Cuisinart DCC-2000 Coffee-on-Demand 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Brushed Metal

I was going to wait several months before giving my opinion on this machine, as it seems that most of the negatives have to do with the machine not working after a few months or a year. However, I am so thrilled with this coffee maker that I decided to go ahead and tell you my thoughts now and if it breaks in a few months, I'll come back and let you know. In the meantime, I have to say that after years of trial and error (most of it in the past three years), we have finally found a coffee maker that we absolutely love; I believe it may even be The One. Here's what I can compare it to (keep in mind that I always use good coffee beans, ground fresh and will drink only filtered coffee because we don't want the cholesterol-producing gunk)... When I first started drinking coffee 25 years ago, I used a Braun. Decent coffee (but I was also a newbie and didn't know much) and the machine was a workhorse. I believe I had it for around 15 years...no kidding. When I finally decided to try something else (it didn't die, mind you, I just wanted to try some other coffee maker...it's probably out there in someone's kitchen working hard...), I bought a Krups Thermal. It made good coffee (similar to Braun) but we had a number of issues with the machine parts not working right from the start. Once we got all of those worked out, we had it for a couple of years (around 4) before we noticed it started not being hot anymore. I mean, as soon as it brewed, we would have to put our cup in the microwave so it would be hot. We heated up the thermal carafe before brewing and everything, but nothing helped. So we went on to a Presto Percolator. I remembered in graduate school housesitting for a family once who had a percolator and it was the best coffee I'd ever had. So, we bought one and loved it for awhile. It made excellent coffee (FAR better than the Braun or Krups) and it was always super hot. So hot, actually, that we had to let it cool down before drinking. But, it became a pain after awhile because since we use filters, we would have to cut a hole in the basket filter to fit it over the percolator tube. And it was a pain trying to get the coffee into the basket...we always wound up with coffee everywhere. And even with filtering it, we always had sludge in the bottom of our cup. This seemed to defeat the purpose of filtering it, so we put that one in the garage as a back-up. Next, we had tried coffee from a Bunn at some relatives' house and were extremely surprised that it tasted good. So we bought one and liked it for several weeks. The coffee was fast (3 minutes) and not bitter. But we like our coffee strong and it was impossible to get the basket filled with enough grounds to make it as strong as we like it. Because it brews so fast, it seems to explode the grounds in the basket and we were winding up with coffee and grounds all over the counter while it was brewing. We kept reducing the amount of coffee we were putting in the basket, used the special Bunn coffee filters, and even ordered the water shower flow adjuster to try and fix it but nothing worked. We just wound up with super fast but weak "what's-the-point" coffee. Also, we weren't crazy about having to have the coffee maker on all the time keeping the water hot. Seemed like a potential hazard and not very good use of our electric resources. I was on the verge of spending $400 on a different coffee maker when I came across this Cuisinart. I loved the idea of no carafe and stainless steel components. I also liked that we could program it, that it had a paper filter option and a nice, wide basket filter for flavor extraction. In spite of all the bad reviews for mechanical issues, I went ahead and ordered it and we have now had it a mere 10 days or so. But, holy smokes, what great coffee! My favorite coffees are those that come from Ethiopia because they have a very distinctive apricot aftertaste to them. I had bought some from my local coffee roaster and was using them in the Bunn (that was the one right before the Cuisinart) and was thinking that I had gotten some beans that weren't good because there was no apricot aftertaste to them. Actually, there was no flavor at all. We were about halfway through this bag of Ethiopian when we traded the Bunn for this Cuisinart. We made coffee with the Ethiopian the first morning and not only was the coffee smooth and hot, it was so full of apricot flavor, I was actually stunned at the difference in taste from the two coffeemakers. The Bunn may be fast but it does nothing for getting the flavor out of your coffee. It was like I had used two different coffees. Anyhow, we love not having a carafe. Love it. Love that we can set the timer for how long we want the coffee to stay hot and that it stays hot without getting bitter. Love that it's filtered with a basket. Love that there is an exterior water gauge so we can see how much water we've put in. Love that, even though it takes almost 13 minutes to brew a 12-cup pot, it's so smooth and flavorful that it's worth the extra time (well, compared to a Bunn). Plus, you can program it if you like. It's easy to clean and yes, it does have a lot of condensation on the lid but I just wait a while and then hold a towel on it as soon as I lift the lid to absorb the moisture. Like I said, I have only had it 10 days so I can't speak to the mechanical part of it. But I can tell you beyond any doubt, that it makes quite possibly the best coffee I have ever had from a home brewing filtered system. Have I mentioned that I love this machine and think it may be The One? Edited March 3, 2011: Been two months and nothing has broken! Still love the coffee. I would add, though, that there is an off-taste that develops after the coffee has been sitting for 3 or 4 hours. It's not as "off" as it gets in a glass carafe, and it takes much longer to become "off"...like I said, I have only noticed this off taste after I pour a cup that's been in the warmer container for longer than 3 or 4 hours. Still better than a glass or thermal carafe. And the initial 2-3 hours worth of coffee are excellent!

I seldom write reviews, but I just had to this time. This is a great coffee maker that makes great tasting coffee and is very easy to use. The dispenser works flawlessly, and by doing away with carafe you eliminate the burnt coffee issue. We had purchased a Braun KF590E on Amazon a year ago; it never made good coffee and half the time would clog and overflow all over the counter, and if the coffee sat for an hour you would get burnt coffee taste. The first cup of coffee out of the Cuisinart DCC-2000 was a real eye opener. The coffee tasted so good, and so much better than the Braun I couldn't believe it. The "press to serve" dispenser is easy to use and eliminates mess, and I like the coffee gauge telling you how much coffee you have left in the pot. It's easy to program, and you can even program the length of time for the auto shut off feature. It is also easy to fill; I am not sure why people complain about this, I use a 2-quart pitcher with water from the RO filter and have no problems pouring the water in. The only thing that is a little awkward is that we have to pull it out from under our kitchen cabinet to open up the top and fill it and put the coffee in, and then scoot it back under the cabinets, but I see this as a small price to pay for the dispenser feature and great-tasting coffee, and not a big deal. You also cannot get a tall travel mug under the spout to fill it, so I use a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup for this. The unit itself looks great on the counter, and matches my Cuisinart DBM-8 burr grinder (which also works great) nicely. I was somewhat confused by the description that says it dispenses coffee "cup by cup"; it actually dispenses as much or as little as you want. I was tempted to buy the Capresso MT-500 because of its ability to heat water to 200 °F, but after reading the reviews about its finicky operation, and saw its price ($160) I figured I'd try the Cuisinart. I was not disappointed. I bought this unit refurbished so it did not come with the gold filter and only had a 90-day warranty; these may be good reasons to buy it new, since you get the gold filter ($10) with it, and also a 3 year warranty.