I know this is not what you are asking about but thought that I would recommend it just in case you had not thought about this option.

How about a Keurig single cup brewer?

With one of these every time you want a fresh cup of coffee it IS fresh and not just warm and 1hour+ old sitting in a carafe.
You can also have many MANY different types of coffee, from flavored to decafe and everything in between, even hot chocolate and tea so you don't have to try and make a POT of coffee that maybe one person really likes and the others just put up with because that is all there is.

IF you decide on one of these then I would suggest buying it from Costco or Sams Club, they have the best price by far plus if you need to take it back up to a year later because it malfunctions then you can do so with no problems at all.

Just an idea

Thanks for your reply, Nunyabiz. I should have added that to my 'NOT' list. I have too many Scots genes to triple my costs to make four cups of coffee once a day. I think that concept is more logical for people who want a cup now and then throughout the day, but we only drink coffee with breakfast. (Have 'teatime matinee' with DVD's in the afternoons.)

I suppose I could just keep the Krups carafe and decant coffee into it from whateve replacement I have to get eventually. Seems unnecessary.

FWIW you can use your own store bought bagged and fresh ground coffee in a Keurig machine if you wish.
It comes with a "My Kcup" attachment that you fill up yourself. So the cost at that point would be about the same possibly even cheaper since you only use what you drink and never throw any away.

My wife & I only drink usually one cup each per day, sometimes 2 on rare occasions and I don't really find it to be much more expensive than when we had a regular Krups coffee maker. Just 100X more convenient though.

We get most of our kcups through Bed Bath & Beyond, each month we get at least one 20% off coupon and sometimes a $5 off coupon and we buy our Kcups with that which keep the cost pretty minimal.
I think we usually pay around .38 cents for a large cup of coffee, which is cheap enough for us.

If we used the "My Kcup" things it would be even less but we really like having 20-25 different types of coffee on hand at all times.

I didn't know you could use your own coffee. That's interesting. I'd consider that, but not the Kcups. So, this *could* be a fallback for me. Thanks.

One can of Melita 100% Columbian coffee has cost about $9.00. That lasts us over a month. At 38 cents per cup, making four cups a day, I'd be paying $45 a month for coffee. I could buy 100% Kona coffee for that.

We have a regular Mr. Coffee coffeemaker, but we use a thermal carafe that we bought from Crate and Barrel 6 years ago. It still works great. It keeps the coffee hot for hours. This may be an option for you to consider.

We have the Cuisinart thermal carafe with the timer (not the one you have listed) and it works great. No need to warm the carafe, coffee stays hot for hours, etc. Great purchase. My mom and mother and law both had the grind and brew version and both said the coffee wasn't hot enough, even right out of the pot. We don't have this problem - we use the timer to brew it and it is super hot when we get up to get some!

To continue off on the Keurig tangent for just a moment...

I didn't know you could use your own coffee.

Yes you "can" but it's not a very appealing process. IMO it's more just a gimmick to get people like you to buy it when they're scared off by the cost of K-Cups.

When using the K-Cups don't figure on getting anything more than an 8oz serving. Yes there are "settings" for 10 and 12oz, but pretty much all you're doing is watering down an 8oz cup with more hot water. This means that if you're like me, you'll likely use TWO K-Cups for a large cup of coffee. My target price, after 20% off coupon and after tax is about $.44 per K-Cup, so an $.88 cup of coffee. Not cheap at all for home brew.

That said, I do love the iced coffee feature. And my wife loves it in general. We're on our second machine. The first one broke about a week out of warranty and Keurig basically told me tough luck. This time I bought it from BB&B who like Costco is very accommodating with returns.

We have had this Zojirushi model for probably 8-10 years. It may be higher priced than you want to spend but thermal carafe coffee makers are always pricey. The only thing I am not crazy about is the funky lid that you have to get used to. I think it makes very good coffee. I have tested the water temperature as it comes into the brewing area and it is almost up to the ideal temperature which I can't remember what that is right now! It has a large capacity carafe and plenty of watts which is important for getting the water up to temp quickly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zojirushi at Amazon

Buy the Cuisinart thermal carafe -- the best!
12 cups - stays hot - tastes great - not as great as a press, but still drinkable.
Coffee Junkie.

I have friends that enjoy the Cuisinart. I love my Technivorm, but it is a tad over your budget.

We have the Cuisinart Brew Central with the SS carafe. Excellent! It is often onsale at places like Macy's.

I have heard others make the "weak coffee" comment about Kcups before.
All I can say is those people must really prefer the old style "percolated MUD" type coffee.

ANY of the "Bold" Kcups make a very strong 10-12oz cup of coffee.
The non bold ones would be best for 8oz.

But I make a 10oz cup every time and it is PLENTY strong, unless you like Turkish Expresso Black.

I also do not have any problem using the My Kcup dohicky.
We have several of them, sometimes we grind up enough to make about 4 cups and pack 4 of them for later.
Takes me about 2 minutes total counting the grinding.

Mostly though we just prefer to have about 20-25 different types of coffee on hand, decaf, half caf, various flavored ones especially the (Green Mountain Coconut) is great.
It is nice to just pick what ever coffee you feel like at the moment to go with what ever you are having and everybody in the house can do the same and it takes about 30 seconds.

The cost of spending about 75 cents a day for the 2 of us to have a great cup of coffee in 30 seconds is well worth it to us.

I cannot remember the model number, but we have a Cuisinart coffee maker with the SS carafe. My husband got it for his birthday last July. We absolutely love it! No heating element. The lid screws in like you describe. It keeps the coffee warm for a very long time. We got it at Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% off coupon and it was about $80. Well worth it!

ANY of the "Bold" Kcups make a very strong 10-12oz cup of coffee. The non bold ones would be best for 8oz.

IMO there's a difference between bold and strong. As someone who prefers Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks, I can assure you I don't need mud to be happy. What can I tell you, one person's coffee is another person's hot water.

The way I see it Keurig is good for someone who wants a quick, convenient, "decent" cup of coffee and isn't too concerned about the price. To me, someone like the OP who cares enough about their coffee that they grind fresh beans is going to get no satisfaction from brewing those beans at a maximum of 192 deg F. Grind, fill the "dohicky", brew one cup at suboptimal temp, clean the dohicky... Pretty much all but negates the convenience of a Keurig, no? If you're going to go through all that, I suggest you may get far superior results and at a fraction of the cost using an Aeropress.

I'm not a hater, heck between my original Platinum and my current Cuisinart branded Keurig I've spent about $400 on the machines alone. In fact I gave away all my other coffee makers. (Starbucks, Cuisinart and a couple cheapos.) I'm just giving my honest opinion. Yours may vary.

p.s. After my first Keurig died I went to Wms Sonoma to buy a Technivorm. Saw how tiny of a "pot" it brews and my wife won - I went next door to BB&B and bought the Keurig.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aeropress.

You are correct about taking most of the convenience out of the Keurig if you only use the My Kcup things.
We rarely use them.

But to us at least the Keurig makes a pretty decent cup of coffee and while the so called "ultimate water temp" is supposed to be between 195-205 the 192 works just fine especially with the grind that comes in the Kcups.

The water you use and brewing a fresh cup (not letting it sit in a carafe or worse yet sitting on a hot plate) makes FAR more of a difference in the coffee than does an extra 3 degrees of water temp.

We use only water that goes through our water filter and since every cup is brewed fresh it is about as good as coffee is going to get for us.

There are several of the Kcups that are WAY strong, bit too strong for either of us so we do not find the Kcups weak in any way which is fortunate for us.

I have had several of the Keurigs die on us, but we buy them from Costco and they take them back no problem at all even after a year so we just end up with a perpetual new brewer and an extra 60-72 Kcups each time.
I am actually hoping this one we have now will die within the next 7 months so we can get another new one.