I refuse to become a snob about coffee because it means Ive enjoyed every coffee ive ever had.

I like the plugin percolator the best

• clean up is simple, you knock the grounds out of the basket and rinse it out. Rinse the pot and pipe. Not a big mess everywhere scraping/cleaning screens, filters fabrics, tubes, tanks, reservoirs blah blah.
• zero consumable or disposable components.
• you can set it on an outlet timer for all kinds of schedules. Get outlet timers that will start at any time, stop at any time, can be different according to the day of the week, etc etc. And you can put other things on the timer. When coffee is scheduled before the sun comes up, I put a lamp on the same timer.
• set up at night or any time in advance
• small amount of space used, put it away when not in use if needed.
• beautiful classic chrome and black plastic look, no lights
• fixable
• very simple design. some of them dont even have any controls: when its plugged in, its on. That was why I originally bought an outlet timer, to provide a switch. But it means there is nothing to break or go wrong.

Problems:

• not extremely flexible in quantity made… You can’t really make 1 cup in a big perc
• expensive to buy new, and difficult to find used because nobody ever gets rid of them
• hot to the touch (metal parts)
• its nice to have one where the pot itself detaches from the base (not as pictured above) so you can conveniently bring it somewhere to pour then return to the power without in/replugging however it introduces an extra point of failure, theoretically.

If I didn’t have a perc I would be happy with a drip machine. Why be a snob when you can be satisfied?

Actually I did find a drip machine on the street, I made a couple of pots of coffee but then it stopped working. It seemed like there was a loose connection with the control panel so I opened it up. It smelled really bad and there were a bunch of old fly larva casing and gross stuff I’m there. But I’m such that is not representative.