Description
The Mr. Coffee SK12-RB is about as plain as a coffee maker gets, and that is the argument for it. A switch, a carafe, a reusable basket filter and a water window. The listing has been in the catalog since July 2009 and is not flagged as discontinued, which for a design this simple usually means the parts and carafes are still easy to find. It is also one of the more scrambled records on this site, and the specification block needs reading with a skeptical eye.
What it is and where it fits
This is a countertop drip machine for a household that wants a pot of coffee in the morning and nothing else. The listing gives the footprint as 9.2 inches deep by 12.3 inches wide by 13.6 inches high and the weight as 3.6 pounds, which is light enough to move to the sink for filling rather than carrying water to it. At under 14 inches tall it will fit under most wall cabinets, though the lid has to open, so the usable clearance is more than the height figure suggests.
Carafe capacity is the thing the listing never states. The model designation SK12 points at a twelve cup pot, and the closely related Mr. Coffee SK13-RB on this site is described as a twelve cup machine, but the specification block for this listing does not confirm a capacity anywhere. Anyone sizing this against a household should check the carafe markings rather than trust the page.
Living with it day to day
The daily routine has three steps: fill from the water window, put grounds in the basket, press the switch. Three of the four features on this listing exist to make that routine less annoying. Grab A Cup Auto Pause stops the flow while the carafe is lifted, so a mug can be poured before the pot finishes. The Dual Water Window puts a fill gauge on both sides of the tank, which matters when the machine is pushed into a corner and only one side is visible. The Lift and Clean filter basket comes out as a unit so grounds go straight into the trash.
What it does not have is worth naming just as clearly. There is no timer and no clock, so it cannot start before anyone is awake. There is no brew strength control and no thermal carafe, so the pot sits on a hot plate and keeps cooking after brewing finishes, which is what turns a good pot bitter by the second hour. A household that wants coffee that still tastes right at nine in the morning should be looking at a thermal carafe machine like the Zojirushi EC-YTC100 instead. Noise is not published, though a machine with no grinder and no pump is dominated by the sound of the boiler, which is brief.
Controls and connected features
The interface field says buttons and the special feature field says manual. In practice that means one power switch with an indicator light. There is no screen, no menu, no app, no Wi Fi, no Bluetooth and no account. Nothing here can be discontinued by a server shutdown, nothing needs updating, and the machine will work identically in ten years as long as the heating element does.
That simplicity is genuinely the product. For anyone who has watched a connected appliance lose app support, a machine whose entire control surface is a rocker switch is not a downgrade. The trade is that everything the machine does, it does the same way every time, with no adjustment. If brew strength control matters, the Bella programmable drip maker adds it and a 24 hour timer for a similar amount of counter space.
Running cost and upkeep
The listing records voltage as 110. That is the legacy way of writing the North American nominal supply, which is 120 volts today, and it means the same thing in practice: a standard plug in appliance on a standard kitchen outlet. There is no water line, no drain, no gas and no venting. Wattage and amperage are not published, so the rating plate is the authority if the circuit is already loaded.
The consumable picture is unusually good. The filter type field says reusable and the special features list includes a permanent filter, so paper filters are optional rather than required. That removes the only recurring cost most drip machines have. What remains is descaling, which every machine that boils water needs, and the frequency depends entirely on local water hardness. No descaling schedule is published here. The glass carafe is the part most likely to need replacing, and on a design that has been sold since 2009 replacements are widely available.
Two data faults are worth naming rather than repeating. The coffee maker type field says Moka Pot, which this is not. A moka pot is a stovetop pressure brewer with no electrical element, and this is a drip machine with a hot plate. The included components field, meanwhile, contains what look like category breadcrumbs rather than a list of parts. Both are import errors.
Highlights
- Permanent reusable filter included, so paper filters are optional and the running cost is close to nothing.
- Auto pause lets a cup be poured mid brew without spilling onto the hot plate.
- Water gauges on both sides, which is more useful than it sounds on a machine in a corner.
- Lift out filter basket that empties in one motion.
- Sold since 2009 and not discontinued, so carafes and parts remain easy to source.
Things To Consider
- No clock, no timer and no programmable start. It brews when the switch is pressed.
- Glass carafe on a hot plate, which keeps cooking the coffee after brewing ends.
- Carafe capacity is not published anywhere on the listing, despite the model number implying twelve cups.
- The coffee maker type field says Moka Pot, which is simply wrong for a drip machine.
- The included components field contains category breadcrumbs instead of an actual parts list, and the UPC field holds two different numbers.
- No brew strength control, no thermal carafe and no water filter.
Who it is not for
This is not the machine for anyone who wants coffee waiting at a set time, and not the machine for anyone who cares how the last cup of the pot tastes. It is also wrong for a one person household, where twelve cups is a waste and something like a four cup Elite Gourmet brewer or a compact Mecity single mug machine makes far more sense. Anyone who wants pods, iced coffee modes or an app should look through the wider coffee machines category, because none of that exists here and none of it is coming in a firmware update.
