It's okay, but...

Author's Rating:

Pros: Quick Easy Saves Space

Cons: Coffee not piping hot Difficult to clean Weak coffee

The Bottom Line: 
It does the job in a pinch. It tastes better than instant coffee in the morning, but coffee is not piping hot, or as full flavoured as it could be.

Author's Review
I've gone through two Black & Decker cup-at-a-time coffee makers so far. Both were put to rigorous use since I make make myself a cup of coffee every morning before work. If you use the recommended amount of ground coffee in the unit, the coffee you get is weak flavoured. I find it takes about two heaping spoons to get really strong, Starbucks/Tim Hortons flavour coffee. Unfortunately, if you put more than a spoonful of coffee grounds in this thing, the basket, filter and trickler will get very dirty very fast, since grounds will float up and into the water trickler, permanently contaminating it. If the basket were a little deeper you could add more coffee to get stronger coffee without making a mess.

This brings me to mention why I've gone through two of these cup-at-a-time things. They broke while trying to clean them. You see, eventually the water chamber and the coffee trickler will get completely disgusting if you make your coffee strong like I do. Coffee grounds will magically migrate from the basket into the water chamber inside the unit, which becomes unsanitary after a while. The only way to really clean it is to turn the unit upside down and rinse the trickler with running water. You can get away with this a few times, but in the long run the unit will quit working. Drying it out will not resurrect it either.

My first cup-at-a-time coffee maker was given to me as a christmas gift, my second one was purchased on sale at Canadian Tire for $10, so I'm not put out that much for it.

Coffee made from this machine seems to be more on the warm side than hot. I tried everything from making the coffee with warm/hot water, using less ground coffee, and it always came out about as warm as the water I get from my faucet. I don't like warm coffee since you must drink it fast, or it will be cold before you reach the bottom of your cup.

I've replaced my cup-at-a-time maker with a small french press, which takes a little bit longer to make coffee in the morning, but uses less grounds, tastes stronger and is hotter than what this unit makes. It's also easier to clean.