Melitta 46893 12-Cup Coffee Maker

I bought this coffee maker in December of 2012 for the purpose of giving it as a Christmas present to an extremely picky coffee drinking father. I spent at least a month pouring over practically every review for most (if not all) of the 12 cup coffee makers that Amazon had to offer me before I finally made the harrowing decision of buying this coffee maker. Yes, I was a little obsessive about it but when you're buying for a man who will pick one con out of a thousand pros and use it as an excuse to return an item this is the kind of thing you end up doing. Anyway, point being, this was the only coffee maker that I could find (including the more expensive Bunns and Warings) that had everything that my family needed in a coffee maker. It is also one of the only coffee makers that didn't have some sort of catastrophic pitfall that was reiterated by several of the reviewers. Things like plastic tasting coffee and heating elements that liked to burst into flames of their own accord.This coffee pot was worth every penny spent for it and I'm glad I finally gave up and decided to try this one. We had a Braun for over 20 years and it still hadn't completely given out by the time I decided it was time my dad got a new one, so we shall see if this one lasts 20 years, but until then it has a five star rating from me and mine.Anyway, I'll start out with a discussion of the pros:1. As far as I'm concerned it makes a good cup of coffee. It comes out relatively hot and if left to sit on the plate for ten minutes after finishing brewing the coffee is as hot as you could ever want it. Also, as an aside, the coffee stays hot for the two hours that the hot plate is on.2. My father swears that the robust setting uses less of his expensive coffee to make a 12 cup pot than the regular setting does. I'm on board with that opinion. Less coffee but same taste? Good deal.3. The blue light that other reviewers have complained about doesn't bother anyone in our household. I'd say most people don't have a bed in their kitchen so I don't see why a nightlight-esque coffee pot clock would bother a normal person. In fact, the brightness is nice at night sometimes.4. The carafe is glass so it's bound to break if you drop it so I don't put any weight into the opinions of those who say it's flimsy. It's the same as any other carafe I've handled--drop it and you're going to break it. Glass is glass. The pro here is that the carafe pours excellently and has a good shape.5. Aesthetically this thing is quite lovely. It's masculine but not overly so, it fits into kitchens that have either black or stainless steel appliances, and finally it doesn't look or feel cheap in any way.The only complaints I have don't bother me enough to lower my rating but I will mention them.1. The maker is tall. Measure the distance between your counter tops and cabinets before you buy this baby.2. Because of how tall it is you'll most likely have to pull it out to fill it with water. But again, most coffee makers are like this so why does it matter?3. Water drips out of the holes above the coffee grounds when you lift up the lid to take out the old filter. This bugs me a bit and I wish it didn't do it, but I'll take this small defect over the Cuisinarts that set on fire thank you very much.Overall: if you've been looking forever for a coffee maker, just buy this one.

The reason for the title is due to this product being shown inaccurately on Amazon. The photo shows a stainless thermal carafe when indeed this is not the product being sold here. The thermal model is a 10-cup coffee maker while this is the 12-cup glass model. The seller was nice and made amends for the misleading page and my review of the product is in no way reflective of this incident. While true that the description does not state "thermal", I had looked at the other Melitta thermal 10-cup one and had selected this one because it was a 12-cup model. I think the coffee makers may be the same except for the carafe, the thermal being fewer cups because of the thickness of the carafe.The product is attractive and the controls being above the carafe ensures they will not get soaked in the event of a spill, which can happen with other makers where the controls are in front of the hot plate. The Braun machine I am replacing (broken carafe) was like this. I will be using the Braun as a comparison in this review.The controls on the Melitta are simple: A large round button for turning the maker on and off with a red LED in the center to indicate status. A similar button to the left of the display selects the brew strength of Regular, Bold, or Robust, which is displayed in small text at the bottom of the blue-backlit display. There seems to be a noticeable difference in Regular and Bold. I have not tried Robust. Near the brew select button is a small button for the hot plate temperature for LO, MED, or HI. Unlike some people who sue fast food chains for making hot coffee, I like my coffee hot so I set this to "HI". The downside is that since I make only enough coffee for a single serving and forget to turn off the unit, it scorches the small amount that might be remaining in the carafe. This is because the hot plate remains on for two hours and is not adjustable. My older Braun unit (about 10 years now) has an adjustable hot plate timer from zero (instant off) to four hours in 1-minute increments. I don't see why any programmable coffee maker today would not have this feature. The other small buttons are to set the clock and the auto-brew time. A small LED lights up to indicate that auto-brew is enabled.Physically, the maker is fairly trim width-wise but is pretty tall. It is nearly 2 inches taller than my Braun and while it will fit below my cabinets, you can't open the filler doors, so it has to remain out front of the cabinets. The flip-up doors are a bad design. The coffee area cannot be opened without also opening the water reservoir door as well. You can open the water door without open the coffee door, but not the other way 'round. This makes it possible to spill some coffee grounds into the water reservoir if you're not very careful. The filter basket has a handle that swings up and the basket can be inserted only one way and the handle must be raised or the basket will not seat properly. I'm not certain of the reasoning behind this design but it isn't a critical thing once you're used to it.The carafe is well-designed. It has a piece near the pouring spout inside the carafe that makes it a bit difficult for large hands to reach inside for cleaning, but it is a small price to pay for the way it pours, which is excellent. There is never any back-pouring of the coffee which I believe is why this piece is in the carafe. The lid will attempt to fall open when the carafe is nearly empty, but I prevent this now by keeping my thumb pressed lightly against the flipper part of the lid. It would have been nice if there had been a spring or more friction in the hinge to prevent this. The water level indicator matches the indicator on the reservoir perfectly. I'm not sure if Melitta has compensated for water loss in the filter and evaporation with these measurements. I typically pour a 16.9-oz. container of bottled water that fills my travel cup almost perfectly.I purchased the whole bean Kicking Horse "Kick Ass" coffee with this and it's pretty good. I like the Bold setting. I have also ordered a burr grinder and will delegate my Cuisinart blade grinder to spices only. So far, this coffee maker is satisfactory for my needs. I am hoping to be able to find the thermal carafe (if indeed it is compatible. The only thing is, it seems odd that the hot plate will still be on unless manually turned off.P.S. For some reason, the Amazon link and page for this lists "Hamilton Beach" as the manufacturer, but it is a Melitta product.

(MAY, 2012) THERE ARE PLENTY OF REVIEWS HERE (& ON THE SITE DISCUSSING THE IDENTICAL MACHINE, BUT WITH A THERMAL CARAFE) THAT COVER EVERYTHING YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS MACHINE....CONSEQUENTLY I WON'T GO INTO DETAIL. ALL I'LL SAY IS THAT THIS MELITTA LOOKS REALLY CLASSY & MAKES AN EXCELLENT CUP OF COFFEE WITH NO FUSS OR MESS....IT'S A REAL WINNER!2 MONTHS LATER.....OOPS, NOT SO HAPPY AFTER ALL!! THIS MORNING WHILE REMOVING THE POT DURING BREWING (WANTED A QUICK HALF CUP SO DECIDED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE PAUSE & POUR FEATURE) THE PLASTIC SPRING LOADED PLUG AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BREW BASKET (FILTER HOLDER) FELL OUT OR BROKE OFF OR WHATEVER THE HELL IT DID & I STOOD THERE WATCHING COFFEE SPEWING ALL OVER MY COUNTER & DOWN THE FRONT OF MY WHITE KITCHEN CABINETS. SO PAUSE & POUR IS NO LONGER A FEATURE ON MY MACHINE SINCE THERE'S NO LONGER A PLUG MECHANISM ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BREW BASKET. NOW I CAN LIVE WITH THAT SINCE I ONLY BREW 2-3 POTS A WEEK & GENERALLY NEVER USE THAT FEATURE ANYWAY. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT, IS IT?! AFTER ALL, THIS IS A 'MELITTA'....YOU KNOW, THE COMPANY THAT TOUTS ITSELF AS THE ROLLS-ROYCE OF THE QUALITY EUROPEAN COFFEE EXPERIENCE....THE COMPANY THAT PRIDES ITSELF ON THE UNSURPASSED QUALITY OF ALL OF ITS PRODUCTS. NOUGH SAID!!APRIL, 2014....STILL GOING STRONG SO I GUESS I REALLY CAN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT QUALITY, CAN I?!