January 25, 2006

First Impressions Mr. Coffee Home Cafe Generation II AT13 Single Serve Coffee Maker

We're currently testing both the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe and the Black & Decker Home Cafe second generation coffee makers. We'll have a full review of both coffee makers next week but we thought we'd give you our first impression on opening, priming, and brewing our first cup of coffee with the new Mr. Coffee Home Cafe AT13 single serve coffee brewer.

Just seeing the box gives you a better first impression of the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe. We were excited to see that throughout opening the coffee maker the Home Cafe feel seemed to permeate throughout the box and included accessories. This version of the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe comes with a set of Folgers coffee pods, Cappuccino coffee pods, and a pod holder from Tupperware for loose pods. The Tupperware pod holder inclusion is a little odd given the Folgers pods are individually wrapped.

We then unwrapped the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe single serve coffee maker and our first impression - much better. Simply - a much better feeling and looking brewer. The buttons right away and the little Home Cafe logo on the side has better presentation and the brewer just feels more solid and designed.

The Mr. Coffee Home Cafe also includes 1 single coffee pod holder, 1 double coffee pod holder, and 1 specialty pod holder. They are very shiny - very chrome - and very different than the first generation Mr. Coffee Pod holders. We were also impressed with the entire pod holder area. There is more pressure brew in the chamber where the pod goes and the pods get clamped in much tighter.

The water reservoir isn't the largest but it does have a nice hand feel to it. The drip tray is also pleasantly well designed - keeping a little bit of that Star Wars Imperial logo look to it. The buttons on the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe have little green lights behind them and the stop button has a little red light behind it. Very nice. The buttons also have a very nice feel to them when pushing them down.

We filled up the reservoir with cold water and prepared to prime. The directions said to put water in the reservoir and get at least a cup that holds 9oz for priming. We got the cup and then pushed both the 7 oz button and specialty drink button at the same time right after plugging in. Nothing.

The light then blinked red at the bottom. Perhaps we didn't get it in time? We then unplugged and plugged it in again - puuuuuummmppp....whump. Hmmmm. Didn't prime again? Weird. More flashing red light.

We then decided to consult the manual and read a little part saying if the light was blinking it might be the seating of the water reservoir. So we re-seated it and tried again. Puuuuuummmppp....whump. Hmmm - still not a full prime.

We then proceeded to unplug it and wait 20 minutes. This time the procedure worked and the machine primed with a full cycle of water. Awesome. Annoying - but awesome. We tested the temp of the water brewing forth and we got a solid and consistent 188-191 degrees F. Not bad.

We decided our first cup of coffee would be the new Baronet's Coffee Pods - Golden French Toast. We skipped trying the Folgers coffee pods until later testing to see if they'd improved and just wanted to see how this coffee faired in this new machine.

The Baronet French Toast coffee pod fits perfectly in the single coffee pod holder. We chose the 7 oz setting and pushed the button. Puuuuuummmppp....brew...steam....spit. It took a good 45-60 seconds for brew time with the classic super steam Home Cafe finish. The coffee smelled good and how did it taste? With a little cream and sugar consensus from the staff - not bad. We thought the overall brew was on par with coffee produced from the earlier edition of the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe and maybe a tad bit better.

Pros so far:

New better looking design
Better quality maker overall
Good hot water temperature
Better pressure brewing chamber
Water reservoir easy to fill and hold
Comes with both single and double pod holder options
Excellent Drip tray - easy to clean and sturdy

Cons so far:

Hard to prime
Accessories like the Tupperware pod holder don't make sense
No real off button - stop is off but it's a little weird to think it's always on

Full review next week...

Read More in: Home Cafe | Single Serve Coffee Machines

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Review: Black & Decker Home Café One Cup Coffee Maker GT300 - Feb 23, 2006
First Impressions: Black & Decker Home Café System Generation II - Feb 21, 2006
Review: Mr. Coffee Home Cafe AT 13 Generation II - Feb 02, 2006

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Posted by Jay Brewer at January 25, 2006 8:20 AM

Recent Comments

just got my mr. coffee home cafe, primed with no problems, i just followed the easy steps in instruction pamplet.. this machine is excellent, coffee taste great, and comes out at perfect temp..i never reveiwed a product before, but this one is the perfect coffee machine..quick easy.perfect thank you for a great product..i highly recomend buying this unit, it will not let you down...

Posted by: jennifer at March 4, 2008 1:46 PM

Just got my Mr. Coffee Home Cafe'; so NOT being technically challenged, I read the instructions, tried to do the "prime", NOTHING, just a blinking red light. All attempts got a red blinking light. So I decided to call the number on the instruction sheet. First question from the attendant...do you live in a cold part of the country? I do, in the mountains, and it was about 32 degrees out when the thing was delivered. She said wait a couple of hours for the unit to warm up; then you can prime it. Sure enough, I waited, tapped the two buttons as instructed; it primed; made my first cup; delicious! So far I like the unit a lot; better than some other more expensive pod maker coffee I've had.

Posted by: cease at February 22, 2007 6:31 PM

I was glad to read other people had problems priming. My first unit, the lights would show temporarily green, then go off back to blinking red. I did all the trouble shooting and decided unit defective. Took it back to Best Buy got a new one and it's doing the same thing. I'm over the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe experience. It will be lucky to make it back to the store this time.

Posted by: Laura at September 2, 2006 5:31 PM

The first one of these machines I bought had the same kind of problem with priming. I took the unit back to Target and got another one, decided to give it one more try. The second unit primed with no errors at all. Then I decided to try the free cappuccino that came with it and it was pretty good, not alot of froth but it was tasty. I liked that it came out hot enough for me!!! This morning I made a 7oz of coffee, one that came with the starter kit and now I'm a haapy coffe guy. Would I recommend this unit to my friends? YES! Still have to try other types of coffee. Any recommendations?

Posted by: Al at January 29, 2006 6:09 PM

Well - I hope this isn't a sign of becoming technically challenged - but I've never had any problem priming any of the other machines. Once I let it cool off - it did want to prime but since it was much hotter than the machine wanted in the default state - I'm thinking that's why I had so many issues.

Posted by: Jay Brewer at January 29, 2006 2:06 PM

I'm surprised you had difficulties priming the machine. Mine primed on the first go.
Perhaps I'm not as "technically-challenged" .

The tupperware pod holder...doesn't really fit the pods very well. BUT, it was a freebie, and such a canister probably isn't a bad idea. My Folger pods were not individually wrapped (bagged).

As for the "Off" switch. It does power-down on it's own after a few minutes of non-use. My guess is they don't want you opening the lid until it's fully depressurized.

I'll reserve further comments about the machine until the rest of your review. I will say this, I've been very happy with it.

Posted by: Robert Flickinger at January 29, 2006 12:08 PM

Indeed. I just thought it a bit odd they didn't have a bag of pods in there for a perfect match.

Posted by: Jay at January 25, 2006 3:07 PM

Although the folgers pods that come as samples are all individually wrapped, the ones you buy at the store are the bagged variety. I imagine those are what the tupperware container is meant for..

Posted by: Jeffrey Spencer at January 25, 2006 9:02 AM