Viking Coffee Maker Expensive, lousy AND made in China

[jcmods]

So much for Viking being supposedly American made. I guess everything except their lousy coffee maker which tends to stop brewing halfway through. (because of the cheaply made valve on the top of the carafe which has to fit precisely to allow the liquid to flow into the carafe).

The result being that you sometimes wake up to find coffee all over the floor and on the counter (and inside the machine where you cannot get to it).

It also flashes a warning that you need to decalcify the machine. This is just so much BS as I use filtered water. This is the second disaster and all negative product reviews on Amazon indicate that it will not be the last.

I may have to stop drinking coffee altogether because there are no other coffee makers not made in China.

The product seems to have been "retired" according to their web site. I guess I am just one of those suckers who has to eat $300 bucks.

[flourgirl]

I'm perfectly happy with my $50 Frieling French Press. I bought mine in 2003, the only thing I've had to replace is the mesh screen (bought a bunch of them directly from Frieling) and it makes great coffee. Of course, it can't be ready when I wake up in the morning, but I'm willing to live with that. (The same pot is selling for $94 on Amazon now, I guess I got a good deal too.)

[ThanksVille]

Ditto the Frieling(s) as we've been partial to French press brewing for a couple decades. We went through our share of Bodum glass carafes over the years and were thrilled with the move to the double walled stainless steel Frieling. Nice clean design, durable, dishwasher friendly, etc. Super glad to hear that replacement mesh screens are available as our original 8 cup version,purchased perhaps 10 years ago, could benefit from a replacement filter. No leaking parts ever

[flourgirl]

Yes, all the parts are available on the Frieling website. We went through our share of Bodums too before discovering this press. It's one of the best kitchen purchases I ever made.

[FrankJBN]

$300 coffee maker? About two years ago, I had to break down and pay over $10 for a coffeemaker for the first time. Admittedly, the sub $10 coffee makers only lasted about a decade each...

[danbob]

Chemex!
Made in USA.

[paulj]

I like my non-US coffee maker. I boil water in a Mexican enamel steel sauce pan, and strain the grounds out with a small plastic strainer from Korea.

[raindrop1008]

China made the product according to Viking specification request.

[jcmods]

Well then the specifications were not very good. I really resent paying outrageous prices to have the thing STILL made in China and still break after exactly 77 uses. I know because I started with 100 filters and now have 23 left. In the 90's I had aa cheap black and decker coffee maker that lasted literally years. Somewhere along the line they decided to "enhance" the design by building in a valve that stopped the flow when you removed the carafe. Unfortunately, this never worked correctly and you invariably ended up with an overflow the second your back was turned. Since that time, I have found it impossible to find a coffee maker that does not have this intensely annoying feature.

In other words, 20 years ago, it was possible to get a u.s. made coffee maker for around $20. Yet today, we are expected to believe that a domestically produced coffee maker needs to cost $300 - and surprise - it is STILL MADE IN CHINA.

The people that outsourced all this stuff should be lined up and shot.

I was looking at the Dutch made coffee maker and that got a lot of bad reviews too. But of course, I would rather buy something from Europe than support the greed heads who are getting rich off cheap garbage that we are literally force fed because there are no alternatives. If everyone raised a loud stink every time, maybe someone would get the message.

[rexster314]

No worse than having a KA Pro Line coffee maker that begins corroding at the water port 6 months after buying it, then KA wouldn't make it right.

[ziggylu]

I just bought my nephew a Technivorm for Christmas. The box says Handmade and it's COO is the Netherlands. Not a cheap machine but I assume a Viking cost a bit of coin anyhow....