machine that lasts forever

  No one's saying a pour over? Really? I have a ceramic Gevalia that I bought used at a vintage shop like... 15 years ago. You probably wouldn't even be able to tell that I've used it.... chemex is definitely the popular one now.

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• #11Oct 4, 2025

  Best coffee maker? Is there anything new in 2025?

  Chemex. Always has been. Boil water in a kettle, put the ground beans in the filter and pout the water over the beans. It’s simple, easy to clean, and there are no plastic parts. Just do it.

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• #12Oct 4, 2025

  Best coffee maker? Is there anything new in 2025?

  Chemex sells a wire grid for $14.

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• #13Oct 3, 2025

  Best coffee maker? Is there anything new in 2025?

  A simple French Press or Chemex is the only true BIFL coffee maker.

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• #14Oct 3, 2025

  Best coffee maker? Is there anything new in 2025?

  Id like to throw my setup into the hat. Espresso - ecm synchronika ii, eureka libra ap grinder. Drip - technivorm moccamaster (i have the one with the insulated carafe that’s glass lined. Inuse a df 64 as my grinder for coffee. I also have a capresso bur grinder that is semi retired/backup. Its lasted about 10 years, and still kicking. I used it every day. Pour over chemex. Melita makes some decent ones too but the chemex is all glass which i like.

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• #15Oct 3, 2025

  Best coffee maker? Is there anything new in 2025?

  Chemex ftw

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• #16Oct 3, 2025

  Best coffee maker? Is there anything new in 2025?

  Chemex all the way

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• #17Sep 4, 2025

  What's a purchase under $50 that has genuinely improved your daily routine?

  Don't get an Aeropress -- pouring near boiling hot water into 100% plastic components is a terrible idea and leaches a ton of microplastics. Get a Chemex

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• #18Aug 4, 2025

  Tiny coffee gadgets that make a big difference?

  honestly for affordable options, there is the chemex pour over and the bialetti mokkapot (more of an espresso maker), and then for drip coffee I think the zojirushi is often mentioned as a high quality product, albeit pricier. this is all more so thinking of whether you had guests, and wanted to offer options if they prefer a certain style of coffee. or just if you like to change it up from time to time.

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• #19Jul 11, 2025

  Daily Use BIFL Breakfast Gear

  That is a great description, i do the same. It’s like my in between pot. Chemex is for regular cups, moka for a slightly stronger, espresso for the kick.

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• #20Jul 11, 2025

  Daily Use BIFL Breakfast Gear

  We have a 10” cast iron that basically stays on the stove top. It gets used 2-3 times a day. We have probably far too many coffee making variations. I rotate between chemex and the bialetti.

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• #21Jul 11, 2025

  Daily Use BIFL Breakfast Gear

  Cast iron skillet, Chemex coffee maker, and a good toaster xxx

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• #22Jul 8, 2025

  Going to university for 5+ years – what are the best affordable BIFL items I should invest in?

  if you are cooking try to invest in a cast iron cookware for a start or stainless steel. A few brands I recommend De Buyer Staub If you like Coffee I suggest go for filtered coffee go for Chemex Do you also looking for a bag, tech stuff? Jan from [BIFLKitchen.com](http://BIFLKitchen.com)

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• #23Jul 6, 2025

  Non-Plastic Automatic Coffee Maker?

  Yes. Moccamaster is better than some because the boiler and internal tubing are made of metal. Leeching occurs more with hot water and prolonged contact. But the hot water does move through the brew basket into the pot, so it's not perfect. Ratio 8 is a borosilicate reservoir, all steel and glass internals. It or Chemex Ottomatic are probably your best bets.

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• #24Jul 3, 2025

  Ever Bought Something That Quietly Changed You?

  The very last time the reddit secret Santa ran, my secret Santa bought me a copper gooseneck kettle from a coffee brand. I had asked for a kettle for a different reason, but the idea of trying pour over coffee was intriguing now that I had one. Bought the chemex from the same brand, bought coffee, gave it a try. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Also, loved it so much more than coffee makers. It gave me both a new appreciation for coffee, and a new appreciation for doing things *without* a whole appliance. I now use my pour over less often than moka pots that I've bought, but I also use a steel French press at work and I can hardly stand crap out of keurigs. I hand grind my beans with a non electric burr grinder. Well brewed coffee goes a long way to a good experience. Even for people like me who use lots of cream, sugar, and chocolate. Worth it. Whoever that was, you made a couple big changes in me that will stay forever.

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• #25Jun 11, 2025

  Pour Ova Coffee Maker

  I was an avid Chemex person for years, but after breaking the third one (not Chemex’ fault!), I moved to an Asobu pour over that my spouse got from her job.  It’s a basic pour over with an insulated stainless steel bottom vessel and a metal filter. It works great. Plus, if you break the glass part or lose a part, they sell those individually on the website. I have a small set of backup pieces if I need them.  Your other options are something like a Kalita or V60. 

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• #26Jun 11, 2025

  Pour Ova Coffee Maker

  I have a Chemex and have brought several as gifts for close friends and family. The beauty of the Chemex is that you can buy replacement parts and it’s very easy to clean. The other one that catches my attention is the bodum one. It’s better priced and has a reusable filter.

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• #27Jun 6, 2025

  Looking for coffee maker recommendations please!

  Why not a Chemex? They come in 10 cup sizes. Heat up water in a kettle or on the stove or get the fancy Chemex water heater. Bonus: it's pretty enough to be in the MoMA

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• #28Jun 2, 2025

  The Best Coffee Maker on the Market to Buy?

  If you want something that lasts and makes great coffee, try the Technivorm Moccamaster or a good pour-over setup like a Chemex. Simple, reliable, and tasty!

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• #29May 11, 2025

  Found this cleaning out my grandparents’ basement….worth making my first coffee maker?

  There's nothing more BIFL that makes amazing coffee than a chemex pour over.

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• #30May 10, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  Chemex pour over

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• #31May 10, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  You can put your chemex on your stove top on a Low setting with a gas stove. They say to use a wire grid for an electric but I’ve had no issues.

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• #32May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  Chemex and a water kettle.

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• #33May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  I'm sure someone else has said it, but I honestly haven't found better than a gooseneck electric kettle, a kitchen scale, and the pour-over method. Personally, I have a Chemex vase that I use a metal replacement filter with. I like how the metal lets oils through, but if you like clean coffee like my wife does you can use paper filters instead. We've also had good experiences with V60s. When I want coffee, I just measure out the amount of coffee I want (I use two scoops of the same spoon every time, but you can be more precise) and boil some water. I use the scale to pour exactly 500mL of boiling water each time. Always a good cup of coffee, always pretty quick, and always easy to clean. If you want to be fancy, you can experiment with bean amounts, water temperatures, getting a grinder and grind size, or pouring methods. But honestly, you get a good cup of coffee just with pre-ground coffee, boiling water, and eyeballing the finished amount.

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• #34May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  Honestly my Chemex is my daily

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• #35May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  Chemex with stainless filter & a Baratza burr grinder. You can make several cups at a time if you get the larger size Chemex. Delicious every time.

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• #36May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  If I’m making coffee for a group, I usually prefer my chemex or a French press.

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• #37May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  Chemex or French press. If you're not good with glass, go for a stainless steel French press.

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• #38May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  The inverted method is the only method, in my opinion. My only gripe with Aeropress is it's plastic. Yes, they now make a glass one but it's pricy and breakable. I make pottery and have recently perfected my pour over. It's functionally a Chemex.

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• #39May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  I had to scroll down way too far to find a chemex. It's simple, really aesthetically nice, makes great coffee.

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• #40May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  chemex or french press. Either one is so brain dead easy. Neither requires an extra appliance on counter.

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• #41May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  I love my coffee and have tried various coffee makers. Fancy machines are over rated. The humble bialaetti moka pot is the best in my view. They come in different sizes so you can make as big of a pot as you like. I much prefer it to a french press as moka pot makes a stronger more flavourful coffee in my view. Chemex coffee make is also nice but moka pot is my daily driver.

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• #42May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  10 cup Chemex. All you’ll ever need for the best cup of coffee. And a decent grinder.

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• #43May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  Chemex/aeropress/hario. They’re all simple and the only inconsistency is the user or beans you’re brewing with

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• #44May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  Chemex, and whatever you use to boil water. The Chemex will last 1000 years as long as you don’t drop it.

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• #45May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  I really like my chemex. Simple, consistent, beautiful, and made in the states. Just like me. 

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• #46May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  A chemex or a simple pour over will last for decades

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• #47May 9, 2025

  Best device to make a pot of coffee?

  The moccamaster is commonly thought to be the best drip coffee maker.  Beyond that, glass pour overs like chemex are great. BIFL unless you drop it. No moving parts, and no contact with plastic. They make bigger ones for more volume if you need it. 

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• #48May 8, 2025

  Found this cleaning out my grandparents’ basement….worth making my first coffee maker?

  Honestly? No. All automatic drip machines eventually taste like ass. $40 Mr Coffee? Ass. $300 MochaMaster? Ass. You have to run caustic chemicals through them to clean the water path, and eventually get lingering flavors that are gross. I gave up on all auto drip machines in favor of a Chemex back before they called it "pour over" -- it's just a drip machine you do the dripping on. Simple glass carafe, easy to clean, excellent coffee.

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• #49Mar 10, 2025

  Best Coffee machines recommendation?

  I love my aeropress, just not as much when I'm making coffee for guests. I bring out the Chemex or the French Press for that.

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• #50Mar 5, 2025

  Looking for espresso machine

  If you choose to be economical, you can go for manual coffee. The tools you need are: Gooseneck Kettle: Control the water flow rate. A narrow-mouthed kettle is recommended. Dripper: Hario V60, Kalita Wave, Chemex, etc. Filter Paper: Match your filter cup size and brand. Burr Grinder: Even grinding is important. It is recommended to use an electric or manual conical grinder. Scale: Accurately control the ratio of powder to water (commonly used 1:15 or 1:16). Timer: Helps control the extraction time (usually 2-3 minutes). Coffee Beans: Choose beans suitable for hand brewing (such as medium-light roast) Thermometer: Make sure the water temperature is between 90-96°C

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• #51Feb 8, 2025

  Plastic taste in my coffee maker… looking for new one. Any suggestions?

  Chemex or, and I don’t know why nobody is recommending it, a French press. The espro is the best

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• #52Feb 8, 2025

  Plastic taste in my coffee maker… looking for new one. Any suggestions?

  Chemex is all glass

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• #53Feb 3, 2025

  what is the best coffee maker you've ever used?

  We received a Chemex in an event "swag bag" about 2008; it's the true "buy it for life," we still have the same one. The wood and strap are holding up, it will never break on its own. I love the coffee from it, it's my preference by far. We only own an electric coffeemaker b/c my husband insists on it. So I buy him the Ninja coffeemaker, it's ok, probably the best one for under-$100 price range.

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• #54Feb 3, 2025

  Coffee machine for life? (or at least a few years)

  Would you consider a larger Chemex perhaps? We really enjoy our pour over along with an electric kettle!

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• #55Feb 3, 2025

  what is the best coffee maker you've ever used?

  The Chemex produces the top coffee every time, not even a competition.

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• #56Feb 2, 2025

  what is the best coffee maker you've ever used?

  Moccamaster, Chemex and V60 are all great options but very different. The Chemex and V60 will literally never fail unless you fail by dropping it but its manual pour over. I’ve been using a Chemex and V60 for over a decade and love it, but if you don’t want to learn the process or don’t have time or interest the Mocca is damn good. My mom has one and makes not great pre-ground taste pretty good.

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• #57Feb 1, 2025

  what is the best coffee maker you've ever used?

  I’m a big fan of pour overs so biased opinions here. If you’re regularly making for more than 2 people I’d say go for the chemex, but if it’s just you and maybe one other person then the v60 is the way to go.  Now for these you will want a temp controlled gooseneck kettle(or fixed 212 degree with a thermometer), a scale, and a burr grinder(that’s important as blade grinders are inconsistent and won’t let you experiment with the different flavors you can get out of coffee). Will say, that the “fine coffee” bug can bite hard, and there’s a lot of tools(scales,kettles,grinders,etc) out there.  Id say start cheap with the scale/kettle because it will last a long time. And if you feel an upgrade is necessary(most of the time due to personal preference not anything wrong with them) then upgrade.

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• #58Feb 1, 2025

  what is the best coffee maker you've ever used?

  Have used a chemex daily for 5 years and no complaints

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• #59Jan 5, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  My chemex has lasted the test of time

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• #60Jan 5, 2025

  Need a Coffee Maker Recommendation Under $100 CAD

  OP I would think about how much time you wanna spend making coffee. If you are trying to break the habit of drive thru, and do it at home quick and easy, you gotta think in terms of what ritual you wanna follow so that you stick to it long term. Drip is super easy, turn it on and walk away to get ready for the day. The other options in here have varying times to brew and some require a kettle and you manually doing things. I use a hario v60 or a chemex depending on how many cups, and it's about 15 min all-in depending on how much water I'm boiling.

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• #61Jan 5, 2025

  Need a Coffee Maker Recommendation Under $100 CAD

  Love a Chemex, but I would go so far as to say dark roast is better from a French press. So much of the flavor and mouth feel that makes dark roast delicious is from the oil extracted from the longer roast period. This oil is removed by the paper filter typically used in pour over. Chemex for light roast, French press for dark roast.

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• #62Jan 5, 2025

  Need a Coffee Maker Recommendation Under $100 CAD

  No moving parts. It doesn't break unless you break it. Get a Chemex pour over. https://chemexcoffeemaker.com/

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• #63Jan 4, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  My parents have one of those fellow goose neck electric kettles which they use every day since they do chemex pour overs. They've had it for about 5 years now and they love it so much that they kept the original packaging so they could carefully pack it and take it with them on every single vacation they go on 😂. My parents went on a ski trip recently and sure enough, they packed the kettle.... (and the chemex, which they also have the original packaging for for packing purposes lmao).

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• #64Jan 4, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  Chemex pour over has lasted me years and years. So has my hario electric kettle

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• #65Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  Chemex that my grandmother bought in the 60's. New leather piece to hold on the wood bits. Unbleached paper filters from Cost Plus (World Market) on black Friday. I tried other filters: hemp, linen, gold, but it's messy and not as tasty, and the paper composts. Aero press for traveling. Kopiko as needed (just discovered it last month in grocery outlet 😁).

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• #66Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  I LOVE my Chemex, but my friend has a De'Longhi and 1 of these days I'll pull the trigger

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• #67Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  I have a Chemex because I like quality but also quantity when it comes to coffee. I also have a Porlex manual burr grinder which is great. I simply hate the sound of an electric grinder first thing in the morning!

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• #68Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  Chemex with paper filters is BIFL so long as you don't drop it on the ground and break the glass. It's pour over mechanism, pretty fool proof. Bonus is that there's no plastic involved and can make a full pot of coffee pretty quick.

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• #69Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  Chemex.

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• #70Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  I have a Chemex pourover carafe and a gooseneck kettle. I did decide on an electric kettle which won’t last forever but I kept my old stovetop one for backup (and power outages). My teenager has her own keurig but she only uses it if we’re out of mom’s coffee because it’s better lol.

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• #71Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  An old school moka pot. Those things are practically indestructible and if you do need to replace the innards, they're pretty cheap to replace too. I keep breaking glass french presses, but my Chemex I've dropped, dropped shit on and practically dribbled. I'm not sure what type of industrial glass it is made of, but I would definitely put a Chemex up there. My aeropress has a lot of pieces. I'm not a fan of that unless I'm traveling because I don't do crap coffee. So as far as durability, youd need to ask a regular user. Another option is those pour over systems. I don't know what they're called but those are those filter holders that sit on the top of a coffee cup and you would do a pour over cup of coffee. Those are indestructible. I think the plastic would have to denature or you'd have to run over it with a truck. I suppose you could put it on a burner and melt it. But I'm assuming you're not going to *try* to destroy it. Still, espresso drinker, indestructible, you want one of the old school stove top moka pots. Takes a lickin, keeps on tickin'. I find brand new ones in thrift stores all the time, when I'm looking to replace my French presses that I broke.

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• #72Jan 3, 2025

  What home coffee essentials have held up and lasted you over time?

  I’m a Cheney user. No moving parts nothing to break. Got a metal Blue? Filter. Works fantastic and makes a great coffee every time!

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