“Ratio Six: A pre-production model review
Before you read this review, I need to make a couple of things clear:
- I own a coffee equipment company that distributes the Ratio 8.
- This is based on a pre-production version of the Ratio 6.
- We test many items for our suppliers - some that never make it to market, and the reason that we do is we are brutally honest with our feedback. We won’t sell what we wouldn’t use ourselves.
- Rather than go into technical details, I’m going to stick with usability and output for this review.
The Ratio 8 is the brewer that we use in our office every day - in fact, even our warehouse demanded that we give them their own 8 to have for themselves so they didn’t have to wait for great coffee from the office. Why is it the brewer we use?
- it makes great coffee
- it’s simple to use
- it looks beautiful in the showroom (and now in the warehouse)!
- It requires no intervention from anyone to get the best coffee after loading the water and the coffee
- It’s super high quality
This is, of course, not a review of the Ratio 8 but it I wanted to share what we were benchmarking it against.
Out of the box, it’s clear that changes have been made aesthetically, and from a materials perspective, to meet a much more competitive price point and to separate it from its more expensive big brother. However, even in this early form, it looks and feels like a high quality coffee brewer save a few pre-production issues that I will come to later.
The Ratio 6 consists of the brewing unit itself, a thermal carafe with lid, a flat bottomed brew basket (a significant change from the 8), a drip tray/stand for the brew basket, and one more piece that is designed to elevate the coffee quality output even further. More on that to come.
This machine is designed to make brewing coffee simple and, for that, it gets a serious thumbs up. It’s super easy to set up and straight forward to use: put the water in the tank, the filter and coffee in the basket, press the single button on the base of the unit and wait for the coffee to brew. Brew time is on par with other brewers at ~6 min mark for a full 40oz pot of coffee. There was no learning curve for anyone in the office - even the tea only drinkers!
Thoughtful touches make a difference with the 6. For example:
- a drip tray/stand for the basket that not only stops any dripping after brewing, but proves a great place to set your filter and coffee with minimal mess and fuss. If you like pre-wetting your filter before adding coffee, I also used it to catch the pre-wet water in making that process a little more accessible, although you can also do this over the carafe if you want to preheat that as well.
- a removable power cord with a cord from the plug that goes into the machine come out of the plug at a 90 degree angle, rather than straight out allowing you to put your 6 closer to the back of your counter.
- and, finally, the extra piece that I mentioned earlier…
It’s a neat little accessory that they call the heat shield. Now you don’t have to use this but it sits on the top of the brew basket, and surrounds the shower head during the brew cycle, maintaining a high temperature, increasing extraction and providing even more delicious coffee.
So far so good then compared to the 8: a better price, good (but different) looks, a smaller footprint, great tasting coffee - arguably as good as 8 - and potentially more forgiving to varying grind and dose. making it more consistent, due to the flat bottom basket.
But there are a few things that I would like to be developed further:
- The shower head needs a little more fine tuning as it doesn’t entirely saturate the bed all of the time.
the plastic finish looks more suited to a cheaper coffee brewer but this is due to this being ‘straight out of the tool’ - basically raw plastic.
- There could occasionally be more condensation on the brew head than I would like during brewing (the heat shield has another positive effect of eliminating this).
- The carafe keeps the coffee hot but I’d like the pour to be smoother. Compared to other thermal carafes, especially when getting emptier, it’s as good, but I’d love it to be better.
- Some of the joints weren’t perfect but that’s to be expected in this version.
- You can’t change any brewing parameters: this is a positive for most users as it makes it easy to use but hardcore coffee enthusiast would love to play with the details…
After talking to Ratio I was told that all of these issues have been addressed in the final version with the exception of the carafe. One of the most important notes - the saturation - has been addressed by adding more holes to the shower head and I have been assured that the bed saturation is now amazing!
Whilst it’s as good as anything else I’ve used (apart from the 8), the thermal design of this style of carafe requires an upside down pour to get the final coffee out of the jug. Regarding changing the brew parameters, maybe we’ll be lucky with a future version!
Overall, I like the 6. A lot. I love the 8 for different reasons but it’s definitely at a premium price point.
The 6 sits squarely in Technivorm Moccamaster territory and, in all honesty, it makes better coffee easier and has a more modern design. Will it displace the 8 at the office? Only time will tell. But If I couldn’t justify a Ratio 8, this is would be next on the list.
Once I get my hands on a production version, I'll give an update and if all of the pre-production niggles have been resolved, I would expect a 5 star rating!”
