Capresso 455 CoffeeTEAM Therm Stainless Coffeemaker/Burr Grinder Combination
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Capresso 455 CoffeeTEAM Therm Stainless Coffeemaker/Burr Grinder Combination
Customer Review: Also surprised by the negative comments....
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this coffee maker recently as I was looking for an all in one unit that allowed me to automatically brew coffee every morning. After reading the negative reviews I held off my decision to buy for a while and then decided to purchase and boy am I glad I bought this baby.
I am extremely happy with this unit. My ONLY negative comment is that the Strong coffee setting results in coffee that is a little wealer than I like. It would have been nice for Capresso to include a feature for over riding the nominal coffee strength settings. Still, you can get around this by selecting strong setting, and 10 coffee cup servings and only filling water resovoir to 8 or 6 cups.
Yes, this unit is a little more complicated than a standard drip coffee maker so you will have to have sufficient intelligence to read the manual and absorb the material. I have had no problem with the grinding, filter basket movement or brewing issues described in earlier reivews. It all works perfectly IF YOU READ THE MANUAL AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.
This machine meets all my needs. I can set timer and fill water container in the evening and wake up to freshly brewed great tasting coffeee in the morning. The thermal carafe actually keeps the coffee hot for 4 hours or longer without scalding the coffee like standard coffee machines. The best part is that it takes less than 30 seconds to clean the gold filter, filter holder and carrafe. The grinder is removed from the brewing and so is not contaminated by steam like some of the cheaper units.
All in all this unit meets all my expectations and I am extremely happy I purchased it.
After using this coffee maker for a couple of weeks I am still very happy with it BUT I have to admit that the placement of the filter basket, filter and filter cover are very finnicky. You must have them positioned just right otherwise the basket will not swing back and lock under hot water spout. I think a lot of the problem is from these parts being maunfactured from plastic. One other thing to do to make sure you don't end up with coffee all over the counter is to ensure the caraffe lid is on tight before brewing!
Customer Review: Great! Fresh! Hot! Coffee
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading a lot of negative reviews, I was nervous to try this out. I have a commercial espresso machine and grinder and am very particular about my coffee. Usually all-in-one deals are just ok, however I'm glad I bought this one. I think a lot of the disparity in reviews may have to do with the type of roasted bean used. For example we started with a darker, more oily bean and had mediocre results on strength but when we switched to a lighter roasted bean (which has more caffeine BTW), it was like night and day.
1. Read the instructions and it's very easy to use.
2. If you like strong coffee, you will need to "trick" it by adding less water - However the "trick" works wonderfully. We set it on 10 cups, strongest setting, finest grind, and fill it with 8 cups of water.
3. It doesn't leak, or create a mess as other reviews suggest. Those problems may be related to "user" error.
4. The first pot is WEAK - do at least one test run so when you really need it to be strong, you've got it to where you like it.
5. The thermous keeps coffee much hotter than any glass caraffe/warmer plate I've ever used. Because of this you can bring it to the table rather than having to go back to the machine every time you want a refill.
6. TIP: Good beans equal good coffee. Store your beans in a cool, dry place (No, not the freezer). Try and buy beans that have been roasted recently. We use Illy beans - they're not cheap but are vaccuum-sealed so they don't lose flavor while sitting on the shelf at the store or in Starbucks.
7. TIP: Use good water (this machine has no filtration). 99% of your cup of coffee is water. If your refrigerator has a filter, get your water from there. You'll notice a difference in taste immediately, regardless of what machine you have.
8. TIP: Warm up your mug. If you have an Insta-hot tap on your sink fill up your mug with hot water to pre-warm it. Pouring hot coffee into a cold mug will get you less than hot coffee. You'd be suprised how long your coffee will stay hot, if your mug is warm to begin with.
Overall, the taste is unbelievably fresh and the machine is easy to use and clean.
Customer Review: Should be a Five Star
Summary: 4 Stars
This product is a Five Star Coffee Maker but needed a [...] modification because of a design flaw. I bought my coffee maker used so it is probably 1 year old and newer models may have already been addressed by the manufacturer. I used this for about a month experiencing weak coffee at times. The only way I could insure a good pot was to manually push the beans into the grinder when I started the brewing process. This was a bit of a pain, but I would get a good pot.
I finally decided to check out what the problem was and discovered that the grinder feed protruded up into the bean hopper almost 1/8". There is a plastic elevated saucer that forces the beans to be fed into the grinder from the sides instead of from the top (it also keeps your fingers from being able to enter the grinder...probably a good thing). Anyway, the protrusion of the grinder feed was, at times, stopping the beans from continuously feeding the grinder. Hence, the often weaker pot of coffee.
The bean hopper is held in place by 2 screws. I cleaned out all the beans from the hopper and removed the 2 screws and hopper being careful not to lose the screws into the grinder. I bought a bag of Flat Metric M3 Washers from my local hardware store. Before replacing the bean hopper, I place 3 washers on the underside of each screw before replacing the bean hopper (I used a tiny piece of scotch tape to hold the washers in place so they wouldn't fall into the grinder. Just so you know you are putting the washers in the correct location...if you put the washer where they need to be without the small piece of tape they would fall on the floor. Once I put the screws back in, the washers elevate the bean hopper a little less than 1/8" so there is now a smooth entry (no ridge) for the coffee beans to enter the grinder.
Voila...we are now enjoying awesome coffee (strength equals brew setting and grind coarseness). On a level of difficulty, I would rate this modification a 1 (out of five), all you need is a phillips head screwdriver and the washers mentioned above.
Customer Review: Waste of time and money
Summary: 1 Stars
The bottom line:
Dunkin Donuts customers will probably be happy with this.
Starbucks customers will not.
I don't normally write reviews, but this product is so bad that I felt I had to describe our expreience so you won't waste your money. I wish I'd read the reviews here before I bought ours. Unfortunately, Capresso have not fixed the problems. Weak coffee and flimsy design. Great concept and a real pity that we are returning ours a day after receiving it from Williams-Sonoma.
What I hate about reviews is that they are usually very emotional. Most of them are based on simple likes and dislikes. Let's avoid that and just get down to some hard scientific facts. I just did a little experiment (I guess I do miss the lab bench). For the 4 CUP brew and the STRONG setting you will get 3.1 tablespoons of coffee in your filter. That is NOT strong coffee, by most people's tastes. I can't understand how an Italian company could get this so wrong. Perhaps they send Americanized machines to us in the US because they think we all like Americano. Anyway, if you want strong coffee out of this machine set it to grind 10 cups but only put 4 cups of water in it, that might work. Of course, if you're having a dinner party then you'll have to make coffee three times!
Apart from the coffee strength issue, I fear that the swinging coffee filter holder is an accident waiting to happen. So here are the numbers on that. We brewed coffee about 8 times while trying to get it to work (and yes, I know you have to prime the coffe chute and that the first cup will be weak) and twice the swinging holder failed to slot into the correct position. That's a 25% failure rate.
If you are happy with a large pot of weak coffee or can get by with a small pot of strong coffee, and you are there to manually put the swinging basket into place, then this machine may be fine for you. But for my $300, I expect a tad more. (By the way, I found the instructions quite easy to follow, not "counter intuitive" at all, so kudos to Capresso for that.)
Customer Review: think carefully before buying this coffee maker
Summary: 1 Stars
Things to think about: Do I really want to spend $300 on a coffee maker that might break within two years? And how will I feel when Capresso customer service tells me I have to pony up $70 for them to fix it plus pay for shipping each way? If you have extra time, you can even ponder whatever happened to manufacturers of high-end products standing behind their workmanship?
Unlike many of the 5-star reviewers here, I have had mine for about two years--I bought it as soon as the model came out. I just HAD to have the conical burr grinder/thermal carafe combo. I paid top dollar. It does look nice sitting on our counter, but it doesn't get a tremendous amount of use (i.e., so it's not like we're wearing it out). Nevertheless, it has broken twice already. It is really fun to watch the machine grind the coffee and then--like magic--the basket swings across the pot to sit on top of the carafe. But that magic is enabled by some kind of MAGNETS in the coffeemaker and those magnets get finicky. I assumed there was a simple mechanical device that made the whole thing work, but no. So, if you turn your machine upside down, say, to clean out the used grounds thoroughly (which is otherwise impossible to do), the magnets might become discombobulated and your basket might not stay put.
I liked the programmable features but my husband was never able to master them so I am the only one who could program the coffeemaker. You need to set the controls or the thing won't work at all. I DO like the carafe and it is easy to use and keeps the coffee hot for hours. However, the coffee itself isn't really that great. After the first few months of use we became disenchanted and reverted to those individual plastic Melitta conical filter holders that brew directly into the cup. Low tech wins again.
These days I mostly use the coffee maker just for grinding beans. However, since the basket holder just gave out again, I might just put the whole contraption in the trash and reclaim some counter space.