after much reading and hand wringing (did i really want a $ coffee maker?) i took the plunge and bought a coffeetec.  have read the reviews and occasional frustrations with the frother.  i felt confident i could handle it...
on the up side, the machine makes great coffee.  i tend to be a bit on the fussy side about my coffee and was very happy with what i got.
but... my biggest complaint is that the carafe did not do a good job of keeping the coffee hot.  before buying this machine my method was to use a plunge (press) pot and transfer to a stainless thermos. that has always worked fine and i expected good results from a machine they say 'keeps coffee hot for 5 hours'.  not quite.  if the carafe was not completely full it stayed hot for perhaps 1.5 or so.  not nearly so good as my thermos, so why not buy a good drip machine and transfer to a termos myself, saving $ in the procsss?
complaint #2 is the frother.  no problem with fitting the parts or turning the dial, my problem was that a) it gave up steaming too quickly, b)it spat a lot of water into the milk.  the adjuster they provide is a joke. like the carafe, a nice idea but not as good as one might expect for the bucks.
net result, i sadly determined it needed to go back.  i am replacing it with a regular glasss carafe drip machine and will just transfer coffee to the thermos. no coffee sitting on a hot plate for me!
after much reading and hand wringing (did i really want a $ coffee maker? ) i took the plunge and bought a coffeetec. have read the reviews and occasional frustrations with the frother. i felt confident i could handle it... on the up side, the machine makes great coffee. i tend to be a bit on the fussy side about my coffee and was very happy with what i got. but... my biggest complaint is that the carafe did not do a good job of keeping the coffee hot. before buying this machine my method was to use a plunge (press) pot and transfer to a stainless thermos. that has always worked fine and i expected good results from a machine they say 'keeps coffee hot for 5 hours'. not quite. if the carafe was not completely full it stayed hot for perhaps 1. 5 or so. not nearly so good as my thermos, so why not buy a good drip machine and transfer to a termos myself, saving $ in the procsss? complaint #2 is the frother. no problem with fitting the parts or turning the dial, my problem was that a) it gave up steaming too quickly, b)it spat a lot of water into the milk. the adjuster they provide is a joke. like the carafe, a nice idea but not as good as one might expect for the bucks. net result, i sadly determined it needed to go back. i am replacing it with a regular glasss carafe drip machine and will just transfer coffee to the thermos. no coffee sitting on a hot plate for me!