I use a Melitta Clarity with a few mods. In stock form it received good marks (in fact I believe it had SCAA's seal of approval), but with a few mods it's truly a wonder. The only thing about it that I still don't like is its glass carafe.
I did the mod to close the big water holes and drilled 1/8" holes around the periphery of the dispersion plate to get better water dispersion over the grounds.
Here's a mod I just came up with: Cut a piece of foam and install it as shown, using RTV silicon sealant to secure it in place. Poke an instant read thermometer through the reservoir lid into the water. Here's how it works; Keep the brew lid open until the water reservoir temp reaches 100?F (or whatever you prefer), then lower the lid for brewing. Doing this I get the following readings at the dispersion plate;
1st 2 ozs @ 194?
2 - 4 ozs @ 200?
4+ ozs @ 202? - 205?.
Keeping the lid up reroutes brew water back into the reservoir, preheating the brew water. This raises the temp at the start of the brew cycle. Lowering the brew lid pushes the foam dam out of the way and the water flows normally. I've been using this mod for a week now & it seems to work very well. I'll post an update later.
