By Sage McHugh on November 19, 2010 in
Cheap coffee makers are everywhere this season, but you don’t want to sacrifice quality for cost. Kmart, Sears and Target are each offering several coffee makers at discount prices on Black Friday. We did some investigating to see if any of these coffee makers are worth your time and money.
Kmart coffee maker deal is unimpressive
Kmart is offering the Proctor Silex 43501 12-cup coffeemaker for $9.99. We found the same machine for $11.25 at Amazon.com (sold by Livings). There’s no need to brave the Black Friday madness when you can get it for almost the same price any other day of the year. Besides, this is a fairly bare-bones machine. If you want features that allow you to pre-program the machine the night before or control the flavor, you’ll be out of luck. Kmart also has the Mr. Coffee CGX23 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker on sale for $19.99 (reg. $29.99). There are less than a dozen reviews for this particular model on Amazon.com, and feedback is mediocre at best.
Poor reviews for Hamilton Beach model at Sears
Sears is offering a Hamilton Beach 12-cup programmable coffee maker for $17.99 (reg. $29.99). We found telltale reviews right on Sears.com, where it earns an unimpressive 3-star rating. Some users say it spills easily and doesn’t fit well under cabinets. Sears also has the Kenmore 12-cup programmable coffee maker on sale for $29.99 (reg. $49.99). Although this model costs signifiantly more, it doesn’t do any better in reviews. It gets a run-of-the-mill rating of 3 stars at Sears.com, where we read numerous complaints of early breakdowns and leaks.
Target "doorbuster" saves all of $6
Target is offering the Black & Decker 5-cup coffeemaker for the extremely low-sounding doorbuster price of $8.99, but it's not exactly expensive at its $14.99 regular price, either. (Seriously, are you getting up at 4AM to save six bucks?) If you want to simply make a cup of coffee without any bells and whistles, this will do the trick. However, if a coffeemaker is something you use daily, you might want to spring for a pricier model that offers programmable features and other settings. A more expensive model, the Mr. Coffee 12-cup programmable stainless-steel coffee maker is on sale for $28 (reg. $39.99) at Target. This machine has a few mixed reviews on Amazon.com, but reviews for a nearly identical model are good indicators of performance. The Mr. Coffee FTX41 gets a very poor overall rating of 2.3 out of 5 stars, with almost half of owners giving it the lowest possible score. Users complain of broken parts, early breakdowns and leaks.
The verdict: The prices may be good, but the quality is not. You're better off avoiding these Black Friday duds and spending more for a reliable, higher-quality coffee maker. Check out our coffee makers report to see which models get the best reviews.