It uses 80% less energy?! That would mean the comparison coffee maker is only 20% efficient, wasting 4 units of heat for every one put into the water. I was about to call B.S. on that when I spotted to magic words "up to". Ahhh. These guys can /imagine/ such a wasteful coffee maker. "up to" is a phrase that means "this is just marketing hooey".

I think that is way cool. It has a retro look to it and has a 'robot' appearance. If I drank coffee, I would go for that.

Induction stoves are a true advance (although not a recent one; having been in use in Germany for many decades they're only now starting to sell in some quantity in the US). And it's not hype as they heat water extremely fast. The time it takes for standard espresso makers to get up to speed it embarrassingly slow - and much energy is wasted during that heat up cycle.

@ piperTom
Sense there are more than one coffee makers on the market they undoubtedly found the worst one the could to compare too. A cheap poorly insulated instant brew maker with louse efficiency is undoubtedly on the market. It might not even be Chinese in origin.

i have the picu heat induction cookers and i love them their really wonderful and save gas or electricity

I put away my coffee maker years ago. I grind fresh roasted, organic beans in large quantities to make a gallon of concentrated coffee, place them in a gallon jar, add room temp water, and let sit for 2-4 hours. I cool in the frig for 3-4 days, then strain. I have 3-4 weeks of cold brewed, 40% less acidic coffee. My acid reflux is gone.
Why heat water to brew? Can't plan ahead? My way gives me a quicker cup (pre-brewed, pre-cooled for adding to milk shakes or drinking iced), and less acidic.

induction for heating water? why not microwaving it? what a waste of energy. all you can heat up with induction is the metal surrounding the water and not the water directly like you would in a microwave. i don't think that someone could save that much energy by just simply using a different method. there are only two things where energy could be wasted: lack of insulation and remaining heat when the water is already gone or not used.

@ MG127 Low efficiency heating elements.

Even if it is quite as energy-saving as they claim, at least it looks fantastic! One of these on a kitchen benchtop would double the chances of selling a house, don't you think?

The 80% figure doesn't sound unreasonable, most semi-commercial or commercial machines use what might be described as a 'pressure cooker' system. The boiler has an element inside and contains about 2/3 water. A pressurestat that controls the boiler element is set at about 1.3 bar which means a boiling point around 120 degrees C (to create steam). The portafilters are set up on the exposed end of a thermosyphon tube which projects into the boiler water so the extraction ends up being at about 60 degrees C. The three elements in our two group Gaggia are rated at 5 kilowatts total, with an operating power of (two elements) 3200 watts (the extra is for faster start-up). The boiler is uninsulated because the 'lost' heat pouring out the top of the machine is used to preheat the cups. My guess is that each espresso using textured/steamed milk probably uses a couple of hundred watt/minutes of power. Compared to that, these guys are probably nudging a 95% gain...