Coffee & Espresso Makers Tips

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After one of my Kitchenaid 4 cup coffeemakers quit early, I picked up one of these little Krups.

It has a stop-valve to let you pour while brewing and an external water gauge. That’s about it. Nothing fancy. water feed rate is good, in my opinion — just a little slower than the Kitchenaid, which is good for me because I like to use a lot of grounds and a slow feed is less likely to overflow.

The entire basket assembly lifts off for easy cleaning and you can stand it on the counter, off the machine, and put in grounds. If you don’t keep the grounds next to the brewing area, that’s a plus. Also, it makes it easy to clean the whole basket assembly.

The valve mechanism is well thought out. When the pot is on the warmer, not only does it open the valve, but it raises the entire inside basket holder, and in doing so lifts up the valve assembly — this is hard to explain but it effectively enlarges the drain opening while the pot is in place. If you pull the pot out while the basket is full of water and overflowing the basket, less water drains than when the pot is in place. If there is no overflow, there is no dribble when you remove th pot. It is the top-seal design, which I prefer. This one seems to have less tendency to clog if the grounds overflow than other pots I’ve used.

The pot’s shaped like a half dome with a small opening and a deep spout. It’s the best pot I’ve used for being nondribble. And it’s dribbleless not matter how fast you pour. The Kitchenaid was just the opposite.

To wipe the interior of pot, it’s hard to fit my fingers in — the pot opening is narrow. I don’t have especially large hands. Too much pressure on these thin Pyrex pots and you can crack them, so I think a brush is in order.

It doesn’t overheat the coffee once brewed, but I don’t keep coffee on a warmer because it continuing to heat continues to caramelize the sugars, which turns the coffee towards bitter after about 15 minutes, depending o how hot the warmer is. This one is about medium — some coffeemakers turn the coffee after only about 10 minutes, some in about 20 minutes but the coffee isn’t very warm. So this is a good compromise.

It doesn’t have a grounded cord with 3-prong plug. But he cord doesn’t heat up while brewing the coffee.

I’ve only had this unit for a few weeks, but so far I think it’s great. we’ll see if it holds up better than others I’ve owned, none of which has lasted longer than about 1-2 years.

Since the basket assembly is easy to clean but the pot is a bit harder, I’ve split the difference on the rating and rated it average for Ease of Cleaning. But consider the differences before you buy. I love the pot because it doesn’t dribble but you might hate the narrow opening come cleaning time.

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