I Tested the Fellow Aiden Coffee Maker – It Delivers Personalised Coffee on Your Schedule, but Is It Worth the Price?

When you’re making coffee for the whole family, brewing several cups at once is far more practical than preparing individual servings. And if you love waking up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee, a programmable coffee maker lets you schedule your brew in advance, so you can walk into the kitchen to find a fresh pot ready and waiting.

The Aiden Precision Coffee Maker from Fellow offers just that, and it looks pretty good on your counter too. Fellow is committed to making beautifully functional tools for any kitchen, and this non-toxic coffee maker delivers on that promise.

While it won’t keep your coffee hot for too long, it offers customizability through Brew Profiles, which are probably more of interest to coffee aficionados than the casual coffee drinker, but this machine is still user-friendly for someone who’s new to using it.

Product Specifications: Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker, 10-Cup

Design and First Impressions

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The design of the Aiden Precision Coffee Maker was sleek on the counter, especially in the all-black matte design I chose. Compared to my other coffee makers, which have a mix of metal and plastic parts, this one felt like a sleek black box, less clunky than many I’ve seen on the market. When in Sleep mode, only the time is visible on the full-color LCD display, but once you click the dial, you can use it to navigate through the settings and brew coffee.

The coffee maker comes with several key components, including a removable side-mounted water tank, a thermal carafe, a blue brew basket for flat-bottom filters, and a green single-serve basket for cone filters. Descaling powder is also included, along with 15 cone filters and 15 flat-bottom filters to get you started.

When it’s time to replenish your supply, the machine is compatible with Melitta #2 cone filters and Melitta 8–12-cup basket filters.

The machine has two modes: Instant brew and guided brew, with the latter including cold brew. Instant brew works similarly to an instant coffee maker and is ideal when you’re in a rush, whereas guided brew enables you to select the roast type (light, medium, or dark) or the cold brew option.

To set up the coffee maker, I started by running a flush cycle and descaling the machine using the supplied descaling powder. I filled the water tank with the descaling solution, inserted the empty batch-brew filter basket, and selected Descale Mode. The cycle took around 16 minutes to complete.

I also found the descaling video tutorial on Fellow’s YouTube channel helpful, particularly for following the process step by step. The channel features other useful how-to videos, too, making it a handy resource if you need guidance while setting up or maintaining the machine.

The coffee maker can also be used with the Fellow app (available on iOS and Android), which can be used to schedule the coffee maker to start at a set time and create Brew Profiles for different members of your household. With each Brew Profile, you can customize temperature, bloom ratio, bloom temperature, and number of pulses. There are also default Brew Profiles, which were sufficient for my preferences as an everyday casual coffee drinker.

Brewing Performance and Set Up

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To make my first pot of coffee, I followed the steps in the Get-to-Know-You guide. These included inserting a filter, selecting a brew profile and serving size, then weighing out the recommended amount of pre-ground coffee before adding it to the brew basket.

I used a kitchen scale to measure the grounds and achieved good results from following the recommended quantities for my chosen brew. The machine also has a small selector switch inside, marked with a single green dot for single servings and three blue dots for larger batches. Each setting corresponds to its own color-coded basket: Green for single servings and blue for multi-serving brews.

In practice, I found myself reaching for the multi-serving basket most often. However, having to switch between two separate brew baskets depending on the amount of coffee I wanted to make felt a little cumbersome, and I would have preferred a more streamlined setup.

The main drawback is that the coffee maker does not have a built-in hot plate to prevent the coffee from turning bitter, but the insulated carafe did keep the coffee hot for about 30 minutes. That said, I did have to warm up my coffee if I didn’t enjoy it immediately, which wasn’t a dealbreaker for me but could be for someone who wants hot coffee ready to go all day.

To test the timer feature, I set up the coffee maker to finish brewing six cups of coffee at 8 a.m. and added the brew basket with coffee grounds the night before so it would be ready to go. I woke up to the smell of coffee when I went downstairs, which was a really pleasant experience. It was especially nice when my spouse had to leave for work early because she could drink coffee without having to fuss about preparing it before leaving.

I also used the scheduling feature to make cold brew, which reduces an overnight steeping process down to just 90 minutes. This was easy to set up the night before, and we had a pot of cold brew waiting in the morning. I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth the cold brew flavor was, and I was able to make a batch that lasted us a week.

Overall, I found brewing coffee with the Aiden Precision Coffee Maker refreshingly straightforward, and the ability to schedule a brew in advance made the experience even more enjoyable. For anyone who appreciates a more hands-on approach to coffee, the option to create a custom Brew Profile tailored to their tastes adds another layer of appeal and could help to justify the higher price point.

Cleaning and Maintenance

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Cleaning up was remarkably simple. Once the brew cycle was over, it was as straightforward as removing the basket and coffee filter and rinsing it out. The carafe is also easy to wash by hand with warm water and a mild dish soap. Note that none of the parts are dishwasher safe; however, I did not think that this was at all an inconvenience.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the brew baskets are designed not to leak when a brewing cycle is over, so there were no drops on the machine after a completed brew cycle, making cleanup even smoother.

What Shoppers Say

The Aiden Precision Coffee Maker has an average rating of 4.6 stars on over 1200 reviews, with the average review on Amazon coming in lower at 3.7 on over 600 reviews.

Customers praise its ability to make both single-cup brews and cold brew and ease of setup. Many reviewers appreciate the personalization, especially the ability to schedule their coffee to be ready when they wake up. While the carafe is insulated, some reviewers note that it doesn’t keep coffee hot for very long, which is why some people only make one serving at a time.

Reviewers were more split on appearance, with some praising the sleek design and professional finish and others wishing that it had less plastic. And on Amazon, more customers noted the high price point as a negative and reported issues with broken parts needing replacement, which is where a longer warranty came in handy. This is not an issue I had with the machine.

Should You Buy The Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker?

This coffee maker is ideal for coffee aficionados, especially those who would enjoy creating customized brew profiles to their taste. That said, it works equally well for casual coffee drinkers who want the ability to make a reliable cup of coffee or cold brew that’s ready when they are, though you can find cheaper coffee makers that offer this functionality.

The Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is one of the most expensive coffee makers I’ve seen on the market, but it also has quite a few advanced features like the ability to schedule coffee in advance using an app or the device itself, create customizable brew profiles, and the option of making cold brew in 90 minutes. For coffee aficionados who appreciate this level of customizability, this coffee machine is a great option if you want to fine-tune all the details of your drink.

For those looking for a more affordable coffee maker that still makes drip coffee, even if it lacks extra features like scheduling, customizability, or brew profiles, check out the OXO Brew 8-Cup Coffee Maker, which gives you the option of brewing two to four cups or five to eight cups. And if you’re looking for a programmable timer, blooming function, and a hot plate at a lower price point, you may want to consider the Zwilling Enfinigy Drip Coffee Maker.

How We Test Coffee Makers

At Homes & Gardens, we have a rigorous testing process for all of our coffee makers. This enables us to score coffee makers both individually and against other models on the market.

Once we have researched the best coffee makers on the market, we test at home, as it means we can use the appliance in our regular routines. This helps me uncover advantages (or most likely, pain points) I would never discover with a one-hour session in the test kitchen.

After unboxing, we'll let you know whether we get any extra accessories and what our first impressions are of the coffee maker. Here's where we'll talk about the size, style, build quality, and anything else that jumps out at us aesthetically.

Next, we'll get brewing. We make notes on how easy the coffee maker is to set up and start using. After each brew, we assess the flavor of each cup, the range of the machine, how long it keeps coffee warm for, the ease of cleaning, and the all-important price. Where applicable, we experiment with special features, such as integrated grinders and milk frothers.

Once we are happy that we've tested everything that we can, we'll take a step back and think about how the coffee maker compares to other models. We'll read through online reviews to get a sense of what customers are saying and then, bringing all that information together, our team will let you know who we think it suits and whether it's good value for money. As you can see, we leave no stone unturned.

If you’re interested and want to find out more, you can read all about the process in our how we test coffee makers page.

What Else to Shop

From extra accessories to countertop organizers, I have rounded up everything you need to flesh out your new home coffee station.

All prices correct at time of publication.

Now that you’ve upgraded your morning routine, be sure to check out the most common coffee maker mistakes you might be making, so you can get the very best out of your new machine.

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