I bought an inexpensive Mr. Coffee coffeemaker on eBay so I could start making coffee at work. Unbeknownst to me, it was new old stock. What that’s you ask? It’s a new item that’s been sitting around a warehouse or storeroom for a long time. I have no idea exactly how old the coffeemaker is but the copyright on the box is from 1993 so I’m guessing it’s at least ten years old.

I knew something was up when I took the carafe for the coffeemaker out of the box. The quality of glass is much heavier than with modern ones which impressed me. It has a substantial feeling to it that implies quality. Nice. I’m sure it can take a beating and keep on going. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all the coffeemaker has going for it.

My first complaint is that the coffeemaker uses the old school basket filters instead of the newer cone shaped ones. Again, I didn’t know this when I bought it. While not a dealbreaker, I would have preferred the cone shaped filters because I think they make better coffee. The good news is that I found some unbleached planet-saving basket filters at a nearby coffee purveyor.

My second complaint is slightly more irritating. It’s… so… slow… I ran a full carafe of plain water through it since it was brand new and it took forever. Forever being somewhere around 10-12 minutes. Doesn’t seem like much but when you want a cup o’ coffee it’s an eternity. Plus being an older model, it doesn’t have the “sneak a cup” feature so you gotta wait till it’s finished. There’s a silver lining here as well though, I’m normally only going to be making 5-6 cups so that shouldn’t take too long.

What’s the lesson here? I think there’s at least a couple. First, THOROUGHLY read eBay listings and if you have a question, ask. Two, adjusting to new things can be challenging but bear with it and it’ll get better. And I thought of one more. A surprise lesson in patience is not a bad thing, I just didn’t expect to get one from a coffeemaker this morning.

Ps. It makes a decent cup o’ coffee.

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