Black & Decker TCM830 10-Cup Thermal Stainless-Steel Coffeemaker
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List Price: Our Price: $68.00 You Save: $1.99 (3%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Black & Decker TCM830 10-Cup Thermal Stainless-Steel Coffeemaker
Customer Review: Had it for over a year & still going great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this coffee maker over a year ago, when we remodeled our kitchen & upgraded to the more modern stainless steel appliances. My old coffee maker looked so out-of-place, so I started looking around for a stainless steel coffee maker. We have been so happy with this one. It looks great with all of the new appliances, & makes a great pot of coffee. After owning several coffee makers with the heating element that stays on for awhile to keep the coffee hot, then automatically shutting off, this one is much better. The other coffee makers that stayed on for awhile made the coffee taste burnt, & the coffee also got too strong & tasted stale, especially after being kept hot for over an hour. There was also the fear that being left on too long could cause a fire. Several of the heating elements in the old coffee makers burned up, & had to be replaced, if I could find a small-appliance repair company to replace it, & I can't tell you how many of the old glass carafes we broke! There were several that you couldn't find replacement carafes for! There is one thing that I learned about this coffee maker. I do NOT clean the screw-on lid with soapy water. I submerge it in plain water, with the little air-hole up until the bubbles stop, then turn in upside down, with the little hole that's located on the side where the screw-grooves are (there are 2 air-holes) under where it says "Pour," pointing straight down, & I hold it there until it finishes draining. I do this 2 or 3 times until the water looks very clear. About once a month, I add some vinegar to a bowl of water & let it soak for awhile, then submerge & rinse it 2 more times in just cold water. It seems to keep it clean, with no build-up, if I do this. You can also use a little pipe-brush to clean the area where the coffee goes through the lid into the pot. I made the mistake of using soapy water once, & it took SEVERAL rinsings to get all of the soap out of the lid. I also use a scrub-brush in the screw-grooves to prevent a coffee residue build-up there, which can cause problems with screwing the lid back onto to the carafe properly. There is a little problem with the water that doesn't drain completely out of the carafe after washing. After washing it in soapy water & rinsing with cold water several times, I turn the carafe upside down, & wipeout the inside of the rim with a clean dish-towel. This soaks up the remaining water. As with ANY carafe, a coffee residue can build up inside the carafe too. About once a month I also put some vinegar inside the carafe, let it soak for awhile, then scrub the inside with a good bottle-brush, then rinse well. It takes only a few extra minutes to do all of this, & makes for a better-tasting cup of coffee, which makes it all worthwhile. For those of you who say the coffee does not stay HOT long enough, try this: After the coffee is completely finished dripping the coffee into the pot, swing out the cup that holds the coffeegrounds & remove it. Remember that as long as it's still attached, the little piece in the center of the lid where the coffee drips through is pushed down & OPEN. Air can get in & cause the coffee to loose some of it's heat. Another tip for those of you who don't know: Soap residue CAN make you sick over time, even on your dishes, pots & pans, & etc.! To be sure there is NO soap residue left on ANYthing you wash, DO A FINAL RINSE IN COLD WATER. This even works when washing your hair! Soap residue attracts dirt & bacteria! No kidding!Customer Review: 2 Year User
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had a B&D TCM830 brewer for at least 2 years. I believe I have had mine since it first came out as a product.
I have been extremely happy with mine, thus the 5 stars.
Over the years I have used "warmer plate" brewers (along with their resulting burnt coffee). Next I used a B&D 8-cup thermal carafe (w/ glass internals carafe) brewer.
I really wanted a brewer with a 10-cup size thermal carafe, and I wanted the "cone" (Melitta) type filter. But at the time, all the 10 cup thermal carafe brewers available that met my requirements cost +/- $100 USD or more. I didn't want to spend that much.
Then I found the B&D TCM830. A 10-cup, thermal carafe, and cone filter, under $50 USD. Sold! (I still have my B&D 8-cup as a backup. Have not needed it!)
What I like about the B&D TCM830:
-Brews great coffee!
-10 cup Stainless thermal carafe, no power waste and no burnt coffee
-Coffee stays hot in carafe long enough for me to drink in morning and early afternoon
-Cone type filtering
-Removable water reservoir
-Programmable "on" time
What I don't like:
-Dropped the water reservoir on the ceramic tile floor and fortunately it only cracked at the top, it is still usable
-Thermal Carafe plastic top piece (cap) separated into 2 pieces (still held together by its valve and spring), making the 2 piece cap harder to "spin/thread" to insert and remove than the one piece cap
This brewer meets my requirements and after 2 years I am still very happy with it. I believe even now (early 2009) that by comparison, this is the most product for the least cost.
The thermal carafe is stainless steel, and is Double Walled, which means "insulated". If you fill the carafe with hot liquid (water/coffee), let it sit, and then put your hand on the bottom/sides, you will not feel any heat. To me this means No Heat Loss.
After you brew coffee, you do need to remove the thermal carafe from the brewer to make the lid stopper close up, thus avoiding heat loss there.
Having read some users having trouble with their unit making a partial pot of coffee: All I can offer here is, I've not had that happen over 2 years daily usage. We have a whole-house water softener, and a under-sink RO water filter, and that is the water I use to brew coffee. I think the softened water is easier on coffee makers, as it does not leave calcium deposits behind like hard water does. I think this may be a reason why I have had good longetivity with my coffee brewers.
The B&D "parts" (and "product") web site (as of early 2009) lists the TCM830, the carafe/cap/reservoir/basket/manual are available as parts.
I hope this provide some additional data from a 2+ year user of the TCM830.
Customer Review: NOT as good as my old Black and Decker!!!
Summary: 2 Stars
I have had a B&D TCM-508 thermal caraffe coffee maker for years. It makes great coffee and is still working, although the on switch now becomming a tad unreliable.
Instead of waiting for the old unit to quit, I thought I'd order the TCM830 and keep the old one as a spare. BAD IDEA. The TCM830 is in no way a worthy replacement for the old TCM508, which is solid, compact, easy to use and makes great coffee.
1. The TCM830 is flimsy - the tower supporting the filter bends when you place your hand on it while placing the pot under the filter, making it harder to put the pot in place.
2. The valve on the bottom of the TCM830's filter basket and the valve on the top of the thermal caraffe are very poorly designed so they tangle with one another instead of sliding smoothly open when you put the caraffe in place.
3. The TCM830 uses expensive conical filters instead of more readly available (and cheaper) flat-bottomed filters.
4. There is a nice big window in the water reservoir of the TCM830 so you can see the water level, BUT the window narrows to nothing at the top so you can't fill the reservoir to capacity with confidence.
5. The water reservoir of the TCM830 is removable, BUT I fill coffee pots with the hose on the sink faucet, or I use the caraffe to fill the water reservoir, and I view a removable water reservoir with a tricky valve at the bottom as a leak waiting to happen rather than as a "plus".
6. The TCM830 uses more counter space than necessary, far more than my old TCM508.
In summary, I find the TCM830 to be flimsy, poorly designed, inconvenient, hard to buy filters for, wasteful of counter space, and in no way a worthy replacement for my old TCM508.
The only possible reason I can see for the TCM830 getting such high user review scores is that ANY thermal caraffe coffee maker is better than ANY coffee maker with a glass pot sitting on a heating element. Keeping coffee on a heating element indefinitely renders it acidic and undrinkable in comparison coffee kept in a thermal caraffe.
Customer Review: The Art of Brewing
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently bought this machine at Lowe's and I like almost everything about it. It is a 10 cup machine, compared to my old 4 cup, has a stainless steel thermal caraffe that keeps the coffee warm and tasty, has a removable reservoir that you can fill at the sink, and makes wonderfully brewed coffee, better than the Mr. Coffee that I was replacing.
Some people complain about the coffee not remaining hot, but if you rinse the caraffe with hot water before you brew, as is suggested in the instructions, then the coffee is hot enough to make your cup hot after you pour it in the first two hours, and continues to be warm enough to drink for hours on end. If you prefer your coffee to be sitting on an element and to be piping hot, don't get this unit, because it doesn't have an element. To me, that is actually better than having one, because the element on some of the machines I've had can really degrade the flavor of the coffee by overheating it.
Another thing to watch out for when you purchase the machine is that removing and inserting the caraffe from the machine is a two handed operation, because the parts really interfere with each other. This is unlike the Mr. Coffee model I had that would slide right in and out with one hand.
Also, the caraffe pours rather slowly, which I find annoying when it says in the instructions that you're not supposed to remove it while it's brewing for over 30 seconds or it will overflow.
And speaking about overflow, If you don't insert the caraffe the right way, it will overflow onto the counter until you figure out how to make it not do that.
So, I'm giving it only 4 stars, because it's like a lot of things from Black and Decker--it's very nice, but has a few design flaws that are often annoying. (it's the same way with my B&D long slot toaster that doesn't toast dark enough toast)
Customer Review: We REALLY like it!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
First and foremost... shopping for a coffee maker has to be one of the most tedious chores imaginable!!! I shopped off and on for an eternity before I stumbled across this one. Each time I would spend hours scrolling thru Amazon's selection, and it always seemed like everyone hated every model for any number of reasons. And each time I ultimately felt like my head was going to explode, so I would stop shopping altogether and then repeat the process a couple of months later, and repeat, and repeat...
I really wanted a removable reservoir and a reasonably good carafe. Those 2 features dramatically limit the selection process. My Krups had crapped out, and had been limping along for over a year. I pulled the trigger on this, finally, and have been very pleased, so far. The carafe keeps very warm for an acceptable amount of time. The pull-out filter basket is very convenient, and at least seems as though it should hold up well. But most of all... the removable reservoir works great and is vastly more convenient than the traditional alternative! And as far as I'm concerned... it actually makes good coffee, too!!!
If you fancy yourself as a gourmet coffee snob, then you probably want a fancier and more expensive device. If you think the price of this device is a bit too steep... good luck with the cheaper ones! (been there done that) If, however, you require hot coffee in the morning as a prerequisite to even getting your shoes tied or your car started... and you really like the concept of no-water-poured-all-over-the-counter-convenience... and prefer that it not take an eternity to brew a pretty darn good pot of coffee... then this may be perfect for YOU!
(I will admit, though... the Black & Decker brand name did/does not excite me in the least. But so far so good!)