Customer Reviews

KITCHENAID coffee maker 10 cup DIGITAL kcm-515 ST-STEEL

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I am a coffee snob and have been looking for a replacement for my Cusinart grind and brew (which sucked!) which we got as a wedding present. I searched and read tons of reviews of all the machines available and wanted to spend around $100 for a quality machine. I bought this coffee maker from Bed Bath & Beyond using their 20% of coupons to meet my budget.

I just tried out the maker for the first time this morning and absolutely love the look, quality taste and long life of the hot brew!!!

Reasons I chose this machine over others were:

1. Thermos Carafe, which keeps the coffee hot w/out scorching the coffee taste.
- The opening of the Carafe was large enough to get your hand in there for easy cleaning.
- The easy pour carafe which doesn't require you to push any button or twist the top to pour yourself a cupa
- Coffee stayed hot even after 2 hours after brewing and tasted freshly brewed!!!

2. The grounds basket allows the use of the gold filter or paper. It is flat bottom basket which brews the grounds more evenly and results in better tasting coffee. There is a shower water dispenser which aid in the even water distribution.

3. The timer for programming morning coffee before work
- There is a beeper which tells you when the brewing cycle is complete (this prevents against dribbling messes on the machine base when removing the carafe to pour a cup. The beeper is also by signal when getting ready in the mornings that there is 15 minutes before I have to hit the road!!
- There is a delayed drip to pour a cup if your in a rush for your fix ;o)
- There is an indicator which shows how much time has laps since the last brew

4. Easy to clean!!
- The Cusinart Grind'n Brew was a pain in the arse to clean between brews cause the grinder will get moist during the brewing process and leave ground sludge in the grinder section!
- The grounds basket in top shelf dish washer safe but the carafe must be hand washed which is no big deal because of the design of the lid and opening size is big enough to stick your sponge and hand inside.
- Control buttons are flat and easy to wipe clean

5. It looks sleek and classy!!! Looks great on the countertop!!!
- The design fits great under cabinets and the front water pour section allowed you to fill the reservoir easily w/out having to move the machine around to reach it.


A few Tips for Thermal Carafe Users:

- Preheat your thermal carafe to extend heat retention by filling with piping hot water from the sink for a few minutes before starting the brew process! People complain about these machines not keeping their coffee hot enough or for as long as claimed but it because people don't follow directions!!!
- (to the previous reviewer) heat your cup of milk in the microwave for 30-40 second before pouring a cup of coffee to maximize the temp... its not rocket science to know that adding cold liquid to hot liquid will cool the over all temp ESPECIALY if you tend to had a lot of milk like I do!!!

My cuisinart grind & brew recently died so I've been shopping for a new coffee pot. (digression: cuisinart has the WORST customer service i've ever experienced in my life...) I've read on virtually every customer review website out there that the coffee for the java studio is only luke warm, but since I'm a big fan of kitchenaid's appliances I figured I'd still give it a chance - especially since I don't like my coffee super hot. I picked up the java studio nearly a week ago and it went back to the store yesterday. The coffee was barely luke warm, and 'preheating' the thermal carafe hardly made a difference at all. If the coffee isn't hot enough for someone who doesn't care for piping hot coffee, I can only imagine the frustration of those who do crave it piping hot. On the note of needing to 'preheat' a thermal carafe, this is simply rediculous. For all of cuisinart's faults, in the 3+ years I had my thermal grind & brew the coffee was ALWAYS piping hot and kept it's heat for hours (never needing to be 'preheated'). Needing to preheat a carafe renders an automatic coffeemaker useless - bottom line. Kitchenaid needs to rectify this situation ASAP if they want to continue to keep their loyal customers.

I swear by kitchenaid - the quality is amazing and the customer service is great. With that said, I'm now the owner of a Bunn Thermalbrew (which is WONDERFUL).

Although the coffee maker works well and makes good coffee, I would have rather spent $40 and got a Mr. Coffee. The coffee (in my opinion) isn't a lot better than what I have had with less expensive machines. The carafe is a good idea, but after an hour the coffee is only warm. It looks really good on the counter, but keep in mind that you are paying for the name.

This coffee maker produces a very good quality coffee. The filter is showered with hot water so all the coffee grounds are used well. The result is that you get a very rich, full bodied cup. The water temp is high enough to produce excellent coffee.

The thermal caraffe is a nice feature; since there is no heating element, the coffee doesn't get burned and the coffee is not exposed to air.

The problem is that, if you are going to keep the coffe for drinking more than an hour or so, you will notice that the coffee cools off a little. You can rectify that by putting very hot water in the caraffe and then pouring the hot water out just before making the coffee. This does not work, however, if you are setting the coffee maker to brew automatically in the morning.

A small gripe is that filling from the front is possible if you have a very steady hand and a lot of patience, or you will get water all over the side and counter. But for impatient oafs (like me) you have to use the rear to fill it, and that means pulling it closer to the edge of the counter every time I fill it.

My biggest gripe with this unit is the buttons to set the time for the clock or the autmatic brew timer are very cheap. The buttons on the first unit I had broke after 3 uses. The replacement unit buttons tend to stick and I keep missing the hour I need to start and have to retry.

My wife had a complete Kitchen Aide kitchen. We are working away from that situation at a rapid rate! She has had 3 large food processers, one small food processor, three coffee makers, two toasters, blender and hand mixer that has hit the trash in the last 3 years. We live 10 miles from their plant in Greenville, OH and figured to help support the local economy, and boy have we.

Everything looks like a first class piece of equipment for your kitchen. I think they need to hire a few 10 year olds to do the electrical design for their appliances. It is very apparent that the electrical engineers that have designed this junk that they are selling did nothing to build something that didn't have a 1 year expiration date on it. To sum it up it has ALL fallen apart.

The Last coffee maker has died with the Err 2 code that is famous for Kitchen Aide coffee makers. This is the last one of these I will ever buy. I'm going back to my power sucking Bunn and have my coffee in 3 mins when I get up.

The food processors are the worst of all. She had two of these and used them a total of once! The first one never even started. She waited almost a year to unpack and use the new one, only to use it once and the second time she used it (after the 1 year) it would not start. Once again in the trash and off to the company store for the last one that lasted for a year (and about 10 uses) before that one went into the trash and we bought a $25 biggest looser one that has run flawlessly for the last two years.

Toasters were both DOA after less than a year. We did get a replacement for one of them. They cooked one hell of a bagel while they worked! The small food processor was used once and never functioned again. It was a rebuilt one from their factory store. It had a 30 day warrantee which my wife never used it in, so some more trash. The only thing still working is her stand mixer. And I'm just waiting until that dies so I'll have a good anchor for my boat. It will be the only time that I have ever gotten my money's worth out of anything that Kitchen Aide has sold me.

The whole situation makes me sick! These are American Products, made by American people! It isn't their fault that the stuff is junk! It is the design of the electronics that is total crap and where the things are falling apart! Now mind you I was going to the Company store in Greenville, OH to try to take care of the problems. I saw the people face to face to try to get these things taken care of. Try it with a call center and see what happens. I'm sure they are not going to be as understanding reading off a script as a face to face meeting with the store operators.

BEWARE!!!

Coffee maker only last 10 months and then started to give an "Err2" message. No way to fix this problem and maker is in the trash. After researching others have had the same problems. I picked up a Mr. Coffe for under 20 and it works great

I've had an old coffee maker for a long time that makes good coffee but I thought I was ready for something even better. I am disappointed with this one. I thought I couldn't go wrong with a KitchenAid product, but sure enough, I did. The design is attractive and I like that you don't have to purchase paper filters. However, I have two problems with it: 1) The coffee isn't hot enough. I like a very hot cup of coffee because I put milk in it which cools it down a little. My old coffee maker made very hot coffee so it didn't matter how much milk I put in, it was still hot. Not so with this one. The coffee was luke warm after I put my usual amount of milk in. This is my main complaint and I'll probably have to return it for this reason. 2) Next problem is that I set the automatic timer so I could wake up to a fresh brewed cup of coffee. I set it according to the manual instructions and I think I did it correctly. When I woke up this morning, no coffee!! What a disappointment. I think I'll go back to using my free coffee maker from Gevalia that has reliably made good coffee for me for the past three years!

I received this Kitchenaid KCM-515 10-cup coffee maker as a gift over a year ago. It makes excellent coffee. It has some quirks, however. I've had both Braun and Krups makers prior to this one.

The good: Handsome clean design. It makes an excellent flavorful cup of coffee. The stainless carafe, basket and filter are easy to clean. The carafe keeps the coffee hot for hours. The timer and electronic functions work well.

The quirks: Adding water is inconvenient at best. The two hinged door openings on top are less than ideal. It appears that the intent of the design is to add water in the smaller back opening, but you need to have the larger front door open to see the water level. The target area to pour water in the front is too small. At 5'10" I am tall enough, but this would give a shorter person fits. The result is no mater how careful you are, you're going to spill water all over the countertop. Additionally, whatever the problem is with the design of the pour spout in the carafe, it's almost impossible to pour a cup of coffeee without dribbling some coffee; pouring too slow is worse than pouring too fast!!? Replacement charcoal filters are difficult to find at times.

I received this as a gift from my sister. First off, you must know that both my sister and I are "coffee snobs", meaning we really enjoy the taste of a good quality coffee. Every previous coffee pot I have owned never made a good cup of coffee, and if it did, I don't know what formula was used to make it. I tried every which way, adjusting bean amount, grind, etc, to no avail. Coffee always had a bitter taste.

The first pot I brewed in this one was absolutely perfect, and so was every one after that! Excellent taste and quality. I also found out that I can actually use a lot less coffee with this machine, and still get the strong, full bodied "Starbucks" flavor that I like.

For those who complained about the temperature of the coffee, I have to agree to some extent. On cold mornings, I must prime the coffeepot in order to produce a hot coffee. That is only because of the hot coffee entering into a freezing cold metal pot! It has nothing to do with the brewing process or temperature. I also noticed someone actually commented that the heating element is barely warm to the touch. That is because there IS NO HEATING ELEMENT!!! The stainless pot is what retains the heat in the coffee. Just make sure to prime your pot if you like it hot!

All in all, this is a fantastic machine that brews a high quality cup of coffee.

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UPDATE! 9/9/11

This coffemaker just conked out! I wasn't expecting it to break after just over 4 years of use. I had been having the occasional overflow/blockage type thing happenening, until last week, the blockage and overflow blew out the circuit board. For a brand like KitchenAid, I would have expected it to last longer. I am buying a Cuisinart this time!

I purchased two Digital KCM-515 Steel 10-Cup Coffee maker as Christmas gifts (one for myself and the other for my sister). Both of these units turned out to be major DUDS and will be returned quicker than Santa can navigate his way back to the North Pole.

PROBLEM: The coffee comes out WARM and the carafe DOES NOT retain warmth for more than 10 minutes (and that's stretching it)! The heating plate is only warm to the touch immediately after brewing. You have to microwave the coffee almost immediately after it is brewed.

COMMENT: The reviewer who wrote that having to pre-heat the carafe with piping hot water BEFORE brewing a pot of coffee had it right! That should have been a clue. I had the same "gut feeling" when I read the instructions. In my view, a consumer shouldn't have to waste hot water to "pre-heat" a unit with a stiff sticker price! As for the reviewer who implied that those of us who are dissappointed with this unit need to read the instuctions -- gimme a break!