The official machine of the Coffee Rebellion!
Written: Dec 10 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap; functional; "pause and serve" feature
Cons: Bad basket assembly; decanter spills coffee easily; very basic features
The Bottom Line: It's got a few problems, but it gets the job done.
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| HawgWyld's Full Review: GE 12 Cup Coffee Maker Model 106571 |
We journalists really don't expect much. After all, being a news reporter isn't exactly a way to achieve fame and fortune. Still, considering I have to put up with deadlines, odd demands of editors, getting blamed when a copy editor inserts erroneous information into an article with my name on it and etc., I do expect gallons of free coffee at the office.
Friends, my newspaper put an end to the free coffee ride a couple of months ago. The beloved Bunn coffee maker -- a constant companion and source of comfort -- was put out to pasture and replaced with one of those blasted vending machines. Yeah, you know the kind of machine I'm talking about. One of those nasty things that squirts instant coffee into a paper cup in exchange for about 50 cents. Who the hell wants that?
Not me, and I was thrilled to see that some of my brothers and sisters at the newspapers also rose up and rejected the nasty vending machine. Yes, the mighty Coffee Rebellion formed at almost the same time the vending machine was installed. Now, we all knew the vending machine was just another tool The Man wanted to employ in his never-ending quest to keep us down, and I'm proud to say we rose up against it. Take that, The Man!
Now, the Coffee Rebellion is nothing more than a loosely-organized movement led by one disgruntled newspaper employee with a vision (we just call him Mr. Coffee so as to keep his identity a secret outside of our sneaky circle of cohorts). Mr. Coffee simply found a relatively-obscure location with an electrical outlet, installed a coffee maker and extended invitations to certain trustworthy individuals -- free coffee was made available to those of use willing to bring in a can of Folger's from time to time. Indeed, Mr. Coffee has cans of coffee hidden here and there, and our cups are simply overflowing with life-giving java.
Now, the machine Mr. Coffee chose for the Coffee Rebellion is the G.E. 12 Cup model. Not only is our machine fairly small and fairly easy to conceal, it also comes in black so it's stealthy, too. Down with The Man!
In reality, this is a fairly basic coffee machine with a few minor problems. First of all, the decanter is a bit faulty in that I can't figure out how to pour coffee out of the thing without spilling a bit. That can be potentially dangerous as walking around with fresh coffee on my shoe will certainly mark me as a coffee rebel.
Also, the assembly holding the coffee and filter swings out for (I assume) E-Z access. The machine, however, is designed so there's not much clearance between the decanter and the assembly. So, it's too easy to knock the assembly out of place when pulling out the decanter. That's a minor annoyance, but one worth mentioning.
Finally, there's a dial which allows one to brew "strong" coffee, "weak" coffee or strengths between the two extremes. It doesn't seem to work very well.
The problems, however, are fairly minor. This is, essentially, a stripped-down coffee maker which features an "on-off" switch and no timer. The switch doesn't shut off automatically, by the way.
I like the "pause and serve" feature which suspends brewing while one grabs a cup of coffee. Indeed, the members of the Coffee Rebellion, being sneaky and all, are well-served by the "pause and serve" feature as they can snag a cup of coffee and flee instead of waiting for the thing to stop brewing. Without such a feature, one might get caught loitering around the machine and, thus, the Coffee Rebellion could come to an end. Gadzooks!
Also, it's got a hot plate which keeps the coffee hotter than an Arkansas July. That's appreciated considerably on cold mornings.
While this isn't a particularly great machine, it does serve its purpose. Besides, I understand the coffee machine is pretty cheap (around $10 or so), so the aforementioned Mr. Coffee won't lose much should agents of The Man confiscate it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
HawgWyld
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 - Top 200 |
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Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
Reviews written: 1429
Trusted by: 495 members
About Me:
The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
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