Coffee & Espresso Makers Tips

A great coffee maker Cuisinart DCC 1000 12 Cup Coffee Maker When the carafe on our older Braun broke, we decided it was time for a new coffeemaker. I spent time on this site...

Very disappointed with this coffeemaker Cuisinart DCC 1000 12 Cup Coffee Maker I paid 79.99 for the coffee maker at my local Lowe's store (and looking at websites, it appears that I overpaid), ...

Here at the Weyr, coffee is considered a morning essential when Bill is home on leave. He really needs that jolt of caffeine in the morning to be able to interact with the rest of us in an acceptable manner.

Consequently, when our Krups coffee maker bought the big one, quite suddenly one morning in December, I decided that I had better get a replacement before the end of January and Bill’s return home. Personally, I am fond of the French press for my morning stimulant. It makes just the right amount for me and I can vary the strength as I please. Bill, on the other hand, prefers to make 12 cups at a time and will pretty much do in the pot in about two hours.

FRUGALITY - A POSITIVE CHARACTER TRAIT

Being of the frugal persuasion, I immediately started looking around for good deals online. A “good deal” generally entails at least one if not all of the following criteria: substantially discounted price, free shipping, MyPoints, and a quality brand.

I had just received a MyPoints announcement for free shipping and bonus points for a purchase at SmartBargains.com so I was already on the right track. All I needed to do was find a suitable coffee maker to cash in and become a happy consuming Dragon.

CUISINART - GENERALLY A NAME TO CONJUR WITH

The Cuisinart® DCC-1000 Programmable Filter Brew 12-Cup Coffeemaker immediately caught my eye. At that time it was available in red, blue, black, and white. Currently it is only offered in black and white. I wanted a friendly red one, easy to spot in the dim dawn light, but had to settle for blue, a nice enough color, but hard to see in the dark.

Over the years I have come to expect a great deal from Cuisinart. I managed to get nearly six years out of my very first Cuisinart Food Processor (an early model) and still own the second one, well into its second decade. I have come to expect quality and durability from this brand.

SmartBargains.com was selling the Cuisinart® DCC-1000 for $49.99, less than half the suggested retail price of $110.00. Never, in my wildest nightmare, would I agree to pay such a princely sum for any coffee maker unless it also did the marketing and cleaning up. However, for just about fifty bucks, free shipping, and 300 bonus points added to my MyPoints account, how could I not?

FIVE DAYS LATER

Our new Cuisinart® DCC-1000 arrived via UPS five days later and I immediately unpacked it and set about brewing up a cup of coffee. This model comes with a charcoal filter element that must be rinsed and installed in the special filter compartment on the left side of the appliance. I did that and ran a full pot of water through to clean out the residue left from the factory.

The Cuisinart® DCC-1000 also comes with a small package of #4 paper filters, a permanent gold removable filter basket, and a scoop for measuring coffee. Incidentally, the scoop holds one tablespoon of coffee, in case you ever lose yours.

This model includes a clock and is easily programmable for both start and automatic turn off times. The clock is digital and is fairly easy to set after briefly perusing the directions. Remember, however, that if the power goes out in the night the time will go to 12, just like a VCR, and if your pot was set to come on at 6 A.M., it won’t. Another thing to remember is that if you allow the pot to turn off automatically after an hour or three, you MUST turn the switch to Off and back to Auto On if you expect to have coffee in the morning.

Naturally there are the usual bits of confusion about A.M. and P.M. and the indicator is small and difficult to see at first. Make sure, when you initially set up your Cuisinart® DCC-1000 and every time it is unplugged or you suffer a power outage, that you have reset the time correctly for either morning or afternoon.

IT’S COFFEE TIME!

The Cuisinart® DCC-1000 and pretty much every coffee pot I have ever owned, recommends using a scoop of grounds for every six-ounce cup of coffee you plan to brew. This seems like an enormous quantity of coffee and, in fact, it is. Even Cuisinart doesn’t expect most purchasers to use that much because if you do, the filter basket is slightly over-full when making a twelve-cup pot.

We like our coffee strong at the Weyr, the kind of potent brew that leaps out of the cup and pries your eyelids open before you even take the first sip. My first pot was only six cups and I had no problem fitting six scoops of coffee into the filter basket. I noticed, however, that the #4 paper filters were slightly too large and need fiddling to fit properly.

I filled the pot to slightly above the six-cup mark (to allow for loss in the grounds) and poured the water into the reservoir on the right side. There is a clear gauge with a red float visible on the outside so you can double-check the quantity of water. Then I inserted a clean paper filter, added six scoops of coffee, closed the lid, placed the carafe under the drip mechanism, closed the lid, and turned the switch to the On position.

The Cuisinart® DCC-1000 takes about five minutes to drip six cups of coffee. There is a little gizmo above the carafe that stops the coffee from dripping into the pot if you just can’t wait for the cycle to finish on its own. Left to its own devices the coffeemaker will emit a tone, audible several rooms away, when the coffee is ready to drink.

The auto-brew function is useful and easy to set up. Simply program the start time, load the coffeemaker with fresh water and coffee grounds, and turn the switch to Auto On. Remember, if you are in the habit of using this coffeemaker in auto-brew mode, you must turn the switch to Off and back to Auto On before walking away from it. If you don’t, the coffeemaker will not start brewing automatically.

SOME MINOR QUIBBLES

As mentioned above, the filter basket seems over-full with twelve scoops of coffee and the #4 paper filters don’t quite fit. The coffee still brews perfectly well but it can be messy removing the spent grounds later. With Bill away, I have been making only four to six cups at a time and am using the #2 paper filters. These fit perfectly without any fiddling and I already had a box of them on hand from a defunct smaller coffeemaker.

Cuisinart is perfectly aware that the filter basket is slightly on the small side and suggest folding the #4 paper filter to fit properly. I see this as poor design.

The other design flaw involves pouring in the water. There is a water-filter on the left side of the machine and the water has to be poured into a very small opening on the right side. I find that the cover does not get far enough out of the way to facilitate easy pouring from the carafe. If you are in a hurry it is easy to spill water on the counter or into the grounds. It would probably be easier and neater to use a pitcher to add water to the coffeemaker but then you would have to use two containers instead of just the carafe.

I expect a little more than delicious coffee from a coffeemaker that has a suggested retail price of $110.00. I don’t think it is too much to expect all the parts to fit properly without folding and that it be neat and easy to add water. For these reasons I have taken the Cuisinart® DCC-1000 down to three stars.

THE DRAGON HUMBLY SUGGESTS

The Cuisinart® DCC-1000 makes a great cup of coffee and keeps it hot until you drink that last bit or it turns off automatically. However, it is very expensive and does have a few unforgivable design flaws. I expect more from a Cuisinart appliance than adequate performance.

If you can get it for around fifty bucks with free shipping, then you might be well enough satisfied, especially if you seldom make a full twelve cups of coffee. I would not suggest that anyone pay even close to full price for this coffeemaker, as there are many others, as good or better, for less money. I recommend it with these caveats.

© 2003 Pamela Matlack Klein

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