At first glance when I spotted this while at the local Home Improvement store, this $99 Krups caught my eye. I've been looking for a replacement coffee maker for a few months and had not found what I was looking for. I was hoping to find one online or even the google images search. What happened is this, in less then a minute and reading most of the literature on the box I put this in my shopping basket knowing that I could simply bring it back if I didn't like it. I liked the way it looked, it had the thermal feature I wanted which is very energy efficient, my kitchen is now all stainless and it matched everything perfectly right down to it's blue L.E.D. screen that matched my fridge exactly.
FEATURES & EASY TO USE:
Getting it set up for it's first brew is easy and I couldn't wait until morning so I made a batch, it had the typical new smell or slight metal taste so I figured it would go away after a dozen or so pots, and it did. You cannot overfill the reservoir due to an out spout on the back, I've got mine down to filling up and topping off when it reaches the red filter holder inside the water reservoir. You will experience overfilling maybe once, it takes very little time to learn how to use this machine.
I read some other reviews that had low ratings and one of the problems that a person had with not knowing how much water was in the machine had to have been from the water level glass tube on the side not reading accurately. TIP: if you fill the water reservoir too fast or with a forceful stream of water on the machines water intake hole at the bottom left, it will cause air and water mixed to get inside the glass tube giving you a false reading.
I don't use the duo filter that came with machine, my water is decent tap water right from Folsom Lake, you'll want to install the filter if you have hard water(high PH) or chlorine tasting water. With this maker you'll notice the thermos coffee taste at first, it goes away after a while. Make sure you empty out the pot after a few hours, wash and rinse plus let it dry with the lid off, it helps keep the water left in it from getting that stale coffee taste in the next brew. Coffee will stay hot for 3 or more hours, it's usually gone in 2. 10 cups is fine for me and the wife, there's usually a cup left.
We retired a twenty year old 12 cup maker with no gadgets and the glass carafe with a slight crack. I was glad we still got to use our 1 year supply of #4 cone filters we bought at the club store a few months ago. I'm still getting use to the "not having to put the carafe back" after I pour a cup. When it's done brewing and it will tell you with it's audible alarm, you can turn the alarm off if desired. It has a series of beeps: 3 beeps-pause 2 seconds-3 more beeps. Our Krups turns itself off a few minute after the beeps, not sure but some similar models don't turn off.
FOR BETTER COFFEE TRY THIS:
For a few year now I've evolved from the canned coffee to whole beans and I grind them just before I brew. It went from canned to whole beans ground at the store to whole beans ground before brewing. I use regular arabica Columbian and it's nothing dark roasted for us, breakfast blend is on the lighter side where espresso and French roast is very strong.
FROM GLASS CARAFE TO STAINLESS THERMOS CARAFE:
The coffee made in our older glass carafe tasted better to me. I don't miss the bad coffee taste from the coffee being on the burner after an hour. My mother in law had great tasting coffee in her thermos style maker but it was a glass thermos not stainless. I noticed on the Krups web site it has a glass carafe listed as an option but the machine does not have a warming plate to keep the coffee hot. I would prefer this Krups coffee maker I now own with a glass thermos interior if it was available. It would make this an almost perfect coffee maker for me. Simply put coffee tastes better in glass.
I would recommend this machine to anyone. After it's all said and done, looking at 20 or so machines from $20 to $200 this Krups has been just fine so far.
