Hario V60 vs Chemex: A Detailed Guide

The world of pour over coffee offers a wide range of vessels for brewing. Each of these have their own unique characteristics and produce different brews. Today, we’ll compare two iconic brewing devices, the Hario V60 and the Chemex.

Despite being the same method of manual brewing, there are noticeable differences between a V60 brew and a Chemex brew. Now, it won’t be as big of a difference like a French Press vs Pour Over would be. But both pour over methods are still quite different in how they taste and how they are prepared.

Let’s take a closer look at them.

The Hario V60: An Icon of Specialty Coffee

Since the rise of specialty coffee, the Hario V60 has been a go-to brewing device for many shops. It is a cone / v-shaped dripper angled at 60 degrees. Hence, V60. Many in the coffee community recognize the V60 for its crisp and nuanced brews that highlight a coffee’s acidity.

Three distinct aspects of the V60’s design contribute to the quality of its brews:

1. Interior ridges spiraling across the dripper
2. A large hole at the bottom
3. Its cone shape

The first two features deal with the speed of how water goes through the coffee bed. While the third feature deals with how flavor gets extracted throughout the brew.

The ridges are there to make sure the paper filter does not completely stick to the walls of the dripper and cause an air lock. This helps the water easily pass through the coffee. The large hole at the bottom also helps with this, so that water in, is also water out.

With any cone-shaped dripper, the layer of coffee will be wider on top than at the bottom. This layering traps a lot of insoluble particles and allows acidity to come through more since that always gets extracted first in the brew.

Coffee, water, brew time, coffee grind size, water temperature, agitation, and pouring technique are the basic variables that affect your brew. Compared to other drippers, the V60 is quite sensitive to small adjustments with any of these variables. Because of this, it can be tricky to consistently dial in your brews. There are also many different approaches on to how to brew with the V60.

It’s for these reasons that it’s commonly utilized in the Compulsory Rounds of brewing competitions to test a barista’s skill in managing every variable.

The Chemex: Elegance in a Cup

In one word, everything about the Chemex is elegant – from the way it looks, to the brews it produces. Invented in 1941 by chemist Dr. Peter Schlumbohm, it was designed to brew the perfect cup and be a vessel of beauty.

Like the V60, the Chemex also shares a cone shape which can highlight a coffee’s acidity. Where it differs though is in its mouthfeel. Among the pour over devices out there, the Chemex produces the lightest, cleanest, and most tea-like brews. Thus, leading many coffee professionals to describe Chemex brews as “elegant”

While the Chemex comes in various sizes, where it really shines is in larger brews. The downside to the smaller sizes of the Chemex is that their spouts are very narrow. But because this is cone / v-shape we’re dealing with, the tall, uneven, layer from top to bottom means it be more difficult to get a consistent brew.

This is much less of an issue with the larger versions of the Chemex since the spout gets wider. They also just look a lot better than the smaller versions.

Touching on the aesthetics of the Chemex, it really is a distinctive and beautiful design. We sometimes taste with our eyes and the Chemex makes coffee look more delicious than with any other decanter / coffee server. And while the Hario V60 has caught the eyes of the specialty coffee community, the Chemex has caught everybody’s eye by being shown in different TV shows and movies.

The Brewdown

All factors equal, this is how both pour over brewers match up:

Ease of Use

In terms of brewing, the Chemex and the V60 will need a similar approach (they are both pour overs after all). But one of these is much more forgiving if you get any one of your brew variables wrong. In this case, it’s the Chemex.

One aspect worth noting here is grind size. Most Chemex recipes use coarser grinds so the coffee doesn’t stall too long in the brewer’s thick paper filter. Coarser grind settings are usually more forgiving, even if you are off by a few clicks.

With finer grind settings, you can only push up to a certain fine-ness before your coffee starts to turn bitter. And dialing your grind setting up to that point where it is as fine as it can be to maximize extraction, and before it goes bitter, is frustrating. This is a common problem V60 users will run into.

Since water goes through the V60 at a very fast rate, you’ll need finer-ground coffee to better control the flow. But that is easier said than done.

Because of how tricky brews with a Hario V60 can be to calibrate, me and my team like to call it an “Expert Friendly” device.

From a non-brewing perspective, however, the Chemex is not as user-friendly between the two. Cleaning it is not as simple as it is for the V60. You’ll also need to learn how to properly fold its paper filters so it doesn’t cause any problems when brewing.

Versatility

While the Chemex is the more forgiving of the two, you’re also more limited with the brewing variables you can change. Other than grind size, you also won’t have as much room to experiment with your water temperature. In general, drippers made out of glass (glass V60 included) are not efficient when it comes to regulating the heat of your brew.

You’ll need to keep your water temperature fairly high (nothing below 90°C / 194°F) with anything made out of glass. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a relatively weak brew.

Grind size and water temperature aside, the V60 is also more versatile because of the accessories you can add onto it for you to tweak your brew even further. In particular, you have more freedom to use different paper filters from different brands. You also have the option of using a LilyDrip.

V60 Accessories

Without going too deep on how these accessories work, they basically give more control over the V60’s flow rate. Different brands of paper filters are made out of different thicknesses and materials. Thicker paper filters will slow down the flow rate because more oils get filtered out from the coffee.

While Hario has their own paper filters, many V60 users also like to use Cafec Filters because they increase the flow rate. In contrast, you can only use the thick Chemex-brand paper filters with the Chemex. Other paper filters with the Chemex would be too thin and not hold up well when brewing.

The LilyDrip is another way V60 users like to speed up the flow rate. It also compensates for the V60’s cone shape that many users struggle with. In effect, it pushes the layer of coffee up so there is a more even surface area of grounds. This means an easier time to extract more evenly.

It is important to remember though that, because we’re talking about the V60, changing your filters or adding a LilyDrip will automatically change all your other variables as well. So if you already dialed in your brews for the V60 without these accessories, you’ll have to do it all over again.

Price

The V60 is the cheaper option between the two. A Chemex is easily 4x to 5x the price of the cheap, plastic, V60.

Durability

Both the V60 and the Chemex are breakable to some degree. Although the glass and ceramic versions of the V60 are breakable, there are also versions in plastic and stainless steel. In contrast, the Chemex is only available in glass. This gives the V60 an advantage. Other pluses for the plastic V60 are that it retains heat the best (compared to other materials) and is much cheaper than glass.

Since the Chemex is one big piece of glass, it’s much more at risk of breaking. To give it some credit though, it is made out of pretty thick glass. I’ve personally seen it fall from a table and it survived without a scratch! While that is impressive, the Chemex is still something that should be handled with care – especially the glass handle version.

Taste

Before discussing taste, let’s make something clear. Good brews always start with good coffee. No amount of technique or expert dialing on either of these brewing devices will get you a competition-level taste experience if the coffee you have isn’t good to begin with.

Instead, think of the kind of flavor you really want to get out of your coffee. Brewing devices are only a means to highlight certain aspects of coffee. Once you know what you’re after, it’s much easier to choose your weapon.

The coffee world knows the Hario V60, for delivering bright and complex brews. Practice makes perfect with the V60, but hard work pays. With the V60, complex coffees with a very pronounced acidity (like Kenyan, Burundian, or Tanzanian coffees) usually hit a home run. When done right, the V60 will really help get the most out of their acidity and nuanced flavors. At the same time, the V60 is great for bringing excitement to your more, tame, everyday coffees.

Because of how light and tea-like brews with the Chemex are, it unsurprisingly works well with coffees that have a lot of floral and tea-like characteristics (like Ethiopian coffees). This will give you an experience of coffee different from the heavy and dark coffees we are all familiar with. Likewise, the Chemex can work well to balance out coffees that are very rich, like those from Brazil.

Buying Recommendations

We’ve looked at both the Hario V60 and Chemex as choices for making great pour over coffee. In reality though, either one can produce stellar brews just as much as they can produce really bad brews.

That in mind, it wouldn’t really make sense to say one is objectively better than the other. This depends heavily on how you approach brewing (technique, recipes, etc.), your taste preference, and your lifestyle.

I definitely encourage having both for you to really test things out. I personally prefer the plastic V60 because I like the flexibility in brewing and because it’s basically impossible to break. But those aspects might not be as important to you.

If you really need to pick between the two, here’s a quick gist to help you choose:

Get the Hario V60 if you:

Get the Chemex if you:

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