Customer Reviews

Factory-Reconditioned Cuisinart DGB-300FR Automatic Grind & Brew 10-Cup Coffeemaker, White

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Perhaps it's a bit early for me to write this review, since I've owned the machine for less than a month, but we love our Cuisinart coffee maker! It seems, reading other readers' reviews, that most problems appeared a few months of ownership, though, so I can't speak for long-term wear and tear. Short-term though, we're very happy. There was nothing about the machine that indicated that it was a refurb, and it works wonderfully. The programmable feature is so handy -- freshly ground coffee when you wake up in the morning, you can't beat that! The controls are all intuitive, and the price really does make it a steal. Barring any catastrophes in the future, we're extremely satisfied with our purchase.

I'm not sure why some are complaining about it not being easy to clean. The entire inner area where the coffe is ground and runs into the filter is fully removeable - we just pull it out, and stick it in the dishwasher ( or sometimes just run it under water if we're lazy ). Also, we've had it for almost two years with NO problems. Maybe the others got a 'lemon'?

I am a gizmo-lover. I really did want this coffee maker to be the ultimate in coffee experience. What could be better than waking up to fresh ground and brewed coffee? Unfortunately, so the grind feature would work right, taking care of the pot turned out to be more complicated than I wanted to deal with.

After about a month the novelty wore off. I went back to grinding my coffee in a grinder and using the pot as a regular programmable coffee maker. It does that job very well with many nice features.... and it does make wonderful coffee. Or should I say, "did?"

Cons:

1. The grinding process leaves a lot of your expensive freshly-ground coffee in the chute. An extra scoop per 10 cup pot. At the strength I brew coffee (4 1/2 scoops per pot), that is a 20% waste factor.

2. There are lots (LOTS) of little nooks an crannies for coffee grinds to hid in.

3. You can put all the pieces in the dishwasher, but I don't run the dishwasher every day. The nooks and crannies didn't dry even in the dishwasher's dry cycle. All the nooks and crannies have to be bone dry before you grind coffee or there is even more coffee wasted (30-40% waste factor).

4. There is no way to place the grinder/basket in the dishwasher without leaving a pocket for water to collect in. It is big and takes up 1/4 of the dishwashers top rack....

5. I found it was best to rinse all the parts well and just leave them on a kitchen towel on the counter to air dry. By evening, everything would be dry... but then, everyday, I always had various coffee maker pieces drying on the counter. There is a basket cover, a grinder cover, a large basket and grinder combined, pot, lid, and little flapper for the pot spout....

Soon I got tired of this... and just ground my coffee, put in the filter basket and pressed the "bypass grind" button. All I had to do to clean the parts and pieces were rinse them well and pop them back in the pot.

6. After 3.5 years of light use (weekends mostly) everything went out: it no work no more.

Features that were good to excellent:

1. temperature control on the hot plate
2. adjustable auto-shut-off timer: from 1-4 hours.
3. a beep when the coffee is made
4. a beep when the auto-shut-off is turning the pot off
5. programmable 24 hours w/ AM and PM settings -- good as I work weird shifts.
6. Flavor-bar system... it really does make a difference. Yummy coffee.
7. a beep if you have forgotten to put in something: like the filter basket.
8. a pause and pour valve.
9. a "by-pass grind" button so you can use the pot with pre-ground coffee.
10. a filter catcher on the basket lid. It keeps the filter (#4 cone) from falling over in the basket when the water hits it.

When this baby died, I drug my old but reliable Braun Auromaster out. I have had it for 22 years. It makes good coffee. It's only drawback is no auto-shut-off and no clock for auto-coffee in the mornings.... however it is real easy to press its large "on" button (even when I am on auto-pilot). I have not decided whether I will replace it with another pot (w/o the grind feature) from Cuisinart. Reliability is an large question in my mind.

I love this coffee maker for all its features, which are GREAT. Unfortunately we are on our 3rd machine in 18 months. Our first machine was replaced at 6 months old when a short in the power cord was causing intermittent operation. Our second machine was replaced at 8 months old when the grinder motor locked up. If they could make this machine reliable, I would be its biggest supporter. Too bad

I bought this coffeemaker for my mother for her birthday last year. Less than a year later she had to send it back to the manufacturer because the coffeemaker would leak out water and the grounds would end up in the water tank. what a mess. I don't think she ever used the grinder--pretty tough area to clean. The manufacturer was ACCOMODATIVE and sent her a whole new unit so i give them credit for that.

I received this as a gift last summer. The coffee pot frequently overflows. Water flows out the bottom and the grinds on the inside overflow into the fresh water. I recently sent it back to Cuisinart and am waiting to hear a response. In the meantime, I am using a cheap generic coffee pot that works a million times better.

This machine requires too much daily upkeep. I like to just rinse and go. This coffee maker brews a wonderful cup of joe but it needs to be cleaned and dried after every pot. It does 8 cups just fine but 10 cups and the grounds don't seem to stay in the cone. There are a lot of brewing/warming/programing options to set and resetting them means getting out the instruction booklet again. The grinder is a bit noisy but it jolts me into getting up in the morning which is not a bad thing. I'll keep it and use it to death which for a Cuisinart could be a long long time.

My only problems with this unit so far:

1) coffee brew is too weak: fill the unit with beans and get 6 cups of really weak tasting coffee. Cannot imagine how weak a 10 cup pot would be. The hopper won't hold enough beans, and the grind is very coarse.

2) about 25% of the ground coffee does not make it into the filter for brewing (may be part of the issue with the problem above). After using this, when I clean it I find an enormous amount of the coffee grind is still in the pathway to the filter.

3) caraffe markings not very accurate, and its design makes you have to tip it completely upside down to empty it. Annoying with either filling the maker with fresh water, or pouring a cup.

The Good:

The unit is nice, clean-lines, fully featured, and the price is amazing for what this machine can do. Nothing about mine seemed refurbished. I was dubious about buying what appears to be a too readily available refurbished item (just how many returns do they get?) but for 30 bucks it seemed worth the risk. The grinder is not as noisy as my standalone grinder, all the features are nice.

Overall, if you like mild coffee, this is a bargain. If you like your coffee even a little on the strong side, well then you can fill the grinder with beans and brew maybe one mug's worth.

For me, a bigger hopper for the beans, a finer (or at least adjustable) grind, and more of the ground coffee making to the filter would be nice. But for someone who likes "thinner" coffee this will work very well.

I have had this coffeemaker for about 2 weeks now and paid [...] for it. I believe it is a great bargain at the [...] but at [...] it's a steal!! I have read all the reviews and would like to address some of the concerns.
1. My first coffeemaker did NOT have the goldtone filter included so they sent me another coffeemaker(allowing me to keep the original until the second arrived) The second also did not have the goldtone filter so I investigated other companies that sell this reconditioned unit and all of them said in big letters - DOES NOT INCLUDE GOLDTONE FILTER. [...]
The worst being said Amazon handled everything so professionally and I was thoroughly impressed with the lengths they went to to make things right.
2. Reviews have said this coffeemaker is hard to clean - NOT!!
There are three pieces. I make at least 2 full pots of coffee a day. after each pot i take out the three pieces rinse under water and hand wash lightly. takes all of 2 minutes maybe then i lay it to dry. If it's not dry when I am ready to use I simply wipe with paper towel - usually though it's 90% dry already. I really can't imagine it being much easier
3. Some say the lid breaks easily. Every piece fits together perfectly - if you do not put the pieces in correctly and try to force the lid down - it will break. I am VERY CAREFUL WITH THE LID I can see that maybe after years of use it could give out.
4. Some say it brews slowly. I make a FULL - over 10 cup - pot every time and it takes from grinding to ready about 8 minutes. I have had many other coffeepots and this is pretty average - ONLY I DON'T HAVE TO GRIND THE BEANS MYSELF.
I love this coffeepot. The coffee tastes great. It is nice and hot and I can have it ready for me in the morning and it was a really great price!

We bought this machine originally for the apparent grind-n-brew convenience. We were delighted to find, after first using the machine, it made coffee equal to the caliber of hotel coffee (let's say Four Seasons vs. Motel 2).

Wasn't throwing parades for the cleaning of this unit. Over time, the clear plastic steam channel (which, much like the rest of the unit, looks like it had been designed by Dr. Seuss) could never really get clean without taking it apart, something I was never brave enough to do.

Over time the little spout flap of the carafe lid broke. I though, "No big deal", until I discovered that without the spout flap, if you put the carafe in with the spout directly to the back, the drip stopper would not be disengaged, and you'd have 1/2 the coffee in the pot, 1/2 in the basket, and grinds everywhere.

Eventually, the grinder gave out in less than a year, so now we're grinding by hand, yet cleaning just as much machine after every brew. At this point, I'm thinking about reclaiming the counter space with a burr grinder and a french press.

If you're the type that works well with wonderful yet short lived relationships, this is the coffeemaker for you.