Just another coffee grinding note, I don’t mind blade grinders in machines like this because the grounds will exit the grinding area once they are small enough to pass through the screen and therefore there is some consistency with the particle size, but obviously not the same as with a burr grinder. That said, I am not a fan of stand alone blade grinders as I do not feel that grinding time gives enough control over the size of the grounds and creates too much variation from pot to pot.
I had an earlier refurbished model that I bought about 10 years ago. I just replaced it a couple of months ago with this refurbished model because I thought it was starting to fail. This is a great price. Accessing the coffee basket is also much easier with this model.
I bought this coffeemaker from Bed Bath and Beyond for around $100 earlier this year. Its been fantastic (however, I’ve never used the grinder). I brewed my coffee at 7:30 this morning and just poured a cup now (6 hours later) and its still hot. Not boiling lava hot, but steam coming out of the cup.
I have a grind and brew from Cuisinart (Woot! purchase) and it has a burr grinder on it. Man is that a hassle trying to clean! And clean you must or it will clog up and end up brewing you a pot of dirty hot water. I’m inclined to buy this one at about 25% of the price of the Cuisinart. Anyone know how the cleaning chore goes with this one?
Found my own answer: Sounds bad to clean.
From Amazon Q&A
Question:
how hard is this unit to clean? Do you have to clean grinder daily?
Answer:
The thermos is like any other thermos. The grinder is a pain. If you grind and brew, you have to clean the grinder AND dry it before the next grind and brew. If you don’t dry it, the beans you grind will not pour into the brew area. During the brewing, steam wets the grinder. So you have to always remove it, rinse out the copious amount of sticky grounds in the grinder and let it dry before you can grind and brew again.
21% of Amazon reviews are 1 star or roughly 198 reviews. Many of the one star reviews cite the grinder cleaning problems. One said it was “the bane of my existence” that’s pretty harsh and I would expect this person must have a pretty sweet life if cleaning a coffee maker is the “bane” of existence. But anyway, the same problem I have with mine looks to be a common complaint with this one. And, waking up to the whole pot of coffee brewed on to the counter top and floor instead of in the carafe. That can’t be good!
Had to add this. Wow! From Page 21 of Amazon one star reviews…
"0 out of 5 stars
Whoever designed this should be shot
ByN. Horleyon June 11, 2010
I’m too angry to spend much time on this - I just want you to know you should trust the 1 star reviews here, and dismiss the 5 star ones."
This coffee maker must be pure evil. The bane of existence for one user and a plea to execute the designer from another troubled reviewer.
I bought this a year or so ago. The grinder sucks and is a hassle to clean. However, we just put in pre ground coffee, turn the grind function off, and it works very fine.
Have any of you early purchasers received a refund that was promised since we paid $49.99 instead of $39.99? My items show that they were shipped but I have yet to receive a partial refund.
Sorry for the delay. The process has been started to get the email & refunds done. Should go out Monday.
It doesn’t on the refurbished units…
^^^Correct
This replaced a Capresso Grind and Brew CoffeeTeamS which was impossible to clean out the grinder completely since it was so integrated into the maker. The positive of it was that it had a wet/brew side separated from the dry/grinder side.
Even though it takes added time to clean up this coffeemaker since the grinder needs to be cleaned and dried every time, this one is so much better. All parts can taken out and completely cleaned!
Love the thermal too; it keeps it warm almost all day long.