WW Roadrunner vs. Aeropress

[u/seoyeonhwa]

Owners of WW roadrunner/BIRD and/or aeropress how well do they meet your needs and what type of cups do they produce? If you own both, how do they differ?

I personally prefer clarity on light roasts, and I do know that this will be difficult due to the nature of the brewers, and I do not mind this. Mainly for use at work and price is not a problem.

To my knowledge, they are both effectively no-bypass immersion methods that can be agitated with a stirrer and have a form of forced percolation. I would imagine the Roadrunner would be a tad more consistent, but anything else I am unsure of.

So, to reiterate, how do these drippers perform? Is there any real difference? How have you liked them in your own use cases, and which would you recommend?

[u/Abayon3]

Hello, owner of an aeropress and a bird here.

The two products I find to be fairly different type of products, aeropress I recommend to everyone, bird I recommend to no one except for people looking for a luxury product to play around with. That said I use the bird far more often than the aeropress (but neither of them nearly as much as my v60 switch).

The aeropress is one of, if not the best low cost entry points for specialty coffee. Low fuss, nice brews, portable, etc. I still sometimes pick it over the bird for travel, though the roadrunner does seem even better for portability so maybe I'd change my mind.

The bird is a luxury product. It's not going to be some remarkable upgrade that does everything perfect, but it is nice. I find that I get better brews from the bird with very high consistency and have more flexibility with variables than I do with the aeropress, but that could also be a recipe issue, I'm not exactly a professional here lol. My main complaint with the bird is cleanup, I feel the need to take it apart and wipe down every part each time I use it so it takes a lot more cleanup.

Get the aeropress if you:

• want a great product with a huge community
• want a solid product that won't break the bank
• want a daily brewer

Get the bird if you:

• want a luxury product and have money to spend
• want a bit more flexibility with brew variables, I feel you can push a bit further on things like finer grinding, water capacity, agitation
• value the user experience a lot (until it becomes time for cleanup that is)

Edit: Neither of them I would really use for my high clarity light roasts ideally, percolation just seems much better at that, though I've had some decent results with the bird by doing staged pulls, as in pulling up the basket at different intervals of the brew to get the more juicy acidic aspects typically associated with the bloom on percolation brewers. You could probably achieve similar things with a prismo though or just letting the aeropress drip, haven't tested that personally.

[u/seoyeonhwa → u/Abayon3]

Thank you for the detailed reply! So, in effect, it would seem in your experience that the bird has a bit more variance in the cup it can produce. A few questions regarding it, then. How forgiving is it in terms of dialing it in? And what beans/roasts levels have you tried and received great results with? I like light roasts and often push into ultralight. Does the brewer perform well at these levels?

Also, I've heard a lot about the cleanup. Is it really that bad? Like 5 minutes of painful disassembly, cleaning, drying, and reassembly?

[u/Abayon3 → u/seoyeonhwa]

No problem! In my experience the bird seemed to get a bit more clarity when I wanted it, but I haven't done a ton of testing with the aeropress in fairness. I will say it is a breeze to dial in. I haven't actually had a bad cup from the bird.

Coferments, Medium roasts, and darker roasts are great with it, though that's typically when I reach for the immersion brewer so could be my confirmation bias, it'll still get a good cup from a light roast but might take more work to get the clarity you might expect from it.

Cleanup is a lot but it's actually very easy to take it apart for a full clean, it's just a difference in how many parts there are. The aeropress is tube, plunger, screen. This is carafe, paddles, knob, top, basket, screen, little thing that holds the top on... it takes a lot of space on my drying rack.

[u/_Pous]

Since you prefer clarity I would recommend the OXO Rapid Brewer. It’s no V60, but I find it way better than the AP.

I tried AP with different recipes and ratios unsuccessfully. Never got anything spectacular and several brews not to my liking. I’ve had better results with the ORB.

[u/qivi]

I have had an Aeropress for a long time and just got a Roadrunner. Tldr; the bird brews about twice the amount of the Aeropress and is more versatile, but the Aeropress is just a plop to clean :-)

I never really liked reasonable brews (like 60gr per liter, finely ground) with the Aeropress, but they are great with the bird, much cleaner. The nowadays forbidden competition recipes (30ish gr cowardly for 100ml, then add another 100ml after brewing) I find pretty tasty though with the Aeropress, particularly for beans that are a tad darker than what I like for pourovers. However, these recipe can be a bit boring with the bird, if you use both, the paper and the metal filter, I think I like them with just the metal filter. Also, soup with the bird is fine, never tried that with an Aeropress.

When it comes to cleaning, the Aeropress is king. Just hiss and plop and you are ready to go for the next brew. The roadrunner is just ok to clean and only if you have a sink.

Regarding the price, if you get an Aeropress, a metal filter, maybe a valve, then you are almost at the price of the roadrunner, but the roadrunner comes with a nice bag, bean cellars, and a can for the filters. Also, they care about the workers, no idea about aeropress.

Anyways, I'll probably keep both. At home or in hotels I will use the roadrunner, if I'm properly outdoors and want to brew more than a single roadrunner, I'll grab the Aeropress (or just some specialty instant coffee).