Braun KF590 Impressions Digital 10-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Braun KF590 Impressions Digital 10-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker
Customer Review: The Braun KF590 - Standard Design, Quality Control Issues, Silly Price
Summary: 3 Stars
I was lucky enough to get this Braun KF590 Impressions Digital 10-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker on sale or else I might not have tried it. I actually am trying to replace my Braun KF510-BK AromaDeluxe 10-Cup Coffeemaker, Black. It's also just a basic drip coffee maker but has performed well. The bottom line was that I needed a timer, and this one has it while the 510 doesn't.
Well for starters, I was shocked to see how similar the two are. In fact all the design elements are identical except for the front panel with the clock and buttons. The 510 just has an red on/off switch there. Clearly, Braun is saving their research and development dollars for other products. Looking at all their coffeemakers in this family makes it clear they are sticking to the "if it aint broke, don't fix it" approach.
The only difference between this and the others in terms of looks is the stainless steel cover over the grinds area. It looks nice enough I guess.
The timer did work as expected. It's pretty intuitive, I believe that anybody could time it if they have used others. Still, I read the whole manual, as I always do, to make sure I got everything right. Nice features include the ability to change the auto-shutoff time.
But despite this tested design, there were some downsides. For starters, the plastic tab that holds the grinds reservoir closed seemed to be made from a slightly cheaper plastic than my old Braun. The result? This guy flung open at night, and I woke up to spilled hot water and no coffee. Very annoying. I tried taping it closed, but this didn't instill confidence in me for Braun's quality control.
Ok, I can give them the benefit of the doubt and say not every unit will have that defect. Needless to say, I had to return mine.
But after realizing this is basically a replica of the 510 with a clock and timer added, I had to wonder why the list price was $90? This is just too much for a basic coffee maker with a timer. The 510 is listed at $50 and sells for $40, which also seems high. Still, did they think adding a timer justified $40 or $50 more? Even the 590's prevailing price of $60 seems borderline high to me, but I could accept it if this unit was without flaws.
There are some minor flaws that seem the same as my old Braun. The reservoir does leak water if you move it at all after brewing, which is a minor annoyance. The steam does seem to escape from the top during brewing. And the carafe is designed so you have to pour very slowly or it will spill. Another minor issue, not a huge knock.
Still, after dealing with this first hand, I think there are better values to be had. For the price of this unit, I can get a low end grind and brew unit that will make fresher coffee.
For the black and steel look, it looks nice enough. As long as you know what you are getting, this might fit your needs.
Once again not a bad unit, but perhaps a little overpriced. And check yours well to make sure it's not defective.
Enjoy.
Customer Review: An impressive little machine
Summary: 4 Stars
This review is the result of my search for a decent full-featured 12-cup coffemaker, which seems to be an increasingly difficult task these days. The search began in August 05. We looked at the Cuisinart Retro-designed stainless model and after sifting through the reviews and examining the store sample, it wasn't for us. It had a dumb water gauge, a narrow fill area, and a single lid over the coffe and water compartments, which in my opinion, could lead to grinds getting into the innards of the machine. Further, despite its cool stainless retro-industrial look, the bulky black base it sat on was butt-ugly.
So, we selected the nice-looking Krups FME-4. It had a great feature set and a great reputation-after all, our six year old Krups Aroma Pro was still making decent coffee. Well, the FME 4 turned out to be a complete disaster. After returning three to the store because of peeling hotplates, I started sending them back to Krups. In my stubborness to get one that worked properly, over three months, I sent five of them back to the factory for replacement. Too bad, all of them were junk.
Remembering the little plain Braun 10-cupper that we had years ago, it seemed like a good coffemaker with but one detraction, the on-off button was on the lower front of the unit and could easily be inadvertently turned on with no water in it if an item on the countertop nudged the switch. Over time, it was an annoyance, so we bought the Krups Aroma Pro with the switch up high.
So, with the failure of the new Krups products, we went back to a Braun and resigned ourselves to a ten cup machine.
My impression of the KF590 is that it makes VERY hot coffee,about 180 degrees, after brewing three cups. It is hot enough to pour into a cold cup and still be hot afterward. I'd say it's a plus. With other machines we'd always preheat our cups with hot tap water. And the KF590's warmer keeps it pretty hot as well.
The machine brews quickly and quietly UNTIL is gets to the end of the cycle, when it spits, pops, and steams louder and longer than any machine we've had. I could hear it in the kitchen from our second-floor bedroom in the early morning quiet. The steam leaves a lot of condensation on the black plastic lid, but it evaporates without wiping.
The unit is very compact, and has a great carafe. The heavy basket is nice, but since it doesn't separate from the stainless steel shell, I don't think we'll be popping it into the dishwasher.
The timer is simple and easy to operate. The programmable auto shutoff is great. You won't need to dig through drawers for The manual. Brief instructions are inside the fill lid.
Like most Euro coffemakers, it uses #4 cone filters and makes a very good cup of coffee. It lacks a 2-3 cup setting, but I don't think it makes much difference. A gold permanent filter is included. We don't use ours except if we run out of filters. Even then, a skillfully folded paper towel will also work.
Overall, it's a well thought out design, but it could be quieter at the finish and also less steamy. I'd have to say it's a keeper, and is the best black and stainless programmable machine we've seen.
Customer Review: We used to love it. Now we hate it.
Summary: 1 Stars
We've owned a Braun Impressions Digital 10-Cup coffeemaker since 2004. We liked it a lot. The ten cup carafe was perfect for us. We loved the auto-off feature and liked the fact that the hot plate didn't seem to scorch the coffee too much. We also loved the water filter integration which we felt improved the taste of our home brewed coffee. About a year ago, all at once we started experiencing random coffee brewing catastrophes. The worst and most persistent would be coffee overflowing out of the filter basket and running all over the unit and onto our counter tops. For many months we thought we were doing something wrong. Perhaps we were grinding our coffee to fine or perhaps the auto drip feature had worn out. As it happens, we couldn't find replacement parts for our original units. And the I wound up breaking the filter basket. We looked around at other coffeemakers on the market to replace it and eventually settled on its replacement, the Braun KF950.
It looked the same in almost every way except that instead of have a plastic filter basket, our new KF950 featured a shiny metallic covering over the basket instead. The first week we had the coffee maker everything worked fine. It continued working for 2 more weeks before our first "incident" wherein the coffee maker leaked coffee all over our counter top causing a nasty mess. Because the unit was brand new, my initial instincts were that we were grinding the coffee too fine (we noticed that coffee grounds and water would get trapped in the filter basket and never drip into the glass carafe). I couldn't find any information that discussed the proper grind to use. Later, on closer inspection, what we realized is that the spring-loaded "drip stop" feature doesn't work properly with the carafe. Because it jams you can't leave the coffee maker unattended. Worse yet, we no longer even think about setting it up to work automatically. There's just too much risk that we'll end up with coffee (and grounds) everywhere.
For now, I've disabled the "drip stop" feature to so that water drips freely. I've accomplished this by slipping a piece of a toothpick into the spring-loaded device attached to the base of the filter basket. Finally, problem solved! But I guarantee you that this is our last Braun coffeemaker. As soon as our new coffeemaker (a Cusinart) arrives we'll be sending our KF950 back to Amazon for refund. It is such a bummer that you have to become a part-time sleuth, part time engineer to get a decent cup of coffee these days. So much for modern convenience.
- VHaseman
Customer Review: Good But Expensive Automatic Coffee Maker
Summary: 4 Stars
The Braun Impressions coffeemaker makes a good cup of coffee. That's the bottom line. It is sold as a 10-cup model which is a bit misleading in my opinion. According to U.S. standards, one cup = 8 ounces. A "standard" coffee cup is 6 ounces. The Braun coffee "cup" is 4.4 ounces. A whole carafe is therefore 44 ounces. You will probably need to adjust the amount of ground coffee you use.
Features: A clock and two timers. One to program the brew time, so you can set up the night before, for example, and have it start brewing when you wake up in the morning. The second timer is the warming timer. This is a first for me. The timer sets the amount of time the warming tray remains hot. You can set any time between 1 minute and 3 hours, 59 minutes (count-down type timer.) One flaw with this option is the button to set the warming timer is the same button as the on-off button. Depending on how long you press the button, the coffeemaker will stop/start or go into set mode for the warming timer.
This model also uses a water filter. One comes in the box. You need to remove a spacer in the water tank to use the filter. (DO NOT DISCARD THE SPACER!! You will need it if you don't want to use a water filter.) Replacement filters (Braun/Brita KWF 2) are a bit expensive. Braun Brita Patented KWF 2 Water Filter (2-Pack) Here's what I like to do: I have a Brita water pitcher (similar to this one) Brita SpaceSaver Pitcher Its filters are good for 40 gallons of water each. The replacement filter multi-pack is more economical. Brita Replacement Filter for Pitchers (5 Pack) I keep the spacer in the filter slot in the water tank. I then use filtered water from my pitcher. This can save you quite a bit of cash in the long-run, especially if you don't like drinking straight tap water; you will get a lot of use from the water pitcher.
The KF590E uses a permanent "gold" coffee filter so you don't need to use paper filters. (If you grind your coffee extra fine, you may still want to use paper filters to eliminate sediment.) The coffee filter is housed in a plastic filter holder with a metal (brushed aluminum?) outer shell. This makes the filter assembly heavy, but also seems to add heat retention.
This Braun is no speed demon, but the end result is a satisfying cup of coffee, which is what really counts.
Customer Review: Satisfactory replacement
Summary: 5 Stars
My husband broke the carafe on my 20+ year old Krups coffeemaker. I knew I'd never find another carafe, and I was right. We bought a cheap Braun and he promptly broke that carafe, too, and in the meantime, they stopped making that particular model. Then we bought a Mr Coffee...awful! Everything about it was horrid...basket filter (those stupid things never fit in the basket right and the maker did not come with a gold reuseable filter), major moisture build-up under the reservoir lid, coffee spilled when poured. I finally couldn't take it anymore and decided it would be worth the money just to get a coffeemaker with a cone filter.
I don't care about programming. Why would you do this if you'll be using freshly ground coffee beans? But if you're one of those people who *needs* to have coffee just to wake up, and can't quite get it together in the morning to make coffee, I guess that would be a great feature. I also don't care about the water filter. I use bottled water and buying white vinegar is waaay cheaper than buying those silly filters every two months or whatever, and it's more eco-friendly, too.
I'm very happy with this coffeemaker. The carafe does not drip when you pour your coffee. The coffee is burning hot, something the Mr Coffee coffeemaker was not capable of, apparently. The warmer keeps the coffee hot, but does not seem to cook it down too badly when left for an hour or so; i.e., the coffee still tastes pretty good and doesn't need to be cut with scissors when pouring. There is no build-up of moisture under the water reservoir lid as with the Mr Coffee coffeemaker. It's black (an important issue for me). And this baby uses a No. 4 cone filter.
The only issue I have is that the handle is glued to the carafe. Gone are the days when there was a metal band around the neck of the carafe with the handle securly fastened to it, thus preventing the handle from coming off. I'm just extra careful when I pick the carafe up and use paper towels so I can put my hand under the carafe. I'm not too keen on having it burn the living you-know out of me should the handle come off.
I definitely recommend this coffemaker. Buy two because I'm quite sure the company will quit making it soon (if they haven't already) and it seems increasingly hard to find a good, simple, inexpensive (relatively) coffeemaker without all the bells and whistles.