In defense of the Grind & Brew
Ye gads. I forgot all about the fierce partisanship amongst purchasers that this wee little machine invokes. Last year I dutifully combed through all of the reviews and was almost pursuaded to look to another machine. Thank the stars I was not. Like many I was won over by the lure of (1)the thermal carafe (2) the auto grind&brew feature and (3) the shininess. I also trusted the Cuisinart name and had been previously pleased with the Brew Central. I noted however that many writers were highly displeased with (4) the noise and (5) the mess. So after a year here are my experiences:
(1) The thermal carafe rocks out loud. Yes pre-heating the carafe seems to keep the coffee hotter for longer but on the crazy work-mornings that I use the auto-grind&brew function I do not pre-heat and find no need to as I am out of the house at light speed. Note that the coffee is still scaldingly hot. People seem irritated/perplexed at the slowness with which coffee is dispensed from the carafe as well as the steep pouring angles necessitated by the carafe. I am not at all disturbed by either; however a relative in need of immediate coffee discovered that one can get faster pouring by just removing the lid. Which defeats the awesome vacuum-packed thermal hotness but seems a likely remedy for those with a fundamental aversion to slow pours. As far as weird geometry issues I have nothing to offer.
(2) The auto grind&brew is very convenient. It has always worked flawlessly for me and really amazes and pleases guests who may rise before residents.
(3) It is damn shiny.
(NB: I have a lot of stainless in the kitchen and through trial and error have found that the Method stainless steel cleaner keeps it all damn shiny and keeps me from going stark raving from the constant buffing and rubbing).
(4) The noise? Really not that unusual for a coffee bean grinder. I did not notice that it was any louder than other grinders. If the "grind" portion of the auto grind&brew is waking one too early I would imagine that one could either pregrind or use ground beans and just skip the "grind" function. While it is intriguing to imaging a space age machine with stealth grind mode I would urge potential buyers to neither expect silence nor let lack of silence keep you from buying this machine.
(5) The ire over the mess was what nearly kept me from purchasing this maker. And I completely forgot about the issue until just now when I re-read some of the reviews. I guess that I don't understand what "mess" they mean. There are seven parts to this thing that I clean: carafe/lid filter/basket/lid and grinder base/lid. I rinse the carafe and filter with hot water and clean the rest with hot soapy water. It all takes approximately 2.5 minutes. I never have to clean the rest of the machine. I usually tilt the top-loader lid open to let condensation out after brewing is done. I occasionally wipe the inside of the machine down with a damp cloth. I have replaced the water filter a couple of times. But altogether clean-up is not that big of a deal. Maybe others are not getting a tight enough seal on the the grinder parts?
SUMMARY: I have had this machine for over a year and have never had a single problem with it. It makes delicious hot coffee. I was almost deterred by the problems that others have had with it but am glad that I opted to take my chances. I gave it four rather than five stars because so many people have had problems with it. Even though I have not experienced these problems the negative feedback must nonetheless be taken into consideration.
cheers!
~currer bellMore detail ...
