Designer buttons, but maybe designed for ET's finger?

Author's Rating:

Pros: The TFX23 makes a lot of good coffee.

Cons: Minor shortcomings and wretched ON/OFF control will make you hate the TFX23.

The Bottom Line: 
Sad to say, my TFX23 experience may mean I never buy another Mr. Coffee machine.

Author's Review
I bought my Mr. Coffee TFX23 when I moved into my new home about 14 months ago, and have used it every morning (apart from my prolonged overseas absences) since then. I have to use it every morning, because I can't get my heart started without 3 big mugs of heavy duty French Roast, and it's the only coffee maker in the house. But that doesn't mean that I have to love it. In fact, it has finally given me a good excuse to retire it, and that prospect makes me happy: even though I hate the thought of spending money on a new machine.

The main reason why, 14 months ago, I added the TFX23 to the towering pile of kitchen items in my Target shopping cart was the price. I wanted a large capacity coffee maker, because I have a big heart for that morning start, and the TFX23 seemed to have all the features I could possibly need at an astonishingly low price. Moreover, I'd previously owned two less sophisticated Mr. Coffee machines, and both had worked well; so I trusted the brand.

The good points

The TFX23 makes a perfectly good brew, provided that one uses good water and good coffee. In that respect, the TFX23 is like a computer: garbage in, garbage out.

It may be a little slow in brewing, but enough for the first mug is always ready by the time I've let the dog out and retrieved him from his early saunter.

The clock is easy to set, and the programmable brew-by-the-clock feature is easy to set up; although I don't often use it, preferring to have that first mug truly fresh.

I like the two hour automatic turn off feature on the warming pad, because without it I would surely end up with caramelized coffee to clean out of the jug. Yes, I am absent minded.

So, the TFX23 handles the basics as well as can be expected of an inexpensive machine.

Some minor gripes

The naturally very "hard" water at my house goes through a water softener to "soften" it so that soap lathers and shampoo shampoos. But my "soft" water is so full of salts that it makes a vile cup of coffee. So I have either to filter out the salts before filling up the tank of my TFX23; or, buy bottled water; but I won't spend money to buy water while there's still beer at the liquor store. So, I filter the tapwater.

The TFX23 came with a little charcoal filter disk that is supposed to sit atop the filter basket and intercept the hot water dripping down into the coffee grounds. I tried this for a few days before chucking it away in disgust and going out to buy a Brita filter jug that works just fine. The problem with the filter disk was that it was really awkward to set in position just right; and that it ended each brew caked with splashed back coffee grounds, making for a very messy clean-up. Moreover, my coffee still tasted pretty lousy when I was using it, so I suspect that it wasn't even performing its purported function.

Even without the useless charcoal filter disk, clean-up is still a bit of a problem with the TFX23. The filter basket sits in a well above the coffee jug. It is kept away from the sides of the well by internal perpendicular vanes. These form perfect traps for moisture and coffee grounds, traps that are difficult to clean out with a sponge; in fact, they require work with a paper towel. Of course, if you get lazy and leave them there, you end up with traces of staler and staler old coffee to liven up each fresh brew.

The pause and pour valve does work ... more or less. Any hesitation or tremble in removing the jug while the brew is still happening results in a few drops of coffee sizzling on the warming pad before the valve shuts off the flow. Only a swift and determined jug withdrawal prevents this. The trouble is, my morning moments tend to be anything but swift and determined.

Anyone know where I can get ET's finger?

Whoever styled the TFX23 wanted it to look really modern and trendy. Personally, all I wanted out of it was a decent cup of coffee, so its trendy modernity leaves me cold. But I'm not taking issue with its appearance. I do, however, have a big issue with how styling got in the way of functionality.

The TFX23 is controlled via a row of blue buttons on its base. A big one on the left activates the automated timer function. Three small ones in the middle control the clock. All of those buttons do their job.

But to the right of those sensibly functional buttons is a curious, very trendy looking circular protrusion. It is not, however, a single button. It is split into two buttons of half-moon shape (that being a styling feature I suppose). The half-moon to the left is the "ON" button; that to the right is the "OFF" button. In itself, separation of this most basic of functions into two separate controls (rather than a single ON / OFF button) offends my preference for simplicity in design.

But the really nasty problem with the half-moon buttons is that they could not have been designed with blunt male fingers in mind. Possibly, female fingers with elegantly sculpted nails might work on them ... though I suspect they'd slip off the tiny convex surfaces. ET's finger would surely work, but then ET's finger could do a lot of things that human fingers can't.

Every morning, I struggle to depress the minute "ON" half-moon without pushing the entire TFX23 through the backboard of the kitchen counter. And many mornings, later on, I struggle again with the even tinier "OFF" half-moon, if I want to save some coffee for later re-heating instead of allowing the automated two-hour heat pad to continue to keep it hot.

But my troubles are now at an end, because the spring behind the hated "OFF" half-moon has collapsed: either because it was too feeble for its job; or, as I like to think, it simply died of shame. I can still turn my TFX23 "ON", so it can continue to brew until I find something with decent buttons. But its days are numbered.

And that thought makes me happy.