Zojirushi EC-DAC50 Zutto 5-Cup Drip Coffeemaker Silver

This was rated very highly I believe by America's Test Kitchen. I thought since I only make coffee for me, and 10-12 cup coffee maker is kind of ridiculous. I love the simplicity of design on this. No coffee actually goes through the machine. Just filtered water. It is nice to be able to remove the water container from the maker and put it under the water spout of my refrigerator (no more spills). Just put a filter in the top of the pot, add coffee, and turn on. So simple, no port and starboard attachments, no clocks, timers, alexa, lasers or any other doohickies. Just water, filter, coffee, and flip the switch. Am. Test Kitchen stated that the heated water temp that drips on the coffee grinds was near perfect for brewed coffee. I would agree that the coffee it makes is quite good (never tested the temp but the results have never given me a reason to). The coffee is never burnt of odd tasting. Just a consistent quality cup every time. Cleaning is super easy too. This Japanese company knows what it is doing. I have a stainless vacuum sealed 20oz coffee mug from them that is AMAZING. The absolute best on the market. I strongly suggest you try it out. They are so much lighter than anything else and still keep my coffee HOT (not just warm) from 7:30am to at least 2:30pm. That kind of clever engineering and design is what made me eager to try this coffee pot. I am glad I did. I use it daily and love it. Read more

Perfect size coffee pot. Great for two people. Never had any issues with this brand. We’ve used it for over 15 years now. It’s a great choice if you’re looking for something that’s functional, dependable, nicely designed, easy to use and easy to clean. Definitely our choice for a nice drip coffee machine. Read more

There's a principle in design called the "uncanny valley", where any model of a human being - be it a doll, a robot, a computer graphic, what have you - is perceived as cuter the closer it gets to approximating an actual person. However, there's a distinct dip in this effect (the "valley" of the name) when said model gets to be *almost* perfect - suddenly it stops being cute and becomes creepy. The theory goes that we stop focusing on the similarities to a human, and start focusing on what it gets wrong. Much to my dismay, the Zutto falls right smack in the middle of the coffeemaker uncanny valley. It gets so many things right: --The size. The part of my house with the kitchen is nearly a century old, and that's reflected in the miniscule amount of counter space. The Zutto takes up less than half the footprint of the Sunbeam I previously owned, and is much cuter besides. --The design. The removable reservoir is fantastic and the in-carafe filter basket is much easier to clean than a unibody shape. Plus, no coffee dripping onto the burner. --The color. It's not black or white. (Gasp! Shock!) And the soft grey is quite classy and modern-looking. --The build quality. It's very Japanese in that, while compact, everything fits together well and (with the exception noted below) feels like it will last. --And most importantly, the coffee! Delicious, and hot enough to burn your mouth properly without burning the grounds. Unfortunately, there are a couple of design flaws that keep it from getting a perfect score. If this were a $30 coffeemaker they would hardly be worth mentioning, especially in light of the rest of the good points. But as it runs $60+ here on Amazon, I was somewhat disappointed by: --The lid to the carafe, which also holds the grounds in the filter basket. I have yet to figure out exactly how to put it on so that it's seated properly and therefore stays on when you're pouring coffee. This is hardly a dealbreaker (a little futzing usually gets it on right, and even if it doesn't, it's not hard to hold your finger against it while pouring to make certain it stays on), but it's surprising on such an otherwise well-designed machine - would it really have been that difficult to make it a snap-on or screw-in design? --The carafe itself. Having read people's warnings about broken carafes, I examined it closely, and was dismayed to find that the handle appeared to be held on solely by the metal band near the top. I'm not an engineer, but even I know that a single stress point is likely to fail when stressed day after day. Fortunately, this was fixable - a little bit of superglue near the bottom of the handle seems to have done the trick. But if you weren't looking for it, this design flaw could definitely be a liability after a few months of daily use. Really, it's frustrating - I like so many things about this coffeemaker, and I really wanted to give it an unqualified recommendation. But the puzzling design issues, combined with the price, make my endorsement cautious at best. Read more

First day, first pot of coffee. I like it very much with good brew strength, perfect temperature, very easy to operate, and simple to clean as well. I'm using the #2 coffee filters with it. I filled it to "5 cups" water level, with 5 measuring spoons of coffee and get about 3 cups of NY size coffee mugs worth of coffee. Just what I expected, badda-bing, badda boom! There is a nice measuring spoon as well. I am very happy with this purchase. Nice small size, won't take up a lot of space. Read more