Hamilton Beach 12 Cup Electric Percolator Coffee Maker with Cool Touch Handle, Vintage Spout, Stainless Steel

Back a couple of months ago I went on a two week Backpacking Trip. To save weight I carried a small 4 Cup Aluminium Percolating Coffee pot which served a number of purposes; Boiling water, stewing and frying a few meals in and making Coffee..I do have a 12 cup Stainless Steel one for in camp use but it is to heavy to carry in a Backpack. I drink Decafe Coffee and was again re-aquainted with the taste of Good Coffee versus the usual insipid brown water most Resturants and Fast Food places as well as my expensive "Drip" Coffee maker at home makes. I rarely drink Coffee at home because of that reason and had relegated that expensive Coffee Unit to a shelf in the Garage brought out only for guests... With the Percolator pot I found I was liking Coffee again!! It was delicious!! My hiking companion and myself found ourselves just stopping for an hour, kindling a small fire and brewing a pot! When I got home I went on a four day campaign to find a reasonable priced Electric Percolator Coffee pot like my Parents had used. Well tough luck on that on..I wanted the old kind with the timer so I could load it up at night and it would Perk off at 0600 in the morning and be ready for me as I finished dressing..Apparently they do not make that type anymore... I found many of the "Mall" Stores wanted an average of $70. for a plain old no features pot. I also realized the current Coffee makers are made so that you are Required to buy all sorts of extras other than Coffee to make the Units work right.... The Percolator does not require a Filter or Filter Basket or any of those other needful things for Modern Pots. The Marketing people came up with the anti-percolator sales pitch regarding the occasional coffee ground found in "Perked" coffee to get you to buy the new more expensive machines that needs all those extra pieces and parts. But if you let the pot "sit" for a few minutes after it is finished perking you should have no problems....So you all are buying all these extras and fancy machines trying to attempting to get you to think your making great coffee when a plain old $40 plus tax, Percolator type Pot will make all the difference. So out of frustration and not wanting to be "taken" by the Marketing people in all the local stores I went to Amazon.com and found what I wanted except for the Time feature which apparently nobody makes anymore. I also checked out local Swap Meets and Flea Markets for one..Nope....I also wanted a Glass Globe on top and not a plastic one which discolors over time and is hard to clean out nor did I want the solid color black one...So I ordered the Hamilton Beach 40614..It was delivered within two days which was a surprise cause I picked free shipping meaning 5 - 7 days. As soon as it arrived, I washed it out and made a half a pot of Coffee using regular grind off the shelf at Walmart of the Decaf 8 O'clock brand coffee..Memories of my Parents home came back to me as the smell of "Perked" Coffee floated through my home which you do not get with the Drip kind...and the Coffee, black with a bit of Splenda was Oh soo good. Just like the pots we made out on the trail....P.S. the Perk time didn't really take any longer than the Drip kind did. I also "compost" my Coffee grounds, just wait til the unit cools or use Pot Holders, take the center unit out, take the lid off and dump the Grounds into your composter and then rinse out the Unit.. For Septic Tank households, Coffee grounds do not break down in the Septic Tank so after you dump your grounds into the Composting Container, clean out the basket with a paper towel as much as you can and compost the towel and the grounds...I have no doubts that like me you will place that expensive machine with all it's extra's out on a shelf in the garage or do like I am planning to do, donate it to the Salvation Army....

And, I have to say, the only reason I bought this Hamilton Beach percolator was because no one else makes a brushed stainless steel percolator... as bizarre as that is. You can buy a brushed stainless steel electric water kettle. You can buy a brushed stainless steel stove top percolator and you can buy a brushed stainless steel stove top tea kettle! But does anyone other than Hamilton Beach make a stainless steel electric percolator? NO. They're all shiny stainless steel, not brushed.And this IS real stainless steel, not plastic.It's nice looking. It makes EXCELLENT coffee once you get your coffee/water ratio correct. I do 8 cups of water to 3 scoops of coffee... with a coffee scoop, not a spoon.I find the coffee basket peculiarly narrow which makes scooping the coffee in a little difficult, but it's doable. I also bought the Melitta percolator coffee filters. They're a disc filter that sit in the bottom of the coffee basket. They're easy to use and do a nice job of filtering the coffee. My coffee isn't bitter at all and I use cheap Folgers Black Silk. It's good. REALLY GOOD.This percolator is easy for me to clean, but a man with big hands may not be able to hand wash it.I use a straw brush, like these: https://smile.amazon.com/Straw-Brush-Cleaner-10-ihch-5-inch/dp/B07DNNT27X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=straw+brushes&qid=1608411637&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyQk8yRzI0SEFTNjJXJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDYxNzAyWDVLMko2T0tDSk5OJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAxNjgwMDUyWlFXOTBKTDhXSDdHJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=to clean the stem and I use a small bottle brush to clean the nozzle.If cleaning a coffee pot isn't your thing, you may not want to switch from a drip coffee maker because every part of a percolator gets cleaned everyday. It's labor intensive.I like the window for the water measurement because the inside markings are difficult to see without a flashlight. And it perks pretty fast. I put my coffee and water in at night and just plug it in when I get up. Not long after the insistent kitty is fed, the coffee is finished perking... and it's GOOD. IMO, it's 100 times better than drip coffee. This is the first percolator I've had (except for my emergency stove top percolator) since drip coffee makers hit the scene. There's no comparison in coffee. Perked is way better.The cord, from tip of the plug tines to the end that plugs into the pot is 18 1/4". It needs to be near an outlet. The percolator also stays on until you unplug it. It continues to keep the coffee at the perfect temperature and tasting just as good and smooth as the first cup.I just hope this pot lasts because it was hard to find a brushed stainless steel percolator!👍👍 from me.