Customer Reviews

Black & Decker CM1509 8-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Thermal Carafe

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

There are so many things wrong with this coffeemaker that I don't know where to start. I wanted to like it - my husband and daughter bought it when she and other family were in town visiting and our Braun coffeemaker stopped working. That was Mothers Day. I finally gave up yesterday, three months later. Here are the problems:

1. Weak coffee. There are two kinds of coffee drinkers in America: "is that tea or coffee, Mom?" coffee drinkers and coffee shop coffee drinkers. Yes, there really is a difference, and it begins with strength of the coffee (along with being freshly brewed, good quality beans, clean equipment, and, in most places, filtered water). But I digress. If you're OK with Aunt Mildred's coffee, you may be OK with this machine. It evidently pushes the heated water through the grounds too fast. There is no way to get a really strong cup of coffee, no matter how much coffee you use. For regular strength, we were using twice as much coffee as with the Braun. Possibly more. Cheaper just to go down to Starbucks.

2. Badly designed carafe. There is a seam someplace that allows water to get in between the inner sleeve and outer portion of the carafe. That means that water sloshes around there. It's cold when the hot coffee is going in, and so cools down the interior. It's like pouring your hot coffee into a chilled glass. Other reviewers have said that this trapped water mixes with the coffee. I don't think it does, but it offends me nonetheless.

3. Cold coffee. Probably because of #2, but also because of the energy-saving design of what is usually a warmer below the carafe not being a warmer. The cooled coffee sits in the carafe and isn't warmed. Plan on using your microwave for every cup.

4. Messy looking on the counter. Because the carafe has that seam that leaks, it sweats out calcified water. Or something. It looks leprous.

5. Cheaply glued on control panel. Look at the photo. See the control panel at the bottom? Be careful when you clean it because of its leprosy (described in #4), because the entire panel seems to be pasted on. As in temporarily pasted on.

6. The cup-measure on the side is purely for show. There is no way to actually see how much water there is inside, even with a flashlight. It's no big deal, since I always put in the same amount of water from a big glass that is my coffee-water-measuring glass, but the fact that the numbers are there is misleading. (Actually, if you put your finger on the number outside the coffeemaker, and then crane your head around to look inside, you can see your finger and thus know how much water there is.)

7. No way to use a gold cone.

8. Badly designed column - where you pour the water in. It's awkward to reach, and too close to the grounds, so that I often end up splashing water on the grounds.

9. It did once explode, as other reviewers have complained about. I think I did something wrong - but what? - and instead of going into the carafe, the weak watery stuff that this machine produces went all over the counter. Eight cups of it.

I felt so relieved when I found the ancient Gevalia 4-cup machine in the basement. Lovely coffee. I'll never buy a Black & Decker coffeemaker again - but I want one of their hedge trimmers.

Summing up, I feel guilty about giving this coffeemaker to Goodwill. No one should even pay $5 for it. It's going in the trash.

We bought this coffee maker about 5 days ago and were immediately and continuously disappointed. The carafe keeps the coffee tepid at best. There is no heating element on the coffee maker. From the moment coffee is made (not very hot) it gets cold. Within 30 minutes it is not drinkable. Additionally, the reservoir fill markers are easy to see but it is very, very difficult to see the water level. Unless you look directly into the coffee maker reservoir or pour the water into the reservoir from some premeasured container, it is almost impossible to determine how much water is in the reservoir.

One of the problems I have with counter top appliances is how they take up all the counter top space. When I looked at a display in the store, so many coffee makers were so tall or so wide or so deep, it became a search for a reasonable size coffee maker, also it's difficult to find a 6-8 cups capacity.

We never really used the heating plate of our old Krups coffee maker. When the coffee was brewed, it went into a cup or thermos.

This new Black & Decker coffee maker isn't perhaps for everyone. It makes a smaller amount of coffee, it's already a thermal container and it shuts off after brewing.

The size is just right for our kitchen, the black plastic and stainless look works with our kitchen design. One of the things I really appreciate is the lack of "special water filters" like our old Krups. You ever try to find coffee maker water filters after a few years?

This one is inexpensive, looks good, brews a good cup and doesn't take up the entire kitchen counter.

Maybe Black & Decker recently changed the way they manufacture this machine but I have to say I am at a loss over why so many people are complaining. I bought this machine on sale at Target (Amazon turned out to have it for the same price, go figure) and then I found it online to look at reviews. After I read some of the more terrible ones, I was ready to return it without even trying but I figured that, since I already had it in my house, I might as well see how it works. A week later, I'm pleasantly surprised, so much so that I want to address some of the complaints I've read:

Coffee Temperature: Yes, this coffee maker either doesn't have a heat plate or it turns off once the coffee is done brewing (I'm not quite sure). Well, that's the point - leaving coffee over a heat plate for hours makes the coffee taste terrible (it's the reason I tossed my old coffee maker). The coffee this machine brews is hot - it's so hot that, after pouring a cup immediately after brewing, I have to let it sit for about a minute in order to drink it (after adding milk). And the thermal carafe keeps the coffee hot for at least a couple hours. If I leave coffee in the pot for a whole day, it will still be lukewarm that evening. Although a warming plate might keep the coffee hot all day, it would be undrinkable because burnt coffee is disgusting. This machine will never burn your coffee.

Water Level Gauge: Yes, it's really hard to tell how much water you've put in - the water level gauge kinda sucks. So what. This really is a minor inconvenience. And as someone else pointed out, you can use the water gauge by putting your finger on the desired cup line and looking inside the machine. Is this ideal? Of course not (hence the 4 stars) but really not worth crying about.

Mess: This coffee maker has never overflown or otherwise leaked coffee. No idea what you're doing wrong if you have this happen to you. Same goes for the seam that I've read about. No clue what you're talking about - the carafe in my machine is solid.

Difficulty Pouring: It is not difficult to pour from the carafe. You just have to press down on the release button on the lid (this feature helps keep the coffee warm). Although getting the last little bit of coffee out can be somewhat difficult, I don't mind letting a few drops of coffee go to waste if I'm mostly satisfied with the machine. It's not like you're brewing that $500 a pound cat poop coffee (if you are, then you should also get yourself an unnecessarily expensive coffee maker).

Final Thoughts: I like this machine. I like the carafe. I think the carafe is easier to clean than one made of glass. I also think it stains less than a glass carafe and I don't worry about dropping and breaking it in the sink while washing it (I've already dropped it a couple times).

I'm the kind of person who doesn't have time in the morning to clean my coffee maker before heading out. If I don't drink all the coffee I brew, it ends up sitting in the carafe all day. When I had a coffee maker with a glass carafe, I'd come home to nasty tasting coffee (because it had sit on the hot plate for a few hours until the machine turned itself off) and a mess trying to clean the burnt coffee out of carafe. I rarely brewed coffee because it was so unpleasant to deal with my old machine. With this machine in my kitchen, I'm brewing coffee almost every day.

I've read some of the other reviews and have had a different experience with this maker than most.

1) Some of the reviews said the coffee overflowed and created a mess. This was not my experience. I experimented by filling the coffee right up to the 8 cup fill line several times and it never overflowed.

2) The carafe does keep the coffee hot for several hours. I made some coffee and went back to pour myself a glass 2 hours later. The coffee was still so hot I had to let it sit a few minutes before drinking it.

3) The coffee I made was very strong. I like strong coffee so put an ample amount of ground beans in. The coffeemaker did its job and produced a nice dark, strong cup of coffee

4) The coffeemaker is the perfect size for the two of us and looks great on the counter

5) Unlike my last 10-cup coffee maker, the spout on this one allows for nice easy pouring without dripping everywhere.

Overall, for the price, I don't think there's a better coffee maker out there

Gave this coffee maker to my mom as a Christmas gift this morning - we are currently enjoying the first pot.

Anyways, on to my first impressions: This is a good coffee maker for the price.

This coffee maker was highly recommended to me by sister and brother-in-law; they absolutely love the thermal carafe. I liked the idea of the thermal as well so I figured I'd give this a shot.

I have literally just finished my first cup and I am thus far satisfied. No it was not scalding hot like most people like it, and no it was the strongest cup I've ever had, but it was a good cup of coffee, and believe it or not I have a few tricks up my sleeve to make it even better.

Onto a basic overview:

This is a pretty standard coffee maker. It features a clock/timer which can be programmed to brew at specific time, five minutes before you wake up, for instance. It of course has plain old 'auto' brew, which is probably what my mom and I will use most. It does have a burner which shuts off automatically when it's done brewing. Personally I like the auto shutdown feature because it ensures that the coffee does not burn, and plus I don't have to worry about accidentally leaving it on while I'm at work. Last, and of course the highlight of this coffee maker is the thermal carafe. The thermal carafe is great because it keeps the coffee hot for hours without scalding it (a problem I have experienced with almost every coffee maker with a glass pot and burner). I have had to replace at least two glass carafes after breaking them. With the thermal carafe I seriously doubt I'll be ordering a replacement any time soon.

Probably the biggest complaint I've seen with this model is that it doesn't get the coffee hot enough. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not true - it does get hot enough. I suspect the reason people have trouble getting their coffee up to an acceptable temperature is that they do not heat up the carafe prior to brewing. Honestly this was common sense to me, and it even stated in the user's manual that you need to heat the carafe up with hot water before brewing, but I guess some people don't stop to think that if you pour hot coffee into a cold metal container it's going to cool it down. Basically what I'm trying to say is don't be an idiot, heat up your carafe with hot tap water before you brew.

Another complaint I've heard about this maker is that the coffee is too weak. While it's true that this does not make the strongest brew it still makes it at an acceptable strength. If you like your coffee really strong you have two options to improve the strength of the brew: 1) You can simply add more grounds and/or 2) you can put warm water in it instead of using cool tap water. This will heat the coffee at a higher temperature, which will bring out more strength.

Overall this is a good coffee maker for the price. No, it does not have a brew strength setting. No, it does not make some special latte for you. No, it does not wash your underwear. It is a standard coffee maker that keeps the coffee hot (not scalding) and fresh. A pretty good deal if you ask me.

I purchased this coffeemaker in exchange for a Cuisinart($80)that was too bulky and did not brew a good cup of coffee. This maker($30) is easy to fill, although a little difficult to see the water level through the tinted window, and brews a very good, very hot cup of coffee. My thermal carafe kept the coffee hot for hours after brewing and still tasted good. The thermal carafe makers are designed different than the standard coffee pots, so you have to work a little more at making sure the basket and lids are installed properly - think about it! Also, be sure to use a good quality coffee and filtered water. I think this is a good maker for the price and it looks nice too.

I've had this coffee maker for almost 3 years. I liked it so much that I brought it across the country when I moved back to my home state. Where to start?

1. I have not had a problem with the strength of this coffee. I normally grind my beans moments before making. That might have something to do with it.

2. The carafe has leaked a little bit but that was because I didnt open the top enough. Open it a little more and the "problem" is fixed.

3. I've never had a problem with the temperature. Normally if I steal a cup while brewing, I need to let it sit a bit or it burns my mouth. I brew the coffee at 7 am and it stays warm enough to drink until 10 or so.

4. The water gauge is a little hard to read at first glance in a dark kitchen, but most are if they dont have a floating indicator. No big deal.

5. There is a simple solution for the coffee grounds problem: Add the water first.

6. As for the exploding issue that people have talked about, in 3 years of use this has yet to happen to me. Maybe I dont over fill the filter? Just a thought.

7. There is no hot plate on this coffee maker. It is built to not need one. Hot plates burn the coffee and turn it bitter.

After 3 years of use, I think this is a good pot. I take the carafe to and from work every day. It eliminates the need for a thermos. The only real complaint is that it is a bit too tall to fit under the cabinets in my kitchen.

We enjoy this coffee maker. It's simple and easy to use. We purchase this item for a relative at Christmas 2010. It was something they ask for because it's a great coffee maker and the carafe keeps the coffee warm. Coffee in the thermal carafe doesn't burn staying on a heating element keeping it warm, which saves electricity. You can serve coffee right at the table with the thermal carafe.

Had I read the reviews first, I never would gave bought this pot. I am happy to say I absolutely love it! It suits my needs because I always poured freshly made coffee into a thermal carafe anyway. You cannot leave hot coffee on the warming tray unless you like the taste of burnt coffee. I do agree the coffee comes out a tad weaker than my cuisinart's did, so I just add an extra scoop~not a big deal. As far as leakage, I haven't had that problem either.
So far I have no complaints. The price is right too.