Three filter coffee machines from £45 to £268, and what the extra buys

The best filter coffee machine in the UK, if you can afford it, is the Moccamaster KBG Select at £268 on Amazon at the time of writing (October 2026): it brews at 92 to 96°C, the range the European Coffee Brewing Centre tests for, and comes with a 5-year guarantee. For a timer and a thermal jug that keeps coffee hot for hours, buy the Melitta Look V Therm Timer at £109.95. Under £50, the Russell Hobbs Buckingham at £44.99 has a 24 hour timer and makes a decent jug, as long as you drink it within the hour.

Which filter coffee machine should you buy?

The Moccamaster KBG Select if you drink filter coffee every day and want a machine that brews at the right temperature for a decade or more. The Melitta Look V Therm Timer if you want coffee ready when you wake and hot all morning. The Russell Hobbs Buckingham if the budget is under £50. All three hold 1.25 litres, which their makers call 10 cups; those are 125ml cups, and Coffee Blog and Tech Advisor both count a full jug as four or five mugs.

Moccamaster KBG Select: best overall

Filter coffee machineMoccamaster KBG SelectCopper element · 1.25 litre jug£268.00 on Amazon, checked October 2026Check price on Amazon

Moccamaster says its copper element brews at between 92°C and 96°C and fills the jug in 6 minutes, and that the machine is handmade in the Netherlands with a 5-year guarantee and every part sold separately. A switch slows the flow when you brew a half jug, and the hot plate holds the coffee at 80 to 85°C before switching off after 40 minutes. There is no timer.

Expert Reviews' Sasha Muller used one for months and found it 'unfailingly consistent': hot water within about 20 seconds and a full jug in about 6 minutes, as Moccamaster claims. He also found it one of the few hot plates that does not noticeably stew the coffee. His complaints were precise: there is no bloom (the short pause that lets fresh coffee release gas before brewing), the water outlet pours mostly to one side, and the body does not feel as substantial as the price suggests. T3's Bethan Morgan found it very quiet but noted many parts to clean and a spout that leaks a little when you move the machine.

Coffee Blog's view is that it is built for people who expect to use it for years, possibly decades, and that it is expensive for a simple machine. Skip it if you want a timer or a thermal jug; Moccamaster sells a thermal version, the KBGT, which Expert Reviews priced £10 above the KBG Select at the time.

Melitta Look V Therm Timer: best with a timer

Filter coffee machineMelitta Look V Therm Timer1.25 litre jug£109.95 on Amazon, checked October 2026Check price on Amazon

Melitta lists a removable 1.25 litre tank, a 1,080W rating, a programmable timer and a double-walled stainless steel thermal jug instead of a hot plate. The machine switches itself off 15 minutes after brewing. It also has a descaling programme you set to your water hardness, and Melitta says it is repairable, with spare parts available.

The thermal jug is the reason to buy it. TechNuovo, which was sent one by Melitta, found the coffee still very hot after a couple of hours and warm enough to drink at the end of a working day. GadgetSpeak found it drinkable black three hours later, and timed three mugs at 7 minutes 20 seconds. TechNuovo found the body mostly plastic. The AromaSelector dial, which Melitta says adjusts strength, made little difference for TechNuovo, and Coffee Blog doubts it on the glass-jug Look V too: strength comes from how much coffee you use.

One thing to know: the Look V Therm Timer is not on the ECBC's approved list, which includes nine other Melitta machines. Skip it if you want a machine tested to that standard.

Russell Hobbs Buckingham: best under £50

Filter coffee machineRussell Hobbs Buckingham 206801.25 litre jug£44.99 on Amazon, checked October 2026Check price on Amazon

Russell Hobbs lists a 1.25 litre glass carafe, a 24 hour timer, a setting that slows the brew for 2 to 4 cups, a showerhead to wet the coffee evenly and a reusable filter that goes in the dishwasher. It is rated at 1,000W.

Tech Advisor's Martyn Casserly found it made 'a tasty cup of coffee' and called the timer its real selling point. The trade-offs he found are the ones you would expect at the price: about ten minutes to fill the jug, a plastic shower arm, and a hot plate that switches off after 40 minutes, which left his coffee cold more than once. Coffee Blog suggests paper filters rather than the mesh one for a cleaner cup, and warns that a replacement glass carafe costs a large share of the machine's price.

Skip it if you sip one jug across a morning. Either drink it within the hour, as Casserly advises, or pour it into a flask.

What does ECBC or SCA certification actually mean?

That a machine has been tested to brew at the right temperature, at the right speed and evenly, by the European Coffee Brewing Centre in Oslo. The ECBC publishes its standard. A brewer passes if the water in the basket reaches 92°C within the first minute, stays between 92°C and 96°C throughout and never goes above 96°C, and wets all the coffee in the first minute. Over ten batches, the coffee must come out at 1.30% to 1.55% strength with 18% to 22% of the coffee extracted, and with no more than 75mg of sediment per 100ml.

SCA certification is tested at the same place. The Specialty Coffee Association says equipment is evaluated at the ECBC against SCA standards, which it publishes only to members, and that certification runs for three years at a licence fee of US$5,000 a year. So a machine without either badge may brew perfectly well; it just has not been tested and licensed.

The Moccamaster line needs explaining. Moccamaster says the KBG Select is certified by both the ECBC and the SCA, and the ECBC lists every Moccamaster model. The SCA's own list of certified home brewers, which runs back to 2023, did not include it when we read it. The SCA licence runs for three years, so an older certification may simply have lapsed from the list. The ECBC approval is the one you can check today.

Thermal jug or hot plate?

A thermal jug if you drink coffee slowly; a hot plate only if it is a good one and you drink the jug within the hour. Hot plates keep heating the coffee. Expert Reviews' Muller found the cheaper and mid-priced machines he has owned stewed it until it tasted harsh and bitter; the Moccamaster's, at 80 to 85°C, was the exception. Moccamaster says its hot plate switches off after 40 minutes, and Tech Advisor found the Buckingham's does the same, which left its coffee cold. The Melitta's thermal jug keeps coffee drinkable for hours without any heat, by TechNuovo's and GadgetSpeak's accounts.

How do the three compare on paper?

All three hold 1.25 litres. The Melitta is rated at 1,080W and the Russell Hobbs at 1,000W, according to their makers; Moccamaster does not publish a wattage on the page we read.

How much coffee per jug, and what does a year cost?

About 15g of ground coffee per 250ml mug, or 75g for a full 1.25 litre jug. That is the 60g a litre the ECBC tests at, and close to the 70 to 75g Expert Reviews' Muller uses per Moccamaster jug. Melitta suggests less, 6g per 125ml cup (48g a litre), so start there if you like it milder.

At our catalogue medians, 15g of ground coffee costs about 59p (the median is 71p for 18g, across 483 ground coffees) and 15g of whole beans about 53p (63p for 18g, across 812). Two mugs a day for a year comes to about £431 in ground coffee, against £2,555 for two coffee-shop flat whites at £3.50.

If you buy ground coffee, choose one sold for filter or cafetière. Beyond the coffee, you need paper filters (size 4 for the Moccamaster and the Melitta; the Buckingham also takes its reusable mesh filter) and descaler. The Melitta tells you when to descale. The Buckingham has a self-clean cycle that, according to Tech Advisor, Russell Hobbs recommends running monthly with a vinegar solution; it took about 40 minutes.

Who should skip all of these?

• Anyone who drinks one mug at a time. The Moccamaster brews a minimum of 4 cups, and a pod machine makes a single cup with no waste.
• Anyone who mostly drinks espresso or milk drinks. Filter coffee is a different drink from an Americano, as Coffee Blog points out, and needs an espresso machine.
• Anyone who wants to control bloom, temperature and flow. The Sage Luxe Brewer is Coffee Blog's best overall filter machine and was SCA certified in 2025 under its Breville name.
• Anyone who would rather spend the money on coffee. Expert Reviews' alternative is a plastic Hario V60 for around a tenner and a kettle.

The verdict

Buy the Moccamaster KBG Select if filter coffee is your daily drink: it is the only one of the three tested to the ECBC standard, and it is built to be repaired rather than replaced. Buy the Melitta Look V Therm Timer if you want coffee ready when you wake and hot through the morning. Buy the Russell Hobbs Buckingham if the budget is under £50, and drink the jug within the hour.