Cuisinart DCC-2000 Coffee-on-Demand 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Brushed Metal
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart DCC-2000 Coffee-on-Demand 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Brushed Metal
Customer Review: Appealing both for gadget freaks and the spouses who love them!
Summary: 5 Stars
This really is a great coffeemaker. It not only makes excellent coffee but also cleverly avoids the problem of coffee left over in the carafe cooking into mud on the heating plate over the course of several hours. Several guests have admired the look of the machine, the taste of the coffee produced, or both.
Complaints about the need to use a measuring cup or pitcher to pour water into this coffeemaker seem somewhat off base to me-- maybe these people are uncoordinated (or I'm much more so than I thought). It seems to me no big deal to fill the coffeemaker when I set it up each evening for the following morning. I'm not ending up with significant spills.
The machine is actually quite well designed, both asthetically (the analog "coffee gauge" with the brushed steel finish, along with the knobs, lever and colored lights seem somehow both 'retro' and modern at the same time) but more importantly, functionally (the coffee reservoir comes out for emptying, with no drips; the filter basket comes out easily; and the water fill gauge on the side is quite accurate).
I think my favorite thing about this machine is that it appeals both to me (for my gadget loving nature) but also to my wife (because it looks tidy on the counter, with no carafe.) With a conventional coffeemaker it seems like if the carafe is half full or anything less than sparkling it looks like dirty clutter.
The only thing I don't understand is the gold filter. What is the appeal of these things? If one can afford a Cuisinart coffemaker than one can afford paper filters. My feeling is that a filter such as this only serves to make discarding grounds a little easier; it can't replace a paper filter. Not only does it allow the beans' oil (if you use one, look for the oil slick on your coffee! ewwww!) which would normally be held by the paper to get into the coffee, it also lets quite a bit of sediment through. I use the gold filter, with a paper one sandwiched beneath, between it and the filter basket. I am always glad I do when I see the amount of sediment it catches. Using the gold basket in tandem, though, at least eliminates the task of handling a wet filter which is full of grounds.
Overall a great product, and well worth the price. The three year warranty is pretty impressive too.
***UPDATE 2/23/07***Still works great...None of the mechanical problems others have mentioned.
Still no issue with spilling water-- at least, not often!
Customer Review: Problems with the On Demand after only four months of use!!!
Summary: 2 Stars
Always avoided digital coffee makers, just something else to go wrong, wake up in the morning, manually fill it and switch it on and it works. But hey, this is a Cuisinart and has to be good, well it isn't.
And at the worse time, had a long business trip, need my thermos, and the thing is dead, no LCD display, power switch was dead. Checked my outlets, good, grabbed my old cheap Mr. Coffee, and it worked.
I called service the next day, was told all I have to do is to unplug it for an hour. An hour? Should I get up an hour earlier to make my coffee? Was told it would only happen once. That was last week, happened twice again. But it doesn't take an hour, more like 90 seconds, unplug it, wait 90 seconds and it works again. Course you have to reprogram it that is a pain in the butt.
See others are completely dead, have a feeling the microprocessor controlled relay is defective and mine probably has dirty contacts that are generating a glitch that is screwing up some poorly written software. This is a design fault, and will call again tomorrow with more ammunition. Maker does have a three year warranty. Are others having this same problem?
Since my wake up time is different each morning, never use the auto turn on feature, make my coffee first, use the rest room for that morning stuff and ready when I go back downstairs again.
Some things about this pot bugged me at first and still bug me. Should have used an LED display or at least back light the LCD, at that angle with an overhead lighting source, difficult to read it so have a flashlight handy.
Filling the coffee reservoir with water and trying to pour that in that small opening next to the lid, especially early in the morning is bothersome, tip it too much and the insides will get wet with water. So I am now using my sink sprayer to fill that, use my right hand for that and put in a filter and coffee with my left hand. Get done at the same time.
Was wondering how I could fill my thermos, that was a no brainer, simply pull out the reservoir and fill it. Ha, thermos sits inside the sink if I get sloppy.
Should be a light under the spout, like black coffee cups and difficult to see when full, but my ear can tell when it is full after practice.
Will call them tomorrow morning, this time with more arguments, especially after reading other peoples comments with similar problems.
Shouldn't be this way.
Customer Review: Leaks
Summary: 1 Stars
My husband bought the Cuisinart Coffee on Demand coffee maker a year and a half ago. It would leave coffee on the counter underneath the machine. If the counter was white then even though all of the liquid was under the coffee maker, I would have noticed some of it. This hadn't been obvious to me because I had granite counters. Unfortunately, when I went to clean under the coffee maker for the first time, I found lots of wetness. When I dried it I was apalled to see that it had stained my granite. I was very upset and the counters weren't even that old. Wiping didn't fix that stain but a combination of flour and dishwashing liquid per a recommendation ended up cleaning it. My husband called Cuisinart and they had us send it in, pay $10 and getting a new one. Unfortunately this one had the same exact thing. My solution? I put a puppy pad underneath it (trying to fold it so that none or very little of the pad pokes out). What's funny is that I don't even have a dog - I would just buy them for this coffee maker. I did this for ages. It was a far from perfect solution but at least the water was getting drawn away from my counter and not spreading. As I said, I did this for a long time - maybe about 15 months. I find it annoying and just ran out of pads today. Then an idea came to me - I have a small stainless steel cookie sheet. It was part of a set of 3 that I had bought at WalMart. I put the coffee maker in it and since the back in which you would see extra pan isn't visible where I have it, I think this will work out better than the pads since I can have total confidence that no water or coffee will leak on my counter. It looks fine with the cookie tray and it's not obvious that it's not just a part of the coffee maker. Bottom line: I never had a coffee maker that had problems before this one. I'd never had anything fancy before (Mr. Coffee) and they would work fine. This one costs over $100 and has a leak. Don't go through the hassle. I'm sure you can find something with a similar look that doesn't have this defect. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to use mine until it conks out. Whenever that happens, I'll research a different brand of coffee maker and not get Cuisinart coffee makers again. They are a fine brand for other products but awful for this. Hope this info helps someone.Customer Review: Same issues as everyone else
Summary: 1 Stars
**Origianl post 8/26***
Originally bought the machine thinking that not only did this look great, but it would be significantly more convenient. Boy, was I wrong.
Coffee sits directly on a heating element, so except for the first cup it always tastes burnt
Machine leaks like a sieve
When making a full pot, grounds tend to overflow and spill over into the coffee
Cleaning - thought this would be much less work. WRONG! While you can take the unit apart to clean, you can't get your hands into the corners and cracks. If anything spills into the heating compartment under the coffee, it's near impossible to clean it out. And, if you live in an area with hard water, you can NOT clean the compartment that you pour fresh water into. The best you can do is pour water in, pick up the entire machine, shake it around, and turn it upside down to dump the water out.
8 month after purchse - On/Off switch died.
Just called their 800-726-0190 phone number. Sat in queue for 10 minutes (expected) then the line started ringing. After 30 rings, I hung up and sent them an email... and reviewed here.
Stick with the ugly Mr. Coffee. Not as fashionable, but it WORKS.
**Edit 8/30**
Four business days after initial email, having received no response, I called their toll free line again. After being on hold for 35 minutes a representative answered the call (YAY Speaker Phones!). As soon as I told her the model number, she collected my information and told me they would be sending me a replacement.
They must now freely admit there is an issue as she asked me no questions about the coffee maker. She did tell me I have to send the old pot back, and pay $10 for shipping on the new pot. This annoyed me, as I'm going to pay $20-$30 in shipping (new pot to me, old pot back to them) because their machine died within it's warranty period.
I know thats pretty much standard in the industry, but come on. You're product is garbage, you know it's garbage, and now I have to pay to get a replacement piece of garbage that will only last another six months.
Two hours later I received a response to my initial email from Sunday, saying basically the same thing.
Customer Review: Great, Hot Coffee, but a few warnings...
Summary: 5 Stars
I read a lot of reviews before deciding to purchase this coffeemaker. The most popular aspects of this product seemed to be that there was no carafe to wash, and that it kept a good amount of coffee hot for quite awhile. A lot of people were really pleased with how it looked in their kitchens, as well.
We've had ours for a few months now and enjoy it a lot. It really does make excellent coffee, and can keep it very hot without burning it for an impressive amount of time. In fact, you can program how long you want to keep the internal warmer on. Once the warmer turns off--and it makes a few beeping noises to signal this--the coffee cools down fairly quickly.
I'm not thrilled as most with how it looks--in fact to me it looks like it is missing something!--but that's not a big issue for us.
This is what I've learned after owning it for awhile: (1) While this machine is marketed as a 12-cup coffeemaker, it makes the same amount as most 10-cup makers. This is because this maker's cups are considered 5 oz, where as usually a cup (of coffee) is 6 oz. So, you get 12 5 oz cups with this one, or 10 6 oz cups with most others. (Keep this in mind when determining your coffee to water ratio--it took us a while to get it right). Anyway, do not expect to be able to make more coffee than you can with most other makers.
(2) There is no carafe to clean, but there are still 3 separate pieces that must be removed and cleaned each time. I don't find the "no carafe" feature to be that big of a boon.
(3) Others have mentioned this a lot: you cannot fit a very tall cup under the spout. My husband has a shorter than average commuter mug, and not only does he have to slide out the grate, he also has to pick the whole coffeemaker up to fill his cup. I would say that you probably could not use one of those trendy tall, slim mugs even, without having to remove the grate.
That said, I am a big coffee snob and I LOVE this coffee maker! I like my coffee really hot, and that's just what I get. And it makes very yummy coffee, which was our biggest concern. It's kinda fun to place your mug on the little "X" on the grate (to center it), and then push the lever to fill your cup.
I would definitely buy this again.