I would buy it and use it again anytime. One of my favorite vacpots to date.
Positive Product Points
A good automatic vacuum coffee maker that frequently appears on Ebay for not too much money. Coffee quality is very good. Brewing time on my unit seems about right. DO NOT BUY THE C20A!!!!!
Negative Product Points
Cloth filters are more work to clean and maintain. Bottom pot really retains heat. Cloth filters can be hard to find so you may need to fabricate your own. But some say cloth or glass filters makes the best coffee.
Detailed Commentary
The C20B uses cloth filters, I made my own easily. Make sure filter sticks out 1/2 inch past the metal cloth filter retainer all the way around. Cleanup is a bit more work versus the nicro, but hey its automatic. This pot brews at 203 degrees for 3 minutes in upper globe before it gets vacuumed down. Whole process takes about 11 minutes, but is worth the wait. I measure temps with one of those digital meat thermometers on a long wire that you can buy at Target, they work great for milk frothing too! Roasty tasting coffee as my brother in law stated. Recommend transfer to thermos soon after brewing process for best results. My pot was beat up looking, but did not buy it to display. I will continue to use it and think it is a good model. I unplug it after kick down is complete, coffee warmers are evil in my opinion. Thermos, airpots, etc. are the way to go. I set my Rancilio Rocky to 25 for this pot. I also roast my own coffee in a Hearthenware Precision. I stop my roasts when they begin to smoke or get too oily. I have bought my green coffee from Sweet Marias so far.
Buying Experience
Make sure you ask questions when you buy from Ebay. Vacpot gaskets on older models can be a problem. I recommend you ask seller to make a pot of Folgers and report actual results. If I had done this I could have avoided 2 bad vacpots. The filter was disintegrating on 1 (Sunbeam C20A Coffeemaster), and the gasket was hard on the other (Cory DLL DLU).
