Cuisinart DCC-1200W Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, White and Stainless Steel
by Cuisinart
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: CuisinartBrand: Cuisinart
Release Date: 2003-08-01
Model: DCC-1200W
Color: White and Stainless
Product features:
- 12-cup coffeemaker programmable up to 24 hours in advance
- Includes a charcoal water filter to enhance coffee flavor
- Features include brew pause and paperless gold-tone filter
- Variable temperature control keeps coffee hot after brewing
- Self-clean cycle and automatic shutoff 0-4 hours after brewing is complete
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart DCC-1200W Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, White and Stainless Steel
Customer Review: Great coffee, flawed coffee maker
Summary: 2 Stars
Pros
The Cuisinart DCC-1200W 12-Cup Coffee Maker is an impressive-looking product that makes excellent coffee. There's a special flavor that French Roast coffee has in a good coffee shop, and in 25 years of brewing freshly-ground coffee at home I've never been able to get that flavor until I purchased and started using the DCC-1200W. I think the water filter is a good idea, and it may contribute a lot to the pleasing taste of the brewed coffee.
I also really like the look and feel of this machine; it is attractive, strong, and well built. The quality of physical design and construction are evident from the feel of the lift-up lid to the plastic ring around the top edge of the carafe that protects the glass and should reduce the likelihood of breakage, which ended the life of my previous coffee maker. The controls are laid out for style but are still simple to use. In addition, while other reviewers complained about the high volume of the brewing-finished chime, I found that not to be a problem. In fact, it's softer than my previous coffee maker, a bit too soft to hear all the time, depending where I am in the house. Maybe it's the size of my kitchen or perhaps Cuisinart listened to earlier reviews and comments and lowered the volume at some point.
Cons
Having said all that, the DCC-1200W (and presumably the black version as well) has some problems. To me, the biggest is that the brewing process splashes coffee grounds from inside the filter onto the lower surface of the lid, where the splashes merge with condensation. Opening the lid causes the grounds-laden moisture to run down to the back edge of the lid where ridges channel the flow to a collector that prevents drippage onto your counter top. That's a good thing, but there's a flaw: it runs down into the water reservoir where it gets recycled into your next pot of coffee. Maybe this isn't a big deal, and maybe the water filter removes it from the flow into the next pot, but it seems to me that it will build up over time, and I don't see any easy way to clean it out. My wife and I have taken to grabbing a paper towel and wiping the inner surface of the lid while we're opening it in order to minimize the amount of water that gets back into the reservoir.
Drippage control is the worst of a cluster of problems related to the design of the top of the coffee maker. It's easy to get coffee grounds sprinkled and splashed across the interior surface around the filler opening and brewing cone and into the shell around the brewing cone, but it's not so easy to clean all these surfaces thoroughly. The reservoir fill opening is narrow, requiring a steady hand to pour water from the carafe into the reservoir without spilling any onto the counter, the top interior surfaces of the coffee maker, or directly into the brewing cone (potentially a mess if you've already put a paper filter and grounds into it). In addition, since my counter has cabinets above it such that only a narrow strip of the counter lies beyond the cabinet's footprint, I'm not able to open the lid all the way. The coffee maker's height causes its lid to rest against the cabinet rather than opening until the built-in restraint stops it. This aggravates the difficulty in filling the reservoir and also contributes to another difficulty: seeing the fill-level indicators when brewing fewer than 6 cups of coffee. The fill-level indicator is inside the reservoir and you must look down into it alongside the carafe to observe how much water you're adding; the markers for 2 and 4 cups are in deep shadows at the very bottom of the reservoir. For 6 cups or more, the problem is much less serious.
One other problem is the difficulty in seeing the thin markings on the two twist knobs for function selection and heating plate temperature. I'm sure the age of my eyes doesn't help, but it takes a hard look to be sure I know where the knob is set. In addition, there are two other issues with the carafe itself: The plastic edge protecting the glass also makes it difficult to completely empty the carafe and traps water within it. And the carafe's lid is difficult to open and close reliably.
Quibbles
Finally, a few quibbles that wouldn't affect my decision to buy this product, but are things I've noticed while using it. The toggle switch appears and feels small and a little fragile. The clock display is small and unlit, but completely serves the purpose of programming timed brewing; I just can't use it for an auxiliary kitchen clock. The carafe presence sensor in the heating plate is large enough to create a very uneven surface for the carafe bottom, and makes it easy to insert the carafe crooked. I find that filling the cone filter from my grinder's receptacle while the cone is in the coffee maker is awkward, I've spilled grounds outside the filter multiple times and have taken to filling the filter completely outside the coffee maker. Finally, the tallness of the coffee maker causes all top-of-unit actions to feel awkward, even more so for shorter people.
The Bottom Line
In the end this is a good coffee maker that makes great coffee, but flaws prevent the coffee maker itself from being great. As much as I want to give a higher rating, I can't rate the DCC-1200W with three stars, so I have to give it two.
More Cuisinart DCC-1200W Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, White and Stainless Steel reviews:
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Description of Cuisinart DCC-1200W Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, White and Stainless Steel
Classic Design coffee maker. Features: 12-Cup Glass Carafe. LCD Clock and 24-hour Programmable Timer. Adjustable Keep-warm Temperature Control. Time-to-clean Monitor. Brew Pause Feature. Charcoal Water Filter. 0-4-hour Automatic Shutoff. 1-4 Cup Setting. "Brewing Complete" Audible Beep. Cord Storage. Gold Tone Filter and #4 Paper Filter Starter Kit. Instruction Book. Limited 3-year Warranty.Drip Coffee Machines
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