Does what it should do -- the quality of the coffee has been great.
Negative Product Points
A little fussy with regard to placing the carafe.
Detailed Commentary
I'll get back to you all if any problems develop, but so far the thing has been great. A local Starbucks had it on sale. I'm using it together with a Solis Maestro grinder that seems to be making the kind of fine grind this thing wants; maybe I'd get less-good results with a cheaper grinder. I'm using a metal mesh filter that I got from the Starbucks folks at the same time.
Compared to other coffeemakers this thing seems pretty fast, and whoever designed it figured how to get the water to the right temperature for good extraction -- I've just never had results this tasty with an automatic coffeemaker before. And no bitterness or overextraction. I really can't ask an automatic coffeemaker to do more. The removable water container is a nice feature.
The carafe is good and solid and looks nice. The coffeemaker as a whole is a little bulky, but it's not hideous or anything.
My only complaint is that placing the carafe into the coffemaker is fussy -- the spout wants to be centered in the little well that it fits into, but it's easy to place the carafe so it sort of looks OK, but the spout is twisted to one side or another and then the coffee won't drip into it. It's not hard to place the thing right once you know you need to, but a better design would be idiotproof.
