Description
The Taylor Swoden 01 is a twelve cup programmable drip machine from a brand most buyers will not have heard of, and it competes purely on features per dollar. An LCD screen, a 24 hour timer, a strength selector, a permanent filter, a cleaning reminder and a one year warranty is a longer list than several established brands offer at the same money in our coffee makers category.
The published rating base is roughly 6,613 ratings at a 4.2 average, which is a large enough sample that the pattern in the complaints is meaningful. That pattern is not about brewing, and it is worth reading before you buy.
Capacity and Footprint
Twelve cups at the standard five ounce cup is around 60 ounces, or four large mugs. The interesting number is the footprint: 6.6 inches deep by 9.4 inches wide by 12 inches high, at 3.79 pounds. Under seven inches deep is unusually shallow for a twelve cup machine, and one owner specifically notes being surprised that a full twelve cup brewer is that compact. If your counter is shallow, that is the reason to shortlist this one.
A large water window on the front shows the level without opening the lid, which matters on a machine you fill from the top. The listing calls the anti drip system a pause and pour feature, so the flow stops when the carafe is lifted mid cycle and resumes when it goes back. As on every cheap drip machine, that valve is a rubber component under repeated heat cycling and it is the part most likely to start dribbling after a year or two of daily use. It is not a reason to avoid the machine, but it is the first thing that will annoy you if it fails, and no listing in this bracket ever mentions it.
Programming and Controls
The 24 hour timer sets a brew to finish at a chosen time and the LCD shows the clock. One owner is unusually specific in praising the interface: dedicated buttons for each function, no menu to navigate, and no manual needed to set the clock or the auto start. That is a real design advantage over machines that bury the timer behind a mode button, and it is the kind of detail that only shows up in owner feedback rather than in a specification sheet.
The strength selector offers regular or bold. As on every drip machine without a pump, bold means a slower cycle and longer contact with the grounds rather than a different dose.
The Keep Warm Numbers Do Not Agree
Read the listing carefully and it contains two different statements about the warming plate. One sentence says the nonstick carafe plate keeps coffee warm for up to 40 minutes after brewing. The next says the machine automatically turns off after 2 hours. Those are not the same claim: the first is about how long the coffee stays drinkable, the second is about how long the element stays powered.
The honest reading is that the plate runs for two hours and the manufacturer is admitting that the coffee is only genuinely warm for the first forty minutes of it. That is more candid than most brands manage, but it also means you are heating coffee for eighty minutes after it stops being worth drinking. If you drink a pot slowly, decant it or buy a thermal machine instead.
Filter, Cleaning Reminder and Water
A permanent filter is included and paper can be used instead. The listing makes an odd claim that the permanent filter works with loose teas including oolong, black and white tea. Physically that is true of any flat bottomed mesh basket, but it is not a coffee feature and one owner reports the wide flat basket is poorly suited to tea compared with a conical one. Treat it as filler rather than a reason to buy.
The cleaning cycle reminder is a flashing green light that tells you when to descale. That is a genuinely useful feature at this price, because the most common way a cheap drip machine dies is scale in the flow path. Owner feedback contains a specific and instructive case: an owner who experienced leaking traced it to scale and paper filter interaction, switched to distilled water and the machine’s own permanent filter, and reports the machine still leak free five and a half months later. Whatever the exact mechanism, water hardness is clearly a live variable on this brewer, and a suitable descaler from our cleaning and descaling products section is the maintenance that keeps it working.
Build Quality and the Warming Plate Finish
The most specific criticism in the published feedback concerns the warming plate finish. One owner describes it as painted steel and reports that the paint covering degrades where hot coffee contacts it. Coffee is mildly reactive and hot coffee more so, so a painted rather than enamelled or stainless plate is a genuine weak point. It is cosmetic rather than functional, but on a machine you look at every morning it is the sort of thing that decides whether you replace it at three years or five.
At 3.79 pounds the body is light, which is the usual trade for the price. There is a one year warranty, which the listing states plainly, and that is more than several competitors publish.
What the Specifications Do Not Settle
No wattage is published. No brew temperature is published. No brew time is published for a full pot. The carafe volume in ounces is not stated. The keep warm duration is given twice with two different numbers. The “Manufacture Year = 2024” entry sits alongside a first available date of March 2020, so the listing has clearly been refreshed while keeping the original page.
The colour field reads Black while owner reviews describe mint green and other finishes, which means this page covers multiple colour variants and the specification block describes only one of them. Check the colour you are ordering rather than trusting the field.
Who It Suits
This suits a buyer who wants a full twelve cup pot with a timer and a strength setting for the least money, on a shallow counter, and who is realistic about how long a light plastic machine lasts. The dedicated button layout and the descale reminder are better thought out than the price suggests.
Look elsewhere if you want a brand with a service network, or if the painted warming plate would bother you. Buyers comparing similar value focused twelve cup machines should look at the iHomekee CM9428C, the Revotra MK-B-DCM01 and the Shardor programmable coffee maker, all of which sit in the same bracket.
