rgathright's Full Review: Cuisinart DGB-600 10-Cup Coffee Maker
My marina neighbors gave me the Cuisinart Automatic Grind and Brew coffee maker two weeks ago as a gift for the computer consulting I have given them over the past year. They said the coffee maker was simply too big for the kitchen in their Morgan sailboat. I agree that the coffee maker just a little too big but it also leaks soggy grinds all over my kitchen! Let's explore the options a little further.
Is the taste worth it?
So you have the latest Starbucks coffee beans, paper filter and Brita filtered water in the Cuisinart all set for the perfect brew but how does it taste? Fair, the coffee came out moderately warm and the good morning aroma is not there because the carafe has a self locking lid that blocks that fresh coffee smell. My other coffee maker has a heat setting that I set to high so that I get all the flavor out of the coffee, this unit does not.
Physical Size And Usage
The case of the unit is a rectangular oval shape measuring 7.5"W x 7"D x 15"H and weighing in at 6lbs. Please premeasure a place for this coffee maker because you also have to lift the top cover to get to the coffee grinder. With the room for top cover clearance, you can add 5" to the height for a total of 20". All four sides have a thin brushed metal plate attached to the outside of the black plastic core. The only other metal pieces are the thermos, the blade of the coffee grinder unit and the heater element which appears to be either iron or steel. The stainless steel carafe can fit 10 cups of coffee but you can fit another ˝ cup if you want to stretch it. The carafe can keep your brew warm for at least 4 hours.
Normal operation is rather simple, pour some coffee beans into the grinder. Pour 10 cups of water into the unit. Then place the metal screen filter or add a paper filter. Finally, hit the On button and wait approximately 10 minutes. You have several other options on the menu though: 1-4 cup, Program, Hour and Min. The 1-4 cup option will let you brew just 4 cups of coffee. The Program feature will let you set a specific time to automatically start brewing within the next 24 hours. After the coffee maker completes its programmed brew it will turn off completely. Hour and Min obviously are used to set the time and program settings.
The problem with the poster child for Murphy's Law is the clean up. The plastic cover for the grinder must be cleaned after each use because the beans become a paste when the steam from the brewing process rises into the interior of the unit. I neglected to clean the coffee maker for a week and came back to find mold growing in the grinding cup! Additionally, the metal carafe must be cleaned religiously or it will develop a deep black stain in the bottom.
Water Filter
I could not tell a difference between two brews of coffee with the water filter and without. To save money and reduce the amount of plastic I consume, I happily removed the filter.
Metal Coffee Filter vs. Paper
The DGB-600 comes with a metal screen filter basket. The basket is reinforced with black plastic strips and has a small collapsible handle. Coffee brewed in the metal filter has a strong taste and small particles of coffee were in the bottom of my cup. The carafe also has particulate residue and as a result makes cleaning even harder. Paper on the other hand filters out the residue. You do not have to clean the metal filter, carafe or individual cups because of paper filters that is a welcome respite!
Power Consumption
I used a Kill-A-Watt energy meter to measure the amount of electricity consumed for one pot of coffee.
81 Watts were used to grind the beans.
1065 Watts was the peak used during the brewing process. The spike occurred for a minute when the heater element first started. Overall, the DGB-600 by Cusinart took .12 Kw-hours to brew one pot of coffee.
Summary
An automatic grind, programmable, water filtering coffee maker is an irresistible buy for any java drinker. Yet, all the factors above come together to either make the options unnecessary or to frustrating to justify the current market price of this coffee maker.
Lately, I have been grinding my own coffee beans because of the fresh flavor they provide. While this review is critical of the DGB-600 you should try grinding your own beans in an external grinder to have the same refreshing taste in the morning!
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