Semi-Manual: Hacking the Moccamaster

The Moccamaster coffeemaker has been hand made by the company Technivorm in the Netherlands since 1968. It’s widely known for making great coffee—it brings the water to the right temperature and it brews quickly, two things that most mainstream coffeemakers typically fail to accomplish.

But the thing that stands out the most for me is the striking design. While the aesthetics can be polarizing if you’re used to molded plastic brewers, the brutalist form of the Mocaamaster is a product of modularity. Technivorm purposefully uses parts that are able to be swapped across their product line and therefore replaced by consumers in the case of wear or damage. In a world of disposable plastic appliances designed to be replaced within a few years—the Moccamaster is designed to last.

Image via Popular Mechanics

I’ve been using a Moccamaster for almost 10 years, and it’s still going strong. However one design flaw that started to stand out to me after a decade of use is that the plastic dripper permanently smells of stale coffee oils. Coffee can only taste as good as the cleanliness of your brewing tools, and since plastics are semi-porous—it’s not an ideal material for brewing. (Not to mention concerns around hot water and microplastics)

Since Technivorm doesn’t offer any options other than plastic dripper replacements, I thought: what if the Moccamaster could hold a ceramic pour over dripper?

So I created the “Semi-Manual” bracket — an upgrade for the Moccamaster that allows you to eliminate the stock plastic dripper and use a Hario v60 (or other) pour over cone. The performance matches that of the stock dripper—it makes delicious coffee—but without lingering coffee oils or microplastics.

Because the Moccamaster is designed for disassembly, you simply unscrew two Torx screws to remove the plastic dripper and then screw on the bracket with two shorter screws. Once fastened, you place your dripper on the bracket and brew.

If you’re a coffee aficionado it gets more interesting. The bracket opens up a “semi-manual” experience where you can more easily control your brew by rotating the dripper while brewing to get better coffee bed saturation. You can stir the coffee slurry to ensure even extraction. Most obviously, your v60 can also be used for making a standard pour over cup—keeping your options open between semi-manual and full manual coffee.

Of course there are a few trade offs (design is always an exercise in trade offs). Unlike the stock dripper, this hack does not feature a lid (unnecessary in my opinion) nor a stopper to sneak a cup before it’s done (never understood that anyway—just let the brew finish). An 02-sized V60 is a bit smaller than the stock dripper, so the maximum amount of coffee you can brew is about 1/3 less (800 ml vs 1.2 L). This could likely be remedied with a bigger dripper, like the 03 Hario—or just drink a little less and make more later. Coffee is expensive these days anyway.

I have been manufacturing my own designs for manual coffee tools for the better part of a decade, so making a “hack” for another company’s product is a bit of a new world for me. But since making this modification and using it for the last 6 months, I’m convinced that this is a useful upgrade—so I made a small batch for those who want to try it out on their machine. So while this may be a bit niche for the average Manual customer, I hope it finds its way to somebody who might appreciate the experimentation.

Finally, here’s to Technivorm! Thanks for committing to making a product designed for longevity and repair…and modification!