Customer Reviews

Black & Decker TCM830 10-Cup Thermal Stainless-Steel Coffeemaker

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

We had this coffee maker for about 9 months, then it just stopped working halfway through a brew cycle. I could not find any other reviews for it online, so I'm not sure if this is typical or not.

What I liked about it: the thermal carafe kept the coffee hot for quite awhile as long as you take it off of the machine right after brewing so that the brew-through holes close up. It is easy to fill since the water resevoir is removable. I also like the look of it. It seems fairly sturdy, and it was very easy to pour (no spilling issues as I have read about other machines).

What I didn't like: The brew-through lid has small holes that the coffee, soap, and water get into and it is very hard to get out. You have to shake it very hard to get the liquid out, and I felt like I needed to rinse it repeatedly to be sure to get any residual soap out. The pot itself has a very small opening so you have to use a bottle brush. It also has a lip that makes it hard to fully empty.

I'm not sure if we will get another of the same or try something else. It seems like alot of the thermal pots have similar cleaning issues.

I had an old Black & Decker coffeemaker with a plastic carafe that worked very well, and bought this one when I dropped the carafe and chipped the top. This new one is even better and quicker to use. The cone shaped filter basket seems to need less coffee to make the same strength, and is easier to insert, remove and clean. The water tank conveniently lifts right out with easy to read marks to fill at the sink; no need for filling a separate jug and pouring in. And easy to use programmer for morning coffee.

As noted elsewhere,the lid of this coffeemaker is impossible to clean...no matter how often you rinse and shake it out there is always trapped water. Also the pot dribbles condensation out of the small holes around the top while it sits on the counter. I have to keep a paper towel under it. The coffee pours slowly..the trade-off is that the pot keeps coffee hot for hours. I can't get the unit to brew strong enough coffee without using a lot more coffee than seems reasonable. On the plus side this unit is attractive and appears to be well built.

I have had a B&D TCM-508 thermal caraffe coffee maker for years. It makes great coffee and is still working, although the on switch now becomming a tad unreliable.

Instead of waiting for the old unit to quit, I thought I'd order the TCM830 and keep the old one as a spare. BAD IDEA. The TCM830 is in no way a worthy replacement for the old TCM508, which is solid, compact, easy to use and makes great coffee.

1. The TCM830 is flimsy - the tower supporting the filter bends when you place your hand on it while placing the pot under the filter, making it harder to put the pot in place.

2. The valve on the bottom of the TCM830's filter basket and the valve on the top of the thermal caraffe are very poorly designed so they tangle with one another instead of sliding smoothly open when you put the caraffe in place.

3. The TCM830 uses expensive conical filters instead of more readly available (and cheaper) flat-bottomed filters.

4. There is a nice big window in the water reservoir of the TCM830 so you can see the water level, BUT the window narrows to nothing at the top so you can't fill the reservoir to capacity with confidence.

5. The water reservoir of the TCM830 is removable, BUT I fill coffee pots with the hose on the sink faucet, or I use the caraffe to fill the water reservoir, and I view a removable water reservoir with a tricky valve at the bottom as a leak waiting to happen rather than as a "plus".

6. The TCM830 uses more counter space than necessary, far more than my old TCM508.

In summary, I find the TCM830 to be flimsy, poorly designed, inconvenient, hard to buy filters for, wasteful of counter space, and in no way a worthy replacement for my old TCM508.

The only possible reason I can see for the TCM830 getting such high user review scores is that ANY thermal caraffe coffee maker is better than ANY coffee maker with a glass pot sitting on a heating element. Keeping coffee on a heating element indefinitely renders it acidic and undrinkable in comparison coffee kept in a thermal caraffe.

Two inaccuracies in the specs above: 1) The water reservoir IS removable. I hate most coffeemaker pitchers because you can't pour them without spilling, and that's even worse when you have to use the pitcher to put water in the machine. My previous CM had a removable reservoir, and it never leaked or caused any problem, and I don't see any reason to think this one will. 2) The spec says 14 inches high; I thought that would be great because my cabinets are 15 inches above my counter, so it will fit under the cabinet. No. It's actually 15.5 inches tall.

Other than that, no problems. We still have a lifetime supply of round filters, and we've been using them instead of the cone-shaped ones, with no problems at all. The pot pours slowly (like a restaurant carafe), but it doesn't drip or spill. The coffee comes out hot enough to be perfect for almost two hours in the pot, without pre-heating it with hot water.

Another nice feature, the brew basket lifts right out for cleaning, and it's stainless steel like the pot, which makes for an attractive look.

Also, controls are clear and easy. And the coffee comes out just fine.

Not much to complain about. If lightning hit this one and zapped it, I'd buy another one just like it.

I been using this TCM830 coffee maker since early September and I'm happy with it. It brews a full pot of coffee to my liking in nine to ten minutes and keeps it hot for two or three hours with little fuss. The ten cup machine holds 50 onces of coffee, ten "regulation" 5 ounce cups, or just over six 8 ounce mugs to most of us.

I like the lift-out brew basket and the removable water reservoir. I fill the water reservoir in the sink and drop it into the coffee maker without having to pour any water and possibly spilling onto the coffee maker. There is a D shaped overflow hole in the reservoir to prevent over filling the reservoir, it's right next to the reservoir handle. Water can drip from this hole if you tilt the reservoir or slosh the water as you carry it. If you carry the reservoir with your left hand and cover the D hole with your left index finger there's no drips.

The cone shaped brew basket uses a #4 cone filter. I also tried using the old style 8 to 12 cup flat bottomed filters by forming them to fit the brew basket and they work fine too. I use two rounded 1/8 cup measures of coffee to make a ten cup pot to my liking.

The thermal carafe if basically an oversized stainless steel thermos bottle, with a handle and a pour spout. The metal bottom and metal sides stay cold, the plastic top gets slightly warm, that's where most of the heat from the coffee is lost. Coffee can be poured from the carafe by turning the lid about 1/2 turn until the arrow on the lid lines up with the spout. There's a spring loaded "poppet" valve in the carafe lid that lets the coffee drip into the carafe during brewing. This valve closes when the carafe is removed from the machine to seal the carafe and reduce the heat loss. The coffee stays hot longer if the carafe is removed as soon as the brewing is finished. The opening in the top of the carafe is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, so a bottle brush is needed to clean the carafe.

The carafe lid screws into the carafe and seals it like a thermos bottle stopper. The lid can be tricky to start in its threads. There is only one spot when lid drops squarely into its threads and it's easy to tighten the lid every time from that spot. The spot is where the pour arrow on the lid is pointing about 1/3 turn to the right (clockwise) from the spout. I marked this spot with a silver magic marker line at 4 o'clock from the spout, and haven't had any problems inserting the lid since then. I'm surprized Black and Decker doesn't mark this spot to begin with.

The carafe is a little tricky to put into the machine until you get used to it. There is some drag on the carafe as it goes into place. The poppet valve on the carafe's lid drags against and pushes up on a second "no drip" poppet valve on the bottom of the brew basket to open both valves for brewing. The carafe is easier to insert when you use two hands, one to hold the carafe and one to keep the machine from sliding. It also helps if your put the water in the machine to give it more weight before you put the carafe in. It's also easier to insert the carafe if you depress the poppet on the carafe lid with your index finger as you start it into the machine. The carafe drops slightly over a raised boss to hold it in the correct place under the brew basket. Another Amazon.com reviewer said the carafe is easiest to insert and to verify it's in the right position with the handle straight out over the digital display, that helps for me too.

You can extend the time that the coffee stays hot in the carafe by pre-heating the inside of the carafe with hot water, the same as you would with a thermos bottle. Since most of the coffee's heat is lost through the plastic top of the carafe, I've found that if I lay a wide flat one cup plastic measuring cup upside down over the top of the carafe, like the cup on the top of a thermos bottle, and lay a hand towel over that I double the length of time the coffee stays hot as I gradually drink it, out to mid-afternoon.

Overall this is a good coffee maker with some great features: thermal carafe; removable water reservoir and lift-out brew basket, and some quirks: tricky carafe lid and carafe drags when inserting it into the machine. The quirks are no problem for me once I learned how to deal with them. I bought this coffee maker a Lowes hardware for about $50 and I'm happy with it. A good metal thermal carafe alone can cost around half the price of this coffee maker.

January 2012 It's still working well.

This is an excellent coffee maker, for an unbelievably low price - I bought mine at Lowe's for $49.99. CONE filters produce better tasting coffee AND use less coffee to do it. The thermal pot keeps the coffee HOT for several hours.

YES, you have to put the pot in the right place. Gee, it really isn't difficult.

I bought a Mr. Coffee first, similar style and the caraffe was impossible to open. Also the basket filter used so much coffee it seemed wasteful. THIS coffee maker is great!!

This thing simply works. It hasn't leaked, the pot keeps the coffee hot for the couple of hours it takes me and my wife drink our 2+ cups of coffee each. The removable water tank is a good feature and, happily, will stand up by itself in the sink. The little hole on the back of it to keep it from being overfilled is somewhat annoying because it easily spills when I'm moving it back to the coffee maker. The button design is a bit cumbersome in that you press it once to start the coffee right away and then press the same button again to shift it to the timer. A separate button for the timer function would have been a good idea.

Overall, though, the coffee is good, the pot works very well and the machine seems a good one.

We are avid coffee fans in our house. Every maker I have owned(and there have been many)has been flawed in some respect. This one isn't. It has the only carafe that does not spill when poured. Keep it clean, follow the simple instructions, and brew a perfect pot every time.

I recently bought this machine at Lowe's and I like almost everything about it. It is a 10 cup machine, compared to my old 4 cup, has a stainless steel thermal caraffe that keeps the coffee warm and tasty, has a removable reservoir that you can fill at the sink, and makes wonderfully brewed coffee, better than the Mr. Coffee that I was replacing.

Some people complain about the coffee not remaining hot, but if you rinse the caraffe with hot water before you brew, as is suggested in the instructions, then the coffee is hot enough to make your cup hot after you pour it in the first two hours, and continues to be warm enough to drink for hours on end. If you prefer your coffee to be sitting on an element and to be piping hot, don't get this unit, because it doesn't have an element. To me, that is actually better than having one, because the element on some of the machines I've had can really degrade the flavor of the coffee by overheating it.

Another thing to watch out for when you purchase the machine is that removing and inserting the caraffe from the machine is a two handed operation, because the parts really interfere with each other. This is unlike the Mr. Coffee model I had that would slide right in and out with one hand.

Also, the caraffe pours rather slowly, which I find annoying when it says in the instructions that you're not supposed to remove it while it's brewing for over 30 seconds or it will overflow.

And speaking about overflow, If you don't insert the caraffe the right way, it will overflow onto the counter until you figure out how to make it not do that.

So, I'm giving it only 4 stars, because it's like a lot of things from Black and Decker--it's very nice, but has a few design flaws that are often annoying. (it's the same way with my B&D long slot toaster that doesn't toast dark enough toast)