Coffee is one of my pleasures in the morning. I enjoy a nice, large, strong cup before I head off to work. So does my wife, although if I'm crabby she might enjoy me leaving as much as the coffee. We use Starbucks beans, ground at the time of preparation as well as bottled water to make it.

Since most manufacturers, unlike coffee drinkers, regard 5oz as a cup, we have been using a Braun Aromaster KF-420 10-cup coffeemaker for years. Lately, it's had trouble with leaks and getting the carafe and basin to fit together, so I decided it was time for a change.

My initial idea was to get another one of that same Braun model which made good coffee and had worked pretty well for about 3 years. Unfortunately, Linens and Things was out of it.

I saw this unit at Menards for around $17. It holds a max of 12 cups, not 10, but I didn't think that would be a problem. It was the white color my wife wanted and seemed to be made well enough. There was also a permanent filter in the display unit. So, I bought it.

Once I got home, the first disappointment was that it didn't come with a permanent filter. It wasn't listed in the manual. I don't know how it got into the display unit. So, off to Linens and Things and then the grocery store, where I found a permanent filter that fit for an additional $9.

Set-up of the coffee maker was really easy. We ran an initial cycle of white vinegar, as the manual recommended to clean it and then two cycles of water to rinse.

The first pot was very, very bland, using the same amount of ground Starbucks and bottled water that we used with the Braun unit. You couldn't tell it was made with Starbucks. Then we tried another pot with a little more coffee. That was only marginally better. Plus, it would be more expensive over time because of the additional coffee.

I always thought that coffee makers were pretty much the same, taste-wise. That is not true in this case. I don't know if it is because of the temperature of the coffee, or the fact that this uses basket filters instead of the cone filters that Braun uses, or what. However, it's does not brew good tasting coffee.

Linens and Things restocked the white Aromaster KF-420s. I bought one a couple of days ago and it is firing up now.

This unit is going back. I cannot recommend it to anybody.

Thanks for reading. God bless!

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