Customer Reviews

Wolfgang Puck WPTPCM010 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Stainless-Steel Thermal Carafe

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

Update: This note is being added about 6 months after my inital review. We too have experienced the problem with coffee overflowing on to the countertop. I very quickly learned that is after inserting the pot into the maker I pivot the pot so that the handle is as far left as possible, the spillage does not happen. This method has been successful for the past 200 pots made. It's a weird quirk that shouldn't be necessary, but I otherwise stand by my review.

The best coffeemaker we have ever owned is a long since discontinued Starbucks Barista with a thermal carafe. It was close to perfection for almost 10 years. Even after some trim pieces fell off, it continued to be a reliable performer. After several years of regular use, the plate on the bottom of the carafe top began to break, one piece at a time. The Barista continued to make great coffee, it just didn't hold the temperature as well as it originally did.

Earlier this year we despaired that we would have to go back to buying makers that work for a few months and then die. My wife, after hours of searching spotted this familiar face in the crowd. We ordered in December and it arrived today. To say it was worth the wait is an understatement. We now know that we have years of fresh, hot, reliable coffee making ahead of us. The only difference between this model and the original Starbucks is the it now uses a cone filter instead of a flat bottom. No big deal at all.

Footnote: "Old Reliable" the Starbucks Barista worked right through this morning, its retirement day. It's not headed for the trash however, there spare parts to be salved for our beautiful new baby.

When, (and if), this machine becomes available again, click 'n' buy. You won't regret it!

Unfortunately we didn't read the reviews before ordering this coffee maker. We had it boxed and ready to ship back when I popped on to see if anyone else was having the flooding issue. That is when I discovered that EVERYONE was having the overflow issue. My brilliant husband Robert unpacked the coffee maker and promptly went out to his shop area and cut a disc the diameter of the bottom of the coffee carafe from a piece of 1/4" masonite. Problem solved!! The spring on the top of the carafe doesn't get depressed far enough to allow the coffee to flow into the pot properly. Putting that 1/4" spacer under the carafe is all it needed. We are happy, we love the way the coffee maker makes and keeps coffee. Robert also painted the disc black once he knew it was going to work. It looks like it belongs to the unit.

I purchased this coffee maker for my nephew as a gift. It was on backorder, but I waited, because this was the specific coffeemaker that he wanted. I received the coffeemaker from Amazon on March 30, 2010 and gave it to him within a week of receiving it....Then the problems began.
From day one, the coffeemaker was spewing coffee all over the counter, instead of into the carafe. He didn't want to involve me in the problems with the coffeemaker, so he called the Wolfgang Puck (WP) Customer Service...Big Mistake! Had he let me know, I could have shipped it back to Amazon, received my money and he could have purchased any other brand he wanted. However, it didn't work that way.
After numerous attempts to "fix" the problem over the phone, the WP Company sent a pick-up order for the coffee maker and received it on May 3, 2010. Since that time, he has been repeatedly told he would have a new machine in "2 weeks".
I became involved in July, when he was getting nowhere with the company. I requested a refund on July 19, and I was told it had to be approved by corporate headquarters. A week later, I was told the request was denied, because they still have the coffee pots... (Well, where are they?)!! I then asked for the name of a contact person at the corporate office and they refused to supply me with a name.

Through lots of trials, errors, and frustration, I found a number. I called it and believe it or not, I finally made contact with a customer relations manager. I talked with her and I finally agreed to wait another "2 weeks". The time came and went and no coffee maker, so I called and she said the company had just received them and would be shipping his coffeemaker as the first shipment. And....as a thank-you, he would also receive a complimentary gift set of WP Kitchen knives. I waited until September 16 and ended up calling her again. The manager then checked and found out that the coffeemaker had NOT been shipped, because the coffeemakers were bent and damaged in the shipment.

I received an email later that afternoon, stating that she has requested a refund for me. It's not here yet, but I have much hope that my money will be refunded.

After 4 years of faithful service and daily use, my Starbucks Barista Aroma Grande 12-cup Programmable Coffee Maker (manufactured by Saeco for Starbucks) finally called it quits. As anyone who owns or owns one knows, the 8-cup version of this coffee maker was subject to product recall on 10/17/06, and Starbucks stopped retailing their branded 8 & 12 cup coffee makers in their stores shortly thereafter. The boiler generates so much heat that over time the wiring became brittle, corroded and frayed, at least that's what I determined was the cause for my Barista Aroma Grande to stop functioning. After an exhaustive search for a suitable replacement, for under $200, I came across the Wolfgang Puck 12-cup Programmable Coffee maker bearing a striking resemblance to my beloved Starbucks coffee maker. Despite a number of brutally negative reviews, many written by consumers who claim to own or have owned the Starbucks coffee maker, I purchased one. The long and short of it is that, with the exception of the cone filter (Starbucks employed a basket filter) and plastic buttons (the buttons were rubber on the Starbucks), the Wolfgang Puck coffee maker is identical in all respects to the Starbucks coffee maker. This was obvious to me right out of the box, but to further prove this to myself, prior to writing this review, I went to the extreme of removing the bottom panel to inspect the inner workings and did a side-by-side comparison with the Starbucks coffee machine. They are EXACTLY THE SAME, so I don't understand the reason for the barrage of negative reviews which, based on my extensive use of this coffee maker (2X daily) over the past month, are unwarranted. I haven't expeienced any of the problems others have reported, such as overflowing. Also, on a side note, this is by far the best 12-cup stainless steel coffee maker in this price point [$99]. The majority of coffee makers for the home market are made of plastic made to look like stainless steel or are manufactured with very thin stainless steel panels, and few at that. That is not the case with this Wolfgang Puck 12-cup coffee maker whereas you will find no shortage of high-quality stainless steel. My advice to anyone in the home market for a 12-cup stainless steel coffee maker is to look beyond the negative reviews and buy this one and form your opinion of this coffee maker on your own experience with it, not someone elses. You won't regret it and it you do, I understand that amazon.com has an easy returns policy.

We've had more coffee on the floor than in the pot since getting this coffee maker. Coffee's good, but you have to hold your mug under the lip of the counter top and let the coffee drip into it from there. It takes a long time to get a cup of coffee that way. The worst part of all of this? The company won't respond. No response to emails. Can't get through on the phone (although while on hold you can refill your cup using the above described method).

Bottom line: Don't buy it unless you have a lot of towels close by.

I owned a Capresso for years but it is slowly falling apart. I bought this unit as it is the ONLY coffee machine now for sale with a removable water carafe and thermal pot. As far as I am concerned, that's the only design that makes sense, and I can't believe that everyone else wants to haul a bucket of water from the sink over to their coffee maker every day.

The Puck is taller than the Capresso and not necessarily very pretty or sleek. Coffee brewed much quicker than the Capresso and tastes pretty good. It makes a continuous low-level roar while brewing.

The pot pour button is poorly designed - you have to turn the pot almost upside down to work, and even then it just dribles out. You can't swing the filter in if the pot is in place. And the water carafe seating does not leave me feeling very confident; I have a feeling it will bust before long. My final nit is that the bluish lcd display is way over-kill - enough with blue lights lighting up my house all night!

Update: After 2 months, this machine is not ready for prime time. The water carafe drips if filled more than 1/4 full, the thermos won't go under the basket without violent jiggling, and I don't expect it to last more than a few more months. As an earlier reviewer noted, the manufacturing is "out of spec" or something. My suggestion, wait a few months until they get the manufacturing plant in line.

I, like so many others, was excited by what appeared to be the return of the Starbucks Barista. I also used my trusty Barista for about 10 years without any trouble. This unit may look like the Barista but that's where any similarity ends.

The Puck model simply doesn't work. Coffee leaks everywhere. Initially I thought just the lid was defective but the coffee leaks from the back/bottom of the unit as well. Simply replacing the lid will not solve all the problems. Had I not thrown away the packing boxes the day it arrived, I would return it. Too much hassle now and I've already been sufficiently inconvenienced.

$100 down the (sink) drain!!! BEWARE

This coffee maker is flawed in more than a few ways. If I preferred to slurp coffee off of my counter with a straw I would be thrilled. However, I prefer my delicious coffee in the confines of a comforting ceramic mug.

As mentioned by nearly every single reviewer of this coffee maker, I too suffer from the craptastically engineered carafe-to-basket interface that randomly causes coffee to not make it into the carafe but to brew itself all over the counter. I have tried pushing the pour button as I place the carafe into the unit, and it seems to reduce the occurrences of counter coffee. Note I said reduce, not eliminate. I may try shimming underneath the carafe so that the spring loaded stopper in the lid is more reliably depressed, but the thought of having to re-engineer and modify my $100 coffee maker does not make me happy.

Once you manage to successfully brew a cup of coffee you are then treated to the painstaking and messy affair of getting the coffee into your mug. As also mentioned by a few other reviewers it pours slowly. Not only does it pour slowly but it also manages to splash everywhere while it pours.

Also, where the plastic top meets the metal carafe has started leaking.

For those reading this that think everyone who has complained thus far about the shortcoming of this unit are doing something wrong you will be pleased to know that the carafe itself actually works very well. It is a double walled design that keeps coffee at a drinkable temperature for a few hours easily. It also has a wide mouth, allowing one to get their hand inside to clean it. It also brews a decent cup of coffee.

All in all, this was a huge disappointment, as it has all the features I was looking for, removable reservoir and a thermal carafe but it's unreliability is a fatal flaw. Avoid this at all costs.

UPDATE 06-27-2010: above mentioned device has finally made its way into my trash. So long Wolfgang Puck Coffee Maker. You won't be missed.

We actually purchased this from a major department store on sale for much less. We thought WOW what a deal. Even though many of the reviews we read were negative we thought maybe some were operator error and we bought it anyway. We had to exchange the first one because, new-out-of-the-box, it was dented on the front. We figured lots of people might complain when things go wrong but not say a word if everything worked perfect. For the first month everything was great...good hot coffee, no spills, worked like a charm. Then the electronic problems started! First the timer that indicates how much time has elapsed since the brewing cycle finished began to show 1-2 hours immediately upon finishing. Then the coffee maker shut off, and beep in the middle of the brew cycle but there would still be lots of H2O in the reservoir, that progressed to stopping three to four times during the entire 12 cup cycle! Not acceptable at any price! I contacted The 800# for Wolfgang Puck and gave my complaint and they wanted me to send them a copy of my receipt to get warranty service and then email me as to how to obtain service. We didn't want to have to incur shipping it off somewhere and not know if there would be fees involved or if the problems would return in a few months. We decided to return the coffee maker to the store and get a store credit since it was over the 30 day return policy for the store. Word to the wise: Some reviews are spot on and buyer beware!

I was delighted with our Starbucks Barista. For several years it was used at least once every day and performed beautifully. But the carafe finally bit the dust this spring, and so I went looking to buy another one. Although Starbucks no longer offers that coffee maker, this one looked almost identical; same specs, same look, same price, only the name seemed different. Unfortunately, the other difference turns out to be that this coffee maker regularly explodes all over the counter. The problem was intermittant at first, and I thought that it might be pilot error; I was not loading the water reservoir properly, or unevenly piling the grounds in the filter, or not lining up the carafe with the drip; or.....whatever. But alas, after trying everything I can think of, the coffee maker still regularly pours about half of each batch of coffee onto the counter, and then the floor. And so after only a few months, our relatively expensive $99 coffee maker is headed for the trash. So buyer beware of this piece of java-making junk! Wolfgang Puck WPTPCM010 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Stainless-Steel Thermal Carafe