I was excited when I got the new coffee machine because I was going to use permanent coffee filters instead of paper ones. I had even read the Amazon reviews and found that the Mr. Coffee filter worked well but the Medelco filter had holes too large and made weak coffee. The day after we bought our new cofffee machine I logged on to Amazon to order the Mr. Coffee filter and was horrified to find that it was out of stock! I checked every day for a few days to see if it would be re-stocked but it never was. I also went to local stores, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. but they did not have the size I needed (4-5 cup basket filter).
I looked all over the internet to find other brands of 4 cup permanent coffee filters and finally ordered what appeared to be a no-name filter from some anonymous online store. It took 2 weeks to get here! When it did, it turned out it was a Medelco! Doh!
And the reviewers were right, the Medelco made weak coffee. It was pretty bad. The day I received the Medelco filter in the mail, the Mr. Coffee filter went back in stock on Amazon! Oh, the irony.
Before I was able to go ahead and order the Mr. Coffee filter, we happened to go by Green Living this weekend. There I found canvas coffee filters in many different sizes, so I bought one. So far, I really like it. It makes great coffee. It does say that it lasts only about a year instead of indefinitely. But, I can buy it locally and I think that maybe organic cotton or canvas might take less energy to produce and there fore be more renewable than something bad of plastic and vinyl and metal.