written by on 15/06/2010
I have owned one of these for coming up to 8 years now. I have experienced most of the problems described in the other reviews on and off. The rivet holding the 2-cup separator has just very recently broken off and since at some point in the past we chipped the lip that holds the filter down when you tap the filter holder to get the coffee out, I now think it's worth replacing the filter holder (it'll be the first replacement and the machine has never needed a repair). In my opinion, this machine does what can be expected from a coffee maker in this price bracket. As stated in other reviews, the pressure is not as high as it will be in more professional machines, but they'll come with a price-tag to go with it. It is really worthwhile trying different beans and blends to figure out which coffee works best in this machine based on your individual taste. We definitely noticed an improvement in the coffee taste (regardless of which beans we chose) when we bought a Dualit burr grinder to grind our beans. Apart from that, we don't consider ourselves coffee aficionados. I generally like the Dualit product styling, so have more Dualit appliances. That certainly played a part in our decision to buy this machine in the first place. This machine is compact and square so can easily be tucked in a corner on a kitchen work surface. On the whole, I'm still happy with it, am not looking to replace it and would recommend it to others.