Coffee & Espresso Makers Tips

Incredibly Disappointing Cuisinart DGB 500 12 Cup Coffee Maker I love/need a good cup of coffee in the morning, and so the idea of a grind and brew all-in-one coffee maker seeme...

Cuisinart DGB-500 12-Cup Coffee Maker Product Technical Detailsdgb500 Key FeaturesTypeCoffee MakerBuilt-in Water FilterW...

This is the second time I am trying to update this - Netscape keeps crashing - which is another story.

This model (I actually have the white, but there is no difference by color) makes up to 12 cups, though I’d guess that if you try it full there would be a large mess. About 8 cups take about 5 minutes. There a 1-4 cup option which takes longer about 10 minutes - and makes stronger coffee - which I like - it also has more tendency to spew grounds. One nice feature is that since the carafe is glass you can program the machine to shut off immediately after brewing - and not have over cooked coffee - just nuke it later - or up to four hours later. You can use preground coffee - there’s a button the preclude grinding during brewing. The grinding sound rises from normal loud to air raid siren piercing, but the latter is not terribly loud. It can’t be heard two floors away in our house. The machine has a goldtone filter which can be used alone or replaced with paper filters. We find you need both to keep grounds out of the coffee, but you must use the smaller size of the paper basket filter if you do that. There is also a replaceable charcoal water filter, but I have not been able to find the replacements anywhere including Cuisinart online. {UPDATE - 5/13/03 - Cuisinart has provided me with the information on how to order these.}

I have two of these now. The first model I bought from Nieman’s as soon as it was available to replace the older and larger grind and brew which was getting grounds into the coffee and sometimes leaking after a number of years. First thing, the dishwasher “safe” carafe broke the first time in the dishwasher. Never tried that again - always wash by hand - a pain. Nieman’s replaced it - I couldn’t buy another because Cuisinart had brought the product to market with no replacements available even though the machine will not work without the proper carafe. So Nieman’s had to take a carafe from a new machine.

Then the grinding part began to drip a thick coffee liquid into the works and over things as it was removed or taken to be washed. Grounds started getting into the coffee. Went to Kitchen Etc and bought another machine on the idea that the first was a fluke. Worked for about a month and a half. Then same problem even handling things with great care, except that now sometimes it also spews grounds all over the interior.

I have an email in to Cuisinart customer service, but no response so far. When I hear, if I do, you will, too. [UPDATE: Cuisinart customer service returned my email in less than a week, but so far all they have done is to request the model and serial numbers because - apparently - registering with one part of customer service does not provide information which is accessible to another part.][UPDATED UPDATE - 5/13/03 - I sent Cuisinart the following email: Thank you so much. I have two things to tell you. First, I bought a Melitta Grind and Brew machine because it had won a design prize and was highly recommended. I am sticking with the Cuisinart. The Melitta got grounds (not much, but some) into the carafe, no matter which grinding level (there are 7 choices) I picked. Moreover, the coffee did not taste as good. Most important, the mechanism that holds the grounds is also the grinder and cannot be put in the dishwasher; my wife feared getting cut when cleaning it by hand. Good machine - but not for everyone, and not for me.

Second, I got the parts you sent today - thank you so much. One question - did you mean only to send one grinder cover when you sent two of everything else ?

Finally, I must tell you how impressed I am with the level of service you have provided me. I do not know if we will solve the problems, but I do know that you have tried your best and gone way beyond what would normally be expected. From now on, Cuisinart will be the first place I look for an appliance. I hope your supervisor reads this and you get a bonus.]

Also the mechanism to stop brewing coffee from pouring into the carafe so you can get a cup before the machine has cycled works only sporadically and sometimes drips on its own. More extra cleanups. The coffee tastes great, but what a pain. [UPDATE - 5/13/03 - We’re going to put up with the pain - even if Cuisinart’s help does not solve the problem, the lengths to which they have gone are impressive and have pacified me. And I have not found anything comparable that makes better tasting coffee. So I am now switching my recommendation to recommended. Perhaps, no pain no gain.]

2/12/06 Update to the Updated Update - We have now had two of these machines since I wrote the above [if you’re keeping track, a total of 4.] In general use, we learned to live with and almost love them. However, shortly after the warrantee expired (a year), so did the first (actually the third) unit’s electric control panel. Nothing could be set (time, self-turn-off etc.) and the buttons wouldn’t work - in essence the machine was brain-dead, random numbers popping up on the LED. We pulled the plug. However, since we couldn’t find anything better and we had grown accustomed to its face - it almost made the day begin - we simply bought another one. It was much better about getting grounds into the coffee, and, sometimes, for reasons I still cannot fathom, the cleanup was much less. On the other hand, over time, the loudness and tone of the grinder became truly bone-piercing, and one had to be very careful that the brewing chamber (which holds the the gold filter that we have always supplemented with a Melitta paper filter) was fully closed. On occasion, it would seem to be closed when during grinding - surprise ! - it opened up and sprayed grounds around a 3 to 5 foot radius. After a few of those, we got the hang of making sure it was truly closed - often, it has to be reopened and reclosed until it “snaps” in. For the next year and a half, we went back to our hum-drum existence. Then, last week, the machine stopped working. The buttons and settings were all fine, the grinder still ground, coffee still went to the correct filter area, but the machine stopped heating the water - at all. If the water is not heated, presumably another electrical fault, it won’t pump up and through the ground coffee. So you get nothing, no matter how long you leave the machine on. We have been careful on taking care of and cleaning the machine regularly, and it has been used at most once a day and often once every two or three days. Have now ordered a Capresso - we’ll see about that. NEW NEW Bottom Line: Good to very good machine, the details of whose quality vary, but whose electrical circuits do not seem to last more than about a year, maybe a year and a half.

Now, here’s the thing, given that the price on the Cuisinart is not unreasonable, getting really good coffee for more than a year before having to replace the machine may seem reasonable to many people - it almost seems that way to me - if the Capresso doesn’t work out, I’ll probably go back to the Cusinart. So I continue to rate it acceptable. It’s just that I now will have four of them in the garage waiting to be given to people handier than I am at fixing things.

A YEAR LATER - The Capresso Coffee Team S WholeLatteLove - 199.00.

Viva Capresso! Their machine has turned out to be reliable, to make great coffee, to be very easy to clean, and to be almost inoffensive in its loudness. I will write more soon, giving details, but we could not be more pleased.

5/22/07 - the old Capresso keeps on chugging along - nothing has broken - nothing has gone wrong - still makes great coffee - easy to clean - we use a melitta filter along with the provided gold-tone - keeps grounds out of the coffee and to clean you just pull out the melitta, toss it, and rinse the gold tone. We like strong coffee so we program the machine for ten cups but only use enough water for four or five. You can play with that setting, and there is another setting that allows you to choose three different levels of strength. The clock works and you can program the machine to make coffee at a pre-set time. The coffee mill works very well, and there is a large reservoir to hold several days - maybe a week’s coffee. You can adjust the grinding from coarse to fine. It’s a nice looking machine, though it does look a little weird when you have to swing out the arm into which the coffee goes (and then it returns to position automatically, the water goes through and it brews.)The Capresso is fast - you can have a cup in a minute of two or less. And when you remove the carafe while it is brewing, it does not make a mess. I worried about the swing out arm because it didn’t look that sturdy - had it for a year - no problem. It’s so reliable you forget that it’s there - it just becomes part of your daily routine - and the first cup of coffee out of the Capresso - just exactly what I want - utterly delicious - as it sits around during the day, like all coffee it loses something. So now - and bear with me soft-ball fans - I only make a cup or two at a time when I want my own coffee. The rest of the time - you guessed it - there’s a new machine in my life the Braun Tassimo which makes single cups of expresso, all the basic coffee types including decaf, a fine latter, nice tea, good hot chocolate and wonderful cappuccino. You take a little pod stick it in the machine close the machine, wait for the green light - the time varies from nothing to about a minute because the machine reads a barcode on each pod so it knows exctly what to do in terms of hear, water, pressure etc. When the green light goes on, you press the main button - the coffee comes out - there are some chugging and hissing sounds, but I kind of like them. For latte or cappuccino you have to use a second milk pod/disc. Clean up is easy - there are no grounds - just throw out the pod. Every so often you might want to stick all the moving parts - which all snap out easily - in the dishwasher. There is a kind of reservoir under the cup in which spare water drains and you have to dump that out every so often. The actual water reservoir is in the back - holds a lot and is easy to fill. The variety of choices is quite broad - although there is a main reliance on Gevalia - and any person who likes coffee or tea should be able to find something from Seatle’s Best or Twinings. The competitor to the Tassimo is the Keurig. When I decided to get the Tassimo (Amazon - about 150.00), it didn’t seem as if the Keurig made cappuccino or latte, but now it may do the former. The Keurig has the widest number of different coffees - the list is very impressive until you look at it more closely and observe that most of the choices are of “vanilla hazlenut raspberry” type, which I don’t like, but others may. Another advantage to the Keurig is that it has a reusable empty pod which allows you to put in your own blend or choice of ground coffee. For me, having the Capresso obviates that need, but it is a selling point. The Keurig is about 50.00 more than the Tassimo. I don’t know about the Keurig but the Tassimo web site sets up a club for regular free shipping pods - you certainly don’t have to join it. Tassimo Amazon Target etc. sell the pods and the Tassimo machine(which is compact and rather sleek.) The Tassimo pods only make a smallish mug - but they are introducing 12 once versions as I write. So, my bottom line: get a Capresso Coffee Team S and a Tassimo. You really won’t need (or want) anything else (unless you’re having a banquet.)

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