Customer Reviews

Melitta Porcelain Gourmet 6 Cup Coffeemaker,

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I had been using the manual plastic cone filter holder for many users and recently switched to the porcelain. There is a huge improvement in the taste, probably because the porcelain conducts heat better. It's also convenient to be able to put the cap on the carafe when the brewing is finished. The coffee stays warm for about 60 minutes or so.

Two complaints: the #4 filters are a bit too small; in some ways, the #6 filters work better. Also, there is only one hole, so brewing can be a bit slow sometimes, and there is occasional clogging which requires my adjusting the filter a bit.

But it does produce the best coffee I've ever had at home, a coffeehouse, or a restaurant. With coffee, lo-tech and old-school is the best way to go.

I was brought up on Melitta drip coffee makers and that's all I've used so you might say I have more than 65 years of experience with these. We used to take them on vacations because the coffee we made so far out-distanced other available percolated or coffee-maker generated coffee. My only disappointment is that the purveyor of these for Amazon charges much more money for the set than does the Melitta site on the Internet. How did that happen? So far I've always found Amazon to have the best prices for everything I purchased online.

I had my original white porcelain coffee pot for over 30 years. I accidently broke the lid to it this morning. I have tried the grind and brew coffee makers and other electric type brewing, but I continue to return to my porcelain melitta coffee pot. That's why I'm buying a new one tonight. Coffee brewed in this porcelain maual coffee maker tastes fresher and richer. I'm a busy, working woman and it doesn't take anytime to brew. I highly recommend this porcelain coffee maker.

I was delighted when I found this item and ordered it to replace my treasured old Melitta 6-cup porcelain drip pot that had been dropped and broken. The original pots were made in Germany and had a nicely sculptured shape. Most important was their uniquely designed spout with its small hole that prevented coffee from dripping down the side of the pot when it was poured. I don't know whether that spout design is patented and often wondered why its simplicity and effectiveness was never copied.

The item that I received from Amazon was a very poor Chinese imitation of the original. I would have returned it but it is not returnable (buyers beware!). The shape of the pot is clumsy and thicker than the original. The spout drips when liquid is poured from it. Detailing of the filter is less refined and it may not work as well. Even the box with its ersatz Melitta logo is too small for the pot, lending evidence to my assumption that this pot was made in a factory with poor quality control and under the direction of someone who doesn't understand why people valued the design in the first place.

Melitta introduced the pot as an inexpensive item with the apparent marketing strategy of using it to sell its filters. After they stopped producing it, the originals became collector's items. The one we broke recently was purchased used by my German aunt from a thrift store in Germany to replace one we had lost in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

I would have been satisfied with a good imitation from Amazon, but the one I received was a waste of money.

I have used Melitta pots for around 30 years. I have always had the plastic filter cone with the clear glass pot. The coffee always ran freely from the cone to the pot. I tried this pot because I thought it was an upgrade. I had a lot of difficulty getting the coffee to flow. The pot is visually beautiful, but I plan to send it back and go back to the pot I was using before.

First of all, I'd like to say that I am a fixer. If I purchase something that doesn't work like it should, "I fix it".....Not the case here....I gave this item a one star, and that is even too much.....The porcelain pot is very poorly engineered....It "looks" great, but that's where it ends.

The top "rests" on its base with a thin rim and has no support.....If you are not careful, it can easily be knocked off and broken.....Not for someone that has small children puttering around, or someone that is a little "shakey" at hand....You would think that Melitta would have put a locking grove on the top to lock the lid, but it didn't...Keep in mind that this is "ceramic", so that if you knock it off, its going to chip,or even break. (not like a plastic one).

The "groves" in the top ARE very slight, and it doesn't matter what kind of paper filter you use...IT CLOGS....Found that a "permanent" filter works a "little" better....But it is still a slow and "pain in the butt" process....Lets face it, when you get up in the morning and want a cup of coffee, you don't want to have to mess with the coffee pot to "coax" it to work.

The ceramic pot, if you are lucky enough to get a pot full, does not keep the coffee hot...Its simple.....Put hot coffee into a "cold" ceramic pot, and you have "warm" coffee....So the only option is to pre-heat the pot in hot water first before making the pot.....One royal pain in the butt...And I like MY coffee hot!

And lets say that you are lucky enough to get a full pot of coffee, that is hot....its too small for us serious coffee drinkers....Doesn't hold much.

WORST product Melitta ever made AND expensive......My wife wanted it so I got it for her as a gift.....Used it for a week, and now it sits in the cupboard gathering dust....Even she says it a piece of junk, and she NEVER admits she made a mistake buying ANYTHING.....But it DOES look nice.....

Could have bought a really nice unit for the price I paid for this one....But did I tell you it looked nice?????

YES, its that bad....YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED>

Buy at your own risk......

The coffee pot lids are not standardized. The supplier was quite helpful but the first lid was too small for the pot and fell off,the replacement lid was slightly too large and stuck in the pot and could not be removed. I was sent a second ensemble, pot and lid, and this time the fit was adequate. But the product itself is incompetently made.
Melitta Porcelain Manual Coffee Maker

The advantages of ceramic or glass over plastic in terms of leeching are well known, and we are still finding out more. Thus I give this product 3 stars for making really good as well as healthier coffee, and looking stylish doing it. I have always favored the pour over method with fine grinds for excellent coffee better than any machine, closer to a huge espresso.

The drawbacks are this:
1) The coffee will not stay hot that long, at all. This makes it useless for service unless the coffee is poured right away, and less useful for tea too.
(a glass lined Zoji. will keep the coffee super hot, if you won't freak out the coffee
channels over some (gasp) plastic...)
2) These things are fragile, careful, especially with the handles.
(I got a vintage #2 lime green ceramic Melitta for a pretty penny, which I use every day.
The handle broke off easily when I dinged it with a knife.)
3) Clean it well or may stain.

All in all personally this one sits in my cupboard as I usually prefer brewing one cup into a pint glass daily. It may work well for a small family of morning coffee lovers. It is too much for 1 person, but it won't work well for get togethers or parties either.

PS For the perfect pour over cup, use a fine grind of quality small batch roasted beans, use filtered water that is *just* off boiling and pour slowly in circles around the outside, making sure to get all of the grinds wet. Yum!

The design of this product is fatally flawed. Notice on all manual drip coffee makers the ridges on the sides and around the hole. This keeps the filter just far enough away from the filter to let coffee flow. This one has ridges, but they are pathetic. If fact, it would be impossible to create deep enough ridges out of porcelain to do the job. The result is a drip filter that takes FOREVER to flow, to the point of being unusable. You can stick something in the base to break the seal of the filter with the sides, and that helps, but what a pain. I can't believe Melita keeps this thing on the market. They must not test their products. It's very frustrating.

This is the only way to make truly good coffee. With the ceramic cone, you don't have to worry about boiling water reacting with plastic. Once a paper filter is placed in the cone, and the coffee grounds placed in the filter, there is just the right rate of water passing through the filter, then through the bottom of the ceramic cone to make delicious, fresh coffee with no residues of old coffee (as in automatic coffee makers), and no reaction with plastic. I would have preferred a larger volume coffe pot that the cone sits on. I generally just use the cone over a Nissan thermos, so that the coffee doesn't have a chance to cool down.