great coffee maker, great value, May 16, 2011

By 

Daniel R. Jackson “Rupert68″ (Trusville, Alabama) – See all my reviews

  

My old coffee maker broke and I went looking for a new one, I had a limit. I was reading reviews of coffee makers and one reviewer said something like, “hot water poured over grounds, why spend a fortune”? I realized the reviewer was right; that really is all there is to drip coffee makers. This pot serves HOT coffee but no scalded taste and keeps the coffee hot on the warmer. I did notice the coffee was not as hot after the first cup but it’s still on the hot side of warm. Read the instructions to set up the auto maker function, it’s not intuitive. The water pours in easily on either side of the grounds basket. For me if there is one negative thing it’s that when you poor the water in you must pull the unit out from under the overhead cabinets, the water reservoir lid in the up position won’t fit under the cabinet. It’s cheaper at Wal-Mart.

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Love, Love, Love – Simple and Functional!, November 26, 2011

I bought this coffee maker when our Mr. Coffee maker quit working after 6 months. I was very skeptical to purchase another “simple” coffee maker and did a lot of research on more expensive options. Ultimately, I purchased this maker because I needed my morning coffee and was willing to invest in a cheaper model while I finished my research on my “dream” coffee maker. We’ve been using this maker for about 2 weeks and I am very impressed! We make one pot of coffee each day and the sneak-a-cup feature works perfectly…. no leaks whatsoever! My husband used to dribble coffee all over the counter with the previous maker, but this one hasn’t leaked during pouring at all! I also love the shower style water spout. Other makers I’ve owned had a movable spout that seemed to always be in the way. It brews coffee quickly and the flavor is quite good too! It’s simple to program and the 2 hour auto shutoff is the ideal timeframe for our family. Plus, it keeps the coffee hot enough for the full 2 hours so that, even with cream added, the temperature is perfect for drinking.

I’ve postponed my search for a more expensive maker because this little dream machine is already meeting my needs! Thank you Black and Decker for making a simple and functional coffee maker!!!

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Great value! Easy to use, Good coffee, December 28, 2011

After having 2 expensive Cuisinart DCC-1200 coffee makers die, I needed a replacement. I found this one locally for an amazingly low price. The unit is smaller than the Cuisinart, and easier to use. It is easy to fill with water and coffee. Even though it is not shown as a feature, it does have an automatic shut off after 2 hours. It does have a clock and programmable timer so you can wake to brewed coffee. There is no audible alert to tell you the coffee is brewed, or shutting off, but that really seemed unnecessary anyway. It’s pretty easy to tell when it stops brewing.

As for the quality of the brewed coffee, so far so good. I do think that the Cuisinart was a little better, but it may be too soon to really say, it has only been used for 2 pots of coffee so far.

Others seem to complain about the pot dripping when pouring, this is NOT true, this thing doesn’t spill a drop. It is actually better in this regard than the Cuisinart that it replaced. So unless you are a gorilla, I can’t see how you will have a problem. Really, it has maybe half a drop at most left on the spout. You can tap it into the cup if you like, or just leave it, it is not even enough to drip. There are many reviews on Amazon for this and the essentially identical similar models complaining about how horrible it drips, and how their whole counter if filled with coffee. Either they are gorillas, or they are simply writing negative reviews for some reason. It absolutely lives up to the drip free claims, it works, and works well.

I can’t speak for the long term reliability of the product as I just got it last night and made coffee with it the first time this morning. However, while it would be a major inconvenience if it died, I could buy 8 or 9 of them for the cost of the Cuisinart! It cost less than the “free” warranty replacement from Cuisinart would have.

The nearly identical DLX1050B was rated a best buy by a major consumer ratings magazine.

Some of the few negatives:

1. It didn’t come with a permanent “gold” filter. This was pretty minor and I picked up one at the store the same time I bought the coffee maker for less than . There are several available on Amazon. Just choose the basket type, not the cone/Mellita style.

2. No back up power for the clock at all. If the lights blink, even briefly the clock will reset. The Cuisinart would withstand outages of at least a few seconds which covered the occasional light blink during a storm. The best was my old Braun that would work for almost half an hour without power, but sadly Braun doesn’t have coffee makers anymore it seems otherwise I would buy it instantly.

3. No adjustments for brew strength, pot warmer temperature, or option for 4 cups or less, or turn off time. None of these seem a big problem, on coffee makers that had these features I left them at the nominal setting anyway. The small pot brew option I did use a few times, but I also expect that it will brew a small pot just fine without that option.

4. No water filter. For me this was of no value as I use filtered water to fill the coffee maker anyway. If you use only tap water this could be a bigger deal though. Keep in mind though that the coffee makers that do have filters have fairly small, expensive filters that will need to be replaced. An external filter is probably cheaper in the long run, and you can use if for more than just coffee. The filter is also a source of failure as well. The Cuisinart had a filter, and even though I filled the coffee maker with water from an Reverse Osmosis filter, the filter ended up getting clogged with coffee grounds from the times that it overflowed from the brew basket into the water compartment and needed replacement. I will note too that there is much more space between the brew compartment and the water reservoir so even if the brew compartment did overflow it is less likely to fill the reservoir with coffee grounds.

5. After only 2 pots it is soon to tell, but I do think that the Cuisinart coffee tasted a little better.

6. The appearance is fine to myself and my wife. This unit is a glossy black plastic with a some shiny silver trim. It is also available in white. To us, this looks just fine, certainly not something to be ashamed of in any way. However the Cuisinart was available in a Stainless look and a Black Chrome look. I actually had one of each color. When clean they were attractive, but both, especially the Black Chrome showed every finger print, even spot of water, anything, so in real use it didn’t look good all the time. I expect that the glossy plastic will show finger prints and smudges as well, but nothing like the Black Chrome of the Cuisinart. While it may not look nearly as attractive, textured plastic solves all of these issues, but most coffee makers tend to be shiny.

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