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I have a Hamilton Beach Two Way coffee maker. It has a drip pot for up to 12 cups of coffee. It also has a single cup brewer. You simply fill the single brew basket (you don't need a coffee pod). It makes a great single cup anytime you want it.
Our son turned us on to the French press. Simple and easy to use. We are in general attempting to use less gadgetry, that breaks. Exception - I have my mother's Kitchenaid stand up mixer which she was given in 1959. Never had a problem with it.
I do wish that I had per large percolator, which she used mostly for guests, and her everyday drip coffee maker, which they turned in for a Mr.Coffee at some point.
I'm a big believer in keeping it real simple, and the Keurig always sounded like an expensive, complex, environmentally challenged way to brew coffee. The drip coffee makers I've had don't heat the water enough to give a good strong brew. So a couple years ago I invested in a percolator (less than $50) and it's been just great.
I have a percolator, too. A GE stainless steel. It's about 8 yrs old and cost less than $40 at the time. It makes great coffee.
If and when it breaks, I've already bought a backup stainless percolator I got on sale, just in case I can't find one later. The backup one is a different brand, but I forget what it is. GE stopped making the perc I have.
I may not have to buy another coffee maker for the rest of my life! And I can buy any brand and flavor of coffee I want from anywhere...on sale, with coupons, whatever.
We've been using a drip coffee maker for almost 30 years now. The most recent one (Mr Coffee brand) is about 10 years old now and has brewed about 6065 pots of coffee and is still working just fine! Yes, I actually did run a calculation to get that "6065" number. My wife and I always share an entire pot first thing in the morning, and for about 7 of the last 10 years our daughter lived with us and brewed her own pot after ours was done. Two weeks of vacation each year away from home were subtracted. We do run vinegar through it ever month or so....but even so, it's a remarkable product to last that long.
The Keurig is a novel idea and of course can work in special cases. If you only drink once single cup each day, or rarely drink coffee at all, perhaps it's a good way to go. For us, we'd go broke brewing all the cups we drink each morning. They call a cup 5 or 6 ounces.....we call a cup 16 ounces....lol.
We do occasionally use our French Press to make a cup of coffee for ourselves. It's a wonderful change of pace every now and then.
Our son turned us on to the French press. Simple and easy to use. We are in general attempting to use less gadgetry, that breaks. Exception - I have my mother's Kitchenaid stand up mixer which she was given in 1959. Never had a problem with it.
I do wish that I had per large percolator, which she used mostly for guests, and her everyday drip coffee maker, which they turned in for a Mr.Coffee at some point.
The Keurig and such machines are basically electronic french presses, I believe.
Have you considered a water softener for your well water? We added one primarily to protect the hot water heater.
No, the water heater is oil-fired so I'm not too worried about it, and this water is excellent for brewing beer...which, of course, is the most important thing. If the water heater was electric I might be more concerned.
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I'm a big believer in keeping it real simple, and the Keurig always sounded like an expensive, complex, environmentally challenged way to brew coffee. The drip coffee makers I've had don't heat the water enough to give a good strong brew.
If you don't drink a *lot* of coffee the Keurig is great...or if you don't care about the cost. You can change the water temp in some of the Keurigs, I cranked mine up to 195*F.
I drink 2 cups of coffee on weekend mornings and I like to vary the flavors - cinnamon one cup, hazelnut the next. Maybe when I retire later this spring I'll drink more coffee and then need to rethink my Keurig.
Neither, we use a home espresso maker for our daily coffee.
We have a Keurig and a drip Mr. Coffee, though. Usually, for guests!
I think the Keurig is a fairly inefficient luxury, never would have bought one for ourselves, it was a gift!
I switched even further back down the line than that to stove top perk. The final motivation was "easy"....the bugs loved to make counter top appliance their home. There were, however, other reasons as well in that every so often, I had to go get another counter top while adding another appliance to the land fill.
The stove top perk came out of the return to camping and then passed on to a desire for a simpler way to say nothing of it serving as a kettle to boil water as well. Been doing a lot of the latter this past week as I have been having tea instead of coffee for allergies.
There is that point about guests, though. A friend has to make a long drive, she asks for a cup of coffee (as I have done), what kind of coffee to I serve up? I'm okay with perk coffee but it is rather harsh and I don't think I would serve that to guests. The answer seems to be instant and that's easy enough for me, both between being able to rapidly produce hot water and having a lot of it around (camping supplies where I carry both ground and instant).
I'll have to send out that note to family and friends....don't ever get me a Keurig for I don't use them.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 02-08-2016 at 04:44 PM..
We have just about every type of coffeemaker there is, so if we get bored or unhappy with one, there's always another. That said, I like the one-cups. Fast, convenient, and (in the winter, especially!) HOT.
We have a Suncana which uses pods. We have the pods, Melitta brand, on automatic delivery from Amazon.
It makes a good cup of coffee and I like using the pods which are more environmentally friendly than the keurig cups.
We also have a couple of drip coffee makers in different sizes for when we want to make more than one cup.
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If the water heater was electric I might be more concerned.
