Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My name is Ryan, and I'm a coffee addict... My habit ranges from 1 to 3 pots a day just to remain conscious. So you can understand the level of misery I have had to endure this past week as my 4 year old Gevalia machine met an untimely death during a recent lightning storm. I then began the hunt for a new machine. Basically, Amazon was my first stop since they have everything. I read all sorts of reviews, and finally settled on this one. I must say, this is by far the best machine I've ever owned. In reading the reviews, I found a few gripes that I don't agree with, so here's my response to those: 1. The number one gripe I see is filling difficulty. The fill hole is much larger than my old machine. Some people said its too small and makes a huge mess. My first time, it did drip a little bit but if you leave the lid off the pot while pouring, works like a charm. Let me put it this way... I wake up in the morning with the jitters, like a fiend looking for some crack... If I can pour it without making a mess ANYONE can. And that's a fact. 2. Numero Dos: Programming difficulty. I'm no rocket scientist by any means, but I had this thing programmed within about 5 minutes. I had no problem understanding the directions. I believe most gripes in this area are operator error. 3. Basket issues: It doesn't stand up on it's own, true, but I don't understand how anyone could miss the basket. Leave it in the machine for pete sake! I hope they don't miss their mouth with that hot coffee! Again, If I can do it without making a mess, anyone can. As for choosing paper or mesh filter, paper of course filters better, but mesh makes it stronger and leaves a bit of sediment in the pot... each way has it's benefits depending on how you like yours. 4. Flip-top so large you have to pull it out from under the counter: True, but how lazy can you be... honestly? It's not that hard of a chore. You'd be hard pressed to find a machine that isn't like this. I, like others, had some pre-conceived notions from negative reviews, but I found most if not ALL of those to be some pretty weak arguments. I guess some people have more problems than others when trying to understand directions and such. This machine is top notch for the price, hands down! OH! And please look through all the comments, It's going on 3 years and I have given multiple updates as time has passed. I'm sure you will enjoy! OHHHH! One more thing... It was time to expand my horizons a bit... I bought an espresso machine. The Delonghi EC-702, if you're interested in some further reading... Should be interesting! 7 YEAR UPDATE! So it's been another year with the Red Cuisinart and after all we've been through, it's still alive and kickin! Been through 3 broken carafes now just due to my own clumsiness. The aforementioned "de-lamination" of the hot plate seems not to affect anything performance wise, and has not gotten any worse so I guess I'll just go with it! There have been no other issues that have come up and the machine continues to perform admirably every single day! This is amazing... What lasts 7 years anymore? Not even $50,000 cars last that long anymore. to be continued... 1-18-16... IT IS DYING!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I think I spoke too soon with that 7 year update I did not too long ago. Just this week, I have begun to have a problem with the machine. Sadly, it's the first problem and it will have to be the last. Something has happened in the electronics which intermittently causes the machine to shut off and the time to reset to 12:00. I rely on the auto-brew to start an hour before I wake up at 4:30 A.M. every day. Several times now I have awoken to find a cold, half-brewed pot or worse, and empty pot. This is simply unacceptable. As Sweet Brown would say, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" I intend to get a new machine as soon as possible. It's definitely going to be a Cuisinart that's for sure. I am heavily considering the DCC-3200. It seems to be a more updated version of my current one. If/when I make that purchase you can bet I'm going to start this review process all over again! FINAL UPDATE! 2/4/2016: I decided on the Cuisinart DCC-3200 to replace my ailing DCC-1100R. It's only been about 2 weeks, so I'm going to use it for a while and begin another review, so keep an eye out for that! As for my red one, time of death, 06:00, 1/20/16. Whenever I get time, I intend to perform an autopsy on the machine to find out exactly what the problem is. My first impression is an electrical short somewhere, so we shall see. As for the new machine, so far so good! Let me be clear: I am not at all disappointed in the DCC-1100. It has served me well. The reason I bought something different is exactly that... I wanted to try something different. I still highly recommend the one I originally bought. For all you guys that kept track of this review and commented over the years, from the bottom of my heart I thank you! I would not have put this much effort into it without knowing someone out there appreciated my work, so again, THANK YOU!