Drip Coffee Maker Prices 2019: Costs and Features
When deciding on a drip coffee maker for your home or office, one is often faced with a number of good choices. In this post we will explain the differences of the different drip coffee makers available as well as their price tag!
Commercial Drip Coffee Makers vs Domestic Drip Coffee Makers
There are essentially two primary categories of drip coffee makers: Commercial and Domestic. Domestic drip machines are those whose body is made from plastic or a plastic-like material. They are available from most retail shops and either consist of a built in filter basket or, like the industrial versions, use paper filters. Domestic drip coffee makers also almost always have only one filter pot.
Commercial or industrial drip coffee makers are made almost entirely from stainless steel and always are designed to hold and warm two filter jugs at once. Commercial drip machines also always use paper filters instead of built in mesh baskets.
Costs of Different Drip Coffee Maker Brands
Whenever we do a cost comparison of any coffee machine brand we always preface our listings by saying that the actual price of any coffee machine is determined by the reseller and resellers in South Africa are free to choose their own pricing. Therefore the listings below might not represent every coffee company’s price on the market but they do represent at least one seller’s price at the time of posting.
Domestic Drip Coffee Maker Prices
Russell Hobbs 60 ounce
The Russell Hobbs drip coffee maker retails at a number of 
retail outlets , and is one of your more advanced domestic units. This model features a stainless steel finish which is rare for domestic machines and also has a built in PC board to allow for auto switch off/on. The Russell Hobbs has a permanent mesh filter which means you don’t need to buy filter papers but you do need to clean your mesh filter out after each use.
Filter Jug Size: 1.8 litre / 60 ounces
Purchase Price: a neat $ 50 – $60
Russell Hobbs Futura
The Future is one of RH’s entry level filter units. This unit 
doesn’t have any fancy turn on/off features and is part of the appliance ranges of what you see is what you get. The carafe is a glass carafe and the body is made almost entirely of plastic. Like most of the RH filter range, this unit has a built in filter system
Filter Jug Size: 1.5 litres / 50 ounces
Purchase Price: under $ 50!
Defy Stainless Steel Drip Coffee Maker
The Defy Filter Maker is one of the best value for
money home drip makers on the market. This unit has all the bells and whistles of the top of the range Russell Hobbs at a slightly lower cost. Automatic on/off functions, digital display, water level indicator and a stainless steel body is all part of the package making it one of the most all inclusive domestic filter makers on the market.
Filter Jug Size: 1.8 litres / 60 ounces
Purchase Price: under $ 50
Commercial Drip Coffee Maker Prices
Commercial drip coffee makers are made for heavy industrial everyday use and differ compared to the domestic range in three ways:
- They keep coffee hot the whole day
- They don’t burn the coffee and turn it bitter
- They are unfortunately significantly more expensive
The three (probably) most popular industrial brands include Bravilor, Coffee Queen and Avenia.
Bravilor Drip Coffee Makers
The name Bravilor Bonamat is synonymous with drip coffee makers the world over. Thanks to Bravilor, drip coffee makers went mainstream in the restaurant and hospitality trade. We have picked the most popular Bravilor model to feature in this post; the Bravilor Novo 2.
Bravilor Novo 2
The Bravilor Novo 2, like all other industrial filter units, features a 
double jug system with a stainless steel body as well as removable paper filters. Bravilor is regarded as the flagship of drip-system units primarily due to its closed filter pot system and its heat adjusting hot plates. As soon as coffee is brewed and comes into contact with oxygen, the freshness level starts to decrease. Whilst it is impossible to prevent filter coffee form coming into contact with air in the filter pot, Bravilor has designed its pots to have a minimal hole size through which the coffee is brewed. Also Bravilor’s patented heat adjusting hot plates, ensure that the coffee is kept warm but never burns and turns bitter after brewing.
Filter Jug Size: 1.8 litres / 60 ounces
Price: under $ 300
Coffee Queen Drip Coffee Makers
Queen coffee makers belong to the world renowned Crem International coffee group and are probably Bravilor’s biggest competitors worldwide in the drip coffee maker market. Coffee Queen offers a great lower cost alternative to Bravilor for industrial grade drip machines. Queen’s drip coffee makers used to be produced in Holland, like Bravilor, but its manufacturing plant has now moved to China although it has managed to maintain excellent quality nonetheless. In this feature we have chosen coffee queen’s most popular filter unit in South Africa, the Queen M2 filter coffee maker.
Coffee Queen M2
The M2 is probably just as robust as the Bravilor filter machine but 
consists of filter jugs with wide mouths which does allow for a bit more air to come into contact with the coffee once brewed. The Queen units also don’t feature heat adjusting hot plates like the Bravilor, but having said that, if you are likely to consume the coffee in a short space of time then this might not be too much of an issue and you might be better of saving some money on a Queen vs a Bravilor.
Filter Jug Size: 1.8 litres / 60 ounces
Price: $ 240
Animo Drip Coffee Makers
Animo drip coffee makers also hail from the Netherlands and are similarly priced to coffee queen drip makers. Like Coffee Queen and Bravilor, they are also feature pure stainless steel builds. The most popular Animo unit seems to be the Animo Excelso.
The Excelso is the number one selling Animo unit and is 
almost identical to the Queen in design. The Excelso consists of a glass jug (unlike the Bravilor which has a hardened pyrex carafe) so it can be susceptible to breakages under rough conditions.
Price: $ 280
Which Drip Coffee Maker Should You Go For?
There is no set answer to this question unfortunately as the answer depends totally on what your needs are. If you are looking for a drip maker for your home, definitely don’t look at any filter units in the industrial range as they will just be overkill and cost you significantly more than any home filter machine.
If you are looking for a filter unit for your office or restaurant don’t make the mistake of opting for a domestic unit either. Besides for that simple distinction and bit of advice, the rest entirely depends on your budget and your level of coffee appreciation.