Hario, after more than 10 years, has finally introduced a new coffee siphon design. It is the Hario Electric Siphon, model number EC3-B, and it is only available in Japan at the moment, because it runs on 100V, 2 prong, 50 or 60hz Japanese electrical power.
We bought one to review through Amazon Japan, and the total cost including shipping was around $170 Canadian dollars.
A Word About Power
This is the most important part of this article, if you consider buying this device for use in North America.
The Hario Electric Siphon is designed and engineered to run on Japanese voltage outlets. That means 100V power, 50/60Hz draw, 350W output. You can easily and safely run this through a 500W transformer if you’re in Canada or the USA, but that will add a) $50ish to your cost, and b) a bit of bulk on the countertop.
That said – and this is at your own complete risk (including risk of fire) – you could plug it directly into a standard 15A, 110/120V, 60Hz North American socket, and the heating plate for the siphon will function. The problem is, it’ll draw about 440W of power, or 90W over and above what it was designed for.
The Hotplate
The Hario hot plate for their Electric Siphon. Actually a very simple piece of heat up kit, not much different from the Silex home hot plates for their vacuum brewers in the 1930s.
The Hario Electric Siphon hotplate is an all-or-nothing affair. It’s either on 100%, or off. A heat sensing thermistor cycles it on or off. The control dial up front determines how rapid that cycling on and off is. Running this natively off a 110V, 15A outlet showed the device either drew 440W, or 0W, no real in between.
I mention all this because there’s several danger points. First, you could burn out the overheat protection circuits inside the Hario hot plate, effectively killing it. You could (and will) shorten the device’s longevity. I was also worried about fire potential, but I spoke to three different electrical engineers who felt the jump from 350W to 440W for the heating element wouldn’t be enough to spark concerns for a fire hazard. They also had little concern for “burning out” any overheat protection, as it is a relatively simple device that just trips the burner plate off when the heat gets to a certain point.
So, TL:DR on power: you can plug it into a N. American wall outlet, and it will work, but do so completely at your own risk and understanding you could kill the device, or worse. And your warranty would be voided entirely. I also noted, when I ran it on a 110V outlet, the Hario Electric Coffee Siphon took longer to heat up water. Weird, because it draws more actual “heat” into the hot plate, but again, speaking to engineering friends, the reason for this longer heat up time is explained below.
To be safe, if you want one of these, run it on a step down transformer.
Out of the BoxElectric Coffee Siphon
I ordered the Hario Electric Coffee Siphon from Amazon Japan, paying roughly $135 + $35 in shipping fees. It arrived in five days which is pretty incredible.
The box it ships in is smaller than the boxes used for the Hario Technica lineup – both the 3 cup and 5 cup models – which surprised me a bit. It is always difficult to judge sizes just by photographs, but everything was smaller than I thought. This turned out to be a very good thing.
The box’s graphic design is the look Hario has used for the last ten years or so, but I should note, they’re recently updating their entire product line, so if you order one of these, the box may look different. Because this machine is for the Japanese market only, most of the information is in Japanese. The “For Use in Japan Only” is clearly in English though (oops).
Open the box up, and you’re greeted with the metal filter holder, and paper filters. Hario lately is going with the paper filter option for their siphons. I much prefer cloth filters in siphons, so that’s a bit of a downer. It does mean easier cleanup. If you do want a cloth filter, spring-tension metal filters using cloth are easy to find and most will fit this siphon. Here’s Hario’s own version.
Remove those, flip the first protective flaps, and the cork mat (for resting your carafe, freshly filled with brewed coffee on) is next to take out. Remove that, and the siphon, all assembled, along with the stirring spoon are next to come out.
At the bottom of the main box is another box, all white. This houses the hot plate, which is placed in the box with a bit of bubble wrap protection.
Hario told me a few years ago they were moving towards more sustainable packaging for their products. I see efforts here: for instance, the main protection and stays in the box are all cardboard, and the only plastic (except for the hot plate) in the box is a minimal plastic bag around the siphon’s lid/siphon stand combo, and for the filters. Hario could go one step better here by using compostable bags instead of plastic.
As for the box containing the hot plate: I should note the only thing in the box not made by Hario in Japan is the hot plate. It’s made by a third party in China, and its packaged like your typical anonymous 3rd party basic appliance you’d find on aliexpress. The bubble wrap doesn’t seem necessary, and is pretty wasteful. This isn’t very sustainable, Hario!
All in all, you get a complete siphon package in the box: lower, upper chambers, lid/stand combo, cork mat, stirring spoon with long handle, a metal filter holder, paper filters, and the heating plate base.
Hario Electric Coffee Siphon
The Hario Electric Coffee Siphon, set up and ready for use.
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Hario'sNew Siphon
The new siphon from Hario is deceptively small. It is a squat, flat bottomed model and I believe it’s the first flat bottomed siphon from Hario, at least in the last 40 years. This means it could be used on a gas stove with a trivet, or even see duty on a camp stove like the JetBoil. That in itself is a nice selling point.
The capacity is the same as Hario’s Technica line 3 cup model: 350ml max capacity. The siphon itself is made in Japan by Hario Glass (the heating plate bottom is made in China). When assembled, the siphon measures
The serving side of the siphon – the lower bowl – has a nice thick plastic handle that feels good in the hand and clamps onto the glass bowl via a single screw connection. It doesn’t feel cheap, or expensive, it just feels appropriate.
The mouth on it is wider than the Hario Technica round bottom globes, which should allow for easier cleaning by hand and better controlled pouring of the brewed coffee. It is nearly the same width at the mouth that the Hario Nouveau had.
The top brewing chamber is wider than the Hario Technica line and only about 2/3 as tall. This I think is a better design too, as it allows a wider brew area and more options for stirs and brewing techniques for tweaking your siphon brews.
The siphon stand / lid is very similar to the Hario Moca siphon stand lids, though a bit wider to accommodate the wider Electric Siphon top chamber.
Since the bottom service carafe of the Hario Electric Siphon is not incorporated into a stand like the Technica design is, Hario includes a cork base for you to use to seat the carafe when it is filled with hot coffee. You should not leave this siphon on the hot plate after brewing, as it will cook the brewed coffee into a horrible taste.
HarioHot Plate
Hario’s been getting more of their products made in China (like their V60 thermal carafes), which is disappointing. The hot plate base for the Electric Coffee Siphon is the same: the hot plate is made in China.
It has a nice design and aesthetic to it, and the hot plate itself is a polished steel radial pattern. There is a control dial up front for adjusting the overall heat management for the plate.
The hot plate isn’t a variable temperature control. The dial up front determines how rapid the hot plate will cycle on or off. Based on power draw tests, this hot plate is either running at 350W (on Japanese 100V power) or 0W. There’s no in between.
Ideally, a variable temperature control, where the hot plate draws a variable wattage, would have been a better solution as it would provide more consistent temperature control during the brewing process, and probably would have made the device a lot easier to use on N. American 110V power, right out of the box (if you plugged a hypothetical variable voltage hot plate into 110V, just avoid maxing out the control dial, to keep it under 350W total draw).
The hot plate has good, grippy rubber feet underneath, and there’s an indicator light to the left of the control dial to show if the unit is on, or off. Anytime the control dial is not set to zero, that light is on, even if the hot plate has cycled off.
In operation, the unit is completely silent, except for an audible “click” when the thermistor cycles on or off.
Using theElectric Coffee Siphon
First and foremost about this brewer: don’t expect the hot plate to heat water up from your tap to brewing temperatures. Even Hario’s own promotional videos for the siphon show the adding of just-off-the-boil water from a Buono kettle.
That said, I tried it. I added 350ml of 15C tap water to the lower bowl, and fired up the hot plate. It took well over 25 minutes to get it to 100C. To be honest, I stopped timing it after 20 minutes, but even 5 minutes later, it still wasn’t boiling.
When you add off-the-boil water, the Hario Electric Siphon still needs a bit of time to get back close to 100C for the water. But you don’t need 100C in a siphon to start the brewing process. 95C will be fine, especially once the top brewing chamber is seated and the seal of the rubber gasket is secure.
In practice, the hot plate needed about 90 seconds to get up to full operating temperatures with fresh off the boil water. At that point, you can seat and seal the top brewing chamber, and water will start moving into it.
Add your ground coffee when about half the brewing water has moved up, give it a few stirs, then let the brewing begin. The control dial up front is dialed back to the midway point. Give it about 90 seconds, remove the siphon from the hot plate (turn off the hot plate too) and give it one or two final stirs while the siphon sits on the cork mat.
The kickdown process begins, and you soon have very hot brewed coffee. In short, it works like just about every other siphon out there.
Brewing with the ECS
After a 2 minute brew, remove the siphon from the hot plate, and watch the kick down start as a vacuum forms.
I was initially worried that the cycling on and off of the heating plate would have the potential to start an early draw down of the brewed coffee, but while using this brewer, I noticed the hot plate stays blazingly hot even when the heating unit is cycled off. Using a Fluke infrared thermometer reader, the hot plate reads 250F just before cycling off, and only drops down to 220F before it cycles on again. Long story short, no worries about the siphon prematurely drawing down.
Cleanup of this siphon is a snap, and easier than the Hario Technica line (and legions easier than cleaning a Cona vacuum brewer!). The wider mouth makes it easier to get inside the lower chamber if you have some caked on, forgotten coffee. The wider upper chamber allows my fat hands to get in easily to scrub away any coffee residue. Both the bottom and top are dishwasher safe too.
Additional ThoughtsHario ECS
I really like the simple look of this Hario Electric Coffee Siphon. The clean lines and angles. The hourglass shape to it all. The easy way it pours and how easy it is to clean. I like the smaller footprint too, especially in the height department. It just seems less assuming and understated on the countertop.
On the Counter
The Hario Electric Siphon Coffee Maker has a nice low profile and fits nicely on most counters.
The biggest drawback on the device is the hot plate, and I say this while also saying the hot plate is fine overall. It just could have been better. I feel Hario cheapened out here on the internals, while ordering a device with nice aesthetics. A true variable heat hot plate would have made this device a lot better.
A further note on running this on 110V power, vs. running on a step down transformer delivering 100V power: the unit is actually a bit slower in heating up water on 110V even though the wattage supplied to the hot plate is amped up a bit. In talking to an engineer friend he speculated the circuitry inside that controls the cycling on and off of the hot plate stays “off” longer because the plate gets hotter, quicker. It takes longer for it to be tripped back into the “on” position, thus dragging out the heat up time. All speculation, and this was from a phone call; he did not see the unit in person.
This won’t matter much if you’re starting with off the boil water; it doesn’t matter at all if you use a step down transformer with the unit.
In my own use, the Hario Electric Coffee Siphon has replaced (for now, at least) the Hario Beam Heater and 3 cup Tayli glass siphon that was a mainstay in our kitchen. I have the ECS now running with a 500W mini sized step down transformer, itself tucked into the corner of our counters. I made the choice because the convenience of cleaning the ECS is a perk, and I can use the siphon our gas range stove if I want to. We’ve also used the ECS on our back deck all summer, using the Jetboil, but also on the side propane burner of our barbeque.
I have replaced Hario’s paper filter system for this siphon with a cloth filter system (also from Hario) because I just like cloth-filtered siphon coffee more.
Should You Buy One
If you are as obsessed with siphon coffee makers as I am, yep, place an order today on Amazon Japan (if they ship to your country) and get one. Also plan on buying a 500W step down transformer. The camping / stovetop option also makes it a bonus. It’s easy clean design makes it even more so.
If you love siphons but don’t want a bulky transformer box on your counter, you could run this off 110V N. American outlets, but entirely at your own risk. As far as I can tell, Hario does not sell the hot plate base on its own should you burn this one out.
If you like siphons, you might want to wait and see if Hario decides to make this device available in North America. Historically, they don’t bring over electric products, so the chances of this are slim. But who knows: if a US importer places an order for 10,000 of them, Hario might do it. If that happens, it becomes a must buy for anyone who likes siphon coffee.
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