Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I took a leap of faith and decided to give this (relatively new) KitchenAid Pour Over Coffee Brewer (KCM0802MS) a shot. I'm very picky about coffee makers, and oddly enough, nobody seems to make the perfect one. That aside, the price on this one is a bit on the high side, but not too out of line. Time will tell how long it lasts, but after a month of daily, often twice-daily operation... I like it! I looked at all the fairly high-end machines like the Tecnivorm, Wilfa, Bonavita... Seems the higher the price, the less features you get. On/off at the top - really? At the very least, I'd like an auto setting so my coffee is ready in the morning if I do my homework the night before. And in the end, I doubt the coffee will be that much (if any) better. KitchenAid took the pour over approach in a modern coffee maker format and it largely works. The coffee it produces, and what it's really all about - is darn good! From OTC Dunkin' Donuts coffee to various Starbucks beans, from blond to medium to dark roast... The coffee is HOT, complex in flavor and with good body. You're not wasting the "good beans" with this brewer. Sure, it takes a while to brew a pot. Does anyone believe the pour over method to be fast? If you need a pot of coffee, like, yesterday - stick with drip. Some have complained that the carafe drips all over the place. I've never once experienced this - from slow to moderately fast pours. If you're looking to fill your coffee cup like an F1 pit crew puts gas in cars... You also need to relax a little. To reiterate; yes, it's slow to brew - as expected, and no, the carafe doesn't drip all over the place. Honestly, if I had one "major" gripe about this machine it would be the fact that the warmer shuts off after only an hour, rather than two (and I verified with KitchenAid that this is not adjustable, even through a service mode or cheat code). The solution is to just use a separate thermal carafe. The coffee will remain hotter, fresher, longer. C'est la vie. The opening to fill the water up top is curiously small (but many KitchenAid/Cuisinart coffee makers are like this... Don't ask me what the designers were thinking). The solution there is to pour water in from the side... This gives you a better chance of not spilling as you're aiming for a 5" opening rather than 1" (it's rectangular). At only eight cups max, this is a bit less than I'm used to... But if it helps any, they run on the large side. You could almost call this a ten cup. My last gripe would be the lack of an "AUTO" button. In order to set it up at night for the next morning, assuming you use the same time setting - you have to hit MENU MENU SET SET SET. Still, it's better than a high-end (yet utter POS) Krups unit I had which required a basic understanding of hieroglyphs and programming. You get used to this, obviously, but a single button would've been nice. Back to the pros... Easy to use, easy to clean. Looks sharp on the counter! Most importantly, it makes a darn fine cup of coffee, and the medium/dark roast selector does make a difference (f you like to change up your beans, use the appropriate setting). I placed my coffee maker on a slide-out pad atop the counter, which makes sliding it out from under the cabinet a total breeze and helps a TON! You can pick one up at BB&B or here on Amazon for about $15. I'm a coffee snob, and I like my KitchenAid Pour Over Coffee Brewer - as I suspect you will too! UPDATE (June 2016): Out of the year of ownership thus far, the last couple of months I've experienced sporadic water leakage through the bottom of the unit, such as when set up the night before to come on in the morning automatically. This problem went away by itself, then came back again. Since the initial ocurrence I just kept two folded paper towels under the unit. However, when it came back it was just bad - easily soaking the paper towels. I first emailed KitchenAid, but they suggested calling instead. So I did that, wasn't on hold for more than ten minutes before speaking to someone and both quickly and easily arranged to have a brand new unit shipped to me (the old one will be sent back). I have to say, the service/support experience was very good and resolved to my satisfaction! Curious, I asked, and the rep. has not heard of this happening to anyone else. Otherwise, I'm still very happy with the unit as well. Dependable, excellent coffee.