Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I picked up this coffee maker on Prime Day as my trusty workhorse Mr. Coffee (also a thermal carafe type) was on Year 7 and its future looked uncertain. I am now sipping the first production from my new Zojirushi and I can honestly say it's one of the finest cups of coffee I have had that wasn't made by a barista. So it passed the delicious test with flying colors, but what else? From a design perspective, there's really nothing not to like about this piece of Japanese engineering. I am pretty nitpicky about the details of gadgets I use every day, so it's rare I to find something that I really can't complain about. But they just got it right with this one: * Large, clear buttons with obvious functions. I didn't need to read the manual to set the clock or the brew timer in seconds. * Well-designed carafe that opens and closes easily and positively. The carafe on old Mr. Coffee was never really quite right. It always seemed like you had to use all your might to push the button to get the coffee to pour, and it came out too slowly. * Water reservoir removes easily for filling and has a nice built-in handle * Battery backup for the clock and brew timer!! Really? Yes. Really. When you accidentally unplug it to use your immersion blender or in-the-egg scrambler, it remembers everything when you plug it back in. That was completely unexpected but very welcome. * Filter basket pops right out for easy cleaning * Uses standard basket filters, my old gold filter from Mr. Coffee works. This is a new product so the only wildcard is durability. But so far, I love it. UPDATE (almost 3 years later) Still going strong, still makes great coffee. We had one incident about a year ago where it started beeping with an error code for which there was no helpful information online. I guessed it might be overheating because we have fairly low kitchen cabinets and it ejects a lot of steam out the top. Since then I just pull it out at night when setting the morning timer. Has not happened again. Not sure if I guessed right or it was just an isolated incident, but seems sensible to keep it clear while brewing anyway. UPDATE (November 6, 2020 - 5 years later) Democracy is no longer functioning. But my coffee maker still is! Still working perfectly and still making fantastic coffee.