Quell Reusable Coffee Filter for Hario V60-02 Pour Over Drippers : Stainless Steel Wave Alternative for Sustainable Brewing

I'm always in search of a better cup of coffee, which is why I have the Hario in my arsenal (among several other brewing methods). I've used gold filters before, but this looked different; the holes are almost imperceptably small, clearly made with some laser cutting or etching technology. It's quite beautiful, actually. As soon as it arrived, I decided to make a pour-over with my daily bean. I have a conical burr grinder, so grind consistency is not a problem, and just to be safe I set the grind to the coarse end of medium, since I don't like sludge in the bottom of my cup.One thing I noticed as I placed the filter in my ceramic Hario brewer was that it didn't seat all the way, leaving a roughly 1mm gap between the edge of the brewer and the rubber filter gasket, and it wiggles a tiny bit. At first this bothered me, but in practice it's a non-issue.For the pour-over I pretty much followed the same process I always do, first blooming the coffee, then spiraling water over the grounds until it reaches about 1" below the edge, and gradually applying less and less water to slow down the drip toward the end. As expected it took less time than with a paper filter, but it didn't go so quickly that I was concerned about flavor. And I needn't be, because it was the best cup of coffee I've ever made from these particular beans.I added some creamer to the coffee so I could clearly tell if any grounds had settled to the bottom of my cup. As it turns out there was only the slightest bit of dark stuff in the very last sip, nothing that I could even taste. Certainly this is due to the microscopic, precision perforations in this filter, but I also credit my grinder. Chances are, with a cheap blade grinder or a finer grind, you'd see more grounds in the bottom of the cup.Cleaning was a breeze. I have a large glass jar for composting coffee grounds; it was easy to shake the grounds into the jar, and a quick rinse under the tap took care of the rest.I really have nothing negative to say about this filter, but if I had to point out any downside, it's that it isn't cheap. Then again, genuine Hario filters aren't, either, so it will pay for itself over time.

The media could not be loaded. This is a much higher quality metal filter than the cheaper ones on the market. After several uses, it shows no signs of clogging and is easy to clean. The mesh is so fine it appears translucent, but it is stiff enough that I don't worry about it bending or breaking.It brews very well. The pour is faster than most metal filters, and only a little bit slower than a paper filter. You will have to dial in your grind setting to get the best results, but it works very well with a medium-coarse grind.It fits perfectly into my Hario V60. Having the Hario on the outside helps contain the coffee as it leaves the filter and thus minimizes mess.The removable silicone ring around the rim is a nice touch. It keeps the filter from clattering during the pour and makes it easier to handle when hot. It is a little touch, but it is part of what makes this a premium product.I highly recommend this as a gift for the coffee enthusiast in your life (like yourself!)

This works pretty well. It still leaves grounds in the last sip of your coffee. It seems to be the nature of the beast. I used this with an old plastic #2 Melitta cone and it worked fine, but the rim won't rest on the cone's rim of course. If you don't clean these well after every use, you will get build up, so might as well get into the habit right away. Also, while this seems relatively durable, you usually have to treat these with kid gloves a little bit to avoid damaging them. So far, I haven't been able to get the same taste I can from a regular filter, but it's passable. Will have to do more research on that. Once you figure in the extra time, cleaning (and cleaning up the grounds you can't shake into the compost/garbage), soap and water usage, storage, etc... I'm not sure if the cost savings alone is worth it, but that's subjective (unless you want to get scientific and do a study). Of all of the metal filters I've tried over the years, this is the best. Will it ultimately be good enough by all measures to unseat a paper filter? That is still an open question. The loss of the star is for the non-subjective cons mentioned above. I believe reviewers should only remove stars for objective reasons. If anything changes with further use this review will be updated.

I'm neither a coffee snob nor expert, but I do drink several cups each day. For better (health) or worse (flavor) I switched to decaf about 25 years ago. The best cup of decaf only tastes as good as an average cup of caffeinated, though, so I do what I can to make my coffee as delicious as it can be, given this constraint.I'm getting pretty good at it, too. In addition to finding good beans, I've gradually invested my time in better techniques, and my money in better equipment. Of everything I've tried, the consistently best cup of coffee I make is with a quality burr grinder (Breville Smart Grinder Pro), pourover dripper (ceramic Hario V60 size 2), and paper filters (Hario size 2). Yum. This simple, effective setup has performed exceptionally for me over the past three years.During that same time, I've been using microperforated metal filters, similar to this Quell one, in my automatic coffee makers. It took me a while to adjust the grind size and volume to work with the metal filters, but once optimized the results have been considerably better than with paper. I was surprised, perhaps even astonished, at how noticeably better the taste was with the metal filters.Naturally, I decided to try a metal filter with my pourover dripper, too. I chose this Quell model, based on my prior experience with the other metal filters and the excellent reviews. I had high hopes. Alas, my hopes were dashed when I made the first, virtually-undrinkable cup of coffee with the Quell filter. I've been disappointed with every cup since then. This filter makes the consistently worst coffee that I've brewed in years. By a lot.I will spare you the details of my controlled experiments to coax a decent cup from the Quell filter and summarize them by saying:- The flow rate through this filter is soooo sloooow that the resulting cup tastes bitter and overpoweringThis is true for every grind size, every grounds volume (weight, actually), every water temperature, and every technique I've tried. The taste of the cups I've brewed with the Quell filter approximates that of the coffee I used to drink at my first office job, which would sit on the burner in the break room for hours. Yuk.For the life of me, I cannot determine why the water won't flow through this filter at a normal rate. When the filter is empty, water pours right through. With grounds, the water sits and gradually seeps out over an extended time (~1.5 to 2 times the duration compared to a paper filter). Not only am I using the coarsest setting on my grinder, I even removed the burrs and adjusted the internal clearance to the coarsest setting. These grinds are closer to the size of aquarium gravel than sand. Yet, still, the water just pools in the filter and dribbles out the bottom at a feeble rate.I cannot reconcile my results with the myriad good reviews here. I assume I'm doing something wrong. So, about a month ago I wrote to Quell customer support using the "contact us" page on their website. I haven't heard back (including checking my junk mail daily).On the positive side, the materials and build quality of this device are high. I'm rating it as 2 stars instead of 1 because the manufacturer obviously tried to make a good product. Nonetheless, it doesn't work and, as far as I can tell, it cannot be made to work.This filter was an expensive mistake. I do not recommend it.

I've recently found an affinity for using metal filters with my V60 brewers, and had been looking for a new one to add to my collection. Very glad I came across this one! It produces consistently delicious brews with a ton of good flavors, and is one of the easier to clean metal filters I've had. The hole sizes are on a bit of a gradient to aid with brewing, but on average are a bit larger than most metal filters I've used, which does mean a bit more silt but not an overbearing amount, and is well worth the trade-off for the flavors it lets through. As I mentioned, cleaning is also nice and easy. I usually give it a good rinse after each brew, and maybe every other day will soap it up to keep oil from clogging the pores too much. Every now and then it helps to give it a Cafiza bath too, but on the whole I've found that I don't have to put as much elbow grease into cleaning this thing to keep it from choking, which is a nice change of pace!