Cuisinart 14-Cup Touchscreen Programmable Coffeemaker

Impressive coffee maker! And it’s attractive, minimalistic, and designed well! Coffee tastes great; way better tasting than what came out of my very dependable, but eventually dying of old age, Hamilton Beach. The machine is easy to set up, program, add water, add and empty grounds, and clean. Paper filters aren’t needed and won’t be polluting the planet. The coffee is perfectly hot at the original temp setting and will stay hot for 2-3 hours, depending on the chosen burner on/off time. The coffee temp can be increased with a different set up. I’ve never had a problem or errors with the machine in the 7 months that I’ve used it 3-4x/wk. No overflows; which, I would guess resulted from user error. Based on how we insert into the maker the two coffee ground holders, it’s possible to insert one or the other pieces out of alignment. It doesn’t feel like a design defect, though. These two pieces are cone shaped, like a cone coffee filter. One piece is a thick black holder that dispenses and guides coffee into the pot and holds the mesh coffee filter. We remove these two to clean the grounds and liquid coffee remnants. There’s an edge divot to direct proper insertion of the black holder, and we can feel a slight snap when the first/black holder is inserted into the maker. The mesh cone needs to sit in and align with the black holder below it. It’s pretty straightforward; but, its alignment importance may need to be more significantly highlighted in the manual. Maybe this part of the set up gets overlooked as we robotically prep our coffee. The last few seconds of the brewing cycle is loud, kind of like the pump is pushing steam through the machine…similar to the sound of an espresso machine. The carafe is 14 cups which can lead to a heavier pour. Personally, I quickly got used to it and like the bigger size. The pour doesn’t spill or drip on the counter. The carafe’s lid removes and cleans easily. The last bits of brewed coffee get caught on the carafe’s rim and won’t pour. I dread the conflict and compromise of either using a straw to drink from the carafe black coffee (coffee needs milk and sweetener!) and the guilt of washing down the drain that liquid gold. The turmoil is worth it, though!

This is my third Cuisinart coffee maker of a similar type and it is hands down the my favorite! Each of the prior ones lasted about five years. They may have lasted longer had I been more faithful to proper cleaning but they eventually suffered from hard water lime buildup. They have all made a fine cup of coffee. But pot alone, no matter the brand or cost, will turn pre-ground grocery store coffee into a great cup! I grind my own coffee right before use, measured by weight for each pot, from locally roasted beans.So what makes it my favorite? It's sleek and absolutely beautiful on my kitchen counter! The surface is easy to clean, with no buttons to collect dirt. It makes 14 cups, two cups more than my other Cuisinarts. And I love the digital display. There's really nothing complicated about it if you pay attention to the instructions. Touch sensitivity is good and it holds previous settings from pot to pot unless you want to make a change. I love the side window that shows water level! With my older Cuisinarts I would...honest to gosh...have to stand on my tippietoes with a flashlight to look down into the water well and make sure I didn't overfill.The purchase of pot alone includes a reusable filter, no need to buy that separately, but be aware that those filters will allow sediment to drip through to your pot and spoil the cup. It also includes one water filter, which is quite easy to change, but after filtering my water in a Brita pitcher I find no need to refilter the water. The pot works just as normal without it.It arrived extremely well packaged. In fact it was almost like opening a Russian Matryoshka doll with a cardboard box inside a larger cardboard box and inside those was the store display box with the pot inside protected by more cardboard...no Styrofoam...bonus! I doubt anything less than a truck running over it could have broken the glass carafe.Like my previous Cuisinarts, settings allow you to turn off the burner as soon as the coffee has dripped through. Or you can choose H, M or L temperature if you like but leaving coffee on a hot burner makes for burnt tasting coffee very quickly. Much tastier to rewarm in the microwave if it has cooled. There's a wide range of settings, so it's easy to personalize in a way that meets your needs. How long it will last is hard to say but my previous Cuisinarts served me well for years and hopefully this one will too.

It works great. Love its looks and bright read outs. And it makes delicious coffee. My complaint--echoed by others--is that it's impossible to empty the carafe when pouring water into the thing. This is just poor design--the lid just doesn't go back far enough. I have to keep a funnel handy so that I can get the last few ounces out of the carafe into the coffeemaker prior to making a pot. I'm also a fan of the ability of it to maintain the time if the power goes out for a minute, which happens all too frequently here.