Bodum 10oz Bistro Electric Milk Frother, Black

Great frother for the value
A friend turned me onto this many years ago, and I’m on my second version of this. The first one just plum wore out as the milk seem to burned onto the base of this. And then it just stopped turning on. With this new one, I make sure that I scrub it after every single use. Pretty quiet, love the machine, takes about two minutes to finish frothing. I’ve done many different types of milk and I’ve noticed that regular 2% milk with a little bit of coffee mate cold creamer seems to froth up the best.

Fatal design flaw – this unit will absolutely burn out
I bought this after a rando el-cheapo unit from a discount big box store simply quit working after six months. Figured, hey it’s Bodum, a few extra dollars means quality, right?But No. Do NOT buy this.Some engineer/designer at Bodum messed up, badly. This thing should never have been released, and Bodum knows it. There are a couple warnings hidden in the manual about “don’t do the thing everyone is going to do anyways or you may burn the unit out” – so they *know* this is a design flaw, but they sent it to market anyways.THE FATAL FLAW: The unit has a mechanical On/Off switch that is only overridden by the thermostat when the temperature gets high enough. When the temperature drops and the manual switch is still on, the unit will turn on until it heats up, then turns off, then turns on again when it cools down – lather, rinse, and repeat this heating/spinning/cooldown until it burns out. Hopefully the circuit breakers in your kitchen and house panel are functional and will keep a fried Bodum from burning your entire house down.Consider this scenario:1. As part of your “heading to work” routine, you make coffee and turn the manual switch on the Bodum to froth/heat some milk. Great, it worked. Pour that into your travel mug with your coffee.2. You rinse/wash out the Bodum, probably with warm/hot water3. You place the unit back in its stand. Because the unit is still warm, it’s internal thermostat prevents it from turning on4. You hop in your car with your travel mug of coffee and warm, frothed milk (so far so good) and head to work5. BUT, you forgot to turn the mechanical switch OFF, didn’t you (yes, you did – just like everyone will at some point)6. After the house is empty, the Bodum will now spend the entire day cooling down, and then automatically turning back on to heat and spin air, and then turning off when the unit gets too hot. Over and over and over until either it burns out – or you come home from work and notice the unit heating and spinning, and FINALLY, flip the mechanical switch OFF.Even the el-cheapo unit I originally bought got this design correct (not with quality parts, apparently, but at least they got the basic design correct). Frothers like this need a one-time ELECTRONIC switch that turns on, and then switches COMPLETELY OFF after the milk heats ONCE. The user then needs to push a physical button to turn it back on again.Until Bodum fixes this design/engineering flaw, buy something else.

Good little frother for the price – cleaning tips included here.
My wife and I used mostly for non-dairy milks (Soy, Flax, and Coconut). It didn’t really froth these milks greatly. Soy yielded the best results. The frother got the milk nice and hot. Used 2-4 times a day for 6 months until it stopped working just last week. Used for caffe latte’s, chai teas, and hot cocoa. While it was working, we really enjoyed it. It was super user-friendly and simple. Customarily, we would froth the milk, rinse it out with hot water then store it upside down in our kitchen sink strainer.If I had been more on top of thoroughly cleaning it after each use, it probably would have lasted longer. (I don’t fault the company for this, nor does my star rating reflect my own personal negligence).The stir-tool in the center of the cup was magnetic and pulled out very easily for cleaning. The heater was at the base of the reservoir, so after a few days of use, there would be a layer of solidified, or caked-on milk that would collect on the bottom. After struggling to clean this effectively for a while, the successful formula that worked for me was to, once a week, soak it in vinegar, then scrape that caked milk off with the flathead end of a Tupperware orange peeler. I used this because the sharp edge was plastic and didn’t damage the non-stick coating of the reservoir like a knife or spoon would. After the big chunks were shaved away, I would then take a toothbrush with a bent neck 90°, then use that to agitate/clean the bottom surface of the reservoir. Sounds tedious, but it was not bad. I already had the toothbrush in my arsenal.Then to clean the “frother” tool (spring looking device), I would soak in vinegar then take a toothbrush to it.Sometimes to soften up the caked-up milk at the bottom, I would run the frother with 1/4 vinegar in it to heat everything up…that seemed to help.Near the end of it working, the motor still seemed to make a noise, but the frother tool wasn’t spinning. It was almost like a grinding gear sound. It was intermittent for the last couple months, until one day we never got it to spin again. Tossed it in the trash.I don’t regret buying this, it was our first frother. I will probably buy another one of these eventually. In the meantime, I am going to try out a couple other brands in the price range. For $30 can’t beat it. That’s the price of 6 caramel macchiatos from Starbucks!

I have the Nespresso unit at home for which I paid roughly $100. I never use the cold froth option so the fact that the Bodum doesn’t have that was of no concern at all. The Bodum unit was intended for my office at work as I couldn’t justify spending another $100 to have the Nespresso one at work as well. This turned out to be the perfect decision as this one froths just as fast, as quietly and as effectively as the Nespresso. I would say that the Nespresso unit is heavier and feels a bit more solid, but they both render the same result at a big different in cost.I used to use half and half in my frother but every time I had to clean it, it bothered me to see how much fatty gunk half and half left behind that I had to scrub off. It made me wonder about the buildup on my insides! I’ve since gone non-dairy and have found some amazing barista blend oat milks that froth exactly like half and half and with the same richness but nothing fatty left behind. A quick rinse and I’m done! Zero cholesterol and it makes me feel a whole lot better about my daily lattes. I’m doing the same with the Bodum and getting great results. Thick, rich and velvety but without the guilt and health concerns. Keep in mind, we are what we repeatedly do! Cheers.

Love this! I’ve had two Nespresso frothers which I loved but they both eventually stopped working. I didn’t want to buy another Nespresso one because they’re so expensive. This one froths great! I can froth my homemade almond milk!!! It’s amazing. Its’ ease of cleaning is the same as the Nespresso one. It doesn’t have a cold function, but I never used that. It also has a smooth exterior which makes it slippery when trying to clean. But that’s literally the only downside. I love it. So glad I bought this. The price is fantastic.

He probado las marcas más caras, esta es igual de buena por la mitad de precio. Al principio pensé que dejaba de funcionar, pero cambié de marca de leche. Compré mi leche habitual y descubrí que era la leche Pradel la que no hacía espuma. No la he probado con otros tipos de leche, así que si la tuya no funciona, puede que valga la pena cambiar de leche.