Zojirushi Fresh Brew

During testing by The Wall Street Journal, the Zojirushi Fresh Brew thermal-carafe coffee maker was best at keeping coffee hot and fresh-tasting. Owners say the easy-to-use Fresh Brew is easy to clean and relatively quiet. Many also find it attractive. The Zojirushi Fresh Brew receives a smattering of complaints from owners about the placement of its controls, which are on the side instead of the front. Several owner reviewers also complain that the Fresh Brew's carafe lid is hard to remove and the pour spout is too small. Still the Zojirushi Fresh Brew is a good value in a thermal coffee maker. If you don't want a thermal-carafe model, the Cuisinart Brew Central DCC-1200 (*Est. $80) gets better reviews overall and costs less.

We found the most credible review of the Zojirushi Fresh Brew thermal-carafe coffee maker at The Wall Street Journal, which has a detailed, head-to-head test of five models. This Zojirushi is also tested by ConsumerReports.org, but editors don't discuss this model in depth, and strangely, editors don't rate coffee makers on the taste of the coffee. We also looked at the consensus of hundreds of owner-written ratings for the Zojirushi Fresh Brew at Amazon.com, Epinions, CoffeeGeek.com, Target.com and Cooking.com.