Customer Reviews

Cuisinart DTC-950BK Programmable Automatic Brew & Serve Thermal Carafe, Black

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Afer days and days of pre-purchase research, I'm absolutely thrilled with this unit, so far. The only reason it did not score a 5, so far, is that I haven't owned it long enough to discover if some of the problems other reviewers have had (cracked carafe, fried electronics, etc.) are in my future.

The unit looks beautiful on my kitchen counter and makes a SUPERB cup of VERY HOT coffee. YUM YUM! And, yes, it stays hot for hours--I've had to switch to 1/2 decaf because I'm drinking the whole pot now. My old Krups Thermal made LOUSY coffee from Day 1. Alas, I've discovered why no one ever wanted a second cup at my house. They will now!

In addition, the water reservoir on this unit is very accessible, with its big flip-top lid and all-in-one design. I just fill it right up with water from my Brita Pitcher (this also alleviates having to pre-heat the carafe because you're not using the carafe to fill unit with cold water and then zapping it with hot coffee). I did not like Capresso's EleganceTherm or Mr. Coffee's (Thermal) removable water reservoirs. They have a much more difficult rear access and the reservoir has to be "seated" in place, which is difficult to do when the unit is full of water. The removable reservoirs also procuce more parts to leak or break. Unlike other reviewers, I find the water-level indicator on the Cuisinart very easy to read. The floating red ball is a nice touch.

Although it is impossible to get your hand into the carafe, it cleans nicely with a dish brush. And like nearly all carafes, it should not be submerged in water.

The filter basket opens IN FRONT from left-to-right and clicks solidly into place. The basket on the Capresso EleganceTherm opens on the side which is incredibly messy and annoying. The basket on Mr. Coffee gets caught on the top of the carafe and never closes easily.

I love the upfront, seemingly solid, and easy to operate controls.

CUISINART-SO FAR SO GOOD-GOOD UNIT, GOOD COFFEE.

I had a Cuisinart thermal carafe coffe maker 4 years back, but the carafe started to leak last year, admittedly after a little abuse. So I decided to give Krups a try. As pointed out in many reviews, the handles on the Krups carafes are defective, and mine broke, luckily one month before the warranty expired. Even though it was under warranty, I was just going to buy a replacement carafe, but I found out from a reseller that replacements have not been available from Krups for nearly a year, and it was unlikely that Krups would ever manufacture them again. I guess too many handles broke!

I got store credit on the Krups and decided to give Cuisinart another try - primarily because they give a three year warranty and in California, you can take products back to the merchant if they break under warranty. I am very pleased. Biggest advantage is the Cuisinart makes coffee MUCH hotter than the Krups, and can keep it hotter for a longer time. I often did not use the timer on the Krups because if the coffee sat for more than 15 minutes, it would be too cold for my taste. Yet, if I didn't use the timer, I'd have to wait almost 15 minutes for my coffee to brew with the Krups. I use the timer on the Cuisinart every morning. It brews much more quickly, brews hotter, and stays hotter. I also prefer the swing-out removable filter basket over the Krups filter basket, which sat atop the carafe.

From reading reviews, it seems that there are problems with many brands of coffee makers centering on the timer or other electronic features malfunctioning or the carafe breaking. I don't know if Cuisinart will be any better, but they offer a three year warranty while most other manufacturers offer only a one year warranty. The longer warranty and excellent performance lead me to highly recommend this item.

Purchased one like this that was totally black. Sent it back within a month because it overflowed and ran over the controls and wouldn't come back on. After receiving repaired one it worked for one year and gave up the ghost. Loved the carafe and brewing but would stay away from the controls at the bottom.

I thought this coffee maker worked well, but it stopped working after 3 months. I had it replaced once. The second one just stopped dead after 4 months. The company could not be reached. I would not recommend this coffee maker and will not purchase anything else by Cuisinart. It used to be a quality brand for food processors etc, but their corree makers are flimsy.

This coffee maker works great IF you follow the directions, ie screw the top on correctly when brewing. Keeps coffee HOT all day and WARM into the next(if you're crazy enough to drink it then!). Highly recommended.

Convenience is an understatement. I have had this coffee maker thermal carafe combination for two years and it continues to work perfectly. My first favorite feature is the ease of use carafe. Once the coffee is brewed into the thermal carafe, the carafe does not require ANY ADDITIONAL STEPS TO POUR. You simply tilt the carafe and pour hot steaming brewed coffee into your favorite coffee cup. Other carafes have a button, or a twist cap or some other mechanism to fiddle with before pouring a cup of coffee. Not this one!

My second favorite feature is the programmable feature - it's really easy! I didn't need a college education to program my coffee maker. The labels under the buttons washed off within a year, but that did not impair my ability to program brew times and have coffee ready at 4:30 am each morning.

After two years of brewing two pots a day during the week, three on weekends, it still brews coffee quickly - I can brew two or three cups in just a few minutes each time; hence the phrase: freshly brewed! Needless to say, it works, it works easy and it works fast.

Liked the look and the thermal carafe. Unfortunately, the "unique lid design" caused overflow problems from the get-go. Worked ok for my wife the first few times and went all over the counter and floor for me. My wife thought it was my user error and I got a good ribbing. I see from other reviews that overflow problems are not unique to us though.

Then it overflowed on her the next three times in a row. Time to eat crow and take this nice looking but bad working unit back. We live at altitude so maybe that has something to do with the airflow and overflow of the lid.

Like others I have had problems with folded over filters and inexplicable floods of coffee all over the counter. The top of the carafe is difficult to place on correctly. Even when it is on correctly, the coffee still floods sometimes. It's a nice looking unit and the coffee is good but I wouldn't get it again.

As with everyone else, I too have had the periodic disaster with coffee overflowing from the poorly designed coffee basket/lid. To make matters worse, when this happens, you MUST thorughly clean the grounds out of the CAP...as the cap becomes clogged with grounds when it overflows. If you don't clean it out, it just happens again and again! Makes great coffee, but CAREFULLY get the basket and coffee pot aligned so you don't have a disaster on hand.

I bought this coffeemaker because I wanted one with a thermal carafe. Cuisinart has a good reputation, so I was willing to spend what I thought was a lot of money for a good product...bad idea! The first one was broken right out of the box; I swapped it out for the same product, figuring it was just bad luck. One month later, the second machine broke...just stopped brewing! I emailed Cuisinart, and got no response. I'm supposed to have warranty for the product, but am frankly so disgusted, I'll just trash this expensive, unreliable coffeemaker, and buy another brand. By the way, the coffee it makes is excellent...just wish the machine worked!