I gave this away to a friend. After a few months, they threw it out.
Positive Product Points
I'm really reaching to find a positive feature, but here it goes. The hotplate is programmable. You can set it so it will reduce to a lower temperature after a specified period, allowing you to keep the heat at full strength for a while, then turn it down but not off, before it would burn.
Negative Product Points
Coffee is weak; cleaning is a nightmare. Stock-sized grinder can only grind enough beans for half a pot.
Detailed Commentary
The concept for this machine is great. Add water and whole beans and it does the rest. It grinds the beans, dumps them in a Melitta-style funnel, heats the water and pours it through. Add adjustment dials that promise to micromanage brew strength and it seems a dream come true for convenience-oriented and techie coffee lovers. Unfortunately nothing works as planned. First of all, the grinder is a standard blade grinder, less than ideal. Worst, it is a stock-sized unit - - the same hopper and blade as standard $30 standalone grinders. This can only grind about half as much coffee as needed to make a full pot of full-strength coffee. To cover this up, the maker pretends that 1 Tbs. per cup is all you could want. Second, everything, including the grinder section and the shoot that dumps the coffee into the cone gets doused in steam as the coffee is being made. This means cleanup is not of dry powder, but of caked-on gunk. It takes direct water blast assisted with your hands, to clean the 3 main parts. My dishwasher would both leave grounds then cake them on. Plus, with so much coffee stuck to the equipment when I put it in the dishwasher, it turned the rinsewater into a light-brew and never quite washed clear. Perhaps a stronger dishwasher could manage, but I ended up having to spend 5 minutes cleaning it by hand every day. Third, the dials that claimed to allow control did nothing discernable. The only positive feature is a hotplate that will reduce to a lower temperature after a specified period, allowing you to keep the heat at full strength for a while, then turn it down but not off before it would burn.
All in all, a disaster – no wonder they are being dumped for 30 bucks these days. Unfortunately, I spent $100 year before last. I gave mine away to a friend, who eventually gave up themselves and threw it out.
Buying Experience
Standard Lechters discount store experience -- take box off shelf, pay at counter.
