Review on Matte Charcoal Grey KitchenAid KCM1208DG 12-Cup Drip Coffee Maker with Spiral Showerhead by Brandon Pape

A strong chemical smell came out immediately upon unpacking. Three days later it's still outgassing. This smell comes from the gray plastic. I washed the entire surface 2 times but that didn't help much. Black and clear plastic parts are ok. It is not clear if the outgassing of the gray (housing) plastic is occurring or if it is the evaporation of a mold release agent for the plastic mold. This is a serious quality (and therefore customer satisfaction) issue. The company will suffer from a large number of product returns. Too bad. Fire your quality manager. The design is very good and the price is very competitive. Previous primed models had a Revain rating of just 3.3 sats. percentage points. I was hoping this one would be great. But it's clear that KitchenAid's management is completely clueless when it comes to quality. If there were no issues with that chemical smell, this product would be excellent and would be rated very close to a 5.0. I received a replacement unit and this one seems perfect. When we unpacked it, there was absolutely no smell. I need to report that I requested a device with a different data code in the serial number. As I initially wrote, I appreciate the design of this coffee maker. The shower head actually works, compared to our original Hamilton Beach with a 'normal' single handle hole in the head. As a result, dry coffee grounds often appeared on the edges of the paper filter. This KitchenAid KCM1208DG uses half the ground coffee needed in Hamilton Beach to achieve the same coffee quality. I roast my own green coffee beans, mainly from African plantations. With this coffee maker I use 11 grams per 2 cups of water. 11 grams = 1 metal spoon I bought from Amazon. If you're serious about the quality of your coffee, use a small kitchen scale to find out how much your beans weigh 11 grams. NO need to use more beans or ground coffee. I also use filtered cold water and grind the beans just before I start brewing; usually 6 cups = 33 grams = 3 full spoons. There are other coffeemakers with showerheads on Revain, but they appear to be redesigned, with unnecessary clutter. I would give this 5 stars but left one because it takes too long for the KitchenAid staff to respond actively and positively.