Mr. Coffee Gives Us Mr. Headache

Author's Rating:

Pros: As per Mr. Coffee's reputation, makes a great cup-o-Joe!

Cons: Caraffe is messy, pot "leaks" water out the back; takes TOO LONG TO BREW!!

The Bottom Line: 
Stay away from this Mr. Coffee model! For the money you'd spend, you're better off to go up 10 bucks & get a better model, with less muss and fuss.

Author's Review
Who says you can't get two for the price of one? We did, when I decided to purchase this model of the Mr. Coffee Coffeemaker. Let me start from the beginning:
Our previous coffeemaker died about 3 months ago. I hopped on the internet and looked around for what appeared to be the "best price" out there. As luck would have it, our local discount department store had a sale on coffeemakers, and the Mr. Coffee maker was part of the sale. "Great!" I thought, "I'll run over and grab it up!" So, I did. Brought it home, cleaned it up as suggested in the manufacturer's guide, then got ready to set it up for the next morning's coffee.
I filled the carafe with cold water, then went to pour it in. Um...well, the "pouring" didn't go as planned- I had to either tilt it quickly, or pour very, very slowly to avoid water rushing out and over, and all over the counter. Okay, no biggie, right? Wrong! Once I filled the pot with all 12 cups of water, these two little holes in the back of the maker- what I assume to be a "safety feature" so as not to "overfill" the water reserve- proved to be quite a pain in the kiester. If I put one-half ounce over the 12-cup limit, it spills out of the back and onto the counter. If the maker is bumped while waiting to make coffee, water spills onto the counter. If I breathe the wrong way, water spills onto the counter. You get the idea.
Over the past few months, I’ve learned to deal with the "holes" in the maker, and the inability to pour not-too-slow or not-too-fast, but what I can no longer tolerate is the 45-minute wait for coffee. It seems like the "older" the maker gets, the slower it gets. I currently have the maker set for 4:29, and I leave for work at 5:10. The coffee is STILL not ready when I need to go and it's become absolutely frustrating. I've used several rounds of Mr. Coffee's Coffee Maker Cleaner and the condition doesn't seem to be improving.
On a positive note, the coffee maker does make good coffee (if you don't mind waiting all morning!) I've not had one problem with a "bad tasting" batch of java and that's the quality I expected from this brand. However, having a good cup of coffee versus all the inconvenience of this model just isn't worth it. Perhaps Mr. Coffee should broker a deal with Tylenol and start including coupons in their coffeemaker boxes- "free aspirin for the headache you're about to endure with our product! "