Cuisinart DCC-1250SA Grind & Brew 12 Cup Coffee Maker

The machine works OK. There''s nothing wrong with it. But basically it makes what I call "truck-stop coffee." This is coffee for the non-discriminating coffee drinker. Now I''m not a coffee snob I''ll drink truck stop coffee but I don''t want it at home! I''ve been making coffee with a burr grinder and a cone-style filter since the 1970''s and I''ve grown used to a cup of gourmet coffee in the morning. When my Krups Grind and Brew died (excellent gourmet coffeemaker by the way), I decided to give the Cuisinart a try because it was cheaper.

I''ve had this coffeemaker for two weeks and I''m already shopping for a replacement. First of all, it uses flat-bottom "basket" style coffee filters (Mr. Coffee-type filters), not the cone-style filters that are well known to produce better coffee. This info was not in any of the online descriptions or reviews. Secondly, it does not have a grinder--not like the Capresso of Krups machines. Instead, it has a rotary blade chopper. Again, this info did not show up in any of the online descriptions or reviews. A blade chopper is not as good as a burr grinder, but you can still make a decent pot of coffee with a blade chopper as long as you are skillful in using it. With the Cuisinart, though, you have no control of the chopper so your skill or lack thereof is immaterial. Read on.

To make a pot, put a fresh filter into the basket and pour water into the reservoir. Easy and straightforward. Next, lift the coffee chopper from the top of the machine, pry open the top with a fingernail then add the correct amount of beans to the chopper. This means you have to measure the beans for every pot. With both Krups and Capresso grind and brew machines, you add beans in bulk to the hopper (no measuring) then you instruct the machine how much coffee to grind for each pot--much simpler. Then close the lid and place the chopper in the machine. Sounds simple, but I can''t do it without having to go get my reading glasses. That''s because there''s a small round piece that needs to fit over a pin-type plunger and it just doesn''t want to fit unless you get it just right.

Next you press the start button and what happens is the blades of the chopper start chopping the beans and at the same time centrifugal force makes all the beans whirl around inside the chopper. Part of the chopper wall consists of a perforated metal screen. As soon as a piece of bean is small enough to squeeze thru this screen, it does, and goes into the chute that leads to the basket. If this screen had a finer mesh, the coffee would just clog it up. So the mesh is fairly course and as a result you have coarse grounds. Coarse grounds in a Mr. Coffee-style flat basket. Bad, bad, bad. With both Krups and Capresso, you can choose a fine or coarse grind or anything in between.

Then the water is heated, flows into the basket, and drips into the pot. Steam fills the inside of the machine including the inside of the chopper where it turns any remaining coffee grounds (dust) into mud. As a result, the chopper gets gummed up with coffee remains. This is not a big deal, but it adds another step to the care and feeding of this machine because you have to clean the chopper in the sink after 3 or 4 pots.

Are there any pluses? Yes. The pot has a good dripless spout. And the hot plate keeps the coffee in the pot at a good temperature. Also, you don''t have to use the built-in chopper. You can grind your owns beans, put them in the basket, then brew. But that kind of defeats the purpose of having a grind and brew coffeemaker, doesn''t it?

What you have then is a machine that not only makes rather ordinary coffee, it''s also less convenient to use than its two main competitors because of the measuring of the beans and the cleaning of the chopper. Of course, it''s cheaper than the competitors. Once again the old adage "you get what you pay for" holds true.

After having several drip coffee makers (both inexpensive and VERY expensive), this is the best for the following reasons:

low noise grinder

makes a full pot in less time

easy to clean

at a glance look at remaining coffee (can''t do this with a carafe)

reasonable price, good warranty

Best of all, it makes a delicious cup of coffee

Buy Cuisinart DCC-1250SA Grind & Brew 12 Cup Coffee Maker Now

The old $10 Proctor-Silex coffee maker in our office here in Afghanistan had seen better days. And even though we used bottled water and ground our own beans, the flavor was just barely passable. A few people I knew had a Cuisinart unit similar to this one and all said it was a darned good maker of the java. So I convinced the other coffee chronics to chip in with me and buy this as an office morale booster. We weren''t prepared for the huge difference in coffee quality that we got. It was like our taste buds had taken the last several months off and suddenly returned to duty.

This coffee maker produces some of the best coffee that you can find this side of a mom-and-pop barista joint. Every pot is consistently made and always delicious. Plus it''s easy enough to use that we haven''t yet dorked up making a pot. The 12-cup carafe is big enough to handle the chore of serving four serious drinkers. The built in bean grinder does a perfect job pulverizing the beans. Although the instructions say to clean out the grinder after each use, we usually do it once a day (about 3-4 pots) and haven''t had any issues.

This maker excels in one are that most people will not have to worry about: keeping out dust. Afghanistan is covered in a fine, talcum powder dust that gets into most everything. The fit and finish of this Cuisinart is really good; we''ve had no problem with it sneaking into the grinder, reservoir or basket areas.

So we are completely satisfied with this unit. And yes, our morale has been boosted considerably.

Read Best Reviews of Cuisinart DCC-1250SA Grind & Brew 12 Cup Coffee Maker Here

The Cuisinart DCC-1250SA Grind and Brew is by far the best coffee machine I have ever owned. The coffee is so fresh with the grind feature and the water is a great temparature. This machine has saved me hundreds of dollars in two short months as I get the highest quality coffee in my own kitchen. I feel bad for Tim Hortons and Dunkin Donuts as they have lost a customer. I highly recommend this product! It is so good, I purchased a second for my parents who are thrilled with the product.

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Purchased this product thinking that I would be able to make good coffee, and that I would be able to control the strength of the resulting product. Was I wrong! This coffee maker can barely make 20 ounces (two and a half eight ounce cups) of moderately strong coffee. The coffee grinding chamber takes very very few beans--close to 1/2 a cup ( 4 ounces). When you use the coffee maker, vapor from the filter housing gets to the beans compartment and it becomes noticeably wet creating a paste of the ground coffee remains left in the chamber. Another issue I have is with the programming. Once you put the date and time and set the program to run it works fine, but if you by accident unplug the coffee maker, the program is lost, then you have to go through the tedium of entering it again. Yes, if Cusinart''s engineers had been moderately intelligent or not trying to cut corners, they could have placed a small battery inside the device to keep the program going regardless of whether it was plugged in or not.

Even more tragic: If you decide to use ground beans to make coffee, you must be careful they are not too ground, or coffee will overflow and drip down all over the sides of the filter housing and make a mess on your counter top! Yes this machine can make "12 cups" ( = 9 eight ounces cups) of extremely watery coffee resembling *lightly* brewed tea. Honestly, this machine is certainly not suited for a mildly sophisticated coffee drinker or even for someone who prefers Starbucks coffee over, say McDonald''s coffee.

In passing, let me add that if the engineers that designed this product had been only slightly smarter they would have made the compartment where the coffee is ground twice larger in order to allow the user to tweek the strongness of the final product; they would have also allowed the tweeking of the level of grinding desired. Of course, this would have also required a larger filtering compartment, something that could have been easily done. This coffee maker as it is now is an exercise in poor design and an additional embarrassment to Cuisinart.