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Our DeLonghi bit the dust this a.m. and we need to find a new coffee maker PRONTO. Cuisinart looks good but I've read a lot about that brand starting fires.

What is the top of the line counter-top style coffee maker these days?

More of my friends have the cuisinart -- the one that grinds and the brews.

They all seem to like it.

It seems, however, that coffee makers keep getting pricier and pricier -- I remember when you could get a simple one for $10 -- but they all have more bells and whistles now so as more bells and then more whistles are added prices go up.


We do French press so I personally can't help you. (It has ZERO bells and whistles!)

Martha

quote:

Originally posted by Linderhof:
We do French press so I personally can't help you. (It has ZERO bells and whistles!)

Martha

LOL - we have one of those too, but we need a regular drip style maker - both for volume and convenience. DH bought the FP when he was scheduled to go out of town and I was left w/o a pot to brew in! OOOH was I upset with the thought of no coffee!

Personal preference in our house (know this isn't the norm) is a lower price point name brand such as Mr. Coffee. We found that even the higher end brands don't seem to last long enough to warrant their cost so we have fallen trap to the American way....the idea of a disposable society..sad but true. We do the same for toasters which seem to bite the dust prematurely too. I think they work fine and it's what you put into them that makes a difference anyway. Just MHO. Good luck in your search.


FYI, we once had an under the counter Black and Decker coffee maker that wouldn't die. We grew tired of replacing the glass carafes that cost almost as much as the coffee maker so it's another reason we buy these appliances on the cheap.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Froo Froo,

Mr. Coffee for a four-cup brew; Krups for a 10-cup brew - I like the Krups better and I use it mostly for brewing about 6 to 8 cups....
And I like good, strong coffee made from freshly ground organic coffee beans - but "coffee" is "coffee" - and I'll take it any which way. My husband buys big cans of Folger's "on sale." I have private reserves of any kind of premium coffee beans I can afford - Starbuck's or Whole Foods brands of organic coffee....and then I always use my Krups for brewing....

quote:

Originally posted by Froo Froo:

FYI, we once had an under the counter Black and Decker coffee maker that wouldn't die. We grew tired of replacing the glass carafes that cost almost as much as the coffee maker so it's another reason we buy these appliances on the cheap.

When my MIL passed away and we cleaned out the kitchen -- there must have been six or perhaps eight coffee carafes in her cupboards. The machine would die but the carafe -- it was still good and perhaps could still be used and so she would save it. Of course, the next machine would use a different carafe and the machine after that was still a different carafe . . .

Sigh -- they all went to auction - bet we didn't even get $1 for all of them! LOL!

Martha

For countertop, drip coffee makers, one should really look at which heats the water the most effectively. Many heat the water at the bottom and then it travels up a tube to hit the grounds in the basket. This often cools the water from the boiling temp to maybe 160 degrees or less. This means a weaker cup of coffee or just having to use more coffee for each pot. If somewhere in the product info you can find out the water temp, that may be helpful.

I found Braun and Krups to be better than many of the others, but this was several years back. I now only use a french press. At 8,000 feet, water boils too fast (at a low temp) for good countertop coffee. I use a tea kettle to raise the temperature enough to make great coffee in the press.

Well, I went to the following stores:

Walmart
Target
Williams Sonoma
Costco
BB&B

(we do not have a Crate and Barrel - this makes me so sad)

And I did not buy anything. The DeLonghi we have is nice as it has the front load water reservoir - no pushing or pulling the machine back and forth. No one is carrying that model. I think there was one Krups model. The only item I liked was the Delonghi at BBB (it was the model we have plus the espresso/milk steamer function) but at $179.00. And that was far from unreasonable. WS has several Cuisinarts on sale, but as stated in my original post - big ol' fire hazard. I want my kitchen remodeled, but not like that!

Soooooooo still no coffee maker. I'll let DH decide if we are going to order the Delonghi we like online or if he wants something else.

As for carafes - all of the glass carafes out there are so CHEAP! I've broken several, and the model we have is special order. Makers want loyalty, so they fit these things only to their own models.

OH - and for anyone who needs one of those "hard to replace" items, try the Gourmet Depot online. Really cheap replacement carafes specific to the brands they carry.

For years, I used the cheapest Braun made and always got it on sale at Long's Drugstore, which is now CVS. Don't know if CVS carries it. About 2 1/2 years ago, I bought a Cuisinart. It has a clock feature, but we don't use that. Don't know where I bought it (Costco maybe) or how much it cost, but I'm sure it wasn't more than $35. It makes great coffee, as did the Braun.

When DH is gone and I want just one cup of coffee, I either use my single-cup french press or the Melita cone, both of which do a great job.

Well, I found a 20% coupon for BBB so when DH got home from errands we went back down and purchased the Delonghi combo (after he looked at other options). Expensive I know, but none of the others have the front load feature, and most were really tall - we're remodeling the kitchen (starting in 4 weeks or so) and we won't have any counter space that isn't under another cabinet. Nothing else would fit!

So we got the extra bells and whistles. Normally, we would have searched online for a deal, but as I need to be up at 3:30 a.m. every day for work, waiting isn't an option (I'm very cranky at that hour - and facing Monday morning without coffee is just too painful).

running a test pot of decaf now. Glad I had that coupon.

thanks for all your help and advice.

There are so many brands and styles out now it will make your head spin. From $20.00 to a few thousand! Remember when it was just the stove-top kind or Mr. Coffee?

I have a French press and a Krups. I had a Braun before the Krups. The Braun lasted about 10 years and now the Krups is about 5 years old. We make coffee twice a day so it's gets used a lot.

Like someone mentioned previously, the least complicated and most simple is your best bet. I stayed away from the digital-pre-grind-timer-automatic everything styles because I know they are just going to break sooner. I need a espresso maker too for Cuban coffee so we have a combo unit.

This is what I have...on sale, about $150.00

Hope the DeLonghi works for you. We swear by the Braun automatic drip; have had ours for more than 10 years, with daily use. We use filtered water and freshly ground beans (using an old Krups grinder)And the coffee is pretty hot. We don't use the programming device. Our previous Braun lasted about as long.

The problem is, Braun has discontinued our model for those with more bells and whistles and higher price tags.

We'll probably wind up using the Chemex or Melitta manual drip coffeemakers when our Krups konks out. Am not crazy too about the French press method.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: aychihuahua,

DeLonghi dual cappuccino with froth steamer & regular coffee maker all in one unit.
I had to send it in early on as it was defective, still had the original box so no problem, but duh, I forgot to dump the water out of the reservoir It shipped okay.
Returned a unit to me and haven't had a problem since.

We've been using the new unit for a week and so far, so good! We haven't been able to try the espresso/steamer/fancy features yet but I fully intend to do so this weekend.

Zone9lady - I saw a Krups combo like that - but it wasn't $150.00 - you must have gotten a steal!

quote:

Originally posted by junk collector:
............Zone9lady - I saw a Krups combo like that - but it wasn't $150.00 - you must have gotten a steal!

I know, now they are over $250. Five years ago Lowes had small appliances on sale and we also got the military discount.