FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Presto, Scandinavian-designed coffeemaker

On 2004-12-29 said:
Newsgroups: alt.coffee,rec.food.drink.coffee
The next stop was the Wal-Mart website where it showed up at $39.99
----SNIP----

something like that. It was also claimed to be an "online
exclusive", which seemed about right, because I was
not able to find it in any Wal-Mart stores, and none o the sales
people had
the foggiest idea what it was, having never heard of it.
FWIW, they have a bunch at my local WalMart in Vegas. Saw them
there last night. Selling for $39.99.
One thing I noticed is that it's a bit deceiving to say it uses "3
heating elements" because that implies, to me at least, that all 3
are involved in heating the water. An examination of the side of
the box shows that one of these heating elements is the burner.

Well, of course, one of the three heating elements is the warmer plate, or
"burner" as you call it. Think about it, how many heating elements do you
really need to heat up a column of water in its 12-14 inches up and 4-7
inches over trip from the bottom of the water tank to the exit point just
above the filter basket? Most drip machine designs make do with just one,
and some do it quite well that way.

Hopefully, that offering on Wal-Mart's online site was just a test run.
Maybe it will sell well in Wal-Mart stores. Judging from everything else
that's out there, $40 or so is a good price for a machine with a clock and
programmable timer, most of which cost more like $50 or more in most places.

Another advantage to the design is the shape of the carafe, wider at the
bottom, narrower at the top. This does away with what some call the
"stratification effect" where supposedly stronger brew stays at the bottom
and the weaker stuff at the end of the brewing cycle is at the top,
requiring them to be manually stirred in order to be mixed. If you have to
interveen manually to get a good brew once you've added coffee and water and
pressed the do-it-to-it button, you don't have an automatic brewing
appliance. Yes, the design and shape of the carafe does make a difference
in the quality of of brewed output, even if only a small one, and it makes a
very big difference in how pleasant and easy the machine is to live with.
If that Presto had been made as a 12-cup capacity machine, it would be just
about right; the carafe could be wider at the bottom and at the top, thus
easier to clean and dry after use. Then it would be more like one of the
carafes that came with the Braun FlavorSelect line of machines, such as the
KF-157 or KF-180 or KF-187, of which the KF-180 is the only model Braun is
still currently making and selling in the US.

Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA
Phone: 1-404-814-0768