BLACK+DECKER 12-Cup Thermal Coffee Maker, Keep Coffee Hot with Insulated Stainless Steel Carafe, Digital Controls, Easy to Clean.

I am an avid researcher when making a purchase, especially when it's as critical as our daily coffee supply- lol! So when our third rather expensive Keurig died very early I decided we'd spend no more money on that brand. I was looking for the versatility of brewing a whole pot or a smaller portion AND the idea of a thermal carafe instead of a hot plate was very appealing. I looked at many, many brands and models ranging in price from $ to $$$. I read reviews, I watched videos, I looked up anything and everything I could. This little machine continued to offer features that I really liked without bells and whistles I would rarely use. We are a plain yet picky coffee drinking household and we nurse a pot all day long (one of us is day shift and the other night shift so it's always "morning wake up time" around here). As one who nputs milk in their coffee, I'll admit to being doubtful that I'd find a coffeemaker with a thermal carafe that would maintain a drinkable temperature (once milk was added to the cup) for very long and I hate microwaving my coffee. So I read reviews saying this carafe "kept coffee hot for hours" with a strong dose of skepticism. WOW! Has this exceeded expectations! Four hours after brewing the very last cup of the pot was still quite hot enough to steam and be very nicely drinkable after I added the milk. So, here is my run down of the lovely features this model offers:1. Capacity - It holds a full 12 cups which gets us through a day here. Everyone should remember that a "cup" when measuring coffee is actually 5oz. and not 8oz. So 60 oz. of water goes in and 60 oz. of coffee comes out (yes, the engineer in the house measured) which is more than our much more $$ Keurig could ever say.2. Ease of Use - The brew, size and programming options are quite straightforward to operate, not only in compexity but in button size and readablity, which is helpful when my elderly father wants to help prepare the next mornings coffee.3. Build Quality and Design - The machine fits easily under my kitchen cabinets, and takes up much less counter space than my Keurig. The markings on the water reservoir are easy to see. TIP: Do use a pitcher other than the carafe to fill the reservoir, not because the carafe doesn't pour well (IT POURS GREAT!), but because it is just easier if you are working under cabinets to pour from something smaller.4. The carafe - This could go under design, but it's honestly such a great feature it deserves its own note. It is clearly a quality thermal container and very easy to pour from and it's wide mouth when you take the lid off makes it extremely easy to clean (no need for that narrow brush when washing, you can get your entire hand in there, even my husband's larger hands find it easy to clean). And here is the tip that I've been most grateful for from other reviews: After brewing is complete, REMOVE the carafe from the coffeemaker tray. When it is on the tray the "brew through" feature of the lid is automatically open slightly (to allow for brewing) and I'm sure this could speed heat loss. We simply take the pot and move it over to the counter and hours later it's still plenty hot, yet the cool-touch handle and sides of the carafe are not too warm to handle easily. We have not needed to put a hotpad underneath the carafe when on the counter. Also, the spout pours nice and neatly, unlike other coffeemakers we've had where you were cleaning up drips each time you poured a cup.All this to say, if you want a quality, easy to use and easy to maintain machine AND actual value for your money, purchase this machine! I'm so glad I did!!!

What's life without coffee? My old pot died and they don't sell it anymore. I survived the coffee apocalypse with my French Press and espresso machine (go ahead and judge) while searching for a viable replacement for my morning support device.It turns out, that in spite of the cheaper price, I like this machine more than the one I had previously. The carafe works as well to keep the coffee hot, but the opening is much larger so I can get my hands inside to clean and dry.I usually use paper filters, but the provided reusable filter really works well without letting through the dust particles other filters have.It has the 'Strong' brew setting, which I use and appreciate.The water delivery arm seems to work so much better than the machines that just spray water out of the top cover.The water container is large and easy to fill.I like that the water route is sealed from beginning to end (cover closes tightly, the pot is sealed so no exposure to air allowing it to cool).The one thing that I find a little odd, but it's no deal breaker, is figuring out when it's finished brewing. Since the pot isn't on a heating element, I expected that the brew light would turn off when it's finished, but it doesn't. It does stop its slow 'flashing', but you'd have to stare at it for a couple of seconds to realize that. Instead, the better indicator is that the clock display changes from showing the time of day, to beginning a countdown from 120 minutes, so if it reads 117, you know it finished brewing 3 minutes ago. I think it's a completely unnecessary feature, but it certainly doesn't distract from the overall design.

The media could not be loaded. This review is comparing the Black and Decker to a Cuisinart 12 Cup coffee maker (Maybe the DCC 1200 - looks mostly like it but a different finish/material).I got this Black and Decker unit over cheaper options for two reasons and BOTH turned out a bit worse than I thought. At least there are some other redeeming qualities. I’ll go over it all.Reason 1 I got this: “Washable brew basket” I thought that meant, like the Cuisinart, I never had to buy paper filters. I thought this was a reusable, washable filter. NO. WRONG. It’s just another cheap plastic bucket to put paper filters in. Exactly like what you get in the $20 coffee makers. Yes, it’s a removable and washable basket but the Cuisinart had that too AND a removable reusable filter. Now I’m back to lifting out soggy lumpy paper and carefully moving to a trash can unless I fork out an additional $10 for a third-party reusable filter. $10 isn’t terrible in and of itself, but it’s unconscionable to not include it with a $60 coffee maker. UCH.Reason 2 I got this: Stainless steel carafe. The Cuisinart is being replaced because the glass Charif finally broke. It lasted years and years, maybe even a decade. It has been bumped against the sink during cleaning several times, and the coffee maker was used almost every day. It was sturdy glass! It just finally couldn’t take another hit after a six year old messed with it. So I thought stainless steel would be the way to go. Far more durable, looks pretty cool, and is insulated! Well… It is more durable, and does look pretty cool, and is insulated. But I immediately realize how much I loved the seeing the remaining coffee in the Cuisinart - it even had cup level markings on the side. This not only allowed me to know exactly how much coffee was left but also allowed me to know how much water I was filling it with when I was making coffee. I cannot do either with a stainless steel carafe.Those were the two reasons I wanted to get this. But how is the rest of the coffee maker? There are positives and negatives for this as well.It looks really cheap. Extremely cheap. It all looks and feels like cheap plastic (except for the carafe). The bottom plate to hold the carafe looks especially thin and flimsy, with micro feet underneath to support what looks like something that’d otherwise bend and snap in half under the weight of a full carafe. Nothing about this unit outside the carafe looks premium. It certainly doesn’t look like this thing cost over $60. I don’t feel comfortable putting the carafe back when I pour myself a cup of coffee because every time it looks so thin and flimsy I have to be careful.The top of the unit gets very, very hot when brewing. On my old coffee maker, I could touch the top and it was not a problem. On the flipside, the Black and Decker has its first main benefit for me. The insulated stainless steel carafe means none of that gets hot to the touch, unlike the glass on the previous unit. And because the coffee pot relies on insulation to keep the coffee hot, there is no powered heated electric bottom to accidentally burn your hand and drain electricity after the coffee has finished brewing.I like that the clock and overall display screen is a bit bigger. It isn’t brighter though and the actual display numbers and text are still just as dark. But at least it being a larger size makes it a bit easier to see.The new unit has much larger buttons. I could go either way on that. Button size does not affect me. But I will say these larger buttons tend to feel cheap. You can press the button anywhere on its surface and it will work. But clearly the surface you touch is larger than the surface of the control board the button is interacting with inside. Indeed, there are areas of the button you can press that feel more “floppy“ or “mushy“, unless your finger presses directly over the part of the button that makes direct contact with its connection to the control board. My previous model had very tiny buttons, but that meant they could only ever feel one way, and it was very tactile, it had a “click“ feeling to it. And it wasn’t only buttons, it had switches which felt nice. This Black and Decker has no switches, and no button on it feels very “tactile.”I like the “Evenstream” showerhead. It’s true that even my older coffee maker had one single spout at the center top and after every brew, there was a very specific hole through the wet pile of coffee grounds, and I always did wonder if I was getting enough flavor from all the grounds around the sides. HOWEVER, lifting the lid during a brew, it would appear to me that the hot water would dispense enough into the basket that all the coffee grounds were fully submerged in hot water. So it appeared like, at least for a portion of the brew, flavor was being extracted from all the grounds. Still, there’s no denying that at the end of the brew, and, there was a very specific dent dead center of the coffee grounds. And to be clear, not only does this Black and Decker dispense water from multiple spots up top, it also feels the basket of coffee up like a tub, all the coffee grounds get fully submerged in the hot water.I can’t tell at the moment which keeps coffee hotter, longer. Obviously the Cuisineart isn’t insulated. But it rests on that hot plate for a while. The Black and Decker I THINK turns off a bit sooner, BUT it claims to keep the coffee hot in the pot for 2hrs. I haven’t timed it, and haven’t measured the temperature to know if there’s a difference.Edit: After posting this review I noticed one other thing. Like all coffee makers, there is an automatic lock/seal mechanism to prevent coffee from dripping out onto the platter when you remove the coffee pot. And the coffee pot itself has its own little lock/seal that when pressed down opens it up to receive the coffee. When you pull the coffee pot out, that top seal is… MOSTLY sealed shut. video shows, if you tip the coffee pot far enough, coffee will drip out that top mechanism. But this is all to say, after leaving the coffee pot back in the coffee maker for about five hours after my brew, was warm, but not hot. I know it says in the documentation I can keep coffee hot for about two hours… But next time I am going to remove the pot completely from the coffee maker when it’s done in hopes that the top mechanism, in its locked/sealed position, will keep the coffee hotter, longer.Bottom line: It doesn’t look and feel like a $60+ coffee maker, but the stainless steel carafe/pot helps. No reusable coffee filter - 3rd party can be bought fire about $10. You can’t see how much coffee is left or how much water you’re filling in the carafe/pot to use for a new brew until you pour into the coffee maker. It’s got a bigger but still dark display and bigger but a bit more flimsy feeling buttons compared to my Cuisineart. Still, a pot not hot to the touch and no hot bottom plate which also drains electricity is a respectable reason to chose this.