Cons: Too tall; hard-to-read controls; dribbles when filling; easy-to-forget basket
The Bottom Line: Good looks do not mean a good product. This flawed design is hard to live with and its coffee is no better than a cheaper, less stylish model.
pvreditor's Full Review: Oster FTX43 12-Cup Coffee Maker
My needs and wants are simple. I don't need or want fancy clothes, an expensive home, the latest in German automobiles or exotic vacations. Really, I don't need or want those things -- for one thing, they are so expensive that I could never be comfortable spending that kind of money.
One of the few pleasures that I do have is a good old American-style cup of coffee, the kind that I sometimes get at Dunkin' Donuts and used to be available at diners where I live. The diners are slowly disappearing and coffee has taken a sharp turn to the burned-and-sturdy brew served at Starbucks and its ilk. But dagnabbit! I like a good fresh cup of mild American-style coffee and you can keep your Starbucks to yourself, if you please.
I had a perfectly servicable Sunbeam coffee maker on my kitchen counter but my wife thought it didn't make the best coffee, so a couple years ago, we got a Oster FTX43 at Costco for $40. Bad move. For one thing, Oster's coffee tastes no better than the old Sunbeam. For another thing... well, everything else.
What it is
Coffeemakers used to be square plastic appliances with little style, but they made respectable coffee. Suddenly, coffeemakers must be stylish and the Oster FTX43 is certainly stylish. It's tall and slim, with a brushed stainless steel control panel and a glowing liquid-crystal display that simulates an analog clock. The carafe holds 12 8-ounce cups of coffee (more like eight cups of real-world coffee), and the back of the base has a convenient cord storage compartment so that you don't need excess cord snaking across your granite countertops.
The Oster FTX43 stands about 14 inches tall and has a footprint of about 10 inches by eight inches. To fill the coffeemaker, the lid pivots at the back and the raised lid eats up another 6-7 inches of vertical space. If you're keeping track, the Oster FTX43 needs 20-21 inches of clear vertical space to operate it. (I'll get back to this shortly.) The coffee basket is under the full lid when you lift it up. Water is poured into the reservoir at the back of the lid. The Oster FTX43 uses a standard paper filter, available just about anywhere at low cost.
Using it
I hate, hate, hate the Oster FTX43. I won't deny its attractive look and the faux analog clock makes a passable kitchen night light. It also makes an average cup of coffee, as good as my old (and sorely missed) Sunbeam coffeemaker. In every other way, the Oster FTX43 is a series of good ideas gone terribly wrong.
For one thing, the Oster FTX43 is simply too tall. In my home, it can't be under a wall cabinet and still be able to open its lid. The Oster FTX43 must be pulled in front of the wall cabinet for the lid to open, and then the coffeemaker's lid bangs into the door of wall cabinet. Since I have to keep the Oster FTX43 at the front edge of my counter to use it, it consumes more counter space than an older and less-stylish model.
Pouring water into the Oster FTX43 is a minor misery. I have never done it without dribbling some water onto the countertop. Never... it's simply impossible to fill the Oster FTX43 with water -- even just a couple of cups' worth -- without dribbling more than you wanted on the counter.
More than once, I have dropped a paper filter into the Oster FTX43 without the plastic filter basket installed. I know... I'm an idiot. However, I NEVER do that with any other coffeemaker and I make a lot of coffee at home and work. Without the basket installed, the Oster FTX43 has a perfectly reasonable-looking spot for the filter to go. Then the lid lowers and the filter is out of sight, and I never noticed that the plastic basket wasn't mounted. When I make this mistake, it creates a really big mess. As I said, I make a lot of coffee at work and at home, and the Oster FTX43 is the only coffeemaker for which I sometimes screw up the plastic basket.
Finally, the attractive front panel of the Oster FTX43 is quite hard to read. The stainless steel panel attracts fingerprints and smudges, which makes the too-small lettering hard to read. I always have to bob-and-weave my head trying to figure out which button is which. Oster should have made the lettering MUCH bigger and more contrasty, as it is nearly impossible for my wife and me to read it with our aging baby-boomer eyes.
As for the coffee the Oster FTX43 makes, it's fine -- no better and no worse than my previous coffeemaker. The carafe is easy to pour and thankfully doesn't dribble. The burner has adjustable temperature and will stay hot for only an hour or so before automatically shutting down, a nice safety feature.
Summary
If you are under 45, reading the poorly designed front panel of the Oster FTX43 is probably not a problem for you. However, all the other drawbacks of this too-stylish coffeemaker still apply: It's too tall, uses too much counterspace, it dribbles when you fill it and it's too easy to forget the plastic basket and make a BIG mess.
Oster can keep the style of the FTX43 and I'll take my old Sunbeam coffeemaker back -- or even an older Mr. Coffee unit built before style got so important. My Oster FTX43 still looks new and I'm already considering a new coffeemaker. I recommend that you avoid the Oster FTX43.
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