Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been writing coffeemaker reviews on Amazon for nearly 15 years. Consumer-grade grind-n-brew? Yeah, been there, done that. I recall one prior Cuisinart that I slammed for "near-total absence of venting and valving;" that one let steam into the grinder each brew cycle, requiring two paper towels to clean it per session. Another, a Krups, seemed to get the valving right with a rotary disc; but its blade grinder ground too coarsely and it broke a lot: after six months it had spent more time in repair (two trips!) than actually on my counter making coffee. And in addition, it leaked onto the countertop. I'm pretty happy with this Cuisinart, after using it daily for three months, and I'm going to write a little bit about what they got right. First of all. I don't usually drink 12 cups of coffee. 4 cups is my daily dose and I needed a machine that could brew that, hot and on time, and deliver it with the same quality found in the occasional 12-cup batch brewed for guests. This ruled out the plastic insulated carafe models. 4 cups of coffee into a 12 cup carafe - well, by the time the carafe warms up, your small volume of coffee is now lukewarm. It'll stay lukewarm - the carafe is insulated, right? But it'll never be hot. Yuck. This model, the 700BC, has a glass carafe that rests on a very conventional electric heating element. The coffee drips into a hot carafe and is kept hot; it gets sour after about 90 minutes and I think there's auto shutoff at the 3 hour mark. The carafe itself is nice to hold, nice to put together, holds tight through a dishwasher cycle (don't add extra heat, you'll melt the plastic top). My favorite of all: you can pour quickly, even past vertical, and the spout will not splash coffee everywhere. It is an anti-spill top and it makes it easy for me to direct coffee just where I want it, even before my first cup when I am not quite awake yet. I have yet to have a spill and am considering getting rid of the plastic tray that my last 10 years of coffee pots have needed to sit on! Now let's talk daily operation. Time is easy to set; program time is just as easy to set. The dials and lights are easily viewed from adult height. You get the choice to program a start time for grind-n-brew operation, or if you want to pre-load grounds the night before you can set it for 'grind off', that is, brew-only operation. Or if you want it to go immediately, you just press the button and you are off to the races. The grinder is a little bit loud; I can't hear it upstairs, but it definitely alerts my backyard bluejays that it's time to come and get their morning cashew. It's not painfully loud nor is it an unpleasant sound; it sounds like a coffee grinder. Grinding has a few settings: you set it for number of cups and mild, medium or strong. I have mine set on 4 cups and strong and it gives me a very consistent, predictable dose. The burr grinder is light-years ahead of the cheap blade grinders in other units; yet, inferior to a real pro burr grinder like my la Pavoni. On the grind chute: there's all kinds of people talking about cleaning the chute being a pain. Pro tip: don't bother. I think I've cleaned the chute twice. It's not necessary to clean the chute if you make coffee every day; you may get just a tiny bit of day-old grounds in your coffee. It doesn't plug up, at least not if your beans are fresh and dry. Assembly is easy. The grounds assembly is two parts: a normal basket filter holder (I use Melitta Basket Coffee Filters, Natural Brown) and a tight-fitting lid that has a spinny disc on it. After putting it together, you have to line up the disc properly with the housing when you close the door on the assembled filter holder. Now this disc has three holes, which are lined with a stretchy synthetic-rubber valve seal: one is for grinding, one is for dripping hot water, one is for sealing the aroma in. Works like a charm, no muss, no fuss, no moisture in the clear plastic bean hopper, ever. Easy to clean under a running sink; you'll know when it's clean because just the pressure of the water will spin the disc in either direction. And you can load the filter in wet and let it sit overnight, it'll work just as well as if you bothered to dry it. Cleanup takes 15 seconds; reloading is another 15 seconds; I usually let the grounds assembly drip dry in between. They can go in the dishwasher, but I don't bother. This is the first coffee maker where I've ever actually been pleased with the convenience and ease of this step. The hopper holds about a half-pound of beans. Its lock mechanism is a little fiddly but once you figure it out, no big deal. I like that the top is crystal clear so I can see my beautiful, oily beans; and yet it is moisture sealed, an excellent place to store beans. The clear plastic looks like it ought to scratch, but it hasn't yet. The brushed-steel and gloss black plastic surfaces are handsome and wipe down easily with a paper towel when necessary. Controls are firm, decisive, feel nice to use. The plug is a bit flimsy, my Breville appliances have spoiled me, but it is an adequate length. This is the part of the review where I talk about what I don't like. I had to stop and think; there isn't much. I am very happy with this machine. The door in the back where you pour the water in is a little narrow. You have to have good aim or you will miss. I have splashed a bit of water behind the coffee maker, maybe every day. No big deal. The machine is tall; I have standard height cabinets over a standard height counter and I have to pull the machine all the way to the front because there is not enough room to get the carafe in above the machine, yet below the cabinets. Again, no big deal; I can push it back again when the water is loaded in. I don't bother with the included charcoal filter because I have RO water. Durability is the last word. It's been working perfectly for about 90 days. If it breaks, I'll update this review. Until then, this coffee maker has my 100% recommendation; with no reservations. It is far and away the best daily coffee pot I have ever used, it beats the competition by a country mile. If mine went out of commission for some reason I'd buy another one tomorrow and I have recommended it to all my friends!