Today we’re reviewing the F45 manual fill batch brewer and filter Coffee Machine by Marco. Marco are longstanding manufacturers of filter coffee equipment and gear with a wide range of brewers and water boilers, so they’re very well versed in building nice machines for filter coffee and other options.
The F45 is one of Marco’s more entry level filter coffee brewers, providing a competitive option for fresh coffee perfect for those small cafes, offices or maybe even hotel and leisure environments.
As a quick run-down, the BRU F45 lets you brew around 1.8litres of filtered coffee at any one time in around 5 minutes, with the addition of an extra hot plate on top of the brewer that can be independently controlled to keep an additional batch warm.
So if you’ve brewed a litre and a half and you want to brew another, you can leave that on top for a few minutes and brew your next batch. However, we wouldn’t necessarily recommend brewing a batch and then leaving the coffee on the hot plate for an extended period of time, as the heat underneath will start cooking the coffee and making it go rancid.
Instead, we recommend brewing as much coffee as you need and then pouring and serving straightaway.
Brewing with the Marco F45
So the F45 is incredibly easy to use. Being a manual-fill brewer, you don’t need to plumb it into your water line. Simply plug it in at the wall and then you’re ready to go.
There are just two switches on the machine including the main power switch and the additional hot plate power switch.
To start brewing, simply fill the top of the machine with your desired amount of brew water. The machine will then kick into gear, heating the boiler and dispensing the same amount of liquid down into the brew basket. The hotplate under the basket will also keep your fresh batch of coffee warm during the brew.
In the video above we brewed a batch using 1 litre of clean filtered water, and 60 grams of coffee at a medium-coarse grind setting. The F45 will let you brew up to 1.8L of filter coffee, but a 1.5L batch using 90 grams of coffee fit a little comfier in the included glass jugs.
However large your batch, we recommend starting with a brew ratio of 60 grams of coffee to every litre of brew water. The F45 will slowly heat and pump all of the water through its wide dispersion screen aiding in a full and even extraction of the coffee.
When you first fire up the F45, it will tell you to run a brew cycle with just plain water. Partly for cleaning through the brewer, but also so that part of the brew water can be retained inside the boiler to protect the heating element and maintain a consistent temperature.
Build quality
The F45 is one of Marco’s more entry-level filter coffee brewers, and this is partly reflected in the build quality. The brewer is mostly made of plastic with some external brushed aluminium, and tolerances are not perfect in areas. The brewer is also not incredibly weighty or premium feeling, but this is perfectly acceptable for a brewer in this price bracket which is able to brew consistently great filter coffee.
Price
The BRU F45 comes in at around £300 making it a competitive option for large batches of coffee in commercial environments.
You’d have to pay a premium for a brewer with higher build quality. As an entry-level option, the F45 gets you great value for money, and a reliable brewer than can produce large batches of coffee quickly and with an intuitive workflow.
Learn More
If you have any more questions, feel free to leave a comment on the video at the top of this article, or get in touch with the team at Bridge here.