“SUMMARY: We are very happy with our refurbished Ratio Six purchase and would recommend it to anyone. I've had some delicious pots that have kept warm and tasted good for the whole morning. FULL DISCLOSURE: I have only brewed up to the 6-cup line (about 1000ml) so far.
My areas of concern may or may not be Ratio-specific, but they are likely specific to the coffee enthusiast! Maybe one day we can have lots of people over again and serve them coffee . . .
WHY WE BOUGHT IT: (1) Many mornings I was spending too much time making several pour overs and (2) we want to be able to serve guests more easily.
HOW I USE IT: (after a couple months, used 1–3 times a week):
• Recipe: 55–60g (light to medium roast) coffee and 1000ml water (aim: 1:16.5–1:18 coffee water ratio. I haven't tried a full pot yet (1.3L)
• Ground by hand on my Comandante between 29–35 clicks (depends mainly on origin: washed Ethiopians drain a lot slower making a lot of fines)
• Insert filter (no coffee). Fill water up to '8' line. Press button to preheat everything and pre-wet filter until water level reaches just below the '6' cup line.
• Dose the coffee. Shake it level. Insert basket and heat gasket and hit button again.
• Towards end of "bloom" I carefully grab the basket and carafe and swirl them several times to help more evenly saturate the coffee bed (See why below). I do this without allowing the carafe to lose its contact with the unit.
• Just before the reservoir is empty I swirl it again (i.e., during the drawdown phase).
• When the coffee is "ready" I take the carafe and basket out to see how the slurry is draining.
• Total time has been about 6:30–8:00 minutes, depending on coffee origin and grind size.
GENERAL THOUGHTS:
• I am admittedly coffee obsessed. I think for most people this would make as good a cup of coffee as any other auto-drip machine. In my experience, most of the time the coffee has been very good and occasionally excellent.
•To get the most out of this brewer, and perhaps any automatic drip machine, I feel like I've had to intervene to agitate the brew and reduce channeling. Without this, I see divots in the coffee bed from the shower screen after brewing, which suggests channeling to me. Reducing grind size helps the problem go away visually, but has been astringent, suggesting channeling anyway. So a somewhat coarse grind (30 clicks on the Comandante – normally I use about 22 clicks for a single-cup V60) and agitation seems to help.
• I think it uses a very reasonable amount of water for the bloom cycle, which is great. Everything at least gets wet, if not quite as evenly as I'd hope. I'd love either: even more water for the bloom cycle, a more constant flow from the shower screen during this phase (= shorter pauses for the heating element?), or a faster and more agitating flow during this phase to agitate the bed.
• Water squirts from the shower screen more on one side at times, and more on the other at other times. Sometimes I rotate the carafe/basket to compensate.
• I wish it were easier for me to agitate the coffee bed with the heat shield on.
• I love that there is a heat shield, increasing brewing temperature. I wish (1) the brew temperature were adjustable and (2) I hadn't just lost my heat gasket. Can I even buy another one off of the website?
• Great customer service! I wrote to Ratio to ask about the recipes in the brew guide, which were somewhat confusing to me (E.g., pouring in exactly 975ml does not actually fill to the 6-cup line as indicated by the brew guide, but instead requires more than 1000ml of water. Using the recommended 53g dose of coffee would be a very wide almost 1:19 ratio of coffee/water. They responded quickly, writing that some water is lost to evaporation (so the effective coffee/water ratio may not be so wide?) and also that the brew guides are good starting places especially for people who buy finely ground coffee, lest they use too much coffee and overflow. Knowing that, I would love to know how the folks at Ratio themselves brew on the machine.
• No carafe I know of pours perfectly, this one included. I suppose I wish it were better.
• Occasionally the machine goes from "Bloom" to "Brew" to "Ready" with most of the water left in the reservoir. Thankfully this has only happened, oddly, when I'm running a pre-heat and rinse, so I haven't had to restart a brew.
CONCLUSION. This is a very solid auto-drip machine which has performed as we hoped, so I recommend it! I still gravitate towards single-cup brewing but this has been a nice way to make a liter of coffee at a time and keep it hot for the morning. Well done!”
Thanks for the very detailed feedback!
We use 70-75g of "medium coarse" coffee (typically setting 21 on a freshly calibrated Baratza Encore or Virtuoso).
Check your mail for a replacement heat shield!
Best,
Mark and the Ratio team
“The Ratio Six was amazing straight out of the box. I brewed my first cup and instantly loved it. The thermal carafe is a bit wonky to pour from but I can live with that knowing the pour over is made reliably each time.”
“I'm thoroughly enjoying my new Ratio Six coffee maker. It's SO easy to use! The best part is how it makes the coffee taste - AMAZING. I'm truly impressed with the quality of the coffee maker and the taste of my coffee. Yum!”
“Incredibly well made and thoughtfully designed piece of equipment. Not a scratch on the refurbished model. Only gripes are that the included parts aren't labeled (easy to find the info online!) and that the seal on the top of the water tank is so good that condensation forms inside during brewing, which I worry about long term with the plastic - another easy fix, though, just take the lid off and let it air out when you're done.
Easy to use, easy to care for, and makes a very good, incredibly clean, hot cup of coffee. Really excellent piece here, massive upgrade over my old 1900TS.”
