I bought a Cuisinart art coffee maker about 5 years ago. It caught fire about 2 years after buying it. Thanks to the DH's swift thinking the house did not catch on fire. He was about to get it outside and put it in the middle of the driveway until it burnt itself out. That was the first & last time I'll buy a Cuisinart coffee maker!

Before that I had Mr. Coffee coffee makers and its what I have now. I do have a Krups at work, but obviously Krups isn't efficient if you have a crowd.

They all wear out eventually unless you want to pay big bucks for a high end heating element. I bought a stainless hot water kettle with an automatic shut off, and then one of these, Melitta-Coffee-Brewer-Stainless-Thermal

Have been satisfied so far, at least I can tell that the water is boiling hot. Heats quickly. I use this at home. At work, I just have ye olde coffee maker, any brand is OK, just be prepared for it to wear out so just get whatever features you like for the lowest price. For me, making coffee FAST is a good feature. The one I got (Hamilton Beach) is very slow, which I don't care for at all. A stop-brewing function is good to have too. My life is kinda hectic so I don't always have time to babysit and wait for the coffee maker.

The problem with traditional coffee makers is that maintaining coffee at a good temperature via a heater conflicts with good quality. The nice feature about the manual Melitta just above, is that including a thermos will maintain the temperature mostly. Of course, you could just make coffee with a classic Melitta, Chemix or your Mr. Coffee, and then transfer it to a thermos. Using an old classic thermos (that you retrieve from that back of your cabinet and rinse/pre-warm with hot water) will work well.

I do use a Chemex and then just store the coffee in a nice Stanley thermos that I bought clear back when the girls were in school and I needed a thermos to carry to my second job at a radiator shop, where it wouldn't be broken if dropped on a cement floor. It's not pretty, but it works. I also have a Thermos brand travel mug that will keep a cup of coffee hot even when it's stuck in a snowbank for 5 hours, marvelous thing, also all metal and unbreakable.

Elery, however, likes his old fashioned electric percolator. He bought it and insists on using it, so when he makes coffee he uses the percolator. I use the Chemex when I make coffee, LOL. I still roast my own coffee and we grind it fresh for each pot.

I also have a KitchenAid countertop electric coffeemaker which works nicely, it also has a grind function so I can set the pot and it will grind the coffee and make it at the time designated. The problem is that the grinder is so loud it'll bring you out of bed faster than the best alarm clock, LOL, nearly gave me heart failure the first time it did that! Other than that, it works fine.

I also have a Hamilton Beach Brew Station that I used at work before I retired, I liked the fact that it had no pot for me to break and it seemed to keep the coffee hot until it "timed out" and shut itself off, I think that was two hours, maybe. I also have a free Gevalia coffeemaker that works OK.

Yeah, I know, I have coffee makers to last me until I die! Did I mention that I have a couple of French Presses and one AeroPress? (grin)

Annie

I also have several coffee makers but lately am using my Presto:

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-02811-12-Cup-Stainless-Coffee/dp/B00006IV0Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443440469&sr=8-1&keywords=presto+coffee+maker

I really wanted to have deep flavor, amazing aroma and HOT coffee cup after cup.

mimi, that's just like Elery's!

Annie

I love my Senseo....I like a cup of hot fresh coffee when I want it and like the option of having de-caf for an extra cup without making a whole pot. Not as good as Annie's Chemex fresh ground but lots better than anything that sits on a warmer for 30 minutes....and more.

My DD got this one when we needed a bigger coffeemaker

Hamilton Beach 12 Cup Coffee Maker (46201)

You can take the reservoir off and fill it directly at the faucet, and it has little rollers on the bottom to swivel the base to remove the reservoir. You can select how hot you want the coffee. You can select if you want to do only 4 cups. You can select the strength of the coffee. It's programmable, and stays on for about 2 hours. It's well thought out.

It's $42 on Amazon.

It works well for us. Three of us who get up at different times on different days.

Bodum santos (pebo) vacuum pot. EASY and makes the best, rounded, smooth coffee IF you buy quality coffee beans. Grind the beans fine (careful not to let the beans at the bottom of the grinder get warm -- I stop, invert/shake, then start the grinding again.

Preheat you mug! I just put a kitchen tea towel around my carafe to keep it warm. No coffee likes to be kept "warm" for long. Good, well-brewed coffee has lots of delicious volatiles. So keep the cover on the little carafe; keep it cozied. Don't wait to long to enjoy it ;)

As Chas pointed out, most coffee makers sold for the USA market, do not get the brew water hot enough for long enough during the brew . They pathetically try to play catch-up on the hot plate. I've made coffee with Chemex, drips and various other techniques. One electric brewer that we had YEARS ago was made by some company (Senaec?) and that worked very well. But that is no longer made.

Then we kludged a technique, using a drip method and manually heating the water with a separate electric kettle, then pouring it (manually) over grounds in a basket filter. We used a cheapy, dime store coffee maker to hold the basket of grounds over the glass carafe. Then we'd transfer it into an old-fashioned stainless, narrow, tall Stanley thermos. Even so, no coffee wants to be hanging around at a warm/warm-hot temperature for more than 15 or 20 minutes.

There is a way to COLD brew a pound of coffee....

We had a Cuisinart product (no fires thankfully) but this year tried out a Bonavita. It gets the water to the right temperature (205-210) and emulates a true cone filter. But, it does not heat the coffee after it is done -- it relies on a thermos. The Technivorm is an even higher rated (and more expensive) version of the same concept. Combined with a burr grinder, it makes a smooth and richer cup of coffee. But, as I noted, at the frustrating result of not having a good cup for long.

Our Black & Decker SpaceMaker died after about 30 years of daily use. After looking at what is available, I decided to get a used SpaceMaker. It was about $80 on EBAy but lacked the under-counter bracket. When it arrived, I just slipped it into our old under-counter bracket and have been very happy with it since (almost a year). The SpaceMakers do a good job. There are even some of these available on eBay that are unused and in the original packaging.

We had a Spacemaker, long-long ago. It too died. We've had two Bunn's, too, the variety that keeps the water hot for you all the time.

Thank you for all the ideas and commentary. I suggested to my husband that we go way way back and use a percolator again, or perhaps buy another Bunn. At least the coffee will be hot. Or has that brand gone sour, too?

Donna

As long as we are on the subject, I have found that these pre-made coffee pods are a great way for manufacturers to hide sub par coffee grounds in a sealed package and charge you more for it! BRILLIANT marketing idea! The coffee maker I bought either uses the pods or you can put grounds into it, so once I use up these Senso pods I bought, I will NOT be buying them again. I got a set of four different kinds. So far they all taste the same--muddy dishwater. I use the coffee maker at work and at home am still happy with just my hot water kettle and a pour over system. The biggest variable for me has been getting good coffee beans. Lots of variability, even within brands. Oh, and getting an appliance that reliably heats water hot enough. So far my electric kettle has held up well. Not that expensive so I can always replace it relatively easily. It works for tea and hot cocoa too.

Definitely lousy coffee in the pods. Plus it was ground months earlier. If I was on the international space station I might be happy with it.

i see a lot of the broken brewers (K) on FREE venues.

Never liked the pre-ground coffee after we started to buy beans and grind them ourselves. So far, our favorite brand is Eight O'Clock The Original. It's a little hard to buy at times. The only local place that has it reliably is our military commissary. Sometimes Walmart has it, but usually only in the pre-ground variety.

At work, they declared any coffeemaker that is always on (such as the K brewers) is not allowed on the premises. They claim fire liability as well as electrical usage.

Donna