Not easy to clean, some parts that should be removable aren't. Position of lid makes filling reservoir tricky. Replacement carafe not easy to find in Washington/Oregon. Inefficient water distribution pushes ground coffee to the sides.
Detailed Commentary
Overall the machine is a nice exterior design, and it does what it should (make drip coffee). That being said there are some things that could have been improved, especially for the price.
1) The filter carriage is removable, but coffee also gets underneath this and it's difficult to truly clean. 2) When filling the reservoir there are only two places to pour, one on each side, and they are not very convenient. I toweled my countertop dry most mornings due to spillage. 3) When I dropped the carafe I spent four weeks looking for a replacement (the retailer I bought the machine from did not carry them) 4) The water distribution into the filter area was not very even, and quite a bit of the ground coffee ended up high on the sides of the filter.
The coffee produced in this machine was passable, but nothing to rave about. I have gotten far better results from my french press using the same blend and grinder. The auto timer is a nice feature, but the idea of leaving ground coffee in the machine overnight gives me the willies now that I'm more knowledgeable about how quickly ground coffee expires. Bottom line: it works, but for the price it just wasn't worth it. I could (and did) get the same results from a $30 generic drip machine.
Buying Experience
No problems with the purchase. Unfortunately the retailer did not carry replacement parts.
