A great unit at an affordable price. The price is fair for this level of quality.
Positive Product Points
No nonsense ease of use for brewing a great cup of coffee!
Negative Product Points
The unit is tall, and although I love the removable water reservoir, it's pivot point in the back is a little awkward in my kitchen which does not have an endless amount of vertical space between the counter and the cabinet.
One small nuisance, I've found is that the pot always leaves one small drop of coffee in the spout. So, when you go to pour, as soon as you are barely off of a level pot, a drop of coffee spills. Them, nothing comes out until you tilt the pot down to the level brewed into the pot.
Detailed Commentary
The unit is sleekly designed, and looks good in the kitchen. There is little than can go wrong as long as a person can get good coffee into the unit. I seldom use the timed brew feature, but it is done in an industry standard manner. The design feature which completely eliminated the heating element is probably the thing that I like best. The carafe is well made and attractive. I like using it for serving directly to the table rather than constantly going back and forth. It keeps the coffee hotter longer, and does not render the "burnt coffee" odor so common in offices today. I added the stainless steel filter, because I've never been a fan of the paper variety. Cleaning the unit has been easy thus far. All of the parts are appear to be designed with that in mind. The water reservoir has a simple feature that I like in my "I'm old enough to need reading glasses" age. It has a large white ball showing the level of water in the reservoir. One odd thing though is that it often seems to be lodged at the bottom even when filled unless I tap it or slosh the water around, but it is still a nice feature.
Buying Experience
Starbucks let me down a bit in this category. I wanted a white unit. I called three stores and only one said they had that color. I told them to put my name on it, and went down immediately, about 20 miles. When I arrived they had the box set aside, but when I looked inside it was black rather than white. We looked inside all of the units in the store, and could not find a white model. The model number on the box does not indicate the color, so the clerk had to do this from a ladder in the storage unit in the middle of the store during Sunday morning rush hour.
I went home and ordered it from the Starbuck's home page. The unit was shipped that day from their center 75 miles away, yet the delivery took 11 days. It appears Starbuck's gives their transportation service to some cheap freight forwarder rather than to UPS and my order sat in a trailer in their freight yard waiting to become part of a full trailer load. Starbuck's needs to let customers request UPS as the shipping method!
Three Month Followup
Well, in summary I'm still very satisfield with the product but several things of note have ocurred. First, my unit failed within thirty days of purchase. The measured water temperature was too low (about 150 degrees) after brewing. Starbuck's handled it perfectly and I received a replacement unit at no charge within seven days. Snce then the unit worked well, and I have had no complaints. I have recommended the Starbuck's unit to several friends and they have purchased a Starbuck's unit based on my recommendation. I like the unit and believe that it is worth the purchase price.
