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: Very happy w/ 455 CoffeeTEAM
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm very glad I didn't listen to all the naysayers--some were even for completely different coffeemakers. I love this coffeemaker. I have used it daily for six months, with NO problems. As others have found, most of the bad reviews come from one of two reasons.
The first is following the directions. Yes, you have to be able to follow directions. Like most gadgets these days, if you try to wing it or don't pay attention to what you're doing, you will most likely screw it up. I've only screwed it up one time, and it was my fault--not the coffeemaker's. The comparison to setting a VCR was close in required common sense, but the maker is still simpler.
The second reason most have put this down, is that it doesn't make strong enough coffee for them. This is entirely true, but also a matter of taste. I prefer strong coffee, and so have to resort to one of the tricks mentioned in other reviews to get the strength I want. But it is not nearly as difficult as people suggest. I can still get ten cups of coffee at the strength I desire. It does not make espresso if you need your drink that strong. That being said, your taste is unique, and most likely you'll be able to find the right combination with a couple tries.
The grinder has performed perfectly for me every day for six months. Never has it overflowed, and it does not spread copious amounts of coffee everywhere. You will have a couple of grounds on the counter after a grinding, but I don't find this to be an annoyance, or to be an adequate reason to not recommend the coffeemaker.
I gave it five stars for doing exactly what it's supposed to do at a great price!
Customer Review: the 'HAL from 2001' of coffee makers
Summary: 1 Stars
I really wanted to like this product. Burr grinders are far superior to the whirring blades found on most grinder/coffee maker combos. After undertaking an exhaustive search for a superior coffee maker with grinder and a thermal pot, I decided to give this a go.
Unfortunately I quickly discovered that this coffee maker has CONTROL issues. You fill the bean hopper and water reservoir, program the number of cups and relative desired strength (one of three settings) and VOILA! a pot of uselessly weak coffee. Coffee like my mother makes by adding 3 tablespoons of folgers to a 10-cup pot in her ancient Mr. Coffee machine. This was on the strongest setting and after repeated attempts to adjust the grind.
True, you can "trick" the coffee maker by telling it you want to brew 6 or 4 cups when you are actually brewing 8 or 10 - but at this price point should you really have to play mind games with a coffee maker? My guess is that the engineers at Capresso have never tasted a decent cup of drip coffee.
The other fatal flaw I found in the CoffeeTEAM's design was the fact that it will only let you select even numbers of cups. I often like to brew 5 or 7 cups, but alas, no dice. Especially if trying to "trick" it into brewing the proper strength.
In the end I returned this hunk of junk before it started spreading its evil influence to the other appliances in my kitchen. I shudder to imagine the toaster dictating how darkly to brown my english muffins and the ensuing anarchy.
And my coffee quest? I bought a nice burr grinder, a thermal carafe and a french press and I've never been happier.
Customer Review: Caution - Burrs not Accessible for Cleaning or Service
Summary: 1 Stars
For some reason Capresso has decided to make all of their all-in-one grinder / brewers with the burr grinders locked away inside where they can not be cleaned, inspected and replaced when needed.
We own this very same Capresso Grinder / Brewer and finally found all of the hidden screws to remove to allow thorough cleaning of the grinder. The hardest part is figuring out how to dismantle their puzzle. Unfortunately Capresso has also decided to refuse to sell parts for the machine, except for items such as lids and carafes.
Recently our coffee seemed weak. I had just totally cleaned both burrs and everything was as clean as new. I found the problem to be dull burrs which slowed down the grind speed producing less coffee grounds and thus weak coffee. I replaced the burrs with a set from our Capresso 560 grinder and now we've got full strength coffee again.
The problem I now face is that Capresso REFUSES to sell the lower burr, the one that is the dullest. They consider this an internal part. I now have a useless $80 grinder that I sacrificed to save a $200 coffee maker.
I have called Capresso several times trying to find a way to buy a complete burr set and was appalled by the attitude, arrogance and rudeness of the people on the phone that got incensed when I did not happily accept their answer "We do not sell internal parts." They were not helpful at all and worse yet, did not seem to care. I don't think they do, at least not the people I could get in contact with.
We like out CoffeeTeam better than we like the company.
Capresso, very disappointing to deal with.
Customer Review: almost there
Summary: 4 Stars
We had an older capresso grind and brew (programmable) for heroically long, waiting for someone to put a thermal caraffe together with a burr grinder. This new one is significantly quieter than the one we had (glass caraffe)with straightforward controls which are easier to use. It's a bit trickier to set up mechanically: the brewed coffee will spill unless the caraffe lid is aligned perfectly with the drip doohickey of the basket.
Also, as noted in other reviews, if normal coffee tastes like brown water to you, you will need to manually interrupt the brew cycle to grind more coffee (no big deal to do) or, if using the programmable function, to double the amount of coffee ground for the water used. We can get very strong coffee, just how we like it, with a minimum of fuss. Two improvements are in ease of cleaning the grinder and an automatic reminder to descale the machine. KINKS: 1) the basket flips so energetically after grinding that the pile of grounds shifts to the side of the basket, where they are not always used in the brewing; 2) pouring from the caraffe is slow and dribbly unless you remove the stopper 3) some of the grinds sprinkle out during grinding on our machine because the basket doesn't "cock" into position perfectly. From other reviews, it sounds like this machine could be returned and adjusted or substituted for very satisfactorily by the company, but I'm not packing the thing up and waiting around.... The next generation of this machine will probably address these smallish issues, but for now, this is the best one around.
We have been using it for about 10 weeks.
Customer Review: Great concept but it doesn't work!
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this coffeemaker as a Chirstmas present. The concept is great, but the engineering and/or quality control is poor. We use Trader Joe's Italian Roast whole bean coffee. It is an oily bean. On our first machine, the beans wouldn't feed into the grinder properly. Only a few beans got ground, resulting in weak, undrinkable coffee.
Capresso customer service is really good. We called them and they immediately sent a replacement machine. They asked us to return the original after the replacement arrived. When the replacement showed up, we found that its grinder was no better, and its internal electronics were sick. After it started brewing coffee, the grinder would periodically go off for no good reason.
Another call to customer service. This time they suggested leaving our oily trader joe's beans in a open container for a few hours to allow oil to dry up, and they promise yet a third replacement machine. That's just too much hassle!
When we make coffee in this machine with pre-ground coffee it is great. We love the hot, hot coffee and the fact that it stays warm in a thermos style carafe rather than via a hot plate. However, we feel that the grinder just doesn't work, and the quality control is questionable.
We might try again in another year or two, if we hear that the bugs have been worked out, but for now, we're returning the original to Amazon for a refund.
If you're considering this machine, make sure that the beans you intend to use are not oily! Then, if you get one that works, you may be OK.