Cuisinart Grind & Brew Automatic Coffeemaker, 12-Cup Glass, DGB-550BKNAS

I love this coffee maker! It delivers freshly ground coffee, perfectly brewed, exactly when you want it. It is simple to operate but you will have to use it a few times before you get it. It's not intuitive but neither is a food processor the first time you use it. You will need to read the instructions and carefully follow the steps to set up the clock (remember to set AM or PM) and the timer. Using it is easy: pour water, install a disposable unbleached paper water filter in brew basket, measure coffee, and push SET. Nothing to adjust. Start with filtered or bottled water. My experience: I fill the water reservoir level to 10 cups and add 6 TBS coffee beans to the grinder basket. This makes 4 large mugs of robust-but-not-spoon-dissolving coffee. Beans: I use dark roast like Peet’s Major Dickason's or Starbucks Cafe Verona or medium roast Lavazza Espresso. They all make a robust cup that stands up to warm milk or froth. Let experience will be your guide. Care: I put the removable parts in the dishwasher every day. This may be counter to the manufacturer's instructions, but it's what I do. I'm not telling you to try this at home... but, after 18 months, it's fine. Once a month, I clean the coffee maker, per the manufacturer's instructions, and replace the little water filter in the reservoir. That's it. One quick caveat: the grinder is loud. You will think Krakatoa is erupting the first time you hear it, but you get used to it because the coffee is so good. I don't hear it go off any more; I awaken to the aroma of the freshly ground brewed coffee, not the noise. There are other fancier, more complicated auto grind coffee makers, but for a delicious, reliable, simple to use and clean coffee maker, at a reasonable price, the Cuisinart 12-cup Grind & Brew is the best!

Yes, this is my 3rd one of these coffee makers in the last 5 years. We grind and brew at least 2 pots of coffee a day and often 4 on weekends. Yes, those that say this machine takes more cleanup than most are correct. Yes, it is loud and there is no way to set the grind time. Yes, if you put the handle on the permanent filter basket the wrong way you can flood your kitchen countertop (we have done so once). That being said it still makes a very good cup of coffee and when you consider the price this one is the only one that makes sense to me. I have promised myself that I will keep the receipt for this one, and I made sure I went to the Cuisinart website and registered it, so when it breaks this time I will get another one under warranty. My first one bit the dust when my mother, blind and 87 at the time, literally broke the grinder mechanism cover after two years of use. The price of Parts and Shipping coupled with my time and the inconvenience precluded my trying to repair it. The second one just bit the dust at the 3 year mark, and I could not find the receipt to determine warranty eligibility. The grinder seized up one day, and I used pliers to bust it loose. After that it would grind/spin for nearly a minute before stopping, all while the rpm's were running all over the place. It technically still worked, but I didn't feel like taking the chance it wouldn't have a freshly brewed cup of freshly ground Starbucks coffee beans waiting for me when I awoke, so I bought a new one. I like it, the price was right ($100 at Jaque Pennay, $140 at Macy's), and Amazon has always done me right.

UPDATE: 3/17/15 I purchased this item Dec 2013 and Today Mar 2015 the Grinder Stopped Working. For the 1 yr 3 mo I've had the coffeemaker, It HAS worked great! After Contacting Cuisinart they charge $10 for a replacement + you pay to ship back the defective device $25-30 usps. So instead of paying $35-40 I am going to upgrade to the next Cuisinart DGB-625BC for eight one dollars. It looks to be highly rated & If I get about the same amount of use, I'll be pleased. **Remember how much Starbucks costs? $5+ a day that totals $1825 and that does not include eats or tips. When I total my coffee beans $13/lb/week + creamer 4/ea/week + the coffee maker I am under $970 a year! And I LOVE the way my coffee taste EVERY Day, to the last drop! Making amazing coffee at home is a no-brainer! If you leave with nothing more, I want you to know THIS IS MY FAVORITE Coffeemaker of all time!! If you are on the fence about buying this (Cuisinart Grind & Brew DGB-550) GET OFF THE FENCE & BUY IT NOW! I was totally on the fence for months myself after running across several negative & neutral reviews for this product. The #1 complaint I kept reading about was how the steam seeps up and then having to clean the device, and this sounded like such a hassle that I almost didn't purchase a grind & brew. Well thankfully it went on sale into my budget range and I have tested it out extensively and I am here to tell you that- IT'S NOT REALLY AN ISSUE and I'll Tell You Why! If you love fresh coffee- surely you already own a coffee grinder and coffee maker. If you don't already own a grinder, this grind & brew will be awesome for you! So for those of you that do already have a grinder and coffeemaker, There is nothing more to clean on this, than that would have. Cleaning your grinder and coffee machine- that's all you clean on this too- Nothing MORE. Actually this product makes it SUPER EASY & it Takes No Time at all! Yes the steam seeps up into the grinder because the grinder is attached to the basket so it can put the grounds in there. Yes the inside of the grinder gets wet and has grounds in it- What do people expect? Yet, My separate grinder had the same issue- it would have residue from fresh beans and some grounds that would need to be cleaned everyday- this is no different. On your regular coffee maker you would empty/rinse your filter basket, and rinse your carafe- same with this! That's All you do! This Product works Perfect!, It Looks Fantastic! It's High Quality and has Excellent Function options! Did I mention that it has a 3-year manufacturer warranty! Be Sure to register your new Grind & Brew with Cuisinart! I'm kinda a freak about registering EVERYTHING with the manufacture, I'm not a rep or anything! Bottom Line: This is a 5 Star machine & I LOVE my new Grind & Brew! If you are a Coffee Snob Like Me, Your Going to love it too! Its going to be an incredibly flavorful 2014- CHEERS! klink kling klink (cups of coffee clinking)

It's easy to program. We set it up the night before and wake to the sound of coffee beans grinding away. In my video you can hear it in action. It's not quiet but it's what you'd expect. Keep in mind "12 cup" capacity means twelve 5 ounce cups so if you drink a large mug it's probably at least 10 ounces. The set-up consists of filling the grinder with your beans. The scoop provided is a tablespoon size. The instructions recommended one scoop of beans per 5 ounce of water, unless you like yours stronger. You can tweak to your liking. I'm now able to pour my beans directly from the bag into the grinder eyeballing it because I make the same size pot every day. Be careful if you try this or you'll fishing beans from the water reservoir. Put the cap on the grinder. Fill with desired amount of water. The level markers are down in the water reservoir and also on the glass carafe. Open the filter basket door. It comes with a very nice gold mesh filter but I prefer paper filters. Place the top over the filter. The top directs and contains the fresh grounds as they drop from the grinder. Don't worry if you forget a piece it'll beep to alert you something is missing. Now you're ready to hit on to grind & brew now or select the program button to start later. It keeps the coffee very hot. It has a mode if you are mailing a small pot 1-4 cups so it heats accordingly. Another cool feature is it can brew with pre-ground coffee just put them directly into the filter basket and push the Grind Off button. A house guest had some decaf K-cups we cut them open dumped the grounds right into the filter basket and made her a pot. The things that made this a four star review are a couple loose grounds occasionally end up in my pot then my cup. It's very few but not my favorite surprise with that last sip. And there are too many things to wash. The filter basket lid, the basket itself, the coffee carafe (obviously) but the grinder base and cap get a lot of condensation and stuck wet grounds so they must be washed daily. I tried just wiping out but it was a big mess. Regular washing was faster. Still beats the time to wait in line for a barista but if you hate dishes you need to know this.

So I purchased this to replace my Cuisinart CHW-12 Coffee Plus 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Hot Water System, Black/Stainless. I was very pleased with the *coffeemaker* component of this latter (its hot water system being another matter), and was looking for a similar coffeemaker that also had a grind and brew function. I have had it now for just shy of a year, and am almost entirely pleased with it. Let me address the pros and cons, both as I see them and as they have been discussed in other reviews: Pros: (1) This coffeemaker is able to produce an excellent cup of coffee in very little time. (2) The grind function allows you to control precisely how much coffee you want ground. Other models - such as the Krups KM7005 Grind and Brew coffeemaker - essentially have a reservoir for beans that are ground according to your selection of coffee-strength. Effectively, this means it uses a timer to determine how much coffee to grind. In my experience, this resulted in an imperfect and - more importantly - inconsistent cup of coffee. This Cuisinart coffeemaker, by contrast, will grind precisely how much coffee you put in the grinder. I have been surprised to find no residue, or almost no residue, in the grinder after each use. This allows you to control the strength of your coffee, and produce a consistent cup. (3) You can easily turn the grinder off. I keep a stash of ground coffee at the ready for those days when I'm running behind and want to save a step. It doesn't save a lot of time - but it's a nice feature. Cons (1) A number of people have noted in their reviews that this coffeemaker is a lot of work to clean. While I don't find this in fact to be the case, it does require you to wash, in addition to the components common to any coffeemaker, the grinder after each use. The only systems with which I am familiar that do not require this are those with a coffee reservoir; the drawback of these systems, as I note above, is that it is difficult to get a consistently good cup of coffee out of them. So I think this is a have your cake or eat it predicament: if you want a consistently good cup of coffee from a grind and brew coffeemaker, you're probably going to need to buy one requiring additional cleaning. (2) I was surprised to find how much I missed the carafe temperature control function of my old Cuisinart CHW-12 coffeemaker. I find this grind and brew coffeemaker produces coffee that is slightly too hot for my taste. That said, it is a minor drawback, easily corrected by waiting a few minutes after pouring a cup before drinking it. (3) Unlike the CHW-12, there is no transparent window that allows you to see how much water is in the reservoir from the side of the coffeemaker. Instead, you have to look down into the water reservoir, at a series of steps marking 2, 4, 6, 8 and so forth. This makes it difficult to fill the reservoir to, say, 3 cups or 5 cups or 7 cups etc. Why? Because when you are looking down, you lose the perspective necessary to determine when the water is halfway between, say, 4 and 6. This is a minor inconvenience that can be worked around by trial and error. (4) I agree with those reviewers who say the grinder is not large enough to make an entire pot of strong coffee. This doesn't make the least difference for me since I only make half a pot per day. To make half a pot of coffee at my desired strength, however, I do need to fill the coffee grinder well more than 1/2 full. Upshot: a 12 cup pot of coffee is likely to be weaker than I would want it. So: if you want 12 cups every morning of strong coffee, this grind and brew coffee maker is likely to fall short of your expectations. If, on the other hand, you only occasionally make a full pot of coffee, I'd recommend that, on those occasions, you turn the grinder off and use the appropriate amount of pre-ground coffee instead. Overall, I would deduct a 1/2 star for cons (2) and (3). That not being an option, however, I have given this coffeemaker a 5 star rating since 4 stars would certainly not do credit to its many fine features. **UPDATE 05/12/2020** I have had this unit for just over a year. I stand by my original assessment. It is far and away the best coffee maker I have ever purchased, at least for my purposes.

We have had grind and brew coffee makers for years. When our last one went out, we were determined to get another grind and brew. One of the issues in the reviews is how hard this one is to clean. That was not the problem for us. From the first pot to the last one we brewed a month later, the coffee was weak and unflavorful. We tried everything. We used a gold filter, the a paper filter and then both. We filled it as full as we could with coffee and cut down on the water yet the coffee still tasted lousy and weak. We used fresh coffee bought directly from Peet's and Starbucks, yet it did not matter. Then I decided to call customer service. I told the guy our problem and that we just purchased this. He said: "take out the filter and mix 4 cups vinigar with 8 cups of water and run the machine. It will clean it." I said "I just bought it. Do you think it is dirty?" To which he said "oh, then put more coffee in the machine" and I said "we have filled it up and still no good." He said: "Well put less water in it" and I said "I did". He said: "There are no adjustments to be made so you should send it back to the people you bought it from" but I said "it is over 30 days old and they won't take it back" So with no helpful suggestions I said: "so your saying that I just need to throw this away and start over again?" To which he replied, "I did not say that and is there anything else I can help you with today?" Well a few choice thoughts came to mind, but being a class guy, I knew I was dealing with a company that couldn't care less about customer service. So in fact, I have thrown this coffee maker out and starting over with something other than a Cuisinart. Just another 100 bucks down the drain, but life is way to short for lousy coffee. I had always thought that Cuisinart was a class company, but they proved me wrong. If you like good coffee and good service, Cuisinart is not the way to go.

I decided that using a Keurig coffee maker on a daily basis was a waste of money and decided to return to using a coffee maker. I have a Technivorm Mochamaster, but I dislike performing a separate process to grind the beans and the lack of an automatic start feature. Waking up to a freshly brewed pot of coffee instead of stumbling around to make it is the best. In the past, I had a couple of Toshiba My Cafe Mill & Drip Coffee Makers that made excellent coffee. When the last one was worn out, I could not replace it due to the Toshiba sanctions imposed in 1990, so I switched to the first generation of the Cuisinart Grind and Brew coffee makers which were good enough. Recently, I tried three highly-rated and much more expensive grind and brew coffeemakers that failed to meet my expectations. All produced a weak brew, regardless of increasing the coffee-to-water ratio or changing the brew and grind settings. So this coffee maker is the is the winner! I used the formula for water to coffee recommended by Mochamaster (based on the SCAA Golden Ratio –– 1000 ml water to 55 g coffee). I ignored the stepladder measure inside the coffee maker water tank and used a 1-liter measuring pitcher for this and a food scale to measure 55 grams of coffee beans. This filled the grinder container to the maximum capacity, so making a larger brew is not possible (unless you prefer your coffee weaker and choose to add more than 1000 ml to the tank). One of the reviews that I saw online recommended engaging the 1-4 cup button for a stronger brew. I did this for the first batch yesterday, and it was intense, really too strong -- and I like a bold cup. This morning, I used the same water-to-coffee ratio but did not engage the 1-4 cup button. I am happy to report that this produced a great cup of coffee. Now, here's a word about cleaning the parts. What's all the fuss? It's not such a big deal and takes just a few minutes. As soon as the coffee stops brewing, I remove the grinder and cover, the filter basket and cover, and the filter; rinse them off, submerge them in sudsy water in the sink, pour my first cup of coffee while they soak, enjoy a few sips while they briefly soak, rinse them off and put them on the dish rack to air dry. I replace them in the machine later when they are dry. Easy and fast.

I’ve had this coffee maker for a couple of years now and there are pluses and minuses. I’m comparing this product to the Cappresso machine with a built in grinder that I had for over 12 years and just loved. When it died, I knew i wanted another coffee maker with a built in grinder. I read several reviews indicating that the later model Cappressos weren’t as good as they used to be. Plus this Cuisinart was rated very highly, so I thought I’d try it. First, the pluses. 1. It makes excellent tasting coffee. 2. It seems to be well made and very durable. Now, the minuses. 1. The grinder is LOUD. It’s basically obnoxious. And it goes for a full 30 seconds, which can feel like an eternity. Don’t plan on getting up before the rest of your household and starting a pot of coffee unnoticed. It will wake up even the heaviest of sleepers. Plus it’s a blade grinder, which is not as good as the burr grinder in the Cappressos. 2. The cleaning process is a nightmare. There are 5 different pieces that MUST be cleaned each time. The steam from the brewing process gets into the grinder, which becomes caked with soggy coffee grounds. You can’t brew another pot until you’ cleaned the entire grinder and basket from the last batch. 3. There’s an odd feature that if, during the process of wiping it down, you accidentally hit the start button and you have the grinder and filter pieces out of the machine, it starts beeping at you and nothing will get it to stop until you put all five pieces back in. You can’t turn it off or reset it. It will temporarily stop beeping if you unplug it, but starts again the second you plug it back in. So irritating. 4. You have to measure out the beans for each pot. I know it seems like a tiny nit to pick, but the Cappresso allows you to dump the beans into a holding container and then automatically measures out the correct amount of beans for the number of cups you indicate, and you can probably brew 2-4 pots before you need to refill. And you don’t need to take apart and clean the grinder after each use. 5. You have to make sure the basket handle faces the front of the machine or you will end up with leaking and overflowing problems. 6. It seems very well made and durable, which is a shame for me, because I can’t wait until this one dies so I can go back to a Cappresso.

Te entrega un buen sabor de cafè, caliente adecuado todo el tiempo. Relaciòn Precio - desempeño muy adcuado, solo dar su limpieza de molino en cada uso que es muy sencillo, y funciona perfecto.

Easy to use, makes a perfect cup of coffee. The timer allows you to set it to go whenever you want and it is very easy to clean. Terrific value.

Ya tenía una de muchos años ya no funcionó y compré otra igual son lo mejor para preparar cafe

Had the old version of this coffee maker for years. It started leaking. I replaced with a newer version of the cuisinart. Didn’t like the setup so I returned it. Then I found this one. Almost identical: glass Carafe instead of insulated pot, the bottom heats up to keep your coffee hot, and the sides of the machine are black plastic instead of stainless. Wish I would have found this months ago. It works perfectly and actually brews a hot cup of coffee. Plus the insulated carafe works with it if you need to brew a couple of pots. Nothing beats grinding fresh beans when you make a pot of coffee!

However, this machine replaced the same one I had many years ago - and loved - so was glad to be able to replace it - but the first one I had had a metal pot - which kept the coffee warm after brewing - this one now has a glass pot - easier to break and the heat goes after brew (yes there is a heater that can stay on but it doesn't do anything for the coffee in the pot - the thermos like one previously was much much better