Description
The Simply Brew is Krups making a deliberately small machine: a 5 cup drip brewer with a stainless steel exterior, a glass carafe with a no drip spout, a permanent reusable filter, a top filling water tank, a single on and off button, a pause and brew function and a keep warm period the listing gives as up to 30 minutes. It measures 5.71 inches deep, 8.07 inches wide and 10.08 inches high and weighs 2.78 pounds.
Krups frames it as brewing the right amount for one or two people without waste, and that is the honest way to judge it. Buying a machine sized to what you actually drink is one of the least discussed ways of improving home coffee, because a 12 cup basket holding a two cup dose extracts badly and produces the thin, sour result people blame on their beans.
Five Cups and What That Means in Mugs
Five cups on this machine follows the usual convention rather than meaning five mugs. Published owner feedback settles it usefully: one owner who lives alone describes filling two mugs from the pot, which is consistent with a cup measure of around five ounces and a carafe holding somewhere near 25 ounces.
Two mugs is the honest expectation. That is enough for one person’s morning or for two people having one each, and it is not enough for guests. The listing does not state the carafe volume in ounces anywhere, which is the omission most likely to disappoint someone who reads five cups and pictures five mugs.
Pause and Brew
The brewing process pauses automatically when the carafe is removed, so you can pour a cup mid cycle without coffee dripping onto the warming plate. On a 5 cup machine that matters less than it does on a 12 cup one, since the whole brew takes less time, but it still saves a mess.
The standard caveat applies with more force on a small machine. Coffee drawn early in a brew is stronger than the finished pot, because extraction changes across the cycle. On a five cup brew, removing a full mug part way through takes a large fraction of the total, so the remainder will be noticeably weaker than it would otherwise have been. Use it to stop the drips, not as a way of getting a head start.
The 30 Minute Keep Warm and an Owner Who Disagrees
The listing states a keep warm period of up to 30 minutes, described as keeping the second or third cup as warm as the first. Published owner feedback contradicts the number: one detailed owner review states that the hot plate stays warm for 60 minutes and that the coffee remains at a drinkable temperature for a further period after that.
Both cannot be right, and this review is not in a position to settle it. What can be said is that the two figures describe meaningfully different machines to live with, and that a shorter keep warm is better for the coffee even if it is worse for convenience: a pot held on a heater keeps cooking, and the body flattens as bitterness climbs. Anyone for whom the exact duration matters should check the current manual, since Krups may have revised the behaviour across production runs.
Brewing Quality and What Owners Report
The single on and off button deserves a mention of its own. There is no clock to reset after a power cut, no programme to lose, and nothing a guest can set wrong. On a machine bought for a spare room, a holiday let or an office, that simplicity is the feature rather than a compromise, and it removes the control board that fails first on inexpensive brewers.
The listing makes no claim at all about brewing temperature or water distribution, which is normal at this price and disappointing given that both determine the cup. Published owner feedback fills some of that gap. One owner switching from a much more expensive brewer reports that the brewing water reaches a proper temperature, that it fully saturates the grounds, and that the brew time is appropriate to allow both.
Those are one owner’s observations rather than measurements taken here, and they should be read that way. But they describe the three things that actually matter on a drip machine, and it is notable that a machine with no published brewing specification is getting credit for them. Another owner describes buying a second one after the first grew old, noting that the newer unit had an improved pouring spout and a lid that stayed up better, which suggests Krups has been revising the design rather than leaving it alone.
What the Specifications Do Not Settle
There is no wattage, no brew temperature, no brew time and no carafe capacity in ounces. The special feature field reads cup warmer, which is a different thing from a carafe warming plate and is probably a mislabel. The recommended uses field suggests on the go use and traveling, which is not realistic for a mains powered countertop machine. The model name field reads Newer model, which is not a model name; the identifier is 10942226550.
What is included is stated clearly and helpfully: a permanent coffee filter and a measuring spoon. The permanent filter and the glass carafe are both dishwasher safe, and the stainless exterior wipes clean. A permanent filter needs a proper wash rather than a rinse from time to time, since coffee oils go rancid in a mesh and taint later brews.
The top filling water tank is worth a note for anyone whose machine will live under a wall cabinet. A top fill design needs clearance above the 10.08 inch body to open the lid and get a jug in, which a shelf directly overhead will not give you. It is a smaller machine than most, so it may still fit where a full sized brewer will not, but the height to measure is the opened height rather than the closed one. Machines that fill from the front, such as the Proctor Silex 43685PS, avoid the problem entirely.
Who It Suits and Who Should Look Elsewhere
This suits one person, or two people having one cup each, who want a small machine with a switch and nothing else, and who would rather brew a properly sized pot than a mostly empty large one. The measuring spoon, the permanent filter and the dishwasher safe carafe cover everything a machine at this level needs to. The Holstein Housewares 5 cup machine covers the same size at the same level.
Look elsewhere if a third person will want coffee, if you want a delay timer, or if you want the pot to last a whole morning. Anyone wanting a similarly small machine with a strength selector should compare the Amaste retro 25 ounce machine, and anyone who wants a small pot held by insulation rather than a heater should read our take on the Bonavita BV1500TS. Larger households should start with the drip coffee maker section instead. The Mr. Coffee 2129512 5 cup machine is another small pot option to compare.
