BrevillePrecision Brewer Drip Coffee Machine, Thermal Carafe, One Size, Brushed Stainless Steel

I've always used cheap $20 Mr. Coffee makers, and they've lasted me for many years. I only decided to replace the last one because the water chamber was getting gross from over a decade of use. I was going to buy another cheap coffee maker, and my wife convinced me to buy a nicer, higher end coffee maker, and I'm so glad I did!It's been a bit of a journey, as this is the third coffee maker I've bought. The first one was a Mr. Coffee "Optimal Brew" coffee maker that I returned because I got an obviously-used coffee maker with a broken piece and greasy fingerprints all over it. The second was a Cafe Grind and Brew, which honestly is an over-priced piece of junk that leaks all over the place due to a glaring design flaw (see my review on that machine for more). So that one got sent back as well.I finally settled on this beauty, and I love it. It is of much higher build quality than the Mr. Coffee, which was a cheap mostly-plastic machine that I doubt would've lasted long, and I doubt even more that it would make better coffee than the $20 machines I've had in the past. It's also much nicer build quality than the Cafe machine, which although it was nicer than the Mr. Coffee, was poorly designed and not build to last.This machine is built to last, and it's very thoughtfully designed. There are so many little features that make this so nice to use, and it's obvious a lot of thought went into the design. The water chamber isn't removable, but it's large enough it won't be difficult to clean. It also has markings not only in "cups" but also in ounces, which is super helpful. It also has markings for maximum fill for a single cup cold brew, cone filter brew, and max size flat-bottomed filter brew. It also comes with a reusable flat bottom filter for brews of 9-12 cups, as well as an insert to use cone filters for 1-8 cups. You can also use flat-bottomed paper filters for the 9-12 cup brews. It also came with 10 flat-bottom paper filters, which is nice because they're larger than the ones I had for my previous 5-cup machine. The only things it doesn't come with are paper cone filters and a reusable cone filter. The paper filters would've been nice, but they're not expected, and I prefer a paper filter to the reusable filters anyway.I love that this machine can make iced coffee and cold brew coffee, which is a really cool feature. You can only make 4 cups of coffee with those two methods, though. But 4 cups of iced coffee (which really comes out to more 2 cups of coffee minus the water you lose to the grinds) is enough for my wife and I to each have an iced coffee once you fill the glasses with ice (which you definitely want to do, as the iced coffee is brewed at double strength).It has a clock and a timer that can be set for a future brew. It has the SCA gold standards set in, which is what I've been using, but you can also set up your own specifications for water flow rate, water temperature, and bloom time. Combined with a good grinder, you can really dial in your perfect cup of coffee.It even came with a test strip to test my water hardness, so I know how to set up the machine. It has, I think, 4 different hardness levels you can set, which controls how often the machine reminds you to do a cleaning with a descaler. It's really nice that it reminds you, as I never remembered to descale my previous machines as much as I should have. (I also used to descale with vinegar, so that tells you how much I didn't know about coffee!) No other machine I tried came with a water test strip or way to set your water hardness in the machine.The thermal stainless steel carafe is much nicer than the Mr. Coffee and Cafe ones were. It keeps coffee hot for hours, especially if you preheat the carafe with hot water first as recommended in the manual. My coffee is so hot it steams my glasses when I drink it! No more having to reheat my coffee in the microwave halfway through a cup.The thermal carafe is also a game-changer compared to previous machines I had with glass carafes and a hotplate. The coffee ended up tasting nasty after an hour or so of hold time. With the thermal carafe, the last cup of coffee is just as tasty as the first. The lid of the carafe is also much better designed than the Cafe one, which would get water trapped inside you couldn't get out, that would've become a breeding ground for black mold.No this does NOT have a hotplate, because it has an insulated carafe! All those people who complain about it not having a hotplate are exposing their ignorance, as no machine with an insulated carafe has, or should have, a hot plate. If you don't understand why, do some research, which you should be doing anyway if you're going to bother with, and spend the money on, a more advanced coffee maker like this.Clean up isn't too bad with this machine either, and much easier than the Cafe machine. The Cafe had too many pieces, all of which were cheap plastic destined to break in time (as all GE products are). Yes, this machine has plastic pieces, but they are a higher-quality, thicker, denser plastic than the Cafe and Mr. Coffee machines.This machine is much more on par with the commercial grade coffee makers I used when working in restaurants in the past. Yes, it is more expensive than the other two machines, but money spent on the Mr. Coffee and Cafe machines is wasted money, as they have low build quality and are designed to break much sooner than you'd like. This machine will last years and years, and is money very well spent if you love coffee.

You're reading this because some article may have recommended this coffee maker. I, too, was excited prior to purchasing. Well, let me save you some frustration with my experience and why I would not buy this again:- Dry grounds after brewing around the outside of the basket. I would get a "pit" in the center of the grounds where the 4 drip nozzles point down and about a tablespoon would remain dry on the outside of the basket. After months of tuning, I finally figured out that grinding coffee just to the right amount of fineness would allow the grounds to fully saturate. i searched far and wide on the internet to see who else had this problem and there were a couple other instances, but no solutions. Well, try grinding even finer as the solution. Some would say user error and you're probably right. But, ffs, I don't think it should be that hard to figure out. I wasn't THAT far off on the ground size and my previous coffee maker made coffee just fine with the ground size.- In troubleshooting the above, I made multiple calls to customer support, who weren't helpful and basically said the machine was fine despite the photos I showed them of dry grounds. Some agents were nice and tried to help, but basically told me that you can mail your unit back, but we will probably tell you that it's fine and not repair or give you a new one. What a pain - what a frustrating experience!- The carafe lid cannot be cleaned - you can't take it apart to clean the interior without potentially heavily damaging it. There are people on Youtube who have done it and found some nasty gunk, even mold on the inside. What a flaw! I soak the lid in Urnex Cafiza (Google it) and hope for the best - it's what baristas use to clean espresso and coffee machines.- There's water left over in the reservoir after the brew cycle is done. Apparently, this is "by design" and "normal" according to customer support. Well, guess what happens if water sits there and the lid remains on - humidity and condensation very quickly on the inside of the reservoir. What happens if you leave town for a week and forget to open the lid? Bacteria growth and potentially mold. Just gross!The carafe does keep the coffee warm for a long time without having to use a burner and there are a lot of features that I haven't used. Others may have had great success with this unit, but I wish I could return it and will likely donate it some day because I wouldn't want someone to waste a lot of money on this.I've been meaning to write this review for a long time but after using it every day, I feel compelled to write this and save at least one other person in this world the frustration. You're welcome.