Ninja CM305 Hot & Iced 10-Cup Coffee Maker

After a tremendous amount of research, I decided to go with the Ninja coffee bar as a replacement for both a drip coffee maker and a Breville Keurig-type maker. After reading the outstanding reviews, despite the cost, it seemed like a great solution as I would only have one device on my counter because I'm a minimalist! Let me start this review with the positive: I love love love the look of the device. It looks like it was made to be in the section of my kitchen I used for beverages. I really like the electric frother on the side... Not fancy, but looks slicker than whipping out my battery operated frother from my drawer. It's easy to rinse and store, folds right out of the way. I also appreciate the ease of filling the transparent water chamber so you know volume remaining. I appreciate, too, it came with a gold filter, even though I use a paper filter with it. And lastly, the setup for brewing individual cups, mugs and half pots makes it appealing (even though you can technically do it with any drip pot by altering the amount of water and coffee used). Lastly,. it's good looking! I like that it is mostly stainless with black and the design seems to go with my decor perfectly! That's where the love affair ends. Now some things that bother me and make me feel like I paid way too much for what I received. Carafe, it's described as having a thermal carafe but it's clear it must not have insulation is the coffee does not stay hot for very long and when you tap on it, it is obviously not solid inside. I had a Cuisinart drip maker with a thermal carafe before this one and that coffee would still be steamy by the end of the day. With the Ninja, I have to heat the coffee in microwave if I want it hot versus lukewarm after a couple of hours. I am an early riser and I like to have coffee ready when I wake up. I use the timer delay brew feature daily. I use only reverse osmosis filtered water so there are no solids for scale. The coffee maker is very clean. Despite this, I get a different amount in the full pot setting, and sometimes I awaken to only a partial pot brewed (the water chamber is transparent so you can see how much water is in there left and at times it's half) and I have to actually estimate the additional amount of water needed to run through the just brewed grounds to avoid wasting the coffee. I first thought user error setting dial, but no, this happens intermittently and my technique never varies and my water is pure and always clean the filter basket. There is no rhyme or reason. So, I almost returned it to Amazon when I still had time to do so but I decided I love the look so I am suffering through some of the functionality and cheap carafe because it looks good on my counter. Kind of sad, isn't it? And honestly when I first read all the outstanding reviews I did not notice that it all said they got a free device for the review. Shame on me. Ninja, I have several of your devices including a foodie which I would marry if I could, a bullet which serves me well if I don't want to go to the trouble of whipping out my Vitamix, but I think you missed the mark on this one.