Buy the Hario Mizudashi 600 ml. It is the only ready-to-drink pitcher here whose manufacturer publishes all three dimensions — 138 by 94 by 208 mm, or 5.4 by 3.7 by 8.2 inches — so you can check it against your own fridge shelf before you pay. If you want a full quart and you drop things, the Takeya Deluxe in Tritan is unbreakable; if you want concentrate rather than ready-to-drink coffee, the Toddy Home is the one, and it is also the tallest thing on this page at 14.5 inches.
Cold brew is the one coffee where the brewer lives in the refrigerator for twelve to twenty-four hours, so the appliance competes with your food for space. That is a real problem in an apartment fridge and almost no review mentions it. Three of the five makers below publish a capacity and no dimensions at all.
So this guide is ranked on published size first and coffee second, the way our small-kitchen drip guide is ranked on cabinet clearance. Measure your fridge first.
How to shop for a cold brew coffee maker
Published dimensions, not just capacity
A quart is a quart no matter what shape it comes in, and shape is what decides whether it stands in a door bin, lies on a shelf or has to displace the milk. Two brands here publish width, depth and height — Hario for its pitcher, and Toddy for both its brewing container and its decanter. Takeya publishes a capacity and a weight. asobu publishes a capacity that does not match its own Amazon page.
Whether it can lie down
An airtight, leakproof lid turns a tall brewer into a short one, because it can lie on its side on a shelf. Both Takeyas publish one; the Hario and the Toddy do not, so their height is their height.
Ready-to-drink or concentrate
A mesh-filter pitcher makes coffee you pour and drink. The Toddy makes a concentrate you dilute, so one brew of the biggest object here yields far more finished coffee than one brew of the smallest. The fridge maths is not the capacity maths.
What the filter is, and what it costs to keep using
A permanent stainless mesh costs nothing after purchase and lets some fines through. The Toddy's felt filter plus optional paper bags is a cleaner cup and a running cost — the same trade as paper versus metal in a pour-over.
Glass or plastic
Glass holds no odour and no stain; Tritan does not shatter when a wet hand meets a tile floor. Takeya publishes both versions of the same quart brewer, 526 g in glass and 467 g in Tritan — the cleanest either-or on the page.
Best overall
Image: Hario
Hario Mizudashi Cold Brew Coffee Pot 600 ml
94 mm deep, the only published size
Model
MCPN-7CBR
Capacity
600 mL / 5 cups practical · 8-hour steep
Dimensions
138 × 94 × 208 mm (W × D × H)
Material
Heatproof glass · permanent mesh filter in the lid
Reasons to buy
Hario publishes width, depth and height — 138 by 94 by 208 mm — which neither Takeya nor asobu does, so it and the Toddy are the only picks here you can check against a tape measure before buying
94 mm of depth, under four inches, is what gets it into a door bin rather than onto a shelf where it displaces food
Heatproof glass, so it takes no flavour from yesterday's coffee and shows how much is left
A permanent mesh basket in the lid — nothing to buy again, and it comes apart for washing
Reasons to avoid
600 mL is five small cups, so two people are brewing every other day
No leakproof lid claim, which means it has to stand up — at 208 mm tall that is the constraint, and it is the only one
Hario publishes no price on its own global site, so the only figure to compare is whatever the retailer asks today
This wins on the ground that matters for the stated problem. Takeya and asobu both ask you to buy first and measure afterwards. Hario prints 138 by 94 by 208 millimetres on its own specification page, and 94 mm of depth is what fits a door bin. Both Takeyas cost a little less.
The cup is plain, clean cold brew from a mesh basket that lifts out in one piece — no concentrate step, no dilution maths. What you accept is 600 millilitres and a brewer that cannot lie down.
946 mL from a borosilicate glass body Takeya publishes at 526 g — a full quart light enough to pour one-handed from a top shelf
The lid is airtight and leakproof, which is the feature that lets a tall brewer lie on its side on a shelf when it will not stand in the door
Non-porous glass takes no stain and no odour, so yesterday's dark roast does not flavour tomorrow's
The mesh filter is an integral part rather than a consumable, and the whole unit is dishwasher safe
Reasons to avoid
Takeya publishes a capacity, a material and a weight for this product and no dimensions whatsoever, so the fit question is unanswerable before delivery
Glass in a crowded refrigerator, reached for before coffee, with a wet hand
Checked in September 2026, the only Amazon offer for this exact 1 quart glass model was a single third-party seller with one unit left, so the button here goes to Takeya's own store instead
If the Hario's 600 millilitres is not enough, this is the next thing to buy: a full quart, in glass, with a lid that seals. The seal is what makes it flexible — a leakproof lid means the brewer lies flat under a shelf instead of needing 8 inches of standing height.
Eastman Tritan rather than glass, published at 467 g — 59 g lighter than the glass version and immune to the drop that ends it
The same airtight, leakproof lid as the glass model, so it also lies on its side on a shelf
Cheaper than the glass version, in the cheapest price band on this site, which makes it the obvious choice for a shared kitchen or a first apartment
Takeya publishes a limited lifetime warranty across its bottles and accessories
Reasons to avoid
Tritan is plastic — it does not shatter, and it also does not stay perfectly clear or perfectly odour-free across years of dark roast
Dimensions not published here either, the same gap as the glass model
This is the version most people should buy. It is a quart, the lid seals, it costs less than the glass one, and it survives everything a refrigerator door can do to it — which in a rented or shared kitchen is not a small consideration.
Buy the glass one if the brewer lives on a shelf you can see; buy this one if it lives in a door that gets slammed.
Not the right fit if you want glass that never picks up a smell — see the Takeya Glass 1 Quart.
34 oz (brand) / 40 oz (Amazon page) · 8-10 hour steep
Dimensions
Not published by asobu
Material
Glass over double-wall stainless · microfine mesh strainer
Reasons to buy
The bottom half is a detachable double-wall insulated stainless carafe, so the coffee leaves the house without ice or a second container
A microfine stainless strainer holds the grounds above the carafe, so the brew stops when you separate them rather than when you remember
asobu publishes an 8 to 10 hour steep, the shortest here, which makes it the one you can start after dinner
Insulated steel means the finished coffee does not need the fridge at all once it is brewed — the only maker here that frees the shelf after brewing
Reasons to avoid
asobu's own product page says 34 oz and the Amazon page for the same model says 40 oz, and this guide cannot tell you which is right
No published dimensions, and the two-part construction makes it the tallest-looking object here in its brewing configuration
The interesting one. Every other brewer here holds fridge space for the whole life of the coffee; this one holds it for eight hours, then the coffee moves into an insulated bottle. For a commute that is a different category, not a better version of the same one.
Not the right fit if you want the cheapest possible jug that works — see the Takeya Deluxe.
14.5 inches tall, biggest yield, buy it from Toddy
Model
THM
Capacity
7 cups water per batch, concentrate · 12-24 hour steep
Dimensions
14.5 × 7 × 7 in brewing · 11.75 × 7.5 × 7.5 in decanter
Material
Glass and BPA-free plastic · reusable felt filter plus paper bags
Reasons to buy
It makes concentrate, so one batch dilutes into far more finished coffee than a quart pitcher — the only brewer here where fridge space and coffee output are not the same number
Double filtration through a reusable felt filter and an optional paper bag takes out fines and oils, for the cleanest cup on this page
The system separates: the tall brewing container works on the counter and only the 11.75-inch glass decanter needs the refrigerator afterwards
Toddy publishes every dimension for both the brewing setup and the decanter, and the system has been sold since 1964 with parts still available
Reasons to avoid
14.5 inches tall while brewing and 11.75 inches of glass decanter afterwards — this is the biggest object here by a wide margin, and a small fridge will feel it
The felt filters are a consumable you replace, and the brewer takes a full 12 ounces of coarse-ground coffee per batch, which is a real cost per brew
Two containers, a stopper, a felt filter and a paper bag is the most parts to wash and store of anything on this page
If you drink cold brew seriously this is the correct machine, and the only one here a café would recognize. Felt-plus-paper filtration is a genuinely different cup — thicker, sweeter, with none of the silt a mesh pitcher leaves in the last inch.
It is the wrong machine for the title of this page and it is here anyway, because you brew on the counter and only the decanter goes cold — the refrigerator cost is 11.75 inches of glass. One caveat on buying it: checked in September 2026, the Toddy Home Amazon page carried no buy box at all, so the only button here is Toddy's own store.
Not the right fit if your fridge shelf is under a foot tall — see the Hario Mizudashi at 208 mm.
We did not brew with these five and there is no lab behind this page. Here is what the ranking is built on.
Every number came from the manufacturer's own product page, linked in Sources — nothing from a retailer or another guide. Where a brand publishes no figure the table says so by name; Takeya prints DIMENSIONS as a heading with nothing under it.
Where a brand's figure disagrees with the Amazon page, both numbers are printed and neither treated as fact — that is why the asobu capacity row carries two. Hario's millimetres are also shown in inches.
Every Amazon page was opened, its title matched to the product named here and its buy box checked — which is how the Takeya glass and Tritan quarts were kept apart, and how two dead listings were caught.
The verdict
Best overall: the Hario Mizudashi 600 ml, because it is the only ready-to-drink pitcher here whose manufacturer tells you how big it is — 138 by 94 by 208 mm — and 94 mm of depth is a refrigerator door bin.
Best full quart: the Takeya Glass 1 Quart at 946 mL and 526 g, with a leakproof lid that lets it lie down. The same brewer in Tritan costs less, weighs 467 g and cannot break, which is the right answer for a shared kitchen. For a commute, the asobu moves the finished coffee into an insulated steel carafe. For real concentrate and the cleanest cup, the Toddy Home — and 14.5 inches of counter while it brews.
Before you buy any of them, open the fridge and measure the deepest door bin and the tallest shelf gap. Three of these five brewers arrive with no published dimensions at all, so for those the number has to come from your side.
How long does cold brew take, and does longer mean stronger?
The published steeps here run from 8 hours (asobu) to 24 (both Takeyas and the Toddy). Longer extracts more, but past about 24 hours you are adding bitterness rather than strength — 12 to 18 hours at room temperature, or the full 24 in the fridge, then take the grounds out.
How much coffee do I use for cold brew?
Around 1 part coffee to 8 parts water by weight — roughly 75 grams of coarse grounds for the Hario's 600 mL. Concentrate is far stronger: Toddy takes 12 ounces of coffee to 7 cups of water, and you dilute the result.
Does cold brew need to be made in the refrigerator?
No — room temperature works and extracts faster, which is why the Toddy brews on a counter and only the decanter goes cold. The fridge matters afterwards: finished cold brew keeps about two weeks refrigerated, hours at room temperature.
What grind size should I use?
Coarse, coarser than French press. A fine grind passes straight through a mesh filter, leaves silt in the carafe and over-extracts over a 12-hour steep. If your grinder cannot hold a coarse setting, that is the real problem — our grinder guide ranks on exactly that.
Will a cold brew maker fit in a refrigerator door?
Two of the five tell you before you buy. At 94 mm deep and 138 mm wide the Hario is the one shaped like a door-bin object; Toddy publishes 14.5 × 7 × 7 in brewing and 11.75 × 7.5 × 7.5 in for the decanter, a shelf item at either size. Takeya and asobu publish nothing, though both Takeyas can lie on a shelf. Measure your deepest door bin and tallest shelf gap first.
Also considered
OXO Brew Compact Cold Brew Coffee Maker — A 24-ounce brewer designed to brew inside a refrigerator, and on paper the obvious winner here. OXO's product pages return a bot-challenge page, so there is no first-party dimension, capacity or material to read. No published specification, no pick.
Primula Burke Deluxe and Primula Pace — Both are 1.6-quart cold brew carafes at the cheapest price band and both are still widely sold. Primula's own store carries only the replacement filters now, so there is no manufacturer page, no dimensions and no warranty path.
County Line Kitchen 64 oz Mason Jar Pitcher — Half a gallon of cold brew in a mason-jar pitcher for very little money. The Amazon page that surfaces for it is the pitcher without the filter assembly, and the brand publishes no specification page, so what arrives is not reliably a cold brew maker.
Takeya Glass Cold Brew 2 Quart — The same glass brewer at double the size, 703 g empty. Two quarts is a shelf commitment rather than a door object, which puts it outside this guide's premise rather than below its bar.
Hario Mizudashi 1000 ml — Identical to our winner apart from height — 294 mm instead of 208 — for 1000 mL instead of 600. If your shelf takes 30 centimetres it is the better buy; it has no entry of its own because it is the same product.
