Perhaps I've not been paying attention, but I've not seen this product before.  It struck me as the ideal product for a family, or indeed anyone who has to meet the needs of a small group of coffee drinkers (as opposed to an individual).  We are inundated with requests about grinders, and why do they cost so much and all of that.  Well, as we are fortunate to have a ready supply of grinders I didn't buy this product today in the name of research (but I did buy its cheaper brother; more on that soon).  The point is this machine is about the same price as a stand alone entry level grinder.  Will it grind for espresso?  No, of course it won't, but then it isnt being sold for that application.  From a cursory glance I suspect this is an excellent platform from which to provide multiple coffee drinkers freshly ground gourmet coffee.

In retrospect I wish I had checked to see if you can control the brew temperature, I rather suspect you might be able to; a quick search of the web now might answer my own question.  Anyway, what I am getting around to here is I rather suspect a lot of you don't quite know what to do with the KF4 Swissgold filter.  Well, the KF300 single cup is fairly self explanatory I think; it sits upon your favourite coffee cup.  You add finely ground coffee, then you sit the insert on top, then you add water up to the max fill mark.  Wait until all the water runs through, flush the filter with hot water, dry, return filter to cupboard.  Enjoy great coffee.  Done!  Easy.

But how to use the KF4, the 12 cup filter?  Well, the important message to get across is that it fits into almost all the drip filter machines on sale in the UK.  OK, so what is wrong with the filter the manufacture fits I hear you ask?  Fair question.  Well, if you inspect a filter in a new machine at your local shop, or indeed this style of coffee maker is so ubiquitous, more likely you already have one at homw, you will find that it is almost certainly made of the cheapest, nastiest, fine nylon mesh imaginable.  Indeed they need to be treated with some care if they are not to be torn, ripped, or holed.  A very limited number of machines do come with a 'metal' filter, these are invariably gold anodised aluminium or raw stainless steel.  Neither have the inert features of the 10micron 22ct gold plated Swissgold filters.  There is only one genuine Swissgold filter and the difference is clear in the taste of your coffee.

Anyway, the point is for a very small outlay (less than GBP20) you can drop a KF4 Swissgold into a filter machine you may have had rather dreary coffee out of for years and absolutely transform its performance, even without upgrading to freshly ground coffee, although this will obviously take you a step further again up the quality ladder.

I would urge you to consider a modest investment in a KF4 Swissgold filter.  You will be astounded at the difference it makes.  A key difference is the Swissgold simply performs much better as a filter; your coffee has a clean taste rather rather a gritty sludgy mouthfeel like you might experience if you were unfortunate enough to have to drink from a muddy creek.  It is an instant fit into your existing filter coffee make with no modification requirted.

A final word with any of these machines: under no circumstances leave the coffee sitting on the 'keep warm' element function that invariably accompanies these machines.  Coffee must be made and consumed as a fresh product.  You will turn even the most exclusive of freshly ground micro lot coffee into the most horrid treacly tar if you leave it sitting on the keep warm function for as little as half an hour.  Other than that, keep the machine clean, and it is perfectly capable of making you some very fine coffee with a minimum of fuss and minimal capital outlay.  Ideal for families and small workplaces that do not wish to make a significant investment in coffee equipment, but do enjoy fine coffee.