Black & Decker DCM18S Brew 'n Go Personal Coffeemaker with Travel Mug
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Black & Decker DCM18S Brew 'n Go Personal Coffeemaker with Travel Mug
Customer Review: Good little coffee maker; terrible cup
Summary: 3 Stars
I live alone. While I can certainly drink a full pot of coffee over the course of a day, by the time the last cup is poured, what's in the pot is an acidic, burnt mess. Heaven forbid I forget to empty it before bedtime-- the next day the residue will be caked onto the bottom, requiring more cleaning than a bachelor should ever have to do. Obviously, a single-cup brewer is right for me.
This one has several key advantages. Pop in some coffee grounds and water, press the lever, and in just a few minutes you have one piping hot cup that tastes as good as the first cup from a larger brewer. There's no pot to clean, and the footprint on your counter is very small. Because you only make the coffee when you really want it, you don't get into the situation of having leftover coffee.
You do have to make some adjustments. It's less efficient to make one cup at a time: you have to use proportionately more grounds to get the same strength. If there was a valve on the spout to keep the hot water up there longer, this wouldn't be necessary. But then again, you never lose half a pot's worth of grounds because you only wanted a cup or two-- I think it evens out in the long run.
There's also leakage. If you use the enclosed cup (more on that later), and fill it to near full, that will be more than the reservoir can hold, spilling the excess out the filter holder. This not only forces you to be more careful to do things in the right order (water in first, THEN put coffee in filter) to avoid getting cold water on the grounds, it also moistens the countertop. A washcloth underneath the unit helps manage the spillage.
Finally, a lot of water is lost in the process-- one cup of water will make 5/6 cup of coffee. (I'm estimating.) It's not so bad for me, since that 1/6 cup gets filled with cream and sugar; but if you like black coffee you'll get less than a full cup.
All of these things are minor and you can adapt your behavior to suit it. You have to go through that coffee-adjustment process with a new coffee maker anyway, and within four or five cups, you'll have hit the sweet spot. I like the coffee maker. If only it wasn't for that cup.
Included is a metal-bodied, plastic-lined cup with a sippy lid. It's sized just right for the coffee maker-- at least, it fits under the spout perfectly. It does, however, hold more water than the reservoir can hold; if you make one full cup (which will, remember, become 5/6 of a cup when completed), then a lot of it will overflow into the filter housing and thence onto your countertop. I'm guessing that the cup design team and the reservoir design team weren't on speaking terms.
But the biggest problem is the lid. It doesn't quite fit right. This can not only lead to a completely wasted cup if it tips over and the lid pops off, it becomes in effect a dribble glass. Coffee will not only come out the little sippy hole, but also will work its way up the lid's circumference through the magic of capillary action-- and will then dribble down the corners of your mouth and onto your shirt. Terrible.
Amazon has a very good price on this appliance; I compared their price againt brick & mortar stores as well as other e-tailers. So buy this coffee maker if you find yourself often wasting half-pots or if your coffee needs are modest. (Idea: It would also be great for someone who doesn't indulge in the bean themselves, but who has a frequent visitor who does..) But ditch the cup and use an uncovered mug, or find a travel mug with a better lid design.
Customer Review: Brew 'N Go for a Fast Cup 'O Joe
Summary: 4 Stars
After using a Braun KF400 coffee maker for a number of years, I decided to look for an alternative that was smaller, faster and easier to clean. I am the only coffee drinker in my household, so I rarely made a full pot with the Braun. At home, I would generally make coffee on the weekends (the coffee at work is fine) and would pour from the pot into an insulated mug. So the idea of brewing right into the insulated mug was appealing.
Enter the Black and Decker DCM18S. The mug holds 15.5 ounces of java, which was about what I was making in the Braun. I've owned the machine about 3 weeks now and have made coffee about 8 times. Personally, I find that 2 level coffee scoops work well for a full mug. I ordered from Amazon after failing to find the product in either Target, Linens `n Things or Bed Bath and Beyond.
I find the taste on par with the Braun, although I'd probably give the Braun a slight edge. The convenience of the DCM18S was worth the switch. Just simply fill the reservoir to the full line, put the coffee into the permanent filter, put some milk in the mug, cover the mug and press the ON switch. The coffee will flow off the lid, into the mug. You can also keep the lid off if you want to add sugar and stir. I don't use sugar, so putting the lid on while brewing helps keep the temperature high.
Clean up is easy. Just empty the filter of the grinds, rinse the filter, and clean out the mug. With the Braun, I had to clean the pot and the two piece cover, plus the mug. Also, the Braun's warming plate was hot, so I'd usually put a little water in the pot and return it to the plate while it cooled down. Otherwise, someone could get burned because they wouldn't know the plate was still hot. With the DCM18S, there is no hot plate, so there's no risk of getting burned by it.
I did try using a Melitta #1 paper filter instead of the permanent filter once. It was a little small for two scoops of coffee, so there is a chance that the grinds could spill over the filter and into the coffee. In my one test, I didn't get grinds in the coffee, but the permanent filter rinses out easily enough and you save the expense of paper filters.
A couple of minor gripes. While the handle on the mug is comfortable, the body of the mug is somewhat hot if you hold it in hand. The other gripe is that the fill line inside the reservoir is hard to read. I have a Brita water pitcher so I want to pour from the pitcher direct into the reservoir, and avoid pouring into the mug first.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the Brew `N Go. My rating is closer to 4.5 stars, but because of the quibbles and the fact that the taste of the Braun gets a slight edge, I chose 4 stars instead of 5.
Update 8/13/2006: After using the DCM18S for about 9 months, I began having a problem where the grinds would wind up in the coffee. I use two coffee scoops, but this wasn't a problem earlier. I'm not sure whether this is caused by the water overflowing or caused by the pulsing steam at the end of the process. Either way, it has happened enough lately that I took out my old Braun and "retired" the Black and Decker.
Customer Review: If I had only known about this thing sooner
Summary: 5 Stars
First, I must start off by saying that I absolutely love this thing. It produces a hot cup of coffee in just a couple of minutes. I drink one cup of coffee a day at work so this is the first thing I use when I get to the office in the morning. After I'm done making my coffee, I unplug it and store it in my overhead bin and nobody even knows it's there (I don't know if it's against policy to have something like this where I work, so rather than raise suspicions, out of sight-out of mind).
Onto my experiences with the brew n' go.
5/5: The end result: THE COFFEE!
This thing makes a great cup of coffee. So far I've used a medium grind on the coffee beans and I can't think of anything bad to say about the flavor. I get a great cup of coffee every time!
4/5 Stars: The Built In Filter
First, I don't even use the built in filter any more. The main reason I wanted this coffee maker is because I wanted a quick cup of coffee with the least amount of cleanup as possible. Using the built in filter worked great the first couple of times, but there's no sink near my desk. So I would have to carry a dirty plastic filter halfway across my building to clean it out. If you intend to use the provided filter, it does work great. However, you will notice a bit of oil from the coffee beans floating on top of your coffee after it's brewed. If this isn't your thing, you may want to consider what I do.
As I said, I don't use the built in filter. I've purchased very small filters from Publix that are a little too big (around) but pushing them in there has worked fine for me so far. This works out great. There are two advantages for me: 1. After the coffee is done brewing, I can just pull that filter out and throw it in the garbage, and then I can wipe out the coffee maker with a paper towel. Quick and easy. 2. You won't see near as much of that oil floating on top of your coffee in your cup if you use a paper filter.
5/5 Stars: Cleanup
What can I say here other than the fact that this thing is a breeze to clean. Whether you use the built in filter or buy small filters from your gorcery store, you'll find that this thing is about as painless as can be when it comes to cleanup.
Final Thoughts:
I hope by this point you can tell that I love this thing. There are a couple of things I would like to point out.
- It's not the quietest coffee maker I've ever heard, but it doesn't stay on all that long either
- I've heard that if you try to put too much coffee into the filter, it may overflow and you'll have a big mess on your hands - so people who like super strong coffee, this may not be your thing (unless you can find the perfectly strong coffee grind that two tablespoons will work)
I absolutely love this thing. I get a good cup of coffee every morning that takes minimal time to make, and the cleanup is a breeze.
Customer Review: As advertised - more or less.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've only been using this product about twice a day for a couple weeks, so I can't speak to its longevity in craftmanship. Aside from the travel mug, all parts appear to be very light-weight plastic. I'll be sure to amend my comments, if I have any problems down the road. It's been a decent little coffee maker so far and much handier than our 10-12 cup pot, when making coffee just for myself. I just wanted to chime in with a couple early observations some prospective buyers might be interested in:
While it does hold a full 15 ounces, as advertised, this is the smallest travel mug I've seen, personally. I've got dozens of travel mugs and none are short enough to be substituted in its place. Nor will your typical, but taller ceramic coffee mugs or paper cups fit in the machine. Not that either is a deal breaker, I just expected something that would work for a larger variety of the containers I commonly drink coffee from, short and tall; that's one of the reasons I opted for this unit over the less expensive short mug models, and I feel it's a design oversight of Black & Decker, not accomodating taller containers in what is essentially a 2-cup design. It's not that I wouldn't still choose this model over the even shorter single cup versions again, but just another 1/2 inch would have made this unit so much more versatile and useful. I'm just saying... It's not like taller coffee mugs are at all uncommon; they've virtually become the norm.
My only other criticism is with the permanent filter letting through some of the grinds. It's not a lot, but it's enough to disway you from taking that last sip or two. I find it still necessary to use paper filters, which likely will need to be cut down from a larger size, unless your nearest grocery has a deeper selection of filter sizes than mine.
As for the coffee itself, I find the manufacturer's 2.5 tbsp recommendation to be the minimum ratio for the accompanying mug. Even using freshly ground beans, only 2 tbsp per 15 ounce mug produced a weak and rather bitter result. I think I've settled on 3 tbsp per 15 ounce serving. It's a bit strong for my taste, but there's no trace of bitterness and it's better to weaken coffee by adding more water after percolating, rather than using less grind or more water prior to percolating.
Regarding how hot this machine heats the water: I honestly, don't know how anyone could drink their coffee any hotter than this, and, with the lid on, the travel mug traps the heat very well, as you'd expect. I usually add some cold water, if I want to weaken the coffee, or a few ice cubes, if I don't, just so I can begin drinking sooner. I'm not one who likes my coffee scalding, but if I were, this machine seems capable of making coffee just that hot - hot enough to burn my tongue anyway.
Customer Review: Buy this machine!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't imagine what in the world these people are doing to these machines who say it only works a few times! I have always found B&D personal coffee machines extraordinarily dependable. Buy it! We have 2 in our kitchen that each receive daily use. One is mine and is over 4 years old, and the other is my wife's for her flavored coffee, and is over two years old. About a month back, I purchased my 3rd one for use at my desk at work, to replace my previous B&D coffee maker that was almost 12 years old and still worked except that the body developed a leak. I am a VERY heavy coffee drinker at work, and the new one has already brewed over 100 cups, at 5-6 cups a day. These are very dependable machines and the best deal you're going to find.
In reading some of the customer criticisms, beware of "user error". If the cup overflows, isn't it obvious that the person put too much water in the reservoir? Hardly the machine's fault. You'll need to experiment a bit because coffee cups come in all shapes and sizes. If you fill the reservoir, that might even be too much for the cup that comes with the unit.
Tip to Ms. Rice: If you are seeing grounds in the coffee and/or the filter is overflowing before the water drains through, it means that your coffee is ground too-fine; for example, if you are using espresso-ground coffee. Try a courser grind and I'm sure the mess will go away. Even with a courser grind, if you use the permanent filter that comes with the unit, you WILL see fine residue at the bottom of the cup, just like if you had used a French Press. I don't particularly like that, so I always use a #1 Melitta filter instead. BTW, Amazon has the best price on them as well!
A few people mentioned the unit not using all the water in the reservoir before shutting off, but none of them mentioned whether this was the first cup or a subsequent cup. I have also seen this on occasion, when I make a second cup immediately after making the first. Maybe there is a shut-off feature in the product to shut it down if it gets too hot? No major issue though, I just press the On button a second time to complete the cycle.
Lastly, some people have mentioned temperature variation of the coffee. I drink my coffee black, and have never noticed any temperature variation from the machine. I have made thousands of cups of coffee over the years with multiple units of this type, and the coffee is consistently hot.
While it is certainly possible to get a "lemon" with any product, the odds are pretty low with this machine. Over many years, I have found the quality of these B&D coffee makers to be very high, and an incredible value for the money. Happy brewing!