Cuisinart 4 Cup w/Stainless-Steel Carafe Coffeemaker, Black

This is hands-down the BEST 4-cup coffee-maker I've ever owned - and believe me, I've gone through more than my fair share of them! I can only surmise that most people who've rated it less than 5 stars are not that experienced with such smaller brewers.The base unit's lid is exceptionally well designed, such that it discourages the consumer from opening it up during the brewing cycle and thus scalding yourself from the hot steam. The carafe's lid is equally well designed... better than any other 4-cup model I've ever owned. Some people have complained that when pouring from it the coffee "dribbles all over the place" but that is because ALL 4-cup coffee-makers' carafe lids are designed to require a slow pour... but this one is better designed than others, actually allowing a slightly FASTER pour without the dribbling.Although some people have claimed that the stainless steel carafe imparts a "metallic" taste to the coffee, this is simply not true. The *perception* of such a taste is honestly purely "psychological." Nevertheless, everyone's certainly entitled to their own personal preferences so if you really BELIEVE that a stainless steel carafe somehow inexplicably imparts a "metallic" taste to coffee by all means do not purchase this model. But I can assure you it just isn't true, and this stainless steel carafe will never break so you will no longer find yourself having to replace it due to breakage (like everyone who had bought the cheaper "Kitchen Gourmet" brand from Walgreens - before they had to pull them from the market - has had to).What IS true is that this brewer makes a VERY good cup of coffee. It uses cone-shaped filters, which consistently brew coffee more thoroughly than do flat-bottomed basket filters. And whereas most coffee-makers - even smaller ones such as this one - often tend to deposit their hot water over the grounds in a manner that is uneven and does not thoroughly extract all of the coffee's flavor without having to open up the brewer's lid and redistribute the grounds during mid-cycle, THIS coffee-maker gets it "right" - even when brewing only 2 cups (that's 2 "European"-size cups by the way, not the larger "American" cup size) - so there is NO NEED to redistribute the grounds mid-cycle.While some buyers have stated that they thought this coffee-maker produces coffee that is not hot enough, upon deeper investigation I've determined that this may *seem* so to them because its 30-minute warming plate auto shutoff feature ACTUALLY WORKS! The fact of the matter is that ALL such coffee-makers supposedly have a 30-minute auto shutoff of their warming plate, but in the cheaper brands/models this feature more often than not DOES NOT WORK - resulting in over-heated coffee evaporating, drying and getting caked onto the inside bottom of the carafe, and potentially causing a fire hazard. The 30-minute auto shutoff on THIS model, however, ACTUALLY WORKS! So people who are not used to this feature actually WORKING will find that 45 mins. to an hour after the brewing is complete the coffee in the carafe is indeed cooler than proper serving temperature. In fact, if you try actually touching the stainless steel carafe within 30 mins. of completion of the brewing cycle you will find that it is VERY hot... the design of the plastic handle will PREVENT you from accidentally burning your knuckles when you go to pick it up and pour the coffee - again, an excellent and well-thought out design.The instructions that come with this model instruct the user to always use high quality, freshly ground coffee, and encourage you to grind your own in SMALL BATCHES. HEED THIS ADVICE. This coffee-maker does SUCH a good job of extracting the grounds' flavor that it will AMPLIFY any "off" taste of poor beans or stale ground coffee... as any really GOOD coffee-maker will. It comes with the proper-sized ("European," like Gevalia's) coffee measure... USE it; if you use an "American" sized one you will probably wind up with coffee that is too strong.If you are a true coffee connoisseur, love coffee that is brewed to *true* perfection, and looking for a 4-cup model that for all practical purposes will last virtually forever with minimal care, THIS IS THE ONE TO BUY. Any price under $25-$30 is a good buy; I bought mine from 6th Avenue Electronics via Amazon for $23 with free shipping - an *exceptionally* good price - but 6th Ave is now completely sold out of the model and I suspect that it may be harder and harder to find it as time goes on so if you can get one BUY IT NOW before it's too late; you will NOT regret it. I rate it 5 STARS.P.S. Like most "4-cup" coffeemakers these days, it ACTUALLY has a 5-cup capacity: If you fill its water tank up to the very bottom edge of its "emergency" water overflow hole in the upper back of the unit - and of course put an additional coffee-measure's worth of coffee in the filter basket - you'll get that fifth cup (which the carafe can accommodate without overflowing once the brew cycle has completed).

My favorite 4 cup coffee maker, very resilient and lasts for years. Sorry they discontinued it. Yes, it could keep coffee warmer longer, but makes great tasting coffee, and very easy to use

After going through three small coffee pots in a row when the too-thin glass carafes broke on each of them, I decided that it would be prudent to spend a bit more and get something that will last.I only need a 4-cup pot because I'm the only one in the house that drinks coffee, and I only drink maybe 2 cups per day, so I only wanted a small coffeemaker. By the way, the 4 cup coffeemakers are equivalent to 2 big cups if you use a larger-sized mug.I discovered the Cuisinart and I'm glad I did. It is well made and, of course, I like the stainless steel carafe! No more worries about breaking it.A couple of things I will mention is that the lid is a bit strange; it doesn't have a hinged thumb tab like you'd think to lift it up, you have to grab it with your fingernails at a spot just above the carafe handle to pry the lid up. But it's really not necessary to remove the lid until it's time to clean the pot.Also, the metal mesh filter fits rather loosely in the top of the coffee maker -- at first I thought something was wrong, but the filter just sort of sits in the holder without snapping in. It works fine though. You save on paper filters, but it does take significantly more water to clean out the grinds from the very fine metal mesh, something I hadn't considered.Open the lid and inside the coffemaker the water reservoir has 4 very prominent raised marks, like steps, marked at 1 to 4 cups, so you always know exactly how much water you're pouring in, which is a nice feature.The rocker button on the side is spring loaded, so you have to hold the coffeemaker with two hands to turn the switch on and off, which is a bit weird. And the cord is very short, only about 2 feet; I wish it were about 1 ft. longer.It makes a good cup of coffee, probably a little better tasting than most of the other pots I've tried, so I'm happy. I bought the mesh filter accessory also when I ordered the pot, and it works well and I think it helps give a better tasting cup.It brews up the coffee very quickly. Overall, I really like it, I should have bought one a long time ago. I spent more on the 3 cheaper glass carafe coffeemakers than I did on the Cuisinart. So my bottom line is that the Cuisinart is well made, makes a good cup of coffee very easily and efficiently, it looks good, it's nice and small and fits under my cabinets and it should last a long time. Can't ask for much more than that!ADDENDUM: By the way, I have no trouble with drips or leaks. As long as the top is pressed on so that it snaps on the top of the pot like it's supposed to, it fits very tight, doesn't leak and directs the water perfectly right out of the spout like it's supposed to, and unlike the cheap glass pots which usually have a too-wide spout that directs the water all over the place.