The client I spend the most time with has a kitchen downstairs. There are several coffee-makers down there. This isn’t too bad, except going down there to make a pot of coffee and then back down every time either of us want a cup just isn’t handy. The boss had received the Gevalia Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker and was less than impressed with it, so he brought it in for us to keep upstairs closer to us.

I was anxious to see how it worked, because I’d chosen my last coffee-maker instead of the thermal carafe one I’d initially been determined to purchase. I am quite happy with that coffee-maker and wouldn’t trade it at this point for anything, but I was curious to see how a thermal carafe system measured up.

The Gevalia Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker sits nice on the counter and doesn’t take up a lot of space which is good when there’s not much space to be had. The lid on the top opens for the water to be poured in and there’s a red ball in a clear window on the side to indicate the water level as I’m filling it. I can’t overfill it as there’s a hole that drains water on the back - something I found out the hard way one day when I wasn’t paying quite enough attention.

The basket for the grounds swings out and back easy enough. Setting the Gevalia Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker up to make coffee is very simple! The thermal carafe holds up to eight 5-ounce cups of brewed coffee and slides under the basket once it’s in place. This was a sticking point for me with many of the thermal coffee-makers I’d looked at as my cups of coffee are typically double the side of what the manufacturers consider to be a cup of coffee. Eight cups of coffee will generally only be four servings around my house. If I want a cup while the coffee is dripping, I can take the thermal carafe out and the dripping stops temporarily.

This brings me to my first problem. The lid of the carafe drains the coffee through the center of it into the carafe to keep coffee warm. Apparently, the pace at which the coffee comes from the filter basket into the thermal carafe is pretty precise. I’ve had two instances where I took the carafe out to take a cup of coffee during the brew cycle and when I put it back under the basket, I ended up with a mess as coffee dripped all over the place, down the sides of the carafe, and onto the counter. Now I just let the entire pot brew before I take a cup.

The second problem came with the rate at which the coffee pours from the thermal carafe. Unless I completely unscrew the lid of the Gevalia Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker, I get a small stream of coffee which seems to take forever to fill up my coffee cup. Unscrewing the lid is not a small twist either as it takes a few turns to get it off. Sometimes when I am just in a hurry and want to grab a quick cup and get back to work, this is really annoying.

The carafe itself cleans up easily as I normally just have to rinse it out. It’s lined with glass like the thermoses I remember as a kid, which means if it’s dropped or banged hard it’s the end of the carafe. The heating element switches off after a few minutes, and the coffee stays warm enough to satisfy me for that period of time. The clean-up problems come into play with the lid design once again. Time after time when I rinse out the lid I go to reassemble the carafe for storage and some brown liquid comes out of the lid from somewhere. It seems to be almost impossible to get all of the coffee completely out of the lid of the carafe. No matter how many times I rinse it by running water through, I always seem to end up with residue leaking out of somewhere. It really worries me because if the liquid gets trapped in there, will mildew form? I just don’t know and I’m hoping we get a new coffee-maker for upstairs soon so I don’t have to find out!

I wouldn’t recommend the Gevalia Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker at all, even with the free coffee offer. Gevalia has to develop a better design, or try to find an offer that’s for the non-thermal coffee-maker.


Other coffee maker reviews:

Hamilton Beach Brew Station Coffee Maker
Mr. Coffee 12-Cup Coffee Maker
Cuisinart Grind & Brew Coffee Maker
Hamilton Beach Portfolio Coffee Grinder


Peet’s Coffee & Tea Online


© 2004 Patti Aliventi




Recommended: No