Capresso 455 CoffeeTEAM Therm Stainless Coffeemaker/Burr Grinder Combination Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to say, I'm more than a little confused by the negative feedback this coffee maker seems to be receiving as we've had quite the opposite experience with it-- in fact, we've been nothing short of ecstatic with its functioning. It's a bit counterintuitive at first, but once you get a feel for its system, this is a nice little pot.
My wife and I were committed to buying a suit-all-our-needs coffee maker right after our wedding, and after substantial research, we came up with this unit.
After witnessing my brother and his wife with their grinder/brewer combination, I was filled with envy-- I hate grinding coffee. The CoffeeTEAM combines a burr grinder with the brewer, grinding into a filter basket (with an included conical permenant coffee filter) on a spring mechanism which then swings to allow hot water to be forced through the beans.
Both the beans and water are top loaded into their chambers-- the bean chamber holds enough for about 18 cups of coffee, the water reservoir holds enough for 10 cups and has a cover that flips up that rests on top of the filter basket when it's used for brewing.
The grinder has a handful of sizes you can adjust the grind to-- I've kept mine fairly large as I've been using fairly oily coffee. The beans are ground and deposited into this little chamber. This next triggers a series of springs that push the grounds into the filter basket and swings the basket to receive water.
A few points about this process-- some residual beans are left in the little chamber after the grinding. These are used for the next pot of coffee-- I discovered early on if you clean this out, the next pot will be noticably weak (they warn you the first pot will be weak in the manual, but forget to mention this-- I suspect this is why one of the other reviewers had trouble with coffee being too weak). There's a thin piece of hard plastic with a rubber washer in the middle that fits over the top of the filter basket-- this MUST be fitted evenly and the rubber washer MUST be snugly attached. Additionally, the water reservoir must be down when you push the basket to the grinder. Not doing any of these will result in the spring mechanism not swinging the basket properly-- it took me a few tries to get this right, but there was no mess made and it was more a learning curve than anything else (the good news is that if the basket doesn't swing back, a fail-safe stops the brewing process).
The coffee is brewed into a thermal carafe which must be lined up carefully to prevent spillage-- I've yet to have this spill due to line up problems and I'm pretty impatient, it's not a hard process. We haven't tested to see how long it keeps coffee hot for, but it's at least 3-4 hours. My wife takes her coffee a couple hours after brewing and has no complaints about temperature or degraded taste.
Controls are pretty straight forward, there's two buttons and a knob that serves as a third button. The knob is used to program everything-- for both on-demand and timer-triggered brewing you can set number of cups to brew and strength, the clock, and the time to kick off brewing. The top button starts the brewing process immediately, the bottom button sets the timer-trigger brewing.
You can override the grinding by not swinging the filter basket over in case you want flavored beans, etc. I've not done this. Additionally, removing the carafe during brewing allows you to pour yourself a cup from the carafe, saving those goofy slide-the-carafe-out-and-cup-in games. I just revised my review concerning this functionality as I used it for the first time this morning-- it is flawless-- carafe comes out, coffee stops, carafe goes back in, coffee restarts. Finally, the last feature of the coffee pot is a "descale" warning to indicate when you need to clean the coffee pot. In a previous review, I said this was missing, but it just came on for our maker.
All the coffee we've made tastes superb-- admittedly, I've been starting with good beans, first what we brought back from our honeymoon in Hawai'i and then from a favorite coffeehouse near where I grew up, but it's as good as any coffeemaker I've used.
Cleanup has been pretty easy so far-- we've had the maker maybe six weeks and the carafe has a wide mouth when you remove the lid so it's easy to clean (something I've hated in other carafes). The filter basket and associated components all come out and are easy to wash. I do wish the bean container could be removed, but so far, I've just been wiping oil deposits down per recommendations. The burrs are not accessible, so there's no way to clean then other than grinding no beans per recommendations.
Things I wish the maker had: a large bean container-- I'd love to have a unit that could just fit a half pound or a pound of beans-- I'm constantly having to pour more beans into it. This is a minor annoyance. Somewhat more lacking is a water filter-- my last coffee maker had this and it was a nice feature-- I've gotten around this by pouring filtered water into it, so again this is a small complaint.
None of these shortcomings are big enough to make me regret purchasing the unit, even at its price, it's served us well for the past several weeks and the coffee it makes it consistently fantastic.

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The Capresso CoffeeTEAM Therm is the only Coffee Maker/Grinder combination with a Thermal Carafe and Conical Burr Grinder.The completely new CoffeeTEAM Therm features a stainless steel thermal carafe to keep you coffee perfectly fresh, aromatic and hot for hours, without reheating.A stainless steel housing and simple on-button programming design with a new black-on-white illuminated display make this the most sophisticated Coffee Maker/Burr Grinder combination.With patented technology the CoffeeTEAM Therm grinds a programmed amount of beans directly into filter, then automatically swings forward and starts the brewing process.Simple, one-button programming design allows programmable coffee amounts for 4, 6, 6, 8 and 10 cups in mild, medium and strong strength.

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Capresso MT600 10-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Stainless-Steel Thermal Carafe Review

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(More customer reviews)The Capresso MT-600 was introduced to replace the older MT-500 model. Both models have essentially the same functions and features, but there are two differences:
* The MT-500 has an aluminum die-cast housing. The MT-600 has a milled steel housing.
* The MT-500 was made in Portugal. The MT-600 is made in China.
I recently purchased the MT-600 to replace a Mr. Coffee automatic drip that served me well for over 15 years. I decided on the MT-600 because I wanted a thermal carafe and a built-in water filter. I also had faith in the Capresso brand because both my sisters have owned the Capresso CoffeeTEC model for many years, and their machines make absolutely fantastic drip coffee.
So I was very disappointed when I found that the Capresso MT-600 makes weak and lukewarm coffee. I read the directions carefully to make sure I was using the machine precisely as designed. I tried different beans and grinds to strengthen the coffee. I pre-heated the carafe prior to brewing to increase the temperature. But no matter what adjustments I made, the coffee always turned out weak and tepid.
I called Capresso to ask why the coffee comes out weak even when I double the standard amount of grounds. They told me that it has to do with how the water is dispersed (or rather, not dispersed) over the grounds during brewing. I went back and looked at the filter after brewing a pot, and sure enough, there was a deep divot right in the center of the grounds. So the problem seems to be that the water is driven down the middle of the filter rather than dispersed evenly over the grounds, leaving the grounds along the perimeter largely unbrewed.
I also measured the temperature of the coffee immediately after brewing, and as another reviewer mentioned, the coffee hits the carafe at 180 degrees. But even when the carafe has been pre-heated with boiling water, it loses its heat FAST. The other problem with the carafe is that even when you line up the dots exactly as directed, the coffee flow is more of a heat-depleting trickle than a pour. So while the coffee brews at 180 degrees, the temperature is much lower by the time it hits even your first cup.
I've been thinking about why my experience has been so different from that of veteran Capresso owners, and I can only conclude that the newer machines are not of the same quality as the older machines. Take a read through the user reviews posted for the MT-500 model and you'll notice that it's those people who have had their Capressos for more than 2 years who love and rave about their coffee makers. The same is true for the Capresso owners in my own family. My sisters' machines are going strong after 5+ years of heavy use, whereas my brand new Capresso has been a non-starter.
So sadly I will be returning the Capresso MT-600 in favor of a better machine. I doubt I'll find anything more beautiful in appearance, but there has to be a machine that makes better coffee, especially at this price!
(One final point... there seems to be some confusion about the materials used to build the MT-600. The heating block is lined with stainless steel to prevent water from coming in contact with the machine's aluminum components. So if you have aluminum concerns, the MT-600 has you covered. But like almost every drip coffee maker on the market, the water reservoir and filter holder are made of plastic. If you want to avoid plastic altogether, a French press or standard percolator may be your only options.)

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Brew up to 10 cups of delicious, full-flavored coffee in under eight minutes with this programmable coffeemaker. The machine provides an illuminated, 24-hour, LCD digital clock and timer with soft-touch controls for easy operation. Set the timer so that fresh, hot coffee awaits dinner guests when it's time to serve dessert or so that the aroma of a freshly brewed pot fills the house a few minutes before the alarm goes off in the morning. The coffeemaker supplies a 10-cup stainless-steel thermal carafe with an ergonomic stay-cool handle, brew-through lid, and drip-free pouring spout. Removing the carafe from the coffeemaker stops the flow of coffee and allows for sneaking a quick cup before the end of the brewing process. Simply replace the carafe to restart the flow of coffee. Another thoughtful detail includes its special smaller-amount setting, which ensures maximum aroma when brewing just 3 to 5 cups at a time. For added convenience, the coffeemaker features a stainless-steel-lined heating system that eliminates contact with aluminum and reduces the need for decalcifying, the ability to retain programming during short power outages, and automatic shut-off after two hours for safety and peace of mind. Other highlights include a handy water-level indicator, a washable gold-tone filter (no need for disposable paper filters), a charcoal water filter that removes up to 82-percent of chlorine and other impurities from tap water, and an electronic indicator that shows when to replace the charcoal filter, as well as milled steel housing for superior strength and style and concealed cord storage to keep countertops looking tidy. The coffeemaker measures approximately 9 by 8 by 14 inches.

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Capresso 465.05 CoffeeTeam TS 10-Cup Digital Coffeemaker with Conical Burr Grinder and Thermal Carafe Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Let me start by saying that I've been a big fan of grind and brew coffee makers. I know full well what to expect. My last grind and brew was a Cuisinart DGB-550 which means I was already accustomed to cleaning 7 different parts every time I made a pot of coffee and having my cats run for cover when the grinding began. The Cusinart had served me well for over a year but I really wanted something with a thermal carafe and I was excited for the prospect of a burr grinder. On weekends it can take me hours to drink a pot and I hated having my coffee cook during that time. Not to mention the wasted electricity while keeping that carafe piping hot for hours.
PROS
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1) Conical burr grinder. The burr modules spin at lower speeds than standard burr grinders, imparting less heat to the beans.
2) SUPER easy clean up. I don't think anyone can beat this model when it comes to clean up. Just 4 parts -- 3 if you use paper filters. The carafe, carafe lid, basket and permanent filter. No filter lid, no dirty grinding chamber, etc.
3) Compared to blade style grind and brews, the noise volume is lower (still loud) and the tone is of a lower frequency. There is no way to make a grind and brew coffee maker quiet, but it would be nice if manufacturers started employing noise insulation or noise cancellation techniques. But overall, I found the noise very tolerable. My cats did not even care, normally they would bolt to the basement when the Cuisinart fired up.
4) Thermal carafe is designed very well. You activate a thumb button to pour and the flow rate is very good, maybe 75% of the flow rate you would get from a standard, glass carafe.
5) Backlit LCD display is large and easily legible both day and night, although like others have said it is very bright.
6) The little charcoal water filter seems to be the same size as the Cuisinart ones. I'm pleasantly surprised that they seem to be interchangeable. Helpful because I've seen the Cuisinart ones sold at several locations, but not the Capresso ones.
CONS
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1) Bean reservoir lid pops off during grinding. Yes, I made sure it was securely in place. It just snaps on, there is way to lock it in place. The machine vibrates during grinding, which eventually works the lid free.
2) Coffee was weak on the 4 cup setting, even bumping the aroma setting all the way to dark didn't help matters. For a $200+ coffee maker that determines the amount of beans to use itself, this was strange.
3) Thermal carafe, despite being well designed, is small (10 cup). The Cuisinart burr grinder models come with 12 cup thermal carafes.
4) No outside water gauge.
5) Top lid does not snap close easily and feels like it could be the first thing to break.
6) Capresso was stingy on the stainless steel. The sides and top are black plastic. Not a huge deal, but for this price I expected a more high-end look. To compare, the Cuisinart DGC-650 which is less than half the cost has stainless steel on both sides.
7) There are a couple of tablespoons of beans that are "in transit" to the grinder and inaccessible. They are processed when the next pot is brewed. So if you decide to brew a pot of decaf and were previously making regular, a portion of your pot will be made with regular beans. Or in my case, if you sometimes go several days between pots, your coffee is always made with somewhat stale beans. Unfortunately all of burr grind and brew coffee makers that I've seen work like this.

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Equipped with a built-in conical burr grinder, this coffeemaker automatically grinds and brews up to 10 cups of exceptionally flavorful coffee. The unit's slow burr grinding produces minimal heat, which helps preserve coffee's full aroma and flavor, while its solid-steel conical burrs offer five grind settings from coarse to fine for adjusting the coffee strength. A user-friendly push-button control panel with an easy-to-read illuminated LCD display ensures simple operation and programming. Choose from five brew amounts (2 to 10 cups) and select the coffee strength: mild, medium, or strong--or set the clock and timer for automatic brewing at a later time. The coffeemaker provides two modes of operation for brewing coffee with or without the grinder. Grind/Brew mode grinds a programmed amount of whole beans directly into the gold-tone filter, then automatically starts the brewing process. Brew mode allows for adding ground coffee without the use of the grinder--simply push the filter-release button to open the swing-out filter holder. Freshly brewed coffee dispenses into the included 10-cup stainless-steel thermal carafe, which comes with a stay-cool handle and non-drip spout. For sneaking a quick cup midbrew, just remove the carafe from the machine to pause the flow of coffee, then return it to continue brewing. Other highlights include a 200 degree F brew temperature, a 6-ounce capacity bean container, a see-through window for checking to make sure ground coffee flows smoothly into the filter holder, a detachable see-through cover for cleaning the grinder channel, a charcoal water filter that removes up to 82-percent of chlorine and other impurities from tap water, and two-hour automatic shut-off for safety and peace of mind. The 1000-watt fully programmable 10-cup coffeemaker measures approximately 9-4/5 by 9-1/2 by 15-1/2 inches.

Click here for more information about Capresso 465.05 CoffeeTeam TS 10-Cup Digital Coffeemaker with Conical Burr Grinder and Thermal Carafe