Gevalia CM-500 12-Cup Stainless Steel Coffee Maker Review

Bottom-Line: Who needs a $100.00 Braun when the (free) Gevalia CM-500 works just as well.  .  It may not have the cache of the Braun, but in our household that hardly matters.    

My wife is the queen of bargain hunting and I am ever so thankful for that.  If ever I need something non-computer-related purchased, she can find it for the cheapest cost, and usually come up with a discount or free shipping coupon.  That is how we have come by a succession of free Gevalia coffee pots.  Oh sure we have tried other coffee pots, but we have always come back to Gevalia, because while they are not the most attractive appliance in our kitchen, they have proved to be reliable. 

So when it came time to replace the chronically malfunctioning Mr. Coffee brand automatic coffee maker, we naturally turned once more to Gevalia.  This time there were offering the Gevalia CM-500 12-cup Stainless Steel Coffee Maker, for free of course in the hope that we would try some of their outstanding, but pricey coffee.                

The oblong shaped CM-500 is a 12-cup (white or black, ours is white to match our kitchen décor) automatic drip coffee maker designed for ground coffee.  The CM-500, which is just shy of 18 inches, is wrapped with thin, sheet of stainless steel or is it plastic made to look like stainless steel; the jury is still out on that.  The carafe is (thankfully) made of glass; we have had plastic carafes before and they fail to hold up over time.  And beside glass is a lot more attractive. 

The front upper portion of the CM-500 house a panel in which one will find the controls: five buttons: two LED for status, and a grey non-backlit LCD display for the clock. The buttons are used to set the clock, program the coffee-maker for timed brewing, and for turning the CM-500 on manually.  I found setting the clock pretty straight forward and setting the coffee-maker for time brewing was equally as painless.  Be forewarned, the CM-500 does not have a batter for backup power, so if the power goes out, you'll have to reset the clock and program timer. 

My Viewpoint

I have to admit that the CM-500 feels rather, well, cheap, but it was free after all.  And by feel cheep, I am referring to the plastic buttons which feels as though they might fall off at any moment.  But, when all is said and done the coffee-maker does with it supposed to do remarkably well, and that is make a great cup, or two, or 12 of coffee.  Who needs a $100.00 Braun when the (free) Gevalia CM-500 works just as well.  It may not have the cache of the Braun, but in our household that hardly matters.