It might look nice, but don't buy it whatever you do

I purchased a Cuisinart Grind & Brew Thermal Coffeemaker (Model #DGB-600BC) from Chef's Catalog in January of 2003 for approximately $149.99, plus taxes and shipping fees. I have used this appliance for the past 6 months and this morning's mess on my kitchen countertop, cabinets and floor convinced me once and for all to take time to write to Cuisinart and tell them how thoroughly dissatisfied I am with this product. I normally would not take time to concern myself with writing to a company to express my dissatisfaction, however this appliance has infuriated me one too many times. Due to this, I felt compelled to write the Cuisinart company a letter. I still, after 4 days, have heard nothing from them in return. Great Customer Service. Thankfully, the return policy at Chef's Catalog allows me to return this product to them for a full refund, (even after 6 months,) which I intend to do as soon as I return home this evening. (Thanks Chef's Catalog!)

I was excited when I first ordered and received the product. I have owned and used a Cuisinart Classic Electronic Toaster for the past 5 years, as well as a Cuisinart Mini-Chop in Chrome that I have had for the past 4 years and have been very satisfied with both products for as long as I've owned them. Due to my satisfaction and familiarity with those two appliances, I decided to purchase the Cuisinart Thermal Grind and Brew.

The stainless steel finish and design of the appliance in general caught my eye, and generally fit perfectly into the decor of my kitchen. That's about as happy as I've been with this appliance since I've owned it. As long as it's NOT being used, it's great.

Before using the appliance, I read the directions thoroughly and had kept the appliance's instruction manual near the machine for quick reference. I clean this appliance after each use and let the parts dry thoroughly before I reassemble it to be used again for the following morning's coffee.

Shortly after I bought the appliance, I used it for the first time to prepare a pot of coffee for visiting guests from California. My intention was to have a nice hot pot of coffee ready for my jet-lagged visitors who were, before brewing, sleeping soundly. I followed the directions to the letter, set the timer on the machine the night before to begin brewing the following morning and went to sleep. The first thing I noticed about this appliance was the noise of the grinder mechanism. It basically sounded like a small airplane warming up for take-off in my kitchen. I also hypothesized that perhaps one of my cats learned how to use the vacuum cleaner and was vacuuming the kitchen floor or something. I think my next-door neighbors could hear it. There is absolutely no way anyone could sleep through the racket the grinder makes.

Upon coming into the kitchen that morning, I walked around the corner to see the coffee maker spewing hot coffee all over the counter, the front of my new white cabinets and subsequently the new black and white floor. Out of the 10 cups of coffee that I had set out to make, if I had 4 in the pot by the time the brewing cycle was complete, I would be exaggerating. Being that this was a new appliance, I thought that I must have done something incorrectly when I set it up the night before, so I cleaned up the unforgivable mess and tried again. This time, the coffee went into the pot and completed it's cycle successfully.

Upon removing the carafe from the appliance to pour the coffee into a cup, the design of the lid and the pour spout couldn't be more faulty. EVERY SINGLE TIME coffee is poured out of the carafe headed for a cup, most of the coffee runs down the edge of the carafe onto the countertop, making yet ANOTHER large mess to clean up. Once again, after pouring the coffee out of the carafe, I managed to squeeze 6 of the 10 cups that I had brewed. Better than the 4 that I ended up with on the first pot, but still not acceptable.

After using this appliance a few times, I thought I would choose my battles and thought I could live with the excessive noise the grinding mechanism makes, and slowly I became accustomed to the sound. I actually stopped using my alarm clock and instead relied on the coffee maker to wake me up, downstairs in the kitchen. (Did I mention it's loud?) I have also learned now to hold both the carafe and the cup over the sink which allows the coffee to run directly down the drain, saving quite a bit of money on paper towels, however wasting an incredible amount of coffee.

In my opinion, this coffee maker seems to have many major design flaws in it besides the ones that I have spoken about above. I have noticed that once coffee beans have been ground and the ground coffee is then dispensed into the gold filter basket, during the brew cycle, condensation seeps upwards into the grinder mechanism from the filter basket, causing any left over coffee ground "dust" to mutate into what appears to have the consistency of sticky coffee syrup, molasses, or motor oil that has been burned. (We have nick-named this substance "coffee-lasses." in my house.) This sticky coffee "syrup" then finds its way downwards toward the mechanism that opens the filter basket door, causing the wheels and teeth of the track to become gummy, sticky and virtually non-functional.

This muck also finds it's way down past the opening mechanism of the filter basket door all the way down to the base where the carafe sits during brewing, which causes the sticky mess to ooze out onto the countertop underneath the appliance. I did not notice this seeping mess until the following evening when I returned from work to set the appliance up for the following morning's coffee. Upon dragging the machine out from under the cabinet above to remove the parts to be washed and to fill the reservoir, I noticed the molasses-like substance streaking across the counter. By that point, it had almost stained my brand new countertop. Thankfully I was able to bleach the spot out of the countertop material before the stain became permanent.

I have taken the time to thoroughly clean this appliance regularly, however this sticky, oozing mess continues to occur, making the opening and closing of the filter basket door virtually impossible without a crowbar.

There is no way that anyone could fill the water reservoir with the thermal carafe that comes with the appliance. One must virtually turn the carafe completely UPSIDE DOWN to remove all the liquid (either water or coffee) inside. I used a separate pitcher to fill the reservoir, and had learned to work around this slight nuisance as well.

When the lid is open on the appliance, while cleaning the stainless steel on the front of the appliance, if one accidentally touches or brushes by one of the control buttons, the machine incessantly beeps constantly until all parts are placed back in the machine and the lid is closed. I had even gone so far as to unplug the machine for a short period of time to see if it would clear itself, but the machine continues to beep. I would suggest that Cuisinart install a "CANCEL" or "RESET" button on the front operation panel to turn the beeping OFF. What a concept.

Ordinarily I would not bother to complain about something as silly as a coffee maker; when I am unhappy with a small kitchen electric appliance, I usually just throw it away and buy another one. However, I think that spending (after taxes and shipping) $150 or better for this machine, it should be perfect. Never in my life had I spent this much money on a coffee pot of all things, so I thought since the price was high, it must be a superior appliance. I was certainly proven very wrong.

I feel that Cuisinart should have tested this machine before it was released to the general public. If this many design flaws exist that I noticed over the period of 6 months, I'm sure there are many consumers out there who feel the same way I do.

I am very sorry that this appliance did not turn out to be a "keeper". It sure does look nice on the counter. But, as I stated above, that's the biggest asset to this appliance; IT'S LOOKS. Once it's turned on, that's where all the romance is removed and the harsh reality of sticky coffee goo, waterfalls of coffee cascading down onto the floor, and the frustration of having no coffee to drink and a mess to clean up at 5:30AM sets in. I hope Cuisinart either changes the design of this machine to function better, or just take it off the market and redesign it. I will probably never buy another Cuisinart coffee maker again, and I will be very hesitant in the future in purchasing anything else their company makes.