Coffee and Caffeine FAQ

Daniel, I think you're doing your visitors a disservice by leaving the perc description here so biased and uniformly negative. As the earliest comments in the threads indicate, a good percolator - particularly the simple electric perc available from department stores - does not boil the coffee and does not cycle it endlessly through the grounds. I have one of these percs that I bought after years of suffering with mediocre coffee from drip machines and being only marginally satisfied with the output of my moka pot and french press. The perc was a revelation! It brews a smooth, complex cup, and the design ensures that it won't produce the burnt garbage coffee that a stovetop perc pot will do if left unattended.
This is an important consideration! If your experience with percolated coffee is based on someone using a stovetop perc pot but paying poor attention to the process, then you haven't had properly prepared percolated coffee. It's the equivalent of leaving a moka pot on the stove to boil. That coffee will be lousy too, but it's not the fault of the brew method. Perc coffee was the standard cup in America for a long time for a reason! Done properly, it's amazingly smooth and delicious.
 
The electric percolator pot has a brew cycle that works quite well; it first heats up the water to just under boiling and percs it through the basket. On my 4-cup farberware percolator, this happens quickly, with a brew cycle of about 5 minutes. Then it throttles back the heat quickly, stopping the brew cycle entirely, but keeping the pot warm. 
Don't knock this brew method until you have tried it. It's outstanding, and a much better alternative to most drip machines. You're doing yourself a disservice by dismissing a very viable brew method based on bad implementations you've been exposed to in the past. Try it again, and you will see.