 A fantastic coffee maker. |
| Review Date: August 12, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Michael Stack, North Chelmsford, MA USA |
I have to say, I'm more than a little confused by the negative feedback this coffee maker seems to be receiving as we've had quite the opposite experience with it-- in fact, we've been nothing short of ecstatic with its functioning. It's a bit counterintuitive at first, but once you get a feel for its system, this is a nice little pot.
My wife and I were committed to buying a suit-all-our-needs coffee maker right after our wedding, and after substantial research, we came up with this unit.
After witnessing my brother and his wife with their grinder/brewer combination, I was filled with envy-- I hate grinding coffee. The CoffeeTEAM combines a burr grinder with the brewer, grinding into a filter basket (with an included conical permenant coffee filter) on a spring mechanism which then swings to allow hot water to be forced through the beans.
Both the beans and water are top loaded into their chambers-- the bean chamber holds enough for about 18 cups of coffee, the water reservoir holds enough for 10 cups and has a cover that flips up that rests on top of the filter basket when it's used for brewing.
The grinder has a handful of sizes you can adjust the grind to-- I've kept mine fairly large as I've been using fairly oily coffee. The beans are ground and deposited into this little chamber. This next triggers a series of springs that push the grounds into the filter basket and swings the basket to receive water.
A few points about this process-- some residual beans are left in the little chamber after the grinding. These are used for the next pot of coffee-- I discovered early on if you clean this out, the next pot will be noticably weak (they warn you the first pot will be weak in the manual, but forget to mention this-- I suspect this is why one of the other reviewers had trouble with coffee being too weak). There's a thin piece of hard plastic with a rubber washer in the middle that fits over the top of the filter basket-- this MUST be fitted evenly and the rubber washer MUST be snugly attached. Additionally, the water reservoir must be down when you push the basket to the grinder. Not doing any of these will result in the spring mechanism not swinging the basket properly-- it took me a few tries to get this right, but there was no mess made and it was more a learning curve than anything else (the good news is that if the basket doesn't swing back, a fail-safe stops the brewing process).
The coffee is brewed into a thermal carafe which must be lined up carefully to prevent spillage-- I've yet to have this spill due to line up problems and I'm pretty impatient, it's not a hard process. We haven't tested to see how long it keeps coffee hot for, but it's at least 3-4 hours. My wife takes her coffee a couple hours after brewing and has no complaints about temperature or degraded taste.
Controls are pretty straight forward, there's two buttons and a knob that serves as a third button. The knob is used to program everything-- for both on-demand and timer-triggered brewing you can set number of cups to brew and strength, the clock, and the time to kick off brewing. The top button starts the brewing process immediately, the bottom button sets the timer-trigger brewing.
You can override the grinding by not swinging the filter basket over in case you want flavored beans, etc. I've not done this. Additionally, removing the carafe during brewing allows you to pour yourself a cup from the carafe, saving those goofy slide-the-carafe-out-and-cup-in games. I just revised my review concerning this functionality as I used it for the first time this morning-- it is flawless-- carafe comes out, coffee stops, carafe goes back in, coffee restarts. Finally, the last feature of the coffee pot is a "descale" warning to indicate when you need to clean the coffee pot. In a previous review, I said this was missing, but it just came on for our maker.
All the coffee we've made tastes superb-- admittedly, I've been starting with good beans, first what we brought back from our honeymoon in Hawai'i and then from a favorite coffeehouse near where I grew up, but it's as good as any coffeemaker I've used.
Cleanup has been pretty easy so far-- we've had the maker maybe six weeks and the carafe has a wide mouth when you remove the lid so it's easy to clean (something I've hated in other carafes). The filter basket and associated components all come out and are easy to wash. I do wish the bean container could be removed, but so far, I've just been wiping oil deposits down per recommendations. The burrs are not accessible, so there's no way to clean then other than grinding no beans per recommendations.
Things I wish the maker had: a large bean container-- I'd love to have a unit that could just fit a half pound or a pound of beans-- I'm constantly having to pour more beans into it. This is a minor annoyance. Somewhat more lacking is a water filter-- my last coffee maker had this and it was a nice feature-- I've gotten around this by pouring filtered water into it, so again this is a small complaint.
None of these shortcomings are big enough to make me regret purchasing the unit, even at its price, it's served us well for the past several weeks and the coffee it makes it consistently fantastic. |
Also surprised by the negative comments....
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| Review Date: September 1, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Stuart, |
I bought this coffee maker recently as I was looking for an all in one unit that allowed me to automatically brew coffee every morning. After reading the negative reviews I held off my decision to buy for a while and then decided to purchase and boy am I glad I bought this baby.
I am extremely happy with this unit. My ONLY negative comment is that the Strong coffee setting results in coffee that is a little wealer than I like. It would have been nice for Capresso to include a feature for over riding the nominal coffee strength settings. Still, you can get around this by selecting strong setting, and 10 coffee cup servings and only filling water resovoir to 8 or 6 cups.
Yes, this unit is a little more complicated than a standard drip coffee maker so you will have to have sufficient intelligence to read the manual and absorb the material. I have had no problem with the grinding, filter basket movement or brewing issues described in earlier reivews. It all works perfectly IF YOU READ THE MANUAL AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.
This machine meets all my needs. I can set timer and fill water container in the evening and wake up to freshly brewed great tasting coffeee in the morning. The thermal carafe actually keeps the coffee hot for 4 hours or longer without scalding the coffee like standard coffee machines. The best part is that it takes less than 30 seconds to clean the gold filter, filter holder and carrafe. The grinder is removed from the brewing and so is not contaminated by steam like some of the cheaper units.
All in all this unit meets all my expectations and I am extremely happy I purchased it.
After using this coffee maker for a couple of weeks I am still very happy with it BUT I have to admit that the placement of the filter basket, filter and filter cover are very finnicky. You must have them positioned just right otherwise the basket will not swing back and lock under hot water spout. I think a lot of the problem is from these parts being maunfactured from plastic. One other thing to do to make sure you don't end up with coffee all over the counter is to ensure the caraffe lid is on tight before brewing! |
Great! Fresh! Hot! Coffee
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| Review Date: January 24, 2007 |
| Reviewer: K. Mercier, |
After reading a lot of negative reviews, I was nervous to try this out. I have a commercial espresso machine and grinder and am very particular about my coffee. Usually all-in-one deals are just ok, however I'm glad I bought this one. I think a lot of the disparity in reviews may have to do with the type of roasted bean used. For example we started with a darker, more oily bean and had mediocre results on strength but when we switched to a lighter roasted bean (which has more caffeine BTW), it was like night and day.
1. Read the instructions and it's very easy to use.
2. If you like strong coffee, you will need to "trick" it by adding less water - However the "trick" works wonderfully. We set it on 10 cups, strongest setting, finest grind, and fill it with 8 cups of water.
3. It doesn't leak, or create a mess as other reviews suggest. Those problems may be related to "user" error.
4. The first pot is WEAK - do at least one test run so when you really need it to be strong, you've got it to where you like it.
5. The thermous keeps coffee much hotter than any glass caraffe/warmer plate I've ever used. Because of this you can bring it to the table rather than having to go back to the machine every time you want a refill.
6. TIP: Good beans equal good coffee. Store your beans in a cool, dry place (No, not the freezer). Try and buy beans that have been roasted recently. We use Illy beans - they're not cheap but are vaccuum-sealed so they don't lose flavor while sitting on the shelf at the store or in Starbucks.
7. TIP: Use good water (this machine has no filtration). 99% of your cup of coffee is water. If your refrigerator has a filter, get your water from there. You'll notice a difference in taste immediately, regardless of what machine you have.
8. TIP: Warm up your mug. If you have an Insta-hot tap on your sink fill up your mug with hot water to pre-warm it. Pouring hot coffee into a cold mug will get you less than hot coffee. You'd be suprised how long your coffee will stay hot, if your mug is warm to begin with.
Overall, the taste is unbelievably fresh and the machine is easy to use and clean. |
The best coffee maker I have owned
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| Review Date: October 3, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Ronald Edwards, Gardena, CA United States |
I agree with so many others: this is the best home coffee maker. One does need to read the manual carefully. As Michael Stack on Aug. 12, 2006 says in his review, "...it's a bit counter intuitive." His review was most helpful in my decision. I have a Cuisinart coffee maker with the grinder. It was always a pain to clean and put back together daily. This is easy to clean and quick. The aroma flows through the house when brewing, and wakes me in the morning. Coffee is delicous compared to the Cuisinart.
Aug 2007: I have had this coffee brewer for 10 months. After reading all the 1-3 stars, I must respond. Yes, it took me several days to get up and running properly:using proper alignment, adding the larger capacity bean holder, descaling every several months, cleaning the top with descaler, and reading and re-reading the manual until I got it. The flavor is consitant, and strong enough for me, and my friends said it is too strong. I added a red nail polish to the black dot on the lid for easier ID. I broke the handle on the basket, and they sent one, at no charge, immediatly. I repaired the orginal with small brass screws. Works great, and I haven't use the new one. I use paper filters. Once again I would give it 5 stars. Advice: be patient, read these reviews, and the manual. I take this as an instrument, and treat it as that, and not an ordinary coffee maker.
A couple of things that gave me a problem: 1. The black dot on the carafe should have a colored dot, it would make it easier to see. 2. The handle on the filter basket should be better attached to the body. Possibly with small rivits. There are 2 small plastic, molded outcroppings that hold it. I accidently, when washing it, broke them both off when placing it to drain. It was upside down and I gently pushed it out of the way. I drilled a tiny hole in the side, and fitted 2 brass screws into it, and cut them to size. Filed them and peened with a small hammer to make it fit close to the side. It works fine. I had ordered the bean extender, and mentioned it to customer service, and the are sending me a new one...
I highly recommend all who buy this wonderful coffee maker, to read Michael Starks excellent review, several times before brewing. |
$$$ well spent
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| Review Date: January 12, 2007 |
| Reviewer: ***, Addison, IL |
Before buying this coffeemaker I had read quite a few reviews on it and was in result very hesitant to make the purchase. Luckily for me one of the reviews was really positive and it indicated that people who have trouble with this machine simply are not following instructions. I took a chance and I am really happy I did. This is a very good machine, does what it is supposed to do and I would never go back to my old coffeemaker. Me and my coffee have received compliments from my guests on multiple occassions. All those reviews stating that you cannot get strong coffee out of this machine are wrong. Me and my friends, we like our coffee strong and I have had no trouble at all getting the right strenght. All you have to do is follow instructions and you'll see for yourself. If you wish, you can always use less water. Play with it a little and you will achieve the desired result. I usually make coffee using 1/2 cup less water than indicated. My machine is always set at 8 cups, grinder set at "finest" and I use 7 1/2 cups of water. Coffee that comes out is strong and full of flavor and thank to the thermal carafe it never tastes like it is burned. For the money spent I got me a wonderful machine and you should, too.
One thing I would suggest to everyone buying this Capresso is get an optional container that can hold more beans so you don't have to refill it as often as with the one coming as standard with the machine. It costs $10.00 and it is truly worth the investment.
Enjoy your coffee! |
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