John Lewis DCC1150JLU Coffee Maker

I got married at the end of last year and since then we have also moved into our new house, where we have finally got round to opening and unpacking all of the wonderful gifts that we were given. I am a complete coffeeholic and this is a great addition to my kitchen, I've had a couple of different coffee machines in the past but this is by far my favourite one.

--My coffee maker of choice--

This John Lewis coffee machine brews an excellent coffee and it does it while looking stylish. It is also full of little additions and settings that make it even easier to use and why it has fast become my coffee maker of choice. Some of these include...

The coffee maker does have an automatic timer, which we sometimes use when it's a very early start. The few occasions we have to be up, ready and in the car way before the sun is due to arrive, I set the coffee machine the night before to be brewing as I am in the shower so that when I get out there is a fantastic smell of coffee calling me down the stairs.

Included within the coffee machine is a rather clever charcoal filter that purifies the water before brewing. You can buy more of these from John Lewis stores for a small price, however, I have found that I have not needed to replace mine yet. Personally, I think that this is just another nice touch and as a big fan of water purifiers this is a great addition for me.

Yet another plus of this machine is that it is easy to clean and it has a light that signals when it is time to get the instruction book out and follow the very easy instructions and set it too pretty much give itself a good clean. I think that it just gives the coffee machine a good flush so that your coffee tastes great all the time. It doesn't need to do this often usually it just requires a quick wash after use. It does have an inbuilt gold tone filter that you can remove to rinse in the sink, but I tend to put a paper filter in there as well to make it even easier to clean (and I think this is recommended for best use).

At the side of the coffee machine there is an indicator line that lets you know how much water you are putting it, you can limit it to 1-4 cups and this has a separate button to press before you tell it to brew. This is the setting I use most unless it is a Sunday morning and we have guests in which case I usually fill it to capacity. Bear in mind that the measurements are in cups and I mostly drink in mugs. I usually get two generous yummy mugs of coffee when I set it to the 1-4 cup setting.

The coffee pot is probably my favourite thing about this coffee machine, in the past I've had glass ones and although the pad at the bottom does keep the coffee and pot warm they do cool very easily, and I prefer my coffee hot. This coffee machine uses a thermos like coffee pot that keeps the coffee hot for a lot longer, meaning that your second or third cup is still lovely and hot rather than being just lukewarm.

I am really struggling to think of anything negative to say about this coffee machine. It really is good at doing exactly what you buy this for, making great coffee with minimal fussing around.

--Some of the specific product details--

* Capacity 1.5L / 10 cups
* Coffee type - Ground coffee
* Dimensions - H36 x W20.5 x D21cm
* Filter - Permanent Gold tone filter

--The cost--

At the moment this is retailing at a rather expensive £59, but it is not as expensive as some of the higher range ones available and it does exactly what you want of it, well and complaint free.

--My overall opinion--

I am going to give this coffee machine five out of five stars, I love my coffee maker and I would miss it dreadfully if something happened to it. I think that this is a great little coffee machine, it doesn't take up that much room in the kitchen, it looks good and it does exactly what it is suppose to; it makes fantastic coffee. I've owned and used this now for over six months and I am really happy with. I would easily recommend this to anyone looking around for something like this.