Customer Reviews

Kalorik CCG-23785 Magic Bean 750-Watt Personal 4-Cup Automatic Drip Coffeemaker with Burr Grinder

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Regretably, I ignored the mostly negative reviews that I read here and elsewhere and decided to purchase this product from Amazon. As an Amazon Prime member, I was happy to get the coffeemaker in just 2 days so I could start my long Christmas vacation with a freshly ground, rich and bold cup of coffee (that i roast myself). As others have suggested, the instructions are pretty much useless. It's my guess that the instructions were translated from the original German to Chinese, then to Sanskrit before ultimately being rendered in English.

Despite the poor instructions, I was able to get the brewer up and running pretty quickly. I filled the grinder with beans, added water using the fairly nice mug that was supplied, pressed the "auto" button and heard the pleasing rumble of the coffee being ground. After a couple of minutes, I had a very nice, though fairly weak cup of brew. I cranked up the boldness setting on the left side and tried again, but it didn't seem to make much difference. I speculated that the grind may be off a bit, but since there are no settings on the other adjustable knob, i couldn't really tell.

These minor shortcomings notwithstanding, i was actually quite happy with my purchase. On day two, however, the gremlins came out. That morning, I happily filled the water chamber and again hit the appropriate button. The grinder started and then began to make a sickening, high pitched whirr...the grinder was stuck. Clearing the jam was not easy and created a huge mess. After cleaning it, the grinder started fine, but jammed again within seconds. I tried a different blend (my Ethiopian beans were a bit small), but ended up with the same result...a jammed grinder. I fiddled with it while my wife scowled at me for wasting money on yet another coffee pot, but each time, the darn thing jammed.

I whipped out my handy krups burr grinder and proceeded to grind some beans so i could at least have a cup of coffee. I filled the filter and started to brew...within seconds, i noticed a nice puddle of light brown liquid puddling around the base...my nice new brewer seemed to have sprung some sort of leak. I cleaned everything up..refilled the resevoir and tried again, this time watching more closely. I immediately noticed that the brewed coffee was leaking at the base of the filter. I fiddled with it a bit more and discovered that a small rubber gasket that is part of the brew pause function was dislodged in the mechanism. I repositioned the washer and it brewed fine...til the next cup. It seemed that everytime i inserted the mug, it dislodged the gasket. I finally removed the gasket completely to resolve the overflow issue, but of course created an annoying drip when the cup was removed.

Ultimately, I grew frustrated with the whole experience and neatly packed everything back in the original packaging, printed the convenient return label from Amazon and bid farewell to this conceptually nice, but fatally flawed device.

I am very happy that Amazon accepted the return and refunded my purchase. I am still on the look out for the perfect, single serve with grinder brewer...hopefully someday i will find it. Meanwhile, my trusty Krups grinder paired with the simple, but effective Aeropress have been forced back into action.

This coffee maker is over-priced, but it is a quality product. If my frustrations below were corrected, it would have earned a 5 instead of a three. It is ideal for the person who enjoys an occasional cup of freshly ground coffee, without a need to make 2-12 cups at one time.

One is suppose to be able to adjust the coarseness of the coffee, but turn after turn of the dial to adjust the coarseness yielded little difference. Eventually, I stripped the knob, after only about 4 sessions, trying to make the beans more coarse.

A major of frustration is a single line in the manual that left me misunderstanding how the grind feature worked. The manual indicated, "... add the right amount of beans." What does that mean? It led me to believe that I had to add the appropriate amount of beans given the number of cups I wanted to make. Which, I just figured out is not the case at all. You basically fill the hopper to the top and it grinds the number of beans based upon how much water you put in and whether you want mild or strong coffee. Outside of that one line in the manual, I applaud the company for the simple instructions in the manual.

I read the reviews of this coffee maker, and was afraid that I had made a mistake in ordering it. One of the most serious problems seemed to be the grinder, which would jam up, and require tedious cleaning to make it work again.
The instructions that come with the machine state that you should load the grinder with an amount of beans equal to 80% of the volume of the coffee container. I did this, and guess what? The grinder jammed. Then, I tried something really brilliant: I used the recommended amount of coffee beans for a single cup of coffee: 2 level tablespoons. Lo and behold, the grinder worked perfectly, and I got a great cup of coffee. Try it yourself.

I so wanted this product to work as I was happy to find a grind 7 brew with a small capacity since I only drink a cup a day. However, the "4" cup size actually is the size of the cup I drink per day, which was surprising. What was surprising is how big a footprint this thing takes considering it makes so little coffee. But the most disappointing thing, which is what i read in most of the reviews and why i returned it, is the coffee beans get stuck and you have to manually dig 1 bean out to get the grinder going again. That is unacceptable.

This coffee maker seemed exactly what I needed when I was looking for a quick way to make coffee before work. After receiving it in the mail I was very excited to try it out and start making coffee.

My first impressions were the machine was incredibly large for just a 4 cup machine and the grinder coarseness setting was not very responsive (a lot of turning for very little result). It still made a pretty good cup of coffee and that was good.

After using the machine for about 2 months I noticed some mornings it would jam which grinding beans. I would have to pour out the water and empty the beans to, what I thought at the time, was clearing the jam. A few more times and I realized this was going to be a reoccurring theme.

I opened the grinder to find 3 small metal squares no more then 2 CM long. I found these pieces were broken bits from the grinder itself. These pieces were what the grinder was catching and jamming on. The rotation of the machine to clear the coffee beans which I thought was causing the jam was just moving these metal bits around and temporarily fixing the real problem. I was able to assemble the machine together and the grinder still worked so I continued to use it.

The final straw came when the machine started leaking from the faulty filter housing. It was starting to leak around the spout which should lead into the cup while brewing but instead made a sizable puddle of hot coffee on my counter top.

The machine was still under warranty at the time so I contacted Kalorik. Kalorik support was responsive however, I was disappointed I had to pay shipping to return the broken coffee machine.

All in all, the number of problems which developed over such a short period of time leads me to believe this is a poorly designed product. While the initial build quality feels nice I feel much differently now after the machine appears to have slowly deteriorated while sitting in the same spot on my counter for less than 6 months with no dropping jostling or throwing in disgust. The large amount of space this thing takes for just a 4 cup machine makes this a bigger mess. I would not suggest anyone buy this machine.

Need another reason not to buy this machine? Look at the rest of the reviews. Most giving this machine poor reviews except one 5 start review. Notice how the writers who gave poor reviews used correct punctuation and grammar. Notice the one 5 star reviewer left her caps lock on and isn't sure what the difference is between a comma and a period.

Loved this coffee maker but after a few weeks it stopped brewing. On the up side, Kalorik offered to fix it but I wasn't willing to ship and wait for it's return so I went back to a simple brewing machine.

This coffee maker has not performed as advertised. First of all the bean grinder jams about every 10 cups of coffee. The beans have to be removed, the grinder dismantled and cleaned before it will work again. Second, the water heater only produces tepid coffee. I have to put hot water in the machine to get hot coffee or microwave the coffee after it comes out. The machine is designed poorly. Because the water reservoir is in the rear, the coffee maker must set sideways on a counter for you to have access. Although it is a "personal" coffee maker and makes only 4 cups that is still two standard coffee cups of coffee. If I take a full cup there is still a full cup in the carafe but there is no warmer to keep it warm. This machine is a bust and after only a few weeks I am replacing it.

I was looking for a single cup grinder/brewer to get that fresh tasting cup of coffee and I came across this one. At first I was hesitant but the price was fair and I couldn't find another one that appealed to me.

Pros - Freshly grinds and brews one cup of coffee
Very sleek and seems to be well built
Easy to operate
I have brewed a nice cup of tea with it with loose tea leaves/granules (Go to your local
Indian grocery store and you can buy a box of Red Rose Tea it is not leaves it is like
coffee granules.
Filter seems well built. No need for paper ones.


Cons - Liquid isn't piping hot like other coffee makers, by the time you add your milk/creamer it
is cold. I need to give it a fast zap in the microwave.
The dials for the grinding level is not very clear and may take a few cups to find your
preference.

I bought this product for Christmas for my husband, so excited that he would have fresh ground coffee whenever he wanted. Just after a few uses, the grinder got jammed; it was cleaned and fixed. Again this happened and once again it was fixed, but a bit aggravating. The next issues was the auto button is no longer working. We called to see about getting it replaced, but we were told the product was no longer available...

Despite the negative reviews I ordered this machine because it has all the features I'm looking for. Unfortunately, the grinder clogged after only the 3rd use. Spent a long time cleaning it, then called the factory but they could not help. In short, the grinder design is flawed. Very disappointing!