Cuisinart DCC-1200 Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Black/Brushed Metal
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart DCC-1200 Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Black/Brushed Metal
Customer Review: Pretty good coffee maker
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this coffee maker for about 3 months now and I have been pleased by it. It makes a good size pot and keeps the coffee hot long enough to keep me going back all morning. I'm not a coffee expert by any means (I'll take the office cup, the coffee shop cup, etc.) so I really can't comment on the quality other than to say it tastes good to me. I've had no issues with coffee grounds getting through the filter basket. You'll want to pour in extra water, unless you really only drink 5oz cups. I make a 10 cup pot for 4.5 cups.
My only real complaint, and this is more of a warning/reminder to people, is based off user error. If you forget to put the lid on the carafe, the maker will not dispense the coffee. This feature is to allow you to pour a quick cup while brewing. That's great, unless you forget to put the lid on and walk away. It ends up completing the brew cycle and overflowing inside the reservoir. Now there is coffee grounds and sediment stuck deep within the reservoir that are very hard to clean. Again, this is a result of user error, but it would be good to have better access to cleaning the unit or sensing the combination of carafe on the plate AND lid not on. This would probably cost $$.
Big Pros
+ Nice size (unit overall and capacity)
+ Easy to program (auto on/off)
+ Different heat settings
+ Water filter
+ Gold filter basket (I don't get any grounds in my coffee using it with normal Maxwell House)
Minor cons
- Water opening is tight
- Condensation spills down the back when opening the lid after brewing (there is a catcher for this and a guard over the plug, but it doesn't stop all of it)
- Finger prints and easy smudges on the stainless steel
- Hard to clean out the inside if you have a coffee grounds accident or overflow
- 5oz is a small cup size when measuring the water the 1st time
Customer Review: What I should have known- before I bought!!!!!
Summary: 3 Stars
My husband purchased this coffeemaker since my other little coffeemaker quit working after 5 years and it was bought at a local thrift store. This purchase was a spur of the moment buy which was a mistake. After, the purchase for $79.00+ for this unit, I found it locally at Lowes for $49.00+. So this was a big bummer for me. Some of the finer features that the marketing blurb didn't tell you about:
1) On and off switch is a small silver toggle switch on the front of the coffeemaker - it makes this machine look cheap and a little red lite comes on to tell you the coffee maker is working and then you have to turn it off!! So what is automatic about this machine.
2) The lid to the carafe container does not lift up, you have to remove it to clean it, place the glass carafe on the counter and align the lid and the carafe and push down so the lid is in place back on the unit.
3) The directions say you can remove the carafe from the heating tray and pour a cup of coffee, without drips-- not true the thing drips.
4) It is hard to see the little area where the water is to be poured into the machine, there are little white looks like, Lego markers for how many cups you are making - hard to see.
5) The regular time clock on the front of the machine is not backlit so in the dark you can't see the time - so why put a clock on it in the first place.
6) Beware buying just for the name Cuisinart, the unit the silver upper part looks cheap, I would have expected more.
If I were to purchase this again, I wouldn't ---the price was outrageous and some of the features I don't like. Shop around.My fault for not looking closely. The price was a shock to me!! Was going to ship it back but thought that would turn into a hassle so I am just sucking it up and using this unit. Do your homework before you buy!!!
Customer Review: Great Coffee Maker Second time around!
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, I had forgotten that I had reviewed this coffee maker the first time I owned one. So I decided to edit that review and create a new one.
The first Coffee Maker I owned worked great. It developed some issues that turned out to just be a lack of cleaning with vinegar. I decided to clean that one and give it to a lady here in the apartment building who needed a new coffee maker, but couldn't afford a good one. She says it's still working whenever I ask.
Anyway, For about a year I used a Mr. Coffee with the touch screen that's backlight. It's worked well until recently. Weak coffee and spewing water onto the hot plate.
Today I went to bed bath and beyond and picked up a new Dcc-1200 with Christmas money. I got the all black one to have an easy model to keep clean, e.g. finger prints less. I'm also visually impaired, so the white text on black is easier to see, then black on silver sometimes. Either way same model, different color. I always loved how the cusinart made coffee from the start. Strong rich flavor I like the fact the filter basket snaps into place instead of sit loosely (like Mr. Coffee) seems like the loose fit leaves room for water to leak out from under the basket, and with time seems to brew water and coffee outside the carafe as well I always make sure that the carafe is in place too, by listening for a slight click, and gently pulling. I know it wasn't incorrect placement for the spewing problem. Anyway tomorrow morning I look forward to making my coffee on this new brewer. I only usually make a 4 cup pot so, of course the 1-4 cup feature will be nice again. I could have gotten a smaller maker, but most of the smaller makers aren't as good quality, or have as many nice convenient features.
When I bought this maker the first time around, it sold for $99 now it's $79. Nice price drop.
Customer Review: Best Coffee maker I've ever owned....
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't usually write reviews, but I love this coffee maker so much, I had to share.
Pros:
>Price: at $79.95, it is a real bargain.
>Heavy, well-built feel and look
>The black and stainless steel unit is beautiful and adds to the attractiveness of my kitchen counter
>Brews quickly with beeper to tell you when its done
>You can set it to turn off up to four hours later (great for those of us who forget to turn off the pot later in the morning)
>Auto brew-you can select a time for it to brew
>I like the way the glass carafe sits in a tight ring...hard to put it back crooked this way
>The machine can be set to brew one to four cups or five to twelve cups
>Has a decalcification warning
>Variable temperature control
>Gold filter basket (makes using paper filters optional)
>Rubberized at the bottom (just below the warming plate), which softens the bump if you sleepily clunk the carafe as you return it. Very nice and unique idea
>3-year warranty
Cons:
>Tiny digital clock LCD which is hard to read
>Controls are tiny and rather hard to see
>No outside water gauge. I use my extenda-faucet to fill the water resevoir, so do not use a pre-measured container, such as the charafe. You need to peer down into the water fill bowl to see how high you are filling it up. There are stepped numbers in there to guide you, but you do need to look down from above rather than have a see-through water tank as most units have. Note-if you use their charafe to fill the resevoir, you won't have this measuring problem, however, the hole to pour into is very small.
The pros so outweigh the cons that I gladly tolerate the negatives. If my eyesight were better, my negatives would probably not be noticed. Overall, an outstanding unit which I highly recommend.
Customer Review: makes cold coffee; don't believe the hype
Summary: 2 Stars
Seeing as it's so highly rated, I bought this for my wife for Christmas. It's a nice machine, but the coffee, while not cold, is more in the warm-to-mildly hot range. My wife couldn't stand it...and although I have a baby's tongue and usually don't like drinking liquids when they're really hot...even I found the coffee to be a bit on the cool side. More specifically, if you drink the coffee as soon as its ready, its reasonably hot. But after sitting in your mug for one minute its very noticeably no longer hot. If you make instant coffee with boiled water, you can really notice the difference in how long it takes it too cool.
I returned it to the store and got another one...but it had the same problem. Using the 1-4 cup button (which is supposed to warm the water faster) didn't help at all. We usually only made 3 cups of coffee, so the coffee might be alittle hotter if you make 10 cups at once. I eventually returned the second unit to the store. We just use our espresso machine to make coffee now...or use all the left-over coffee filters I bought to drip the coffee manually over a cup (which is a pain).
This machine has a few other flaws as well. The fill indicator is poorly designed. You almost need a flashlight to figure out how much water you've put into the machine.
A few final comments. I don't drink coffee much and this is the first coffee machine I've used. After doing a lot of research on the web, this seemed to be the top rated machine in its price class. The machine looks really nice, but I think that's basically what you're paying for. Functionally, there are $20-$30 models that are nearly good, probably better. But the main thing is that the coffee ain't hot, which really is a pretty important thing to get right for a machine whose main function is to heat water and squirt it through a filter.