Cuisinart 5-Cup Coffeemaker With Stainless Steel Carafe

Update: Still my favorite little pot…still making piping hot delicious coffee…after several weeks of use my only 2 complaints are: 1) It leaks when I pour; 2) I’m right handed so I orient the machine to have the coffee pot handle on my right…in this position the off on light is on the opposite side of the machine…a very small thing but so annoying…I’ve butted my head on the cabinet corner a couple of times trying to peer over the pot to see if the light is on/off….I know, I know….the world is going to hell in a hand basket and I can’t be bothered to peer over a coffee pot…boomer entitlement is my only excuse. Original review: Ihave tried them all (pour over/French press/percolator) to get the same taste/heat from a small coffee maker as I did from my behemoth Behmor (too big/too expensive to replace for one person) but was always disappointed. Until I found this little pot that has it all. When I fill the chamber and add 5 tablespoons of my favorite coffee, I get 2 1/2 (8 oz) coffee cups of HOT, DELICIOUS coffee in about 7 minutes. The just brewed temp is around 160 -170 degrees (using my candy thermometer). To my taste, it’s scalding – the way I like it. And the taste is rich, even without a “blooming” phase. Adding icing to the cake, it has an auto turn off. The only negative is that it drips when you pour. Nothing to mull over. This is the one.

I purchased this Cuisinart model because they’d stopped making their previous 5-cup-timed-burner model. Of all the coffee pots on the market, this one was the best match for their old unit.

While it makes a decent cup of coffee, runs relatively quiet, and looks sleek on the countertop, it is cumbersome to use.

First off, the lid which closes down over the coffee pot itself is quite stiff at the “latch”. I have to use both hands to pop it open. Hopefully, this will get easier with time. Fortunately, if it is not completely closed before operation, it does not interfere with the brewing process.

Second, the lid which covers the water reservoir is not permanently attached to the unit. It must be removed to add water, and during removal, it is not uncommon for it to end up inside the reservoir. This reservoir is removable so it can be filled separately; however, my cabinets are such that it’s too tall to remove it without pulling the machine near to the counter’s edge. So, I simply lift off the cover and add water to it.

I’ve become accustomed to these annoyances; however, when this one fails, I’ll look for something different. I hope that the plate the pot sits on has a more durable finish than the previous one (Cuisinart 5-cup-timed-burner). Should this one perform the same, I’ll update this review.

UPDATE: Well, it is happening. The finish on the hotplate is degrading. I’d hoped with the nearly double the cost of their previous model, that they would have changed the finish on the hotplate; however, clearly not. It’s only been 7 months since I put this pot into service, and the finish is coming off. If the base metal is anything like the two other Cuisinart pots I’ve had, it will begin to rust and become pitted over time until it gets to the heating coil underneath it. And I have been DILIGENT about wiping water off the plate so that water NEVER sits on it. I make 3 cups at a time, turning it off between brew cycles, so it NEVER sits hot. What another piece of JUNK Cuisinart has made. This is the LAST coffee pot I buy from them. Changing rating to one star.

Downsizing is a bit of a struggle and I needed something smaller than the regular coffee maker I had, so I ordered this one. Cuisinart doesn’t disappoint. It brews fast, hot, and tasteful. The removeable reservoir is great and you dont have to struggle to add water. Getting used to the metal coffee pot.

This coffee maker is compact yet powerful! The metal carafe keeps coffee hot, and it brews the perfect cup every time. Easy to use and clean, ideal for small kitchens or offices.

All I wanted was a coffee maker that turns on when I push a button, this is it. Hard to find for some reason. The carafe is super thin, I thought it was aluminum at first but it is ferrous steel. No insulation, fine for me because I let it sit to cool before putting it in a thermos. Reusable filter is nice. When you lift the lid off the ground container it drips water down onto the hot plate, or the carafe if you’ve left it there. Makes decent coffee, I grind my own so I don’t blame the machine for when it comes out bitter, I know what I’ve done. Charcoal filter container broke immediately upon inspection, still works just something to be aware of. The removable water basin is great. Only thing I don’t like is the warmer hot plate (I don’t need that stuff) and how cheap the lid and sprayer assembly feel. They work fine, just feels like an obvious failure point later on.