Coffee maker

[lathany]

Does anyone have any tips on how to identify a good coffee maker? I'm not particularly interested in cappuccino (etc), just normal filter coffee. I'm quite into my coffee although not really a connoisseur.

Comments

[condign.livejournal.com]

Do you know anyone who drinks more coffee than I do? ;)

Two things that help:
a) A timer/programmable coffee maker. Nothing is better than being able to set the coffeemaker to turn on at 7:30 AM in the morning and automagically make your brew.

b) I really like this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0007PC664/026-6604228-1156468?v=glance&n=11052681&v=glance), although it seems about half the price in the U.S. If you want one, tell me and I'll bring one over some trip. ;)

[applez.livejournal.com]

Alas, voltage differences...

[condign.livejournal.com]

For the difference between 139 UKP and about 75 USD, can't you buy one hell of a transformer?

[lathany.livejournal.com]

It looks like a great coffee maker. However, it's a bit more (OK, a lot more) pricey than I'd like. Even if you brought one over at half price.

[condign.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Gimme a price range, though, and I'll give you suggestions. :)

For me, the timer is the big feature.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Tricky as I was sort of hoping to hear about a range and then pick one. cuthbertcross's £10 below is the (absolute) minimum I would have expected to pay and would have thought £20 about average for the second or third best suggested by jakemalone. From there up to £10 or £20 beyond that for an obvious improvement.

A built in coffee-grinder (which I suspect is much of the £70/£140?) isn't essential. Nor, because of my current breakfast mode, is a timer.

Does that help?

Things to watch out for

[applez.livejournal.com]

If you already have a supply of filters - try to get a new machine that uses them. Otherwise, consider the drinking frequency:paper vs. gold filter option costs.

Also favour metal over plastic components, especially at joints, especially on parts that will be used or moved a lot. Nothing more annoying than a perfectly good machine rendered useless by the 0.001p component the manufacturer was too cheap to spend a tad more on.

Otherwise, you may also want to consider ease of manual access to the main water areas for your descaling needs.

Sadly, I can't give you brand specifics since I've never bought one in the UK.

Re: Things to watch out for

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I don't have a supply of filters, the coffee machine that persuaded me to get one is a work one.

The metal components thing sounds like a good investment though.

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

I think it's much like any other purchase plan - either go on thre recommendations of a particular brand from someone who has the same preferences as you, or do some research on what's out there and go for what tallies closest to your requirements. Or go the it's-cheap-so-try-it-and-see option.

I bought a perfectly servicable coffee filter machine for £9.99 at a Big W (an outlet store of Woolworths) which I think is a Braun brand. That was in 2000 (I bought it to take into work so that when I was on Nights we could all drink filter coffee rather than the dodgy work-supplied Maxwell House *shudder*). Since then I moved jobs, the coffee machine migrated to dr_bob's lab where I believe it is still brewing perfectly good coffee.

There's the eco thing to consider- I think paper filters seem to work just as well and are less work, but many machines come with a reusable plastic filter. If you just want filter coffee I'd avoid those pod-type-things- they cost a lot and you are dependant on the pod suppliers to keep making the right pods for your machinery.

lastly, size. My braun machine may be good but it makes 4-8 cups of coffee at a time - too much for little old me at one sitting, I prefer tea in that quantity but only do one cup of coffee at a time. Which is why it went elsewhere and I have a teeny one-cup stovetop percolater to meet my real Coffee cravings when they arise.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I also had a Braun one which worked very reliably. Paper filters only cost about a penny each, and they can be composted, and you can buy recycled ones, so the impact on the environment / pocket is pretty negligible. And they filter the fine grounds a heck of a lot better than plastic / metal mesh filters do.

One thing which I don't like so much about my current machine (a Krups) is that the hotplate is too hot, such that if you don't pour the coffee into a cup pretty sharpish, it gets stewed. The aforementioned Braun and a Philips I had before that didn't had this issue.

Other things: easy cleaning of the parts that get coffee-stained; dishwasherable (if you have a dishwasher); good visible water gauge.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Two votes for a Braun and one for a Phillips. Having dealt with the work one, I take your coffee-stain comments to heart!

[condign.livejournal.com]

If you don't like the plastic filters, but want to avoid the paper expense, gold filters are available for almost all makes of coffemaker. (Well, they are over here, anyway.) Tell me what you're getting and I'll price one for you. Mine cost about $7, which really isn't that much. OK, you can drink a LOT of coffee before you go through that many filters, but you also never run out of filter, which is critical for me.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I've never come across gold filters before. I assume its their non-interactive state that makes them good?

[(Anonymous)]

I have a Nespresso capsule machine, which makes amazing coffee, but has a few drawbacks. The cheapest machine costs about 100 quid in the UK, and the capsules are expensive. Also they are quite hard to get hold of due to Nespresso's silly marketing plan. Still, amazing coffee, and the machine is dinky.

Id just get the second/third cheapest filter machine on the market. That way, if it breaks it's no big loss, but you arent getting the cheapest one so you avoid looking skanky. The coffee from those things is pretty much indistinguishable, afaic.

[jakemalone.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was me. Forgot to log in :)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Yeah - over 100 quid is pricey. I think that the second/third cheapest plan looks good though. Particularly if I can find a Braun.