The 4 Best Pour-Over Coffee Makers of 2025
Top pick
With its flat bottom, this dripper delivers reliably even extraction as well as the most consistently great-tasting coffee.
The Kalita Wave 185 Dripper is easy to use, and it consistently makes great-tasting coffee, capturing the more-nuanced flavors of your beans. If you’re not a pour-over expert, the Wave 185 is reliable. And of all the drippers we tested, it was the best at extracting complex, rich flavors from our coffee.
It requires less finesse, so it’s beginner-friendly. Hitting the bullseye with pour-over brewing comes down to many more variables than just which dripper you use. But because of the Wave 185’s flat bottom, ridged filter, and generous outflow, it’s a tiny bit less prone to under- or over-extraction.
In our tests, a typical cup made with this dripper had a comparatively smooth mouthfeel, good body, and a remarkably clear articulation of flavors. We found it made great coffee, even when we eyeballed the amount of water per pour. So we think beginners will get enjoyable results more quickly than with other drippers.
Cone-bottom drippers, like the Hario V-60, drain from a single point, making the resulting brew more dependent on how meticulously you pour. If you think mastering the more-demanding rhythm of a cone-bottom dripper will be too much effort, the Wave 185’s design allows for a less-exacting technique.
It comes in a range of materials. The Kalita Wave 185 is available in stainless steel, glass, and ceramic (which is often hard to find); the material you find most pleasing is largely a matter of personal preference.
The glass vessel is very thin but surprisingly durable; the stainless model is Kalita’s classic design—lightweight and nearly indestructible; and the ceramic version is heavy, solid, and well balanced.
This dripper comes in two sizes. Our pick is the more-standard, 185 version, which brews one to two cups at a time and is the better option for most kitchens. The Wave also comes in a diminutive, 155 version, which is best suited for brewing exclusively small, single cups.
Be aware of the different models when purchasing filters, since the filter paper also comes in two sizes.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The Kalita Wave 185’s greatest flaw is that it uses proprietary wavy filters. Because the filters are a Japanese import, they’re harder to find in stores, and they are a little more expensive than standard Melitta filters.
They are, however, available through online retailers, and you may be able to find them in specialty coffee shops. Order some when you buy the dripper, and you’ll be fine for a while.
Another potential frustration is that Kalita Wave drippers are small. Even the Wave 185, the larger size, doesn’t have much volume to spare, which limits the amount of ground coffee you can reasonably use.
We also found that with fresher, gassier beans, the bloom from the initial pour can be so full that caution is required with the next pour, to avoid overflow. Chalk it up to one of the many ways that pour-over drippers provide more-subtle insights into your coffee beans.
