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Every since discovering grind and brew coffee makers, I’ve been hooked on them. It’s pretty darn awesome to be able to add beans and water and watch coffee be made right before your eyes. Or, better yet, to hear it being made in the kitchen while you’re still waking up upstairs.
For the past 5 years or so, we’ve been using this Cuisinart model:
It worked very well, but there were a few things about it that were kind of annoying. The biggest nag was the cleaning. As you can see, this thing has a lot of parts. And all of them need to be cleaned out on a regular basis since the steam from brewing the coffee works its way back up into the grinder area. The clock was also tougher to set than you’d expect on something like this, making it a pain to do every time we had to unplug it for some reason.
On the plus side, it did make great coffee. But eventually we had to put it down because the grinder/drip component would no longer release from the main body, making it impossible to clean.
When it was time to look for a new model, I checked out the latest reviews on Amazon. I figured there must have been a few changes to the grind & brew coffee scene over the past 5 years. Sure enough, the models have changes a bit. Cuisinart has some models with insulated decanters and brushed chrome finishes and they’ve made their design a bit more boxy, so it would play more nicely with counter space.
The Cuisinart reviews for the model we previous had made it clear that others had similar nags about their design: too much crap to clean. (This Cuisinart model costs around $69 on Amazon).
Then I discovered this:
The Krups KM7000 Grind & Brew. Krups’ engineers figured out how to get around the issue that causes so many problems for Cuisinart users. They dispense the freshly ground beans then close off the grinder before dispensing hot & steamy water. The lid pointing out the the left (photo below) flips into place once the beans are in place:
Brilliant. Once that problem was solved, they were able to turn things up another notch by allowing you to store beans for more than one grinding session in the machine.
Turning things up yet another two notches, they allow you to set your grind consistency and drip speed, which allows you to dial in your perfect cup of coffee over time.
They recommend starting on the course grind with a fast drip. I tried it and it made good Peace Coffee taste like something you’d drink at a PTA meeting. However, within the week, I managed to get it fine tuned for what Carly and I like.
But wait! There’s one more notch! It also allows you to easily select how many cups of coffee you want to make. For example, to make 6 cups of coffee (what Carly and I need to fill our mugs) we just add 6 cups of water, set the Krups to 6 cups, so it grinds (and brews) an appropriate amount of coffee beans for the job.
This thing is not cheap, with an MSRP of $165 (currently $129.95 at Amazon), but it does make great coffee. If this keeps you from buying coffee every day at the week at coffee shops rather than just making it at home, I think you have the financial justification you need to shell out for one.
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I should’ve stolen this from you on that day I tought you how to electrocute yourself. I should’ve told you to “hold these two wire ends” and then run out of your house, grind-n-brew in tow. I now live in Regret, MN.
Have you figured out how to get this thing off of 24-hour/military time yet?
Keeping it on military time is one way to support the troops.
Plus it looks really cool. So many of the grind and brew systems are top heavy and ugly. This just looks nice on the counter.
I’m old school with my coffee. Boil water on the stove, grind the beans, and ready the French Press. It takes a while, but damn does it make great coffee.
I’ve been stuck with a senseo because i’m the only coffee drinker in the house. I love that you can dial in how many cups of coffee on that thing, but 1 coffee drinker makes the $100+ a tough sell to the hubby!
would you happen to know if they make a coffee pot that plugs into a USB port? I pretty much run everything off of my computer but I can’t find a coffee pot.
Teresa, I’ve only seen USB Mug warmers to date, but I’ll keep an eye out.
Lisa, the Senseo pods seems to be crazy-popular on Amazon.
[...] term “Energy Coffee” seems a bit redundant to me. Personally, I’ll just turn my Krups Grind & Brew to 11 if I want more kick from my beans, for others may prefer to pour a cup or this stuff after [...]
Hi! Do you know how to use the grinder in this model? It´s just that I have bought it, but when I try to make coffee the grinder just doesn´t work. do i have to do something else besides adding beans and programming or the grinder just doesn´t work in my coffee machine?
I have looked in the instructions but it says that the grinder starts working automatically, so is it true?
Thanks
I have a Cuisinart like yours. It makes good coffee but a mess to clean. Water gets in grinder. Does Krups grinder stay dry? Do you have to be cleaned it?
We’ve had this Krups for about 7 months and it no longer works. It will grind the beans but not brew the coffee. Doesn’t heat up at all.. Another little complaint is the grinder is so loud.. But, looks like we will be looking for a new grind and brew. Disappointed that ours no longer works. Don’t think we’ll buy the same model.
I purchased this Krups and the little gasket in the basket did not work. Being a new model the Krups people had a hard time finding the part I needed. Got the part…worked great!! Now a few months later and I have the same problem as others, it grinds the beans and does nothing else. HELP!!! The Cuisinart I had was a real pain to clean. Have any suggestions???????
@ann, I haven’t heard of others having the problem you described. That does sound like a pain. I’m still sold on my Krups and wouldn’t consider going back to the Cuisinart models at this time. It looks like they’ve made some changes but the basic issue of too much stuff to clean each day remains.
Our second Krups machine died. We had a our first one almost a year and then the standard problem of the heating element not working happened. We had to ship it to get it fixed and they just sent us a new one. This one only lasted a couple of months and the same problem just happened yesterday. We are shopping for a new model this weekend.
We’ve had a Cuisinart DGB-500 for about 4 years. We were impressed with the quality of the coffee it brewed, and, for a while, only had issues with the cleaning of the components, which proved to be somewhat labor-intensive. I resigned myself to that, though, and worked it into my dish washing routine, using a specially bent toothbrush on the grinder. After a couple of years, however, it started to randomly leak coffee down into the burner area, and eventually onto the counter through the bottom. I’ve searched the internet and tried every conceivable attempt at fixing this problem, such as coffee pot handle positioning, cleaning the area above the filter basket, etc., all to no avail.
Now, We’re looking to replace it, and I stumbled onto this website in hopes of hearing good things about grind/brew coffee makers other than Cuisinart (unless they’ve improved a lot!). There has to be one out there, somewhere!
I haven’t heard anyone mention Capresso. I’ve had a Capresso for probably ten years and it’s awesome. Beans are away from the rest and there’s NOTHING to clean. Just change the coffee filter and add more water and press on. Also has all controls like how strong you want it and how many cups. Anybody have one?
Now appears to be $179 at Amazon………. if anyone knows of a better deal, please post. Our Merlitta just bit the dust……….. and we are going through DT’s
My Capresso machine of 10 years bit the dust, but loved it, so replaced it with newer model. Coffee is luke warm. Would NOT recommend it.
Don’t buy this coffee maker. I bought this coffee maker a year ago and it has broke twice, just stoped brewing the first time after 6 months, sent it back under warrenty to get fixed cost me 20 dollers . took at least a month and a half to get it back, then it broke again after 4 months with the same issue not brewing. it does make good coffee when it worked but for the money go some where else.
@craig, it sounds like you had a dud. I wrote this post more than 20 months ago and mine is still going strong and I continue to recommend it to friends.
We purchased the coffee maker about 2 months ago. We really liked it until now. It has already stopped brewing. Not impressed at all.
I have the Krups KM7000 Grind & Brew and we love the coffee, and the bur grinder, but HATE, HATE, HATE the machine.
It has all the features and they work very well; the coffee’s great. What could be so bad? The coffee pot is shaped such that it drips (extensively if you are pouring in a hurry) every time you pour water into the machine or coffee into your cup unless you have time to pour very, very slowly. It wastes coffee, makes a mess EVERY DAY and is incredibly annoying when you just want a cup of coffee.
Secondly, no matter how much you clean it up, the grinder spews fine grinds everywhere and the snap back top flings a few more grounds hidden under the mechanism from the day before when it springs back into place. I know this sounds like a small problem, but it is such a mess every day to clean. I use a brsh to get off what I can, I have to wipe ddown the entire counter top to get the flung grounds and the spilled offee and water. I’m not a clean freak either.
I now brew with the coffee maker in the sink, and pour over the sink, but even my husband is ready for a new pot. It makes such great coffee, but I definitely would not recommend this machine to anyone for this reason. I read other’s reviews about this same problem and thought it couldn’t be that bad. It is.
We are looking for a new pot, although this one is only two months old.
A really great Cuisinart grind and brew coffee maker is the model DGB-650BC. This model brews 10 cups, has a thermal carafe, and has overwhelmingly positive Amazon reviews. Best of all, it currently sells there for over 50% off the retail price of $235. And until June 2010, there is an additional $30 mail in rebate available. Hard to beat a favorably reviewed grind and brew coffee maker for under 75 bucks…
I agree with everything Cindy Johnson stated. It makes a great cup of coffee but very messy. However, my first machine just quit. They heating element would not work. I sent it back and they replace it. This morning the new one quit in the same manner. No warning just doesn’t work.
We’ve had this model for one year after our Cuisinart grind and brew stopped working. Great coffee, nice and hot but very messy. About 2 months ago, the swing lid that allows the coffee to grind and dispense into the basket would not stay open while grinding. You physically had to stand there and hold it until it finished grinding. We could handle that but you could not pre-set the time to have it brew before you got up. However, this week it just stopped grinding altogether. Have tried cleaning it, checking for stuck beans, etc. Don’t want another Cuisinart but not sure I want another one of these either. Would love to find a grind and brew that would last more than one year and a day.
Hi Ann. Thanks for the comment. It looks like I wrote this article 30 months ago, so my Krups has been running for at least that long without a problem yet. I’m still sold on it.
Have had a Cuisinart Grind & Brew w/Thermal Carafe for 5 1/2 yrs. Didn’t mind the extra cleaning every day if it meant getting a quality cup of coffee. Loved this machine. Well, the past few weeks it had been leaking water on the counter, so I knew it was dying. This morning was the day. So…… I had to make coffee in the french press, which is good, but I sure miss my Cuisinart. Have to save some money and probably buy another one.