Three minutes per cup ... ... and you have to be out the door on the way to work in 4.5 minutes, right? Buying at BBB - that's "Better Busines Bureau", is it? Or "Beastly Bankrupt Bankers"? Or "Bed, Bath ... and Breadline"? For a mug of home-built coffee - 37.5 cents ... or 47.8 cents, etc. is too rich for my blood. My kids were quite surprised a couple of years ago when Dad sprung for a cappucino. I got a little over 2 lbs. can of the "Good to the last drop" kind a while ago ... for under $5.00, I think. When I opened it, I put it into half a dozen, about 1 lb. jam jars and put the ones that I wasn't using into the freezer - four of 'em still there. I goofed a few years ago - bought about a 4 - 5 cup maker with permanent strainer for about $8.00 at X S Cargo in Edmonton when son and I were up there for nephew's wedding. X S Cargo have low-priced stuff, quite a portion of it refurbished. Within a month I turned it on, then went to add water ... ... and before I got the water going through into the carafe on the heater ... ... I heard a high-pitched "pinggg" ... ... and didn't even need to look at the carafe to know what had happened! Drat! Hard to "refurbish" a cracked coffee carafe! You win a few - you lose a few! I hope that you all have a great New Year. ole joyful

Personally, I would go the French Press, drip cone and instant hot route, which would be useful for lots of other things too, or a pod maker. I've had coffee from a Keurig and would have bought one for us if we didn't have an espresso maker already. I used to use a drip cone for coffee at work or single cup at home and still use a large one for a thermal pot when entertaining. I likethe French press coffee, but not the silt, so I'd have to learn not to drain a cup. The stovetop route is good too. You have lots of good options. I did look up the average life expectancy for a coffee maker and one source put it at 2 years. Before we got the espresso maker, it seemed we were replacing every year -- less than every two. We bought our first espresso maker 10 or more years ago and still have it. I know we never got that out of any regular countertop model, but I didn't want to be too harsh with the one year evaluation. ;-)

Let me tell you my tale of woe which is still increasing my blood pressure even tonight. For the past 5 days, my house has been inundated with some type of small flies; maybe drain flies, but I have a coffee angle as well. This morning, I used the foot peddle on a plastic Rubbermaid trash receptacle in the kitchen........there must have been at least 25 in the garbage and many flew out all over my kitchen and dining room. I had noticed most seeming to come from the kitchen sink/drains, so I used the foaming disposal/drain cleaner at least twice, but that had no impact. I made coffee as usual this morning, using my Cuisinart 12-cup coffee maker, although I just make one cup and use paper filters and some organic ground coffee. I didn't really look "into" the coffee maker this morning, but I had just run vinegar and water through it the other day for the auto-clean cycle, which it really needed. Like some others in this thread have mentioned, I don't think that the standard cleaning touches every opening within the coffee maker where moisture may be allowed to linger. Later in the day, it appeared that many of these flies were around my coffee maker........to my horror, when I opened the lid on top, there must have been 15 or 20 inside the coffee maker. Even after I rinsed it out and attempted to dry it off, more flies were landing on it. It was like a horror film. I tried putting into two plastic grocery bags, since I didn't have a single bag big enough, and I shortly realized that there were flies getting into the bags like the coffee maker was a magnet. I then cleaned the coffee maker in the sink, and cleaned the canister as well and hand dried each and put the coffee maker into two other plastic bags and put it in my home office at the other end of my house. I put the canister in a separate bag and tied the top and did the same with the basket. (as I type this, there are flies landing on my hands and arms......Alfred Hitchcock can't be far away) I would guess that I have killed about 100 of these flies in the past 4 days and still am not entirely sure where they came from, but I have read that drain flies breed and hatch every 48 hours and I seem to just keep coming. If these things were in my coffee maker this morning, I must have ingested a lifetime's worth. I seem to have two sizes of these flies and the only way to kill any of them is when the land on the counter. When they are flying, it is extremely hard to kill them. I believe they are attracted to carbon dioxide, because they have flown into my eyes, nose and mouth. They sound like mosquitos when they fly near my ears. I may try the apple cider vinegar and dish soap idea before going to bed shortly, but I'm afraid that I wake up with even more tomorrow. I have read that you can add some sugar to this mixture as well. The dish soap is important. Since I could not eat lunch or dinner today because so many were landing on my food and plates, and I had to throw food away, this is really taking its toll. They are going into my kitchen cabinets and have tried to get into the microwave. I am putting many scraps that might have gone into the garbage into separate bags and tying them off. There is no open food or waste in my kitchen. I even sprayed flying bug spray into the garbage when I discovered the infestation there and it made no difference.....nothing kills these things........help !!! UPDATE: I used two suggestions found online that seem to help. One is to build a simple fly trap using apple cider vinegar and dish soap in a cup/container and put plastic wrap on top, secure with a rubber band and poke some small holes in the top with a toothpick. Flies get in; can't get out. Other thing is the suggestion to use a spray bottle and fill with water and dish soap. You can zap flies when they land somewhere and it makes it easier to kill them. Run water and disposal more frequently to make sure there is no "organic matter" that can attract more flies.

I would strongly recommend installing a sediment filter, and preferably also a charcoal filter for any plumbed appliances. Not only does it make the water taste better, but it also extends the lifetime of the appliance. When you ask your plumber to run all the pipes, this is an easy additional job. You can even have the filters in a location outside of the kitchen, where it is easier to service (e.g. in your garage). We have our beverage center, CSO, and potfiller on the filter. The sink is unfiltered. Works great for how we use out kitchen. I understand the controversy about potfillers. It works really well for us, and I am so happy we decided for it. But I can also understand that, depending on kitchen layout, it might not always make sense for other households. If you have hard water, things get a little more complicated. Resin-based water softeners are probably fine, but you need to regularly change or refresh the cartridge. On the other hand, reverse-osmosis is problematic, even if it might be easier to service. Several appliance manufacturers explicitly tell you that RO water will damage the plumbed appliance. Also, there is some worry about health issues with longtime consumption of RO water; and I have read several coffee lovers complaining that coffee made with RO doesn't taste quite right.