Euro Cuisine PER04 Electric Percolator 4 Cup Stainless Steel Coffee Pot Maker (4 Cup) – Copper Finish

Love this machine. I’ve had it about three and a half months. It makes a very reliable and tasty pot. Having never owned a percolator before (bought this to replace one of those stove top espresso makers that broke after many years), I had to read the instructions and made my first pot with some trepidation (the sound it makes was really unexpected!), but once you’ve done it once it’s pretty easy to use. It’s not the quickest to clean after use, but it is easy and you know each piece that comes into contact with your coffee is clean before your next pot (flashback to the time I ran my gran’s machine having forgotten the grounds and the water came out murky and greenish – that won’t happen with this machine!). I like that the inside is all stainless steel too. One recommendation if making a 4 cups pot is to be a little more generous with the grounds – I fill the basket to halfway between the 4 cup and 6 cup line for best results. Otherwise I find the 4 cup pot turns out a little weaker than I like. It’s an easy adjustment and well worth it. All in all, very pleased!

Had this percolator for 12 months. At the 12th month it decided it wanted to only brew beige water.

If you love beige water after you get bored of 11 months adequately brewed coffee, then I can’t recommend this product enough. If you like coffee, buy something else.

The cap is made of flimsy aluminum and will pop off during the brewing process. It won’t fly off, but a portion will lift which will guarantee an improper brew. Other reviewers cited the same problem.

Even with the cap securely held down, no matter how strong I make the coffee, (12 cups of coffee grinds to 8 cups water as an example) the brew will still be watered down. It doesn’t matter how cold or hot the water is, how fine or course the grind is, it will always be watered down.

I do not recommend this product as a long term coffee maker. It shouldn’t be failing under a year of use.

This is not so much a complaint, but the damn thing moans during the brew process. Ecstasy? Agony? I cannot tell.

Admittedly, it is titillating.

Easy to clean between uses. Makes a great pot of coffee. Looks great in my kitchen.

First off, why do they keep putting these ridiculously sticky stickers on our products?! I ain’t got time for this. Plus I had to use up a ton of my lemon essential oil to get all the goo off. Mine also came with a very visible scratch, but it’s not a deal breaker.

This is my first experience with a percolator. I’ve made both coffee and tea in it. For some reason occasionally the liquid spews out of the spout while it’s percolating. I’ve tried putting less liquid in even though it’s not over the max and that seems to help. Coffee grounds will get all up in there even with course ground. I’ve started using a regular paper coffee filter wrapping the coffee up securely and pressing as far down in the basket as possible. It works fine, but I wish there was some kind of reusable option. Both the tea and coffee taste great, so I’m happy. Plus I’m glad there is no plastic that touches my drink.

Update: I’m really enjoying my percolator now that I’ve got the hang of it. I now use two coffee filters instead of one with about two heaping tablespoons of ground coffee in each filter wrapped up. I never have any grounds in my coffee.

I now use a little over four 8 oz cups of cool filtered water poured over the grounds and there is no spewing out anymore.

I found cleaning occasionally with baking soda and gentle scrubbing works well to get the burnt coffee up.

I still wish it came with a reusable filter.

My partial solutions for filter’s design problems

Update: Like so many other people’s complaints about their Euro Cuisine coffee pot, the same problem with the power switch has occurred with mine – it only lasted 4 months! The coffee pot is now dead.

One major issue is that the diameter of the hole in the filter’s lid is too large. This causes bubbling hot water to mostly drip down the side of the tube and back into the pot without settling sufficiently into the coffee grounds. In other words, the hot water is not being distributed properly into the coffee grounds. Because of this, if you only want to make two cups (using two standard measures of coffee grounds) as labeled in the pot and filter (which is actually only 4 oz per cups, you can forget about it. When you pour the heated water into a cup, it will be crystal clear because the water misses most of the coffee during percolating. The grounds were mostly dry when only making 2 cups!

This is also due to the fact that two traditional measures of ground coffee are not enough to hold the water in place long enough to brew the ground coffee. The water goes right through the grounds. Also, the filter drain slits that are below the coffee grounds are punched too large. I tried different coffee ground sizes. Same problem at any size.

However, when I put in 4 measures of coffee grounds, there were enough grounds to at least help hold the water in the filter a bit. However, this means you are stuck having making 16 oz of coffee whether you want to or not. Thus, the manufacturer is incorrectly indicating that you have a choice of making 1 to 4 cups.

To help the water remain in the coffee grounds longer instead of draining down the tube because of the oversized center hole, I drilled a stainless steel washer to fit closely around the tube. See my attached photos. This resulted in slightly browner coffee.

However, because all of the slits in the filter cup are too large, and thus are allowing the hot water to drain through too quickly, I still have to use at lease 4 traditional measures of coffee grounds along with 2 or 4 cups of water. But, at least I am getting more flavor out of the coffee grounds now. An easy DIY fix for the oversized slits may be to gently tap them down with a thin steel punch.

I am thinking about buying paper filters to help hold the hot water in the coffee grounds longer. Depending on the porosity of the paper, I am hoping it will make it possible to brew only 2 cups at a time without having to use 4 scoops of coffee grounds. Using enough coffee grounds for 4 cups is simply an expensive waste of quality coffee beans – unless, of course, you have an immediate need to brew that much coffee.

The manufacturer could easily fix the problems by making the center hole and slits smaller. It is amazing they did not notice such obvious errors. It makes me wonder whether the manufacturer even bothered to make 1-4 cups of coffee with it to make sure it works properly before putting it on the market.

Also, I noticed that another review indicated that the glass bubbler broke when a man lifted the top – cutting his skin, etc.. The bubbler is about 1/8 thick throughout. The only way I can figure that the bubbler broke in his hand is if someone had dropped it on a tile floor or something – and failed to tell him about it. Otherwise, I see no way at all for such a strong glass bubble to have broken just by lifting the top off. I really like that the bubbler is glass. Most coffee makes use plastic.

Also, some reviews indicated the handle broke. There is a screw at the top that holds the handle against the pot. I would suggest making sure it is tight on occasion. I believe that should prevent any problems.

Others have indicated their pot quit heating. I suspect someone forgot to unplug it a few times. A dry pot with the power turned on will cause overheating, which will obviously stress the heating coil. Easy to forget. Manufacturers should be required to install a fuse or breaker switch.

The pot is beautiful. If the manufacturer figures out the problems associated with oversize holes, and also installs a fuse or breaker, this pot will be a keeper, and will make a great gift.