Beth mentioned fighting over what type of coffee maker to buy which is a dilema my husband and myself are currently facing.

What type should we buy? Currently we have a 6-year old Krups that is so grubby I'm sick of cleaning it. It's basically no frills but brews us our 10 cups of freshly ground coffee every morning.

However, lately, I've been staring longingly at as those fancy machines with the alarms and timers and grinders and water purification systems. Are they worth the extra $$ or is my no frills version the way to stay?

Side note: I do grind my beans every morning. Advice please.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

Answers

I really wanted one of those Cuisinart grind and brew units, but Jeremy thinks it's way too much money to spend on a coffeemaker. I hate grinding coffee and I would love to have fresh ground coffee waiting for me when I get up. It would make me so very happy. But the reviews at Epinions are pretty mixed, and a lot of people say that machine is very hard to clean. Or very annoying to clean, anyway. That would be a problem. People seem to love it or hate it, depending on how much they care about fresh ground coffee.

My friend Eric, who is such a coffee guy that his domain name is doublecap.com and he's made a whole web page for his coffeemaker (a fancy Italian model), recommended the Braun FlavorSelect model KF-180. I think that's this one here, or at least a close relative. It got pretty good reviews at Epinions.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

My perfect coffee maker?

Let's see, 6-foot-2, dark hair, blue eyes, body like a Navy SEAL, smart, funny, likes to read....

I'm sorry. Were you talking about some sort of kitchen gadget? ;)

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

Yeah Beth, That's our baby. I think the FlavorSelect is the model with all the bells and whistles (literally), and the other one is the plain model.

Like I was telling you (and thought I'd repeat here), this is the machine we have at work. We've gone through many many "for home use only" models, and this one is the longest lasting. It also has the best stop-N-serve gizmo -all the other models break within a month or two of jonesing office coffee junkies jamming the carafe onto the burner. This thing also makes really good coffee and uses some kind of deuling hot water delivery system (oooh, ahhh).

Here's what I'd look for in a coffee maker Heather:

• A replaceable carafe -some of these machines have "stylish" carafes and you can never find replacements.
• Cone type filter -a MUST! No basket filters.
• Easy to fill water reservoir (big target = less cleanup.)
• Swing out filter basket -I hate the kind that stack on top of the carafe.
• Stop-N-Serve technology, so you don't have to wait for that last bit to dribble through before you get a cup.
• Auto-shutoff burner. I like this feature for our machine at work because people tend to forget to turn off the burner (and there's nothing worse than the smell of burnt coffee).

That's all I could think of. I wouldn't recommend the combo units simply because the cleanup would be murder. If you like freshly ground coffee, the mess is either on your counter, or deep inside your coffee-plex...the counter is much easier to clean.

Hope that helps! Now, if you're talking really good coffee, you should get an insulated press pot, or espresso machine, but that's a whole different thread!

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

Braun's are very good and last a long time. I say go for the grind & brew model. In the long run, the convenience factor outweighs the extra cost.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

French press.

It's non electric (so you can have coffee, even if the power is out, provided you have some way of boiling water) and makes some powerful coffee.

The dinky little 2 cup ones only cost about $10.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

I used to have a Melitta coffeemaker (more than one, actually) that worked just fine.

Now I have a Bodum press. They have them in every size up to 1.5L, and they also have a stainless steel insulated one if you aren't into breakable carafes. I also have a teakettle goes from zero to boiling in about 3 min. Grind the coffee while the water boils, wait 4 min for it to steep, press, and pour.

It's much more fun than waiting for a drip coffeemaker to get done with its cycle, and having your annoying roommate/spouse/whatever take the first cup out before it finishes so that the rest of the coffee is watery.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

The presspot is great. Better than any electric coffee-maker and you can carry it wherever you go!

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2000

We have a Thermal Carafe coffeemaker -- sorry, I don't remember who makes it. I highly recommend it, and I believe Service Merchandise carries it. Its benefit is that there is no heating element at the bottom. The coffee goes directly into what is essentially a thermos. So the coffee will stay hot for several hours, but it doesn't go bad. Sometimes I microwave yesterday's coffee to take with me on my drive to work, and it tastes okay. (My husband won't do that, though.)

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

Ooh, I have the Braun FlavorSelect!

We have been through an unseemly number of coffee makers over the last 10 years or so; I'd say we've managed to destroy about 5 or 6. I really don't know how we do it, but after a year or two at most, they just give up on us and stop working.

We've had the Braun for almost 4 years, and it works great! It makes wonderful coffee, is easy to clean, and just plain does its job day in and day out (and when I'm struggling against multiple deadlines on little or no sleep, I often call upon its services two or three times a day).

Anyway, just a recommendation from a satisfied customer. I hope I didn't jinx the thing by singing its praises... hmm, maybe I'd better make a pot of coffee just to make sure.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

Coffeemakers are currency for the May 5 Endtimes. Get a good one!

Dean

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000