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561 of 573 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Attractive, solid performer...negative reviews inaccurate!, November 29, 2004
This review is from: Braun KF600 Impressions 10-Cup Thermal Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless Steel (Kitchen)
First of all, I am a well-informed coffee fanatic. I only use cold distilled water, freshly roasted and grinded beans, and now a thermal carafe!!! So please keep that in mind when you read and weigh the details in my review.
I am glad I ignored the--small number of--negative reviews on this model...I found them to be wrong. It works well, and does hold up to 10 cups without overflowing or causing any problems. Each brew is excellent, amazingly good coffee...forget the Mr. Coffee's or Cuisinarts. Braun is the real deal.
Very very happy that I got this one. Excellent thermal carafe. Prewarmed, it keeps the coffee hot for 4-5 hours and drinkably warm for about 2 more hours at least. No burnt coffee smell.
Very attractive package, has heft and is solid, yet svelt and attractive on the counter. Go no further if you want an attractive and excellent thermal carafe performer. Some may want one with a timer, since I grind my beans right on the spot, and don't trust a grind-and-brew for the consistent, excellent grind I am looking for this one was for me.
If I had a complaint, it would be that I would have liked the carafe to be dishwasher safe (for occasional good cleaning). However, I find when I do put my pots in the dishwasher the dishwasher soap can effect the next brew. For now, I put a small bit of dishwasher soap in at night and fill the carafe with hot water. In the AM I rinse the carafe out several times with hot tap water and then let it sit with hot tap water while I grind and get the coffee maker ready. Then I pour out the hot water and place the carafe on the coffee maker. The prewarming helps the coffee stay better, longer.
Note: for what it is worth, I use unbleached paper filters rather than the gold cone, because I do not like grinds finding their way through to the coffee. That is not the Braun's fault. I need to invest in a top grade grinder, my grinder still makes some small silt. Don't get me wrong, the gold cone filter is amazing and it makes great coffee. Many people like thick dark coffee...they should definitely use the gold cone filter.
Finally, those wanting a whole ensemble, should know that Braun has some sister appliances that match in color/style.
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252 of 254 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything I expected, October 9, 2004
This review is from: Braun KF600 Impressions 10-Cup Thermal Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless Steel (Kitchen)
I was tired of burnt coffee so decided to buy one with a thermo carafe. I've been partial to Braun for several years so I selected this one. So far it's done everything it advertised and the coffee is excellent.
The instructions are explicit about facing the handle to point out over the switch, don't know why but since they included a separate instruction for this thought it might be important. It has the typical 40 to 44 ounce capacity of a ten cup coffee maker, but if you go any over the 44 ounces, which is dead on the bottom of 10 cup line limit, it will spill out on your counter. They say a cup is 4.4 oz. which I guess is kind of standard.
Other features I like are that the carafe is not glass lined and has a vacuum between the walls. When you make a pot of coffee the outside of the carafe stays at the same temperature it started so very little heat escapes through the wall. Also there is a water filter that you place in a depression at the bottom of the water reservoir that lasts 2 or 3 months, should help especially if you have hard water.
From what I've seen so far the coffee stays hot with no change in taste for at least 4 hours (especially if you preheat the carafe with hot water). After 8 hours it's still warm but needs a little nuking.
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131 of 134 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good coffee maker, December 21, 2004
This review is from: Braun KF600 Impressions 10-Cup Thermal Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless Steel (Kitchen)
A few months ago i broke the carafe on my old melitta coffee maker. This machine was about 15 years old so no replacement carafe available which gave me the excuse to buy a new machine.
I'm a research fanatic so after much on-line research I decided to get the cuisinart 10 cup machine (not the grind and brew). My experience with the cuisinart was disappointing. To be fair i'm usually making small amounts of coffee (4-5 cups max) and the cuisinart just didn't come through for me (it has a small pot setting but that made the coffee worse). Generally the Cuize coffee was weak and bitter at the same time. Also their fill level indicator was very difficult to read for small pots. One nod i do have to give to cuisinart is the honesty of their user manual. They describe how to work the timer function and then essentially tell you that you shouldn't use it because leaving ground coffee exposed to the air overnight while you sleep will hurt the flavour. Then they describe how their brewstop function work but then tell you that you shouldn't use that either because it's going to make the rest of the pot of coffee taste weak if you go siphoning the strong coffee off the top. So kudos for the cuize in their honesty and kudos to Williams Sonoma for their return policy (ie no questions asked). But this is a braun review, so on to my new coffee maker.
What i like: It makes good coffee. Overall style is sleek and relatively compact (though i still miss the tiny footprint of my old melita). Detachable filter holder is handy for dumping old grounds and filling new ones. It's simple - just an on/off switch. Carafe is shaped so that you don't have to turn it basically upside down to get the last few cups (many thermal carafes have a big lip at the top which make it difficult to pour the bottom half of the pot.
What i'm not so wild about: Well i'd like it if it kept the coffee hot for a bit longer, but my experience may be unique since i'm making less than half a pot of coffee. To be fair i haven't noticed the coffee actually getting cold, it's just a matter of getting used to the fact that you don't burn your tongue on the second cup the way you do when it's coming off a heater - so maybe that isn't a bad thing. prefilling the carafe with hot water helps. Another minor design flaw is that the window for the reservoir is on the left side of the machine, while the coffee hopper swings out to the right. I'd like these both to be on the same side of the machine to make it more feasible to keep the machine pushed up sideways against the counter wall. As i say, it's a minor flaw. Finally, the brew stop feature is not that reliable (ie sometimes it doesn't stop); but since i don't (and you shouldn't) use this feature (see cuisinart comments above) it's not a big deal.
Comments on other reviews: To the guy who gave it one star because he felt it only made 8 cups rather than 10 - who cares. These cup measures are really only graduations on the water reservoir to help you get the right coffee water mix anyway.
Several people commented on overflows. The coffee maker can take a brita type filter and it has a plug you can put in if you're not using a filter to take up the filter volume. This plug needs to be snapped into place. So just a guess that perhaps these people didn't have the plug in, or it wasn't snapped in, and so they were getting extra water in the resevoir.
Someone commented about the manual telling you to line up the carafe just right when brewing and wasn't sure why. Reason is that the lip of the carafe holds open the lever which controls the brewstop feature. The front of the carafe has a bigger lip and therefore holds the lever more open allow faster flow. I haven't noticed overflow if you have the carafe sideways, but once again, i'm not brewing full pots.
Finally, why didn't i give it 5 stars? Because that would imply perfection and nobody has made the perfect coffee maker yet. If Amazon had allowed it, i would have given this machine 4.5 out of 5.
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