Great coffee if you tune it right. With the timer, coffee when I want it and freshly ground! Easy to use. Fun to watch work. Burr grinder.
Negative Product Points
Cost. Let's see, I guess it could use some stainless steel on it for $200.
Detailed Commentary
Very happy with Coffee Team Deluxe. Was a little worried about the purchase with the high cost and possible complexity, but has turned out so far to be a great day to day coffee maker. This is not a replacement for a french press, but it's for those of us who are on the run in the mornings and still want a great cup of coffee. Yes, it does brew a little weaker cup of coffee if you brew it by the numbers (ie. 6 cup setting on machine and 6 cups of water put in). If you just game it a little bit 8 cup setting with 6 cups water, or 10 cup setting with 6 cups water and play with the grinder setting, you can brew very strong coffee. Not expresso mind you, but good strong coffee (I use Seattle Mtn. Coffee). The grinder is loud if you standing in the kitchen, but what grinder isn't (the grounds are nicely ground and can be seen through the viewing port)? Watching it work is fun too! It is all plastic, but good quality plastic and put together well. The display glows a bright orange at night and is not deslectable, but I don't sleep in my kitched so I don't care. The grounds have been fully saturated after each brew and they seem to be evenly distributed in the filter. I really considered the Krupps Moka Brew until I saw one in person. Looked cheap and felt cheap, too much so that I wondered about its longevity. Even if it makes a great cup of coffee. If it seems like I got roped in to this by gadgets and hoopla, I didn't. I would buy this machine again even if it was sealed in a metal box that pit out coffee. I shopped for 5 months and countless different machines before settling on this one. I will dearly miss my Salton drip machine which provided years of great coffee, but this may be a worthy replacement.
Buying Experience
Fine.
Three Month Followup
Bypassed this and went straight to the 7 year review!
One Year Followup
I have now had this coffee maker for 7 years and it has been fantastic. After all this time it still functions as new. The plastic is still shiny and has not warped. It really has been without problems for the most part. The exception being the LCD began acting up while we were living in Japan and that might just have been from a slightly different amperage/phase of the outlet power (still 110V). The display has came back a bit since returning to the states, but I think it's never going to be 100% again. Only criticisms with it: it is loud (but can't compare it to other similar machines) and depending on the coffee beans, it can take some experimentation to get a strong brew. I usually have the grind setting 1-1.5 cups above what water I add. Would I buy another? Absolutely, if the damm thing ever would break.
