I've had this model coffemaker at work for a couple of years, and so I placed it on my registry and got it as a wedding gift. As far as grind and brew goes, this one is mostly good, but falls short in a few respects.
The good:
o- burr grinder, much better grind than a blade
o- programmable - I just set it in the evening and it's good to go when I get out of the shower
o- no major cleaning necessary every time you use it
o- I don't see anything wrong with the plastic at all. Looks fine to me.
o- GoldTone filter - a very fine mesh to capture most coffe grounds, but does not absorbe any of the oils from the coffee the way paper filters do, giving you a fuller flavor, albeit at a price of a slightly silty cup.
The bad:
o - the temperature isn't quite up to snuff - a little too cold. If you pour it into a cup you pulled out of the cupboard, and add a splash of half and half or milk from the fridge, then pour in the coffee, it's just above warm. Not hot enough. Which also contributes to the brew not being quite as good as the beans' potential. Sad.
Update - being the engineer at heart that I am, I went and tested the brew temperature, just to be sure. I used two different kitchen digital thermometers, both in the basket and in the carafe. For most of the bewing time the temp stays at about 165F, climbing up to almost 175F towards the end of the brew. That is well short of the 200F +- 5F (92C-94C). No wonder then. I was always puzzled at how I would find great coffee at a shop, buy the beans, bring them home and only get a mediocre brew. Now I know. Too cold.
o - there is a conduit between the burr grinder and the basket. As you grind beans, the grounds fill up the conduit and push the grounds that were there already out to the basket. It's okay if you use it at the office and brew 10 cups at a time, a few times a day (full brew takes about 10 minutes, BTW). Not good for home use where you bew 2-4 cups a day: you are constantly using day-old grounds. Not good. Next time this thing breaks, I'm replacing it with a standalone burr grinder which dumps beans right out, and a thermal carafe coffemaker like Braun, which brings me to the next point:
o- No thermal carafe! What's up with that! For a high price like that, I'd have at least expected a thermal carafe. Alas, no such luck.
o- Reliability. At the office we've had to replace it about once a year, which isn't bad considering how heavily we used it - multiple 10-cup brews every day. My home version quit (motor burned out, I think) after just over a year of use. Luckily, the department store exchanged it, a'cause it was off the wedding registry and they are extra nice in those cases. Next time this thing dies, I'm getting two separate pieces - maker and grinder, both can be had for under half of the cost of these.
o - if you do get it, make sure to point the spout of the carafe to the right, away from the basket, as the steam can make the mechanism and beans sticky.
o- Brew time is too long. A full 10 cups take 10 minutes. Ideally a brew should not take more than 6 minutes; after that time you start to extract bitter unpleasant flavors from the beans. So if you want to make more coffee, then make 6 cups, pour into a thermal container and brew the other 4.
Better yet, don't buy this coffemaker.
Update: Capresso has come out with a new model, Capresso 455.05 CoffeeTEAM which does come with a thermal carafe. I don't know what the brew temp is - I suspect still too cold; no way to tell. It's an extra hundred bucks. I'm going to see if I can return mine and buy a better one.
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Capresso 454 CoffeeTEAM-S Coffee Maker/Burr Grinder CombinationProduct Description: The only combination machine with a Conical Burr Grinder!Just pour in the beans, program the time and amount of coffee to be ground-and CoffeeTEAM-S does the rest!Only CoffeeTEAM lets you program the amount of coffee you want to grind: choose from 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 cups and select mild, regular or strong.You can even program two completely different settings, one for manual operation and one for automatic operation.This way you always enjoy exactly the same coffee taste.The CoffeeTEAM uses solid steel conical burrs.The slow grinding of the burrs imparts minimal heat, preserving more aroma than blade grinding.It also allows for a finer and more uniform grind than combination machines with a blade grinder. Grinding and brewing are separated, keeping moisture away from the grinder.The CoffeeTEAM grinds the programmed amount of beans directly into the filter.Then the filter automatically swings back and the brewing process begins.
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I like this Capresso grinder because it has more capacity than others I have used and it grinds my coffee beans to an even texture consistently.The trick is to not overheat expensive coffee beans during the grindingprocess and this unit does it well.This is the best blade grinder I havefound.
