Capresso 471.01 CoffeeTEC Digital 10-cup Coffeemaker with Stainless-Steel Vacuum Carafe and FrothXpress, Black
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Capresso 471.01 CoffeeTEC Digital 10-cup Coffeemaker with Stainless-Steel Vacuum Carafe and FrothXpress, Black
Customer Review: Requires Experimentation
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this coffeemaker about three months ago. The machine itself is simple to use if one takes the time to read the directions or watch the included video. But the first pot I made turned out undrinkable - weak, vile. After a lot of experimenting (at least ten test pots and seventy-five or more regular morning pots), it now makes very good coffee consistently, and excellent coffee frequently.
It is a responsive machine. The quality of the output coffee is sensitively dependent on initial conditions, unusually so. It requires experimenting. Some important variables to work with include:
1. Grind (i.e. coarse, medium, fine - this machine needs a somewhat finer grind);
2. Quantity of coffee used (this machine needs slightly more than my previous thermal carafe machine);
3. Type of filter (unbleached paper, bleached paper, permanent);
4. Quality and type of coffee;
5. Personal taste.
This is not a comprehensive list of variables (also water quality, size of pot made, etc., etc.). Also, some of my current level of satisfaction may simply stem from me having become used to the coffee made by this machine.
When I first got the machine I tested it using a cheaper brand of whole beans. I used different settings on my grinder until I understood how changing the grind affected the coffee. As an aside, I knew I was making progress in my experiments when the indifferent beans I was using for my test pots started making terrific coffee. The coffee maker was getting the most out of them.
I'm now using a grind halfway between the "medium" and "fine" settings on my grinder (i.e. one-quarter of the way between "medium" and "espresso"). Err on the side of "fine". However, too fine a grind will bring out bitterness and might leave a "dusty" residue in the coffee. I recommend using a burr grinder with this machine (and in general). It is too hard to get the required consistency with a "chopper" type grinder.
Some people may prefer their coffee to have a bit more "bitterness" than I do, in that case this machine might work really well for them as they could use an even finer grind than I do.
My preference is to use unbleached paper filters. Although the unbleached ones may impart a slight "papery" flavor, the white ones (which worked better on my last coffeemaker) seem to let less overall flavor through. I have not tried the included permanent, gold-type, filter.
I have only used the frothing equipment once, it works just fine. The pieces are small, easy to assemble and easy to clean (although you really do want to rinse them immediately after use). Note that the included plastic tumbler holds all the little pieces and that there is a special recess in the body of the machine that holds the tumbler.
So far I am not impressed with the "3-5 cup" button. The company says it is supposed to "make sure that smaller coffee amounts are brewed at the correct temperature." Whatever. The one time I tried it the 3-5 cup button negatively changed the taste and made the coffee bitter. Maybe this could be corrected by coarsening the grind (at the cost of needing to use more coffee, offsetting savings gained from making fewer cups). At any rate, properly using the 3-5 cup button, if there is any point to it, seems to require more work than I have yet done. Note, also, that what this machine considers "3 cups" of coffee will not fill a decent sized mug. If you want two full mugs, you need to make 7 or 8 of these so-called "cups."
Coffee temperature is not an issue. It comes out very hot and stays very hot. The carafe is as good as any, and better than my old Melitta one, at keeping the coffee hot. It is important to keep the lid on the carafe and to close it all the way when not pouring.
This machine is able to produce excellent coffee - the best I have ever made at home and, depending on the quality of the beans used, equal or superior to coffee house coffee. Due to its sensitivity, however, it is still necessary to experiment with a test pot or two every time I want to try a new kind of coffee. It still makes an occasional undrinkable pot, but I would buy it again.
Customer Review: High Quality Coffee - User Friendly
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this coffeemaker after doing my homework on what a coffeemaker should be. This coffeemaker meets all of the requirements...
High temperature
Duration of brew cycle
Thermal Carafe
Goldtone filter
In order to make a great cup of coffee, you have to bring the water up to a high temperature for a specific amount of time. And after that, you can't continue to "cook" it on a standard hot plate like most coffeemakers do. Also, the filter allows all of the flavorful specs of coffee to go into the pot. This is something that most people miss and never realize with a paper filter. One other factor that I almost forgot is this, you should put 2 tablespoons of the ground coffee for each 6oz of water. I didn't do this for a long time because I didn't like strong or bitter coffee. But what I have found out is that you will have foul tasting coffee because you don't add enough coffee. I promise you that your coffee will taste better with the right amount of coffee as opposed to less than what's recommened. This coffeemaker will make any coffee bean better than with a standard coffee pot. This is because all of the reasons I just stated.
The other factors that you'll need to consider are the water, beans, and grind size that you use. For the proper grind, you'll need to buy a good conical burr grinder.
As for the features of the coffeemaker, I like that you can program it to brew at a certain time. It also has a setting to make smaller pots of coffee. What this basically means is that the water is held in the filter longer so that it can extract more of the coffee essence. With a standard brew cycle the water goes through the beans too fast and doesn't take full advantage of the coffee flavors. In all honesty, I don't use the frothing part of the coffeemaker that often because I just don't care for it much. There is nothing wrong with it, but I find it more trouble to keep it clean than it's worth.
As far as durability, I have to say that I haven't had any problems with this coffeemaker. I actually bought it used almost a year ago. When I first got it, the water poured out all over the counter as soon as I put it in the water dispenser. After I opened the coffeemaker up, I found that the hose that connects to the water dispenser had become disconnected. It was an easy fix and I haven't had any problems since then.
In Summary:
I recommend this product because it is one of the few coffeemakers that actually does what a coffeemaker is supposed to do.
Customer Review: Finally had to replace my Capresso CoffeeTEC
Summary: 3 Stars
After using the Capresso CoffeeTEC for the last 5 years I finally had to replace the unit. One morning I woke up to water all over the counters and floor. It doesn't happen all the time but it sure makes a crazy mess in my kitchen with 10 cups of water leaking. I got it as a gift - so now that I've had to replace I'm not going to spend $200.00. There was enough about it that irritated me that I'll find another product.
I hated that there wasn't a warmer under the carafe. I know that an earlier opinion post said that it kept the coffee warmer then his Mr. Coffee with a carafe warmer. I'm the type that will have a cup when I wake up and then maybe an hour or two later - and mine was considerably cooler then the first cup. I ABSOLUTELY hated the pieces parts that come with this maker. Why couldn't they engineer it better? Straws, spouts, plastic pieces - it's just all so confusing. I never could remember how to reconfigure and ultimately used parts for the milk warmer that I'm sure weren't intended for that use. But hey - I got warm milk. The filter was hard to get back into the precise spot and I always fiddled with it after cleaning it. Finally resorted to paper filters. This coffee maker is just tall enough to fit under the upper cupboards which means that when you want to fill it up with water you have to pull it out toward you which wasn't a huge inconvenience but it was bothersome at 5am - which exacerbates my grouchiness. The on/off and other controls take some getting used to - so if you have guests be sure to leave them instructions if they happen to wake up before you. One of my guests last year actually gave up and went for the 10 year old sanka I had next to the coffee grinds. that made him more grouchy too. I guess it could be just slightly more user friendly to get a cup of coffee. I never got the design of the frother area either. If you have a taper coffee cup it never fits right in the little area. The picture of the newer version looks like they may have improved that though.
The one thing I did love about the design of this coffee maker was that the filter was a push button/swing out design that was easy to use. Unfortunatly as I said early it really didn't matter because I had to pull it out from the counter in order to fill it up with water.
Oh one last thing. If you have skiddish animals or kids - take them out of the room because this thing sounds like a demonic death rattle when you're useing the milk frother/cleaner feature. Holy heck it's loud and steamy. eeeek.
Customer Review: Worth it
Summary: 4 Stars
We purchased this Capresso model for Christmas about 4 or 5 years ago. It finally breathed its last this month. Our experience with it has been really good overall.
The good
It makes a great cup of coffee (we buy Starbucks brand beans and grind them ourselves immediately prior to brewing), looks good on the counter. Nice, hefty thermal carafe that came with it was great.
The bad
Takes up a large chunk of premium counter space. Cannot be placed under low kitchen cabinets due to its height and the fact that the water container needs to be lifted straight up in order to take it out from the back of the machine. This problem can be solved if you place it close to the kitchen sink that has a built-in water hose spray. This way, if the coffeemaker won't come to the water, the water will come to the coffeemaker. The pause & brew feature quit working almost immediately, not sure why. The coffee would continue brewing and dripping everywhere so we simply stopped removing the thermal carafe until it was done. The frothing attachments were used with enthusiasm for about... a month.. It took too much effort to clean the small plastic pipes and remember to flush the steel pipe with water inside and out before the milk froth became a permanent & scorched decoration on it.
I've read of coffee overflows on counter tops from multiple reviewers and I'm happy to report that in the time we owned it, it happened a total of zero times. Not that we were very careful with how we placed the carafe back. We were not gentle with the unit at all. It's been through two moves with us, handled roughly due to lack of caffeine in owners veins and used every day of its life. Aside from infrequent flushing of the system with vinegar solution, I don't think we changed the water filter in it more than once or twice and it may have been the cause of death of this machine. My story (and I'm sticking to it) is that the set of pipes hidden in the housing connecting the water reservoir and the heater got really calcified as it suddenly one day stopped brewing the coffee and started sputtering hot water back into the water reservoir. Resuscitation was attempted with vinegar but to no avail. We finally had to pull the plug on it. At the moment, we are in between coffee makers but likely to purchase another Capresso model.
Customer Review: Going Back To Krups
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this coffee maker about a year and a half ago. While the coffee brewing part of it works according to the claims, it takes about 2x the coffee that my old Krups makers used (I have had three of those over the course of 20 years).
When I only want to make a half pot, the coffee is cold. If I make a full pot, it stays hot for about an hour. Not a good thing if you want a cup of coffee say after lunch.
The frother apparatus has been nothing but frustrating. It does not make nice dry foam like a real espresso maker, but I did not expect that. However I did expect to not get basically very watery hot milk with a few bubbles. I can make better froth with a whisk and a saucepan. Without the water. And the many many pieces are a major pain to wash, dry and reassemble and if you don't assemble them just right you get nothing.
We like to set the coffee up before going to bed. Consequently the water in the reservoir can be quite cold, as is the reservoir. We have found that if we make coffee in the morning and fill the carafe with hottest tap water available, and let it get good and warm, the coffee will stay hot longer. But I did not pay nearly $200 to not be able to take advantage of the programming feature, nor do I appreciate letting the tap run a good 3 or 4 minutes until the water is fully hot.
Basically, I quit using the frother after about 6 months and went to the stovetop/whisk method.
The coffee maker began leaking water from the same two locations, drenching the counter and some things on it. The unit was easy to repair, but the design internally is such that leaks at the point where the filler hose and the hose to the drip basket will eventually leak.
I did not bother to contact Capresso about the leak. I just took it apart and fixed it. Others who do not have a knack for electronic repair will be faced with paying to get it fixed.
I would not recommend this for people who want a machine that is easy to clean, is economical on coffee and that will fit under the cabinet overhang (mine does not). The height is not as much a function of the machine as it is a result of our homebuilder, so I cannot blame that on the Capresso, but it is something one should consider when buying this.