Farberware 47053 Classic Stainless Steel Yosemite 12-Cup Coffee Percolator, 12 Cup Coffee Maker, Silver

I was lucky enough to be born in an earlier time – when things worked and lasted. Except for the Corvair and the Ford Pinto, that is. I find as I have matured into middle age that much modern “technology” such as the latest high-tech pots and pans, cookware, and coffee apparatus tend to complicate the obvious instead of improving the original. They are designed to take my money and not much else. For years, I would keep an open mind, spend a lot more money for a “better mousetrap” that overcomplicates but doesn’t do the job any better, and many times, worse than the original concept. For instance, I rediscovered cast iron cookware that my folks used when I was younger, which when treated properly, is ten times better than any Teflon non-stick gadgetry that only lasts a year or two and sends cooked chemical remnants into your body. Yes, cast iron is non-stick – the best. And it cleans up so quickly. Properly cared for (which is easy) cast iron never sticks and lasts forever and will outlast me.So when I got tired of lukewarm, luke-brewed coffee from machines that are terribly expensive and last just a couple of years, and all plastic, I again went back to my roots. I have an expensive Keurig and a $1700.00 combo expresso machine. But I can’t get a decent cup of coffee that I am fortunate enough to remember from earlier days. That is until I again went back to the basics, which has never failed me. They all have their uses and none of them are “wrong”. If I want a cup of coffee as I’m running out the door, Keurig fits the bill. I want an expresso after dinner, my Italian combo machine that cost a fortune works for me. Not judging.Have there been improvements and innovation? Certainly yes. Electric percolators of today do a much better job of regulating heat and brew time, for instance. That controls bitterness and overbrewing. But many of them don’t last longer than a couple of years. With a stove top percolator, you are in total control, you are back to basics and back to the best cup of coffee you will ever have if you like a full-flavored and slightly robust (not burnt or bitter) cup of coffee. Sadly, many people don’t know how good it can be.If you like your coffee apparatus now and what it does for you, fantastic, you are in the sweet spot, but don’t be afraid to try what has worked for decades. You might be pleasantly surprised. You may not know what you’re missing.This stove top percolator is top quality, never fails and will last for decades if cared for properly. It doesn’t take much. But if you just want to press a button and have “instant coffee”, or coffee instantly with no care or time involved, If you want a brew where the water barely touches the coffee before it touches your cup, If you want to pay a lot of money for things that never make it into your cup (k-cups, pods, filters, cleaners, etc), if you want to “clean” parts of your “apparatus” you will never see, and trust that, if you want to replace that thing every few years, if you like lots of buttons, lights, beeps, timers, scrolling LED readouts, warning after warning to clean this and replace that, If you want coffee out of a Star Trek replicator, don’t buy this. But if you just want the best cup of Joe on the planet, enjoy the brewing experience, slow it down and enjoy…this Faberware piece of simple magic can be yours, forever. Take the pace down a little bit, get the plastic and chemicals out of your life, save a whole bunch of bucks and don’t let your coffee pot order you around…and get back to basic mountain grown fresh HOT coffee, and I do mean HOT. My advice for what it’s worth, you will never go back, save a ton of money, and really, really enjoy coffee as it was meant to be. Whatever you decide, take your time to enjoy your coffee experience. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. Enjoy what you have left.I’ve never had to replace anything on this pot, and it is certain to outlast me! So simple, so good.

Hi. I leave very few reviews due primarily to laziness and skepticism (do folks really take these to heart, given the wide range of griping?). But, I have found myself shopping for a number of items online lately, and relying on reviews, so here is my paying it forward. And no, I do not work for any coffee company.I am a bit of a stovetop percolator fanatic. Simply put, nothing beats percolator coffee. Drips aren't hot enough, take up crazy amounts of counter space, and the coffee is subpar. French presses produce gritty coffee and don't keep heat, and electric percolators have gone down the tube in quality since grandma bought hers (I have one from the 60s that I bought on ebay, and after using daily, it STILL outperforms my previous standard, the 2008 Farberware electric percolator).That said, I have tested a bunch of stovetop percolators for various uses, like camping, power outages, and general "getting off the grid" living. I have had several Colemans, the Italian-style caffeteria, the french press, a few electric percs, and this Farberware. Trust, this is a fantastic product. But how can one tell?The things to look for in stovetop percolators are:1. Quality of the construction. Stainless steel is best. Looks for a sturdy build with a nice balance of weight, a large enough size for your needs, and [very important!] the placement of the handle. It should be easy to clutch, be far enough to NOT be above the heat source, and sturdy enough to handle the weight of a full pot. Screwed on means it can easily be tightened, which is good, and the material of this percolator stays cool and has a nice, tactile grip.2. Solid/durable interior parts (stem, basket). This was a major downer for the Colemans. Too many complaints of people finding theirs bent upon arrival! Plus, the stem and pot shouldn't ever look dried our or "rusted" in that stainless steel way. I used my Colemans only a few times, and the stem/pot looked scary to drink out of. I can't help but wonder if there is a residue or something entering my coffee. This percolator looks as great on the inside as it does on the outside. Just look at the pictures. No hiding anything there!3. A plastic knob. While the glass knobs are more aesthetically pleasing, the entire structure of a percolator means that the knob WILL break at some point. The difference is that glass expands/contracts when the percolator is heating, and then shards from the threads end up in your coffee even if the knob hasn't visibly or entirely broken off. This is dangerous. The plastic is just as effective for viewing the strength of your coffee, without the terrifying possibility of swallowing glass. The plastic won't shred and cut your throat. Complaints about the plastic knobs breaking are ridiculous; ALL PERCOLATORS will have broken knobs at some point. Accept it.4. Does it clean easily? Exterior: Especially if you take this camping, you will be on a open flame, so will the material tarnish? This one stays clean, and can easily be polished, if you are the polishing kind, if you are exacting in how mirror-like you wish it to be. Interior: there are no sharp crevices, lips, awkward pouring spouts here to cut you or your sponge as you move on in to clean up. Pieces (including the lid) are removed with ease and without the nails-on-the-chalkboard sound of cheap, flimsy metal material.The other common complaint is that the coffee isn't right. That is not the perc, that's your method. Try varying your coffee/water ratio, your boiling time vs your simmering time. Be patient; stovetops take longer but they produce infinitely better coffee.From a practical/frugal standpoint, after removing the stem and basket, this pot doubles very nicely (with style!) as a kettle. You can't go wrong. Plus, it is quite a lot bigger than it looks online. You can get at least 10 cups.Although I alternate between electric and stovetop for my daily use, this baby is one thing that I shamelessly refuse to lend out, refuse to really even hail its praises for fear of the inevitable "Can I borrow it?" that happens. I have had it for 3 years now and nothing has broken, nothing has taken a nose-dive in terms of quality, and I am actively excited/grateful/proud/vain about it EVERY time I use it.If you buy one of the Coleman enamel ones, or the odd camping specific ones with a D-ring for a handle, you'll just end up buying another one after you get mad at its ineptitude. I would even recommend this one over the majority of electric percolators, since the rest on the market currently are just crap.Get yourself some good coffee beans, some good water, and this baby, and you'll be a coffee addict! Cheers!

I wanted to try a stove top to see if it improved the quality of the coffee's flavor. It is taking a few tries to get the temperature on the stove right, and it takes longer to make a pot, but I love the flavor and freshness of the coffee. For me, it is well worth the effort. The coffee is also easy to reheat, and it doesn't change the flavor.

This is a nice, solid percolator. The handle is comfortable, the stainless is highly polished and easy to keep clean, and it holds a lot of coffee. We have had it a few months and it is holding up well- still looks brand new. It makes good coffee. Test, there are two things that bother me, and both are design flaws. First, the pour spout is poorly positioned and very small, which makes the pour awkward. Second, the rim around the top of the coffee pot is designed so that it is impossible to pour out all of the water after you rinse it, and water collects under the rim when you air dry it, so unless you hold it upside down and use a dishrag under the inside rim of the coffee pot, you can’t get it completely dry. We didn’t like how long it took to make a pot on our glass top burner (around 45 minutes) so I bought an induction cooktop burner which gets the pot up to heat much faster, so it is down to about 25 minutes from start to finish. I am not liking the clunkiness of this system- so still in search of the perfect plastic free brew. May try a simple pour over next.