Black & Decker DCM2500B SmartBrew Coffeemaker
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List Price: Our Price: $30.55 You Save: $9.44 (24%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Black & Decker DCM2500B SmartBrew Coffeemaker
Customer Review: Warning: Buy Another Coffee Maker!
Summary: 2 Stars
I am never one to complain about a product but this coffee maker was so bad that I felt compelled to write a review. I actually reviewed many of the reviews on this product on Amazon prior to purchasing this coffee maker approximately 2-3 months ago. I thought I had hit the gold mine - a high quality coffee maker at a low price. Many of the problems that I read on the reviews were the following:
1. Coffee does not taste very good
2. If you do not have the carafe placed perfectly under the filter mechanism during the brew process, your kitchen counter will be suddenly filled with water and coffee grounds
3. The coffee is not very hot and often requires nuking in the microwave
Well, I highly recommend that you heed the warnings. I did not and paid for it. On three occasions, water/coffee grounds from the coffee pot overflowed all over the place. There apparently is no safety mechanism that prevents this from happening so special attention must be given when brewing coffee using this pot. If the carafe is misplaced, even a few millimeters, it will overflow. I also often found myself having to nuke the coffee to warm it up, this only minutes after the completion of the brew process. Finally, the coffee really did not taste very good. The coffee was consistently weak or watered down. I did not realize how bad the coffee was until I went out and bought a new Cuisinart 12 Cup Coffee Maker yesterday.
It should be noted that I had to go out and purchase a new coffeemaker because the electronics associated with this coffeemaker died following the last overfill. We all know that these electronic compartments are not waterproof so when it overfilled, the water entered and destroyed the mechanism by which the coffee brewer is controlled. I even let it sit out for a couple of days hoping that it would dry out with no success.
To avoid being considered biased against this coffee maker, it does have some redeemable qualities. First, the carafe is fantastic, probably the best I have ever seen. Also, the controls are laid out nicely and programming the time, brewing the coffee, etc. was extremely easy. Lastly, the overall look of the coffee maker, plus the ability to see the amount of water in the reservoir, was very well designed. Unfortunately, that is where the positive components of the coffee maker end.
I am a coffee connoisseur and have had cups of coffee all around the world. I love the Cuban coffee produced and sold in Tampa, as well as a number of brands sold by Starbucks. For this reason, it could be said that I like my coffee stronger than some (keep this in mind as it might bias my perception of the coffee brewed by this coffeemaker). Despite this, a good coffee maker should not spill all over the place and the coffee should be hot, especially following the brewing process. I encourage anyone who loves drinking coffee to spend the extra $20-30 for a Cuisinart or other state-of-the-art coffee maker. You will save yourself a great deal of frustration and will not have to look over your shoulder each time you brew coffee to see if water and coffee grounds are flowing all over your kitchen counter and floor.
Customer Review: Back for another one! Stop Shopping and Buy This One!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, as the title to this review says, I just ordered another of the DCM2500B Smart Brew coffee makers for our home. Not that we need two of them, this one is a replacement for the same unit that finally burnt out after 3 years of daily use, sometimes two and three times a day! To be honest, I'm not so sure it burnt out from overuse either. I'm thinking it was an over-voltage power condition we were having since we moved in.
I have monitored the voltage coming into our house and it has varied anywhere between 109 volts on the low end to 133 volts on the high end! (Too high voltage will fry about anything, electronic or not!) On top of that, every time our heat pump or anything with a large motor - yes, even the vacuum cleaner! - the lights would dip. Letters to the utility company only yielded canned responses that "everything is normal and within tolerance." Uh, OK, if you say so! It took another house being built nearby to get a new, larger transformer installed on the pole. Funny that the new transformer is rated at more than double the one that was up there! Hummmmm...
Now, things seem to be pretty stable. No more dips and steady 120 volts. Unfortunately, too late to save our trusty coffee maker! Grrrrrrr... Anyway, I'm sure with the steady power at correct voltage, we will have this new coffee maker last a long, long time. (Although I'm tempted to buy a third and stow it away in case B&D stops making it just because it's so good!)
Regarding this coffee maker, it is STILL the best, low priced, coffee maker I've ever found. And as a matter of fact, it's probably the best coffee maker at any price! It's not flashy. There are no gizmos, sexy clocks, multi-colored blinking lights or bleeping beepers. It simply works and makes a GOOD cup of coffee...every time! Set the auto function and bam, it works. Operator error not withstanding. Doh!
Not only will it make great coffee, simply operating it is a pleasure. The top opens nice and wide so it's easy to fill. The basket is big and aligns right up when you drop it in. But, THE most important thing is, THE POT DOES NOT DRIP!! Read it again! This pot does not drip, dribble, or leak! It's got a pointed spout and as long as you don't pour so fast as to overwhelm the spout, you get a nice cup of coffee with no mess on the counter and no "after burn" as so many pots leak coffee down onto the heater/burner after the pour. This pot will NOT disappoint you.
Stop shopping and buy this one now. White or black. It's the best. Black & Decker, PLEASE don't ever stop making this model!
Customer Review: An excellent coffee maker
Summary: 5 Stars
Because we're serious about our coffee, we sold our old $100+ Cuisinart coffeemaker to be replaced with this much better designed and much easier to use coffee maker.
A motel room we stayed at had this model coffee maker. We used it twice a day for 10 days. The coffee was delicious and we found no minuses at all, so I bought one. We've been using it daily now for about three months.
The carafe is made of heavy duty glass and doesn't drip at all. The hole to pour water into is large and easy to get to. There are convenient and accurate water level windows on both sides of the unit. The controls are convenient, easy to understand, and easy to use. The basket is easily removed for cleaning, easy to position, and uses standard flat bottomed filters. The time and function displays are large and bright. All of these are comparative problem areas in the Cuisinart.
Programming works perfectly and is so simple to use we didn't need the manual. To set the time of day press the "Hours" button until it reaches the current hour and then the "Minutes" button. To set the "Auto on" time, press the "Program" button, and then set the start time the same way. Press the "Program" button again to go back to time of day. For auto start, press the "Auto on" button, which lights up. That's it.
In addition, the water enters the drip chamber in a shower rather than a stream, resulting in consistently smooth and uniform tasting coffee. I can't comment on the warming plate because we put what we don't drink immediately into a Thermos for all day use. The warming plate shuts itself off after two hours if you forget.
The negative reviews are a puzzle to me. We found none of the problems mentioned.
This is an addendum in mid Nov, 2007. The coffeemaker still makes perfect coffee and everything works like new. The only negative I'd add is that the warming plate is quite rusty, probably because I put a pot of tap water on it at night to have chlorine free water in the morning. Often the pot is damp. When we need to replace this coffeemaker, I'll paint the new warming plate with bar-b-cue paint before the first use, for rust protection.
This is an update, dated 11/20/07. The coffeemaker still works perfectly and still looks good. I sanded the rust off of the base plate, painted it with bar-b-cue paint, and as expected there is no more rust problem. I don't think the rust would occur for most people. I caused it by putting a wet pot on the plate overnight seven days a week.
Customer Review: Good, But Not W/O Design Flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought this coffee maker several months ago and it has worked as a coffee maker should since then but not w/o some annoying problems. Here is the good and the bad as I see it:
1. As many have stated, the carafe is just great!! After years of carafes that drip this one is perfect. NO DRIPS!! It's about time. Unfortunately it is also not heavy enough for B&D's interrupt ("sneak-a-cup") feature. After several mishaps, and some trail and error, I cut a few loops from the spring and don't have that problem anymore but I also don't trust that this feature will work w/o allowing coffee to drip from the basket to the warming plate either. We now consider this feature a wash out. I think B&D could and should do better with this one.
2. Our house has wood "crown" moldings at the bottom of our cabinets. This means our cabinets extend down a little lower than some ( 1/2-3/4") and we therefore have some problems with the height of this unit. It does fit underneath... barely, but has to be pushed past the molding. You may want to consider this if you have this type of kitchen cabinets.
3. I find that pouring the water into the unit to be a little difficult, though not impossible. It can be kinda' tight in there and I have occasionally poured, or spilled, cold water into the filter basket. But, as one other reviewer has stated, I like the fact that there aren't any plastic screens, etc. for water to splash off of.
4. We like the program feature though living in a rural area we lose power from time to time. The clock has little tolerance for that and needs to be reset at the shortest of power interruptions (<1 sec.) It seems that a small capacitor in the power supply would solve this problem.
Overall, and so far, this has been a good coffee maker and one we are not sorry for purchasing. After looking, and considering, much more expensive units I think this may be the best of both worlds, but as I stated, not w/o it's own set of annoyances.
I hope you find this review helpful, and good luck with your own dreams.
Customer Review: Perfect coffee pot for the price
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this coffee pot. Mostly because I've never had one with a timer before and that feature rocks! It is so awesome to wake up to fresh, hot coffee already made!
I read a lot of the reviews on here before I purchased it and I agree with the positive comments. The two side windows are great for pouring the water in, the large handle is comfortable and the whole thing is easy to keep clean. My last coffee maker used the cone filters and I've found I actually like the basket filters better! The cone filters can fold back up before you put the grounds in so I was always trying to use water to make it stick to the sides. The baskets are easier and they cost less.
If you want to use the timer feature you'll most likely want to keep the pot plugged in so you don't have to set the clock each time, and the red numbers did throw me off at first - I had to do a double take to make sure I hadn't left the pot on. But the 2-hour shut off works great and the warmer keeps the coffee hot and fresh tasting without burning it.
I was a bit nervous after reading that some people had the coffee pot overflow if they didn't put the pot in the right spot so I took the advice of one reviewer and removed the little rubber stopper they put in for the "sneak a cup" feature. It was easy to pop out and if I want I can always pop it back in.
The only "negative" in my opinion is the plastic they used to make it is kind of cheap looking (I had a prettier coffee maker before) but hey, for the price you can't be too picky. Fortunately the all black design is pretty non-descript so you really don't notice it. And most importantly, it makes a great cup of coffee.
I definitely recommend this coffee maker.