Brews an excellent pot of very hot coffee & my wife loves the auto frothing feature.
Positive Product Points
A very well made drip coffee maker, which includes a stainless steel carafe and a nice milk steamer; that my wife is thrilled with. I’m especially pleased with the carafe, which keeps the coffee nice and hot for at least two hours, without baking it. The gold permanent filter is also a nice feature and I like the fact that the basket swings out for easy cleaning. The manual is top notch and very easy to understand. However, if your one of the many manual challenged individuals, just play the excellent video. As an added benefit; this is a very attractive coffee maker and the digital controls are cool and easy to use. One last point, this unit is extremely easy to keep clean.
Negative Product Points
The cost is a tad on the high side, even on eBay, but then I found that Capresso sells factory serviced CoffeeTec’s for $119.99, with a full warranty. I’ve included more about that subject under my Buying Experience section.
Detailed Commentary
If you’re looking for a high quality drip coffee maker and like the idea of frothed and steamed milk; the CoffeeTec may well be the ultimate home brewing system. Frankly I could have cared less about frothing but my wife and most of our friends have fallen in love with this feature.
We entertain a fair amount and as you probably already know; it’s simply impossible to serve espresso to a large crowd. The CoffeeTec simply shines in this regard and I often find myself brewing 3 or 4 pots and refilling the milk container. To date, four of our friends have been so enamored with our CoffeeTec that they purchased their own units.
All in all there’s a lot of features to like and very little to dislike about this coffee maker. We did look at the Technivorm but they have a limited distribution network and you can’t find one for less then MSRP.
A couple of tips: ** Keep the milk container full or it won’t function properly. ** Don’t try to froth half and half or cream. ** If you like to use fine ground coffee, like we do, use a good #4 paper filter. ** Fill the carafe with very hot water and let it sit for a couple of minutes before starting the brewing process. ** Follow the directions for cleaning the frothing attachments, after every use.
Buying Experience
The MSRP wasn’t a huge deal but I rarely pay full price for anything. So when I found that Capresso had factory serviced units for $119.99, that got my attention. I was a little concerned about receiving a unit that was “beat up” but when I called Capresso they reassured me that the units were in very good, to new condition. So I took the plunge and ordered one. The shipping wasn’t the fastest I’ve ever encountered but when it arrived; you couldn’t tell it was ever used! Our four friends also commented that their units basically looked brand new and were all tickled pink at the savings.
