Customer Reviews

Braun KF400-BLK Aromaster 10-Cup Coffeemaker, Black

5 star:		(89)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I,ve seen the other reviews for this machine and I think several issues with it have not been brought up,so here's my 2 cents.I'm no stranger to these;I've had 2 of them over the last 15 yrs.

First and foremost,this machine makes a great cup of joe!And for the money,that alone should make it worth considering.However,to live happily ever after with it,you should be aware of some design issues:

1.The little hinges on the carafe that hold the lid on are very fragile.Be careful when snapping the lid on that you do not put too much pressure on the hinge tabs furthest from the rim;a new carafe costs as much as the coffeemaker!

2.The dripstop mechanism is a pivoting rubber ball on a rod which,like the hinges,is prone to break if removed too often for cleaning.It is held in position by a bent spring which comes loose very easily if you're not careful when cleaning.

3.The above mentioned mechanism creates many nook and crannies under the filter basket that enable food crumbs from the dishwasher to get stuck in.Either rinse the bottom out by hand or tap the filter basket rightside up on your countertop to get any food particles out after it comes out of the dishwasher.

4.Be aware that the hot plate on this machine does not shut off afer a predetermined time.

Finally,don't think that I don't like this machine!After years of experience with them,I've learned to live with it's quirks.I also have a Krups that has none of these oddities,yet does not make as good a cup of coffee!

Do you like coffee? If so, then this is your coffeemaker. Prior to the Braun, I had the vaunted Kitchenaid 4-cup machine. The KF400 makes a superior cup using the same beans, grinder and water and fits in the *same* counter space as the smaller-capacity Kitchenaid. And the coffee tastes better.

A number of reviews here criticize the Braun for being fragile. If you are Godzilla and rip the lid off the carafe then, yes, you will break the tabs that hold it there. But forewarned by this review, you can take an extra half second and remove and replace the lid carefully. If you don't seat the swing-out basket correctly in the machine then, yes, you won't be able to close it properly. And if you are King Kong and jam it closed anyway then, yes, you will break it and the coffee will leak out. But since you've read this review, you will know to take an extra two seconds when you replace the basket to make sure that it is positioned correctly and then everything will work fine.

And dribbling carafes. That might be my favorite. Read the reviews for *any* coffeemaker on this site and you will see complaints about dribbling carafes. Solution: pour over the sink. Your machine is probably located within 2 feet of the sink. Hold your cup in one hand, the carafe in the other, hold both over the sink, and who cares about dribbles. Not exactly rocket science. The fact is that this one dribbles far less than others I have used.

One negative that I see here that I agree with concerns the freshly-brewed coffee not being as hot as it could be. I think the Braun brews at the correct temperature, otherwise the coffee would not taste as good as it does. But I think the coffee then loses heat when it hits the carafe, which has not yet had time to be warmed by the hotplate. I have found, however, that if you warm the carafe before brewing, by filling it with hot water while you put your grounds in the basket and your water in the reservoir, you can overcome this possible shortcoming. This is similar to what you would do with a thermal carafe.

When you make your list of priorities for a new coffeemaker, is a delicious cup of coffee number 1? And saving a few bucks number 2? If so, buy the KF400. If, instead, it is more important to you that your machine be ruggedized like combat gear, dribble-proofed, idiot-proofed, quiet as a mouse and hot enough for a lawsuit, look elsewhere. But get your wallet ready.

The Braun Aromaster KF 400 is a well built coffee maker that makes good coffee. While I described it as no frills, it does have a valve under the filter holder that stops coffee from coming out if the carafe is removed in mid brew. The front mounted power switch works very easily with a smooth click action and the on light is easy to see. The filter holder is easy to remove and replace for an occasional rinsing. The measuring marks are easy to read when pouring in water. The coffee tastes good no matter how much is made. I had one coffee maker where the coffee tasted stronger when larger batches of coffee were made even though I used the same ratio of coffee to water. That problem does not affect this unit. I find an eighth cup of ground coffee makes 3 servings of coffee.

I use this unit constantly at the office. It looks like new after 6 months of use. I have the white one. No fingerprints or stains. It gets wiped with a paper towel once in a while.

The overall fit and finish is excellent. On my unit the plastic handle had an aberrant piece that kept the lid from snapping on correctly. A little trimming with a utility knife was needed.

The unit is sized for standard #4 filters. I use Melitta brand filters. Some Braun coffee makers have a replaceable water filter cartridge built in. This model does NOT have that feature.

This is an easy to use, inexpensive, well made coffee maker with an attractive design that makes good tasting coffee.

Recommended.

This coffee maker has been manufactured for many years now. Overall, I'm NOT very satisfied with the performance of this model. But if you are in the market for a cheap coffee maker that gets the job done, this may be the right one for you. After all, it has lasted me five years (and counting) and I've experienced almost every "mishap" that can happen with this unit.

Let's start with the pot itself. It's assembled from three pieces: a 10 cup glass pot with handle, the lid, and the flavor saver. The handle is shaped nicely. The extra support bar in the middle of the handle provides a natural place for your fingers, while keeping them away from the hot glass. It's angle makes it easy to pour the coffee with a slight bend of the wrist. Unfortunately, the lip of the pot is narrow. If you pour too quickly, which is easy to do when pouring the first cup, the coffee dribbles down the outside of the glass onto the counter. To pour without spilling, you actually have to concentrate on the task of keeping the coffee from rising outside the lip as you pour.

The lid and flavor-saver are meant to seal the pot and prevent bitter tasting coffee. I have no idea where the flavor-saver portion of the pot is now. It kept getting knocked off its plastic hinges, and would always fall into the fresh pot of coffee. Since this piece sticks out a little farther than the lip of the pot, it would be the first piece to make contact with the back of the main unit of the coffee maker when returning it to it to the warming tray. Years of use finally caused the plastic hinges to snap off.

The main unit is made of two pieces: the base and the filter holder. The base contains the water reservior, the warming tray and the power switch. The reservior lacks an outside tube for a cup indicator, but has painted lines and cup numbers on the inside to use as a guide. The engineers at Braun accounted for the water that would be absorbed by the coffee grounds and turned into steam. If you use the pot to fill the maker, the ten cup marker on the pot does not equal ten cups in the resevoir. It takes a little extra to meet the 10 cup fill line, especially if you attempt to pour all of the water into the reservior at once. Much of it will end up on the counter top. Instead of filling the pot twice to fill the water reservior once, I ended up using the water sprayer from my sink to save the extra time and aggrevation. The power cord is of adequate length and can be hidden inside the unit to help keep your kitchen looking dapper.

The warming tray appears to have a built-in thermostat, which keeps the coffee at a decent temperature and prevents that nasty burnt coffee smell. Two thumbs up for this feature. Just be certain that you never spill any coffee on the warming tray. Not because of the burning, but because the power switch and its wires are positioned directly underneath the tray.

The power switch is similar to a flat wall switch and uses a light to indicate that the pot is on. The switch is positioned at the bottom most part of the machine. Unfortunately, the switch is at perfect plate height and is what usually causes the pot to be turned on or off unexpectedly, a definate hazard of some sort. The light on the pot has worked intermitantly for some time now. I presume that spilt coffee has caused the light to short-out.

The filter holder is held by a hinge. It is easy to remove the holder for cleaning. You can use either a paper filter or a gold reusable filter with this model. The bottom of the filter holder is where the coffee makes its way into the pot. A spring loaded mechanism is used to sense whether the pot is in place or not and controls a valve that shuts off the coffee flow. This is a great feature when you want to get a cup of coffee while the machine is still brewing. No acrobatics are necessary. Simply pull the pot off the warming tray and pour yourself a nice warm cup of Joe. The coffee will keep on being brewed, but it will be held up in the filter holder until you return the pot to its original position. It makes for a no mess quick fill! Just be sure to put the pot back or you will have a mess to clean up. The filter holder can only hold so much water and will overflow if the pot is not returned. This feature also stopped working, also due to a broken plastic hinge.

The coffee comes out warm but not hot. The warming tray keeps the coffee at about the same temperature. If you like your coffee piping hot or you add milk or cream, this may not be the coffe maker for you.

Thinking back, I believe that this Braun unit worked without a problem the first year of its life. After that the little things I mentioned started going wrong. It must not have been too bad of a coffee maker, since I'm still using it and I didn't have to cash in on my homeowners policy. But with all things, I think it's made it past its useful shelf life.

I'm on my fourth bargain-basement Braun coffee maker at this point, this being my second KF400... Sounds bad, right? Well, I'll save that part for last.

First and foremost this unit makes a killer pot of coffee. Works as it should, and that is pretty much all I can say about THAT.

It does, however, have a few quirks that have been noted previously.

1- The tabs that hold the lid to the carafe are pretty flimsy, but only one of the four Brauns that I've had over the last 12 years ended up with broken tabs. You simply don't give it a lot of muscle (it's not like you NEED to, anyway!) and this won't be a problem. The one of mine that DID end up with broken tabs only did so after about three years of use, and it was broken by a roommate who was both clumsy and didn't much mind breaking MY stuff. Eventually, he broke the carafe itself and that was the end of Braun #2.

2- This unit is clearly made to hit a price point. The tabs aside, the entry-level Braun has been getting more and more flimsy with each generation, though of course this means they're getting less expensive, too. My current machine (Braun #4) actually came out of the box with the metal base plate misaligned... I had to jimmy the plastic piece that surrounds the heating element a little bit to make it fit properly (it was otherwise predisposed to leaning a bit to the right), an operation which took about 15 seconds, but I've experienced no further problems with that. The coating on the burner seems to be thinner and less durable than before, as well. The rim around the burner element has some bare metal now, after about 18mos of use, which is a new treat with these units in my experience.

3- While it makes piping-hot coffee (the reviews that say it doesn't baffle me), it is noticeably slower than previous models that I've owned (even a prior KF400). Starting with a full tank of cold tap water, this one takes 9 minutes, perhaps two minutes longer than ones I've had before.

4- Another new quirk, this one is louder than my prior units.

Other than that, there are no real downsides to this coffee maker. I've not experienced the strange problems that others report, like a total inability to pour without dribbling. The coffee mine makes is too hot for anything but sipping. I send the carafe, lid, and basket through the dishwasher at least once per week and it is still in perfect shape. The basket stays closed and doesn't shoot coffee all over the kitchen. Mine doesn't magically turn itself on and off.

At the beginning I said that this was my fourth cheap Braun. The reason is simple... Broken carafes. Braun carafe #1 was broken while moving, Braun carafe #2 was broken by a neandertal roommate, and Braun carafe #3 was broken by me while hand-washing (I dropped it in the sink). In each case, buying another carafe was actually MORE than just buying the whole coffeemaker again. So... I'm on my fourth in a dozen years just because of clumsiness, not because the coffeemaker itself broke.

The bad news is that it's cheaply made. The good news is that it's cheaply made. The great news is that it makes outstanding coffee.

For fifteen bucks, it's a great buy. It's STILL a great buy at twenty bucks, for that matter. I bought one for my mom four years ago and hers is still going strong as well (the tabs aren't broken on HERS, either!).

I had to overcome the fact that this is such a cheap coffee maker. I mean, I LOVE coffee therefore I can justify spending more on a coffee maker! But it's just SO not necessary!

I looked at this thing on Amazon about a dozen times before I actually took the plunge and bought it over the $90 model I was really wanting.

It works perfectly for me.

No trouble dribbling,

No carafe problems,

No problems of any kind.

I will say that be warned it has no auto shut off but this was a perk to me since I can sometimes take hours to drink my coffee. AND, with the way this Braun keeps the coffee so well, you can drink it 3 or even 4 hours later and it's hot and smooth and not burned and bitter. Really a plus for me. I still find it hard to believe that this sweet little pot does such an incredible job at keeping it delicious hours later and at less than $20!

If your a coffee snob, then try this or get the one with auto shut off and programable but just get it.

Best coffee pot I've ever had. EVER.

LOVE THE COFFEE MAKER, BUT BROKE THE CARAFE AFTER 3 MONTHS, CANNOT FIND REPLACEMENT. AMAZON.COM DOES NOT CATALOG THE 10 CUP CARAFE, AND BRAUN IS BACK-ORDERED "FOR WEEKS". SO WE ARE BACK TO USING THE CORNING-WARE POT RECEIVED 42 YEARS AGO AS A WEDDING GIFT.

I think Braun has been making these things for close to 20 years now. I've been using one for over 10 years and I've bought at least three of them in that time (some as gifts). I've noticed that Braun has made incremental improvements over the first one I've owned. The most obvious is the "flavor saver" carafe.

Overall, these machines make good coffee and I think they are a good value. I've moved on to another brand of coffee pot though. I find that replacement carafes are difficult to find in stores, especially the 10 cup units. This is something which you'll want to replace right away when it breaks. And, unfortunately, there are too many plastic parts on the carafe (the hinges are the first things to go) for durability.

This is a simple, inexpensive coffee maker that makes excellent coffee. With all the usual nods to dribbles and fragility, I've had one for about 10 years and am about to order another one (nothing lasts forever these days).

I'd used this same pot several years ago and as things go changed up to something else at some point. When it was time to buy another pot and checking Amazon reviews and Consumers Report I had no hesitation going back to the Braun KF-400. I feel like an old friend has retured to my kitchen. What a sweet little unit this is. I've always used a Gold Filter with it and am totally enjoying perfect coffee again. I handle it gently and it does the same for me. Enjoy this little gem.