Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Mr. Coffee has really outdone themselves with the new improvements and designs to their latest Optimal Brew 10-Cup Thermal Coffeemaker. When choosing a great machine, I always research and compare with all my friends. When comparing machines, 5 brands stood out with many of the best features you would expect from a coffeemaker, including most importantly, a great cup of coffee. The top 5 best thermal coffeemakers that we found were Mr. Coffee, Bunn, Cuisinart, Capresso and Zojirushi. Zojirushi was eliminated due to terrible company support. For the machines themselves, Capresso seemed to have designs that were not as easy or convenient to use. This leaves the top 3- Mr. Coffee, Bunn and Cuisinart. All three are great designs, all 3 make a great cup of coffee and all 3 have great company support. All 3 also have what every Thermal Coffeemaker has- Leak and Weak. The thermal carafe's develop leaks around the seals and the coffee is more weak than most people would like. These are two issues that are easily remedied by a couple simple steps. First, to eliminate the leak around the carafe seal- hand wash the carafe only with Dawn dishwashing liquid. The seal gets worn from the acidic oils in the coffee- Dawn removes the acidic oils keeping the seal perfect with no more leaks. This really does work to stop those carafe seal leaks! The other big complaint is weak coffee, and it is a complaint with ALL the thermal coffeemakers we tried! We only use a medium grind coffee for drip automatic coffeemakers- exactly what they tell you to use. The directions tell you to use more coffee if it is too weak. This does help, but there are two other solutions that actually do work better. Using a permanent gold re-useable basket filter instead of a paper filter leaves more sediment go through to your cup, with a stronger flavor. But, the best solution was using a much darker roast coffee which really added strength to the flavor! These solutions actually do work for those that like a strong cup of coffee! I prefer a thermal coffeemaker over all the others for several reasons. It's FAST (10 cups in about 8 minutes), it's an ENERGY SAVER (No hot plate using electricity, as the carafe keeps the coffee hot and drinkable for over 3 hours- even longer when you pre-heat the carafe with hot water), No more burnt, bitter taste (only smooth and delicious)and the coffee never loses it's flavor in the carafe that can sit anywhere you are (great portability). Getting down to the last 3 thermal coffemakers that we found to be really great, was easy for me to choose the best one. As far as looks go, this Mr. Coffee won hands down. Beautiful, sleek, black and sturdy stainless steel- it really is gorgeous! It has a programmable clock/timer for wake up coffee! (I love this feature!)It has a brew pause function, meaning I can grab a cup while it's still brewing. It has an audible ready signal. The cord storage is convenient and nice, as is the water filtration which removes 97 percent of the chlorine for a really smooth taste! It has a special cleaning cycle, auto shut off and a sleep mode. My favorite features are the separate water reservoir and the side loading filter basket! These new designs make all the difference in the ease of use! I will never use a coffeemaker without a separate water reservoir ever again, it is so wonderful! The stainless steel insulated thermal carafe has a stay cool handle and drip free spout. This Mr. Coffee thermal coffeemaker won hands down as THE BEST one for me! The one year warranty and great company support influenced me as well. As for the coffee- they are all pretty close in taste and all being weaker than some people would like, but with the few adjustments I mentioned, Mr. Coffee was definitely my favorite cup, using a little darker roast for a delicious strong cup!