Chef'n Switchit French Press Stirrer and Timer (Anthracite) - 110-981-001

In my first month, so far none of the battery problems that many others have listed. This is perfect size for a 1.7L French press, but for anything smaller it could be a challenge. Gotta admit I love the reassurance of a built in timer and that it fully scrapes the sides as I stir.--UPDATE: DO NOT LET THE PART WITH THE BATTERY GET WET: It is not waterproof and if water gets in it, the battery promptly dies and you have to disassemble it to get it to thoroughly dry out. Am still testing if I can get it to work again after it dries out. NOTE: easy to replace with tiny philips head screwdriver and CR2016 battery

This is the second one of these that I have purchased. The first was bought 4 years ago at Starbucks Reserve in Seattle. Identical except the original had a Starbucks logo. That one finally died after serving well. I purchased this one expecting the same. It looks identical, but is definitely lower manufacturing quality. Most notably, the timer is built with plastic that is not as stiff as my old one. As a result, the timer does not work when it is not laying on a flat surface when you start it. The plastic flexes when it isn't supported, causing the electronics to flash 8 instead of starting. It works and it is cheaper than I paid at Starbucks.

There are only a few tricks to perfect French Press coffee: (1) great coffee; (2) a good grinder that gives a course grind: (3) good water at the right temperature; and (4) stirring and timing. This simple device solves the last. It is a well-designed stirrer with a built in 4 minute timer with a gentle chirp. Simple, elegant, and does exactly what is needed.Be careful with clean up. The top (with the electronics and battery) pulls out from the bottom. Don't immerse the top in water! My wife did that and I needed to replace the battery.

The negatives: It is big and chunky and displaces a lot of water, which is a problem in single-serving pots. It doesn't have a scoop, so you'll mostly end up just pushing the grounds around the bottom of the carafe instead of getting them out. The directions allude to a 1-minute stir-warning beep that doesn't exist. The beep is a typical harsh electronic beep.Otherwise, it's a great tool to add to the coffee ritual. The 4-minute timer is perfect, as is the single-button interface. The beeping, while harsh, is very well-muted. The display is bright and easy to read, though I wish there was a sub-minute indication. It rinses clean easily, and pulls apart easy for deeper cleaning, which is good because the coffee oils love to stick to it and leave funky brown ash on it.It would probably be a good gift for a press-pot coffee snob, along with a nice scale.UPDATE July 2020: You probably noticed that other reviews have mentioned the unit failing within weeks or months. Mine, too, appeared to fail. The first symptom was, instead of beeping at the end of the cycle, it would just 'tick'. I put a new battery in, and it ran for another couple of weeks, then died again.It turns out the device isn't broken, per se, but it is VERY sensitive to a low battery, and will crash once the CR2016 battery drops even a little below 3v. Unfortunately, cheap counterfeit batteries are cheap and attractive, and my replacement battery was already too low. I've put a third battery in, but it is from the same lot and I expect it to fail within a few weeks. In the meantime, I purchased fresh AmazonBasics-branded batteries, and I'll let you know if I have further concerns. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to also purchase a few CR2016 cells to keep on hand.

Received one of these as a gift at Christmas. What a great idea, no need to set a separate timer, and it has a great stirrer. It's supposed to beep at 1 minute to remind you to stir the coffee and add water. It never did. After 1-2 months, it died. I bought this as a replacement, since my daughter was thrilled to have found it for me. That one beeped so faintly it couldn't be heard. It also died within a month. I had already bought another as a backup. I'm using that now. It doesn't beep at one minute, also very faint beep at 4 minutes. I have no expectation it will last. Would absolutely not buy again. UPDATE: Within three months, all three products are dead. Makes a good stirrer, but no working timer. Sad.

This thing is fine as a silicone stirrer, but that's really hard to mess up. The timer functionality is awful. There is one button on a removable part of the stirrer. The instructions say to press the button to turn on the 4 minute feature, which happens sometimes. The other times it just starts chirping incessantly. So just hold it to turn it back off, right? I wish. This isn't a very well designed timer which is weird because it should be a binary function of on or off. The only reason I'm not refunding it is it does stir things.

Cool rubberized stirrer/scraper for your French press. You shouldn't use steel or ceramic stirrers on glass as it will dull the surface. Press the button and the count down from 4 minutes to zero starts. Pretty simple. The electronic part unclips from the scraper/stirrer part so you can put the scraper/stirrer in the dishwasher. The electrics part can be wiped down with a damp cloth but don't submerge it or put in in the dishwasher. I love it!

It works good. In the instructions it says it beeps after one minute as a stir reminder. It doesn’t do it. Not a deal breaker for me. As other reviewers said, it’s large.

Muy buen material, sencilla limpieza y operación.

The alarm sound level is weak and digital display not bright enough.Otherwise basic and adequate but does require being attentive

Usar el timer es una ruleta, se pone un 8 y no funciona tienes que apretar varias veces y tener suerte que funcione, muy descontento con el