Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

After our last drip machine broke, the bf got a stove-top espresso thing and I got a french press. I will never go back. It's easy, it's fast, it's foolproof. I ended up having to buy a stainless steel one after my boyfriend broke two glass carafes doing the dishes, though. It's still going strong and likely will for a while.

i also am a french press girl, but my mom loves her bunn coffeemaker.

@joyy-I've never had a French press but I have always wanted one! The bad news is that I am too lazy to get up and make coffee before work. I will probably need a programmable coffee maker. I might get the French press for the weekends though :-)

We've had a Cuisinart grind-n-brew for over three years now and use it at least once/day, sometimes more than that. Only real coffee snobs complain about the things. We love ours, and if-and-when it ever breaks we'll probably get a direct replacement.

@renzata: I just saw the brewstation at the store last night and I thought the idea was really cleaver. Of course I was concerned about my travel mug not fitting under there. I'm glad they are making the new model. I'm also glad you brought up the size issue. My cabinets do hang low so I will have to measure. Thanks for mentioning that...I never would have even thought about that problem!

I bought a Technivorm KBT 741 from Sweet Marias and it makes the absolute best coffee of all home drip machines. No bells, no whistles, and not cheap. Check it out at:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.technivorm.shtml

@joyyy - I will definitely check out the Frieling presses because I do use mine enough (every day) to move up to stainless steel. Thanks for letting me know about them! Also ... Adagio.com has some wonderful loose teas as well. I love a good hot cup of tea!

We've had our french press Bodum for 5 years or so...in that time, I broke only one glass carafe and that's because I dropped in on the tile floor. I ordered 2 new carafes directly from Bodum (not expensive) and still have the 2. We use it every day and love the coffee.

french presses make excellent ~ espresso strength ~ coffee. I've got a "Smart Cafe" which has a "coffee capture pod" into which you put the coffee ~ the pod makes for very easy clean-up & supposedly keeps the grounds from stewing so the coffee doesn't get bitter (I recommend using a coffee/chicory blend ~ French Market or Cafe du monde ~ both available online ~ either one has the perfect grind for a french press). For daily AM coffee I use an automatic drip ~ and I've been considering the Hamilton Beach Brew Station so good to know that it is well-liked

The Cuisinart coffee maker (above) was fairly inexpensive for what you get at $120. It's probably cheaper now.

I like the Cuisinart grind & brew but it is louder than bejesus in the morning. Good coffee though.

I've had two grind and brews (Cuisinart and ???). Both were great, hard to clean though and then after a few years they broke. So I use a Krups 10 cup which I tried to retire a year ago because it kept leaking (finally found the problem) and now it's hanging in there. I shifted also to a standalone grinder. Also have a Bodum French press which I love, but it doesn't make enough for my wife and I, especially on cold days. BUT it was my saving grace for the 7 days of no power due to Hurricane IKE. I was smart enough the day before to buy a few pounds of ground coffee.

Have any of you that own the Cuisinart Grind & Brew experienced the mysterious popping open of the filter basket door? Ours doesn't seem to have any reason and does it sporadically. The grinding is the loudest I have ever had and has caused my dog and me to jump when the timer starts the coffee pot. If it has happened to you, what did you do to fix it?

We have the Cuisinart Grind & Brew, after having gone through 2 of the Hamilton Beach Brew Stations. DH Makes coffee every morning and really likes the Cuisinart.

@lefturn ~ Never had the basket pop open.

thanks

Lefturn wrote:

"Have any of you that own the Cuisinart Grind & Brew experienced the mysterious popping open of the filter basket door? Ours doesn't seem to have any reason and does it sporadically".

I love my DGB-600BC, but have had the problem with the basket popping out. I talked to product support at Cuisinart, and their suggestions were helpful.

One suggestion was that I had the grinder too full of beans and was using too much water. Only fill the beans up to the line below the edge of the grinder, not up to, or over the top.

It is possible to fill it over the rim, since the clear top keeps all the beans inside, and this is a temptation for those of us in Seattle who love our coffee strong.

Also, using more water is a temptation when we want more coffee. Mine is marked for up to 10 cups inside the water cistern, and it is possible to use more.

But if I put in 8 cups, less steam is generated, and the door is less likely to pop out. By the way, these are 5 ounce, not 8 ounce "cups". So 8 cups will give me about 40 ounces of coffee, or 1 quart plus 1 standard 8 ounce cup.

The support person also suggested I clean the latch mechanism with a Q-tip., which helped also. If you are finicky about making everything inside LOOK really clean, with no stains, this is probably not the product for you, although myself I have always noticed this problem with automatic coffee makers, which always collect coffee stains.

The instructions say not to immerse the coffee maker, but I have taken mine down to the basement laundry room, placed it in the sink, and sprayed the thing inside with a pressurized stream of water.

I let it dry for a long time before using it, and had no problem with the electronics, which are pretty well sealed from moisture, I suspect.

I bought mine refurbished, probably 6+ years ago, and with daily use I think the latch mechanism does wear down, contributing to the messy pop-out, which is a nightmare if I have set it to grind and brew coffee in the morning before I rise.

This makes a huge mess, similar to the times (twice over the years) when due to my advancing age and forgetfulness, I forgot to put a filter in the basket. The grounds clogged the spring loaded mechanism that drains coffee into the thermos when the thermos is in place, and the basket fills up and overflows. Same thing happened a few times when I forgot to replace the thermos into the coffee maker.

No fault of the design, of course, just stupid user error.

Cuisinart was very generous about sending me a free basket and basket lid when I called, in case they were contributing to the problem.

But ultimately, as the latch mechanism wears down, there are no new parts available to repair this. When customers send an in-warranty unit in for this kind of repair, Cuisinart just gives them a new one, so if you own one that is out of warranty, your only solution would be to purchase a new one, a solution I didn't like.

But I found the ultimate hack (what the techies these days call solutions that my father referred to as "jerry-rigged") that solved the pop-open problem.

I tried rubber bands to hold the basket in during brewing, but this didn't work because the front of the door that holds the basket is actually recessed nearly 1/4 inch from the front face of the sides, so it could still pop out a little bit, enough to make a mess.

What finally worked was to use a 19-inch bungee cord, wrapped around the coffeemaker at the filter door level, holding something soft and at least a half inch thick against the front.

I cut a 5 3/4 inch wide strip, about 12 inches long of some perforated soft rubbery shelf liner that I found in a close-out bin at a discount store.

I enclosed several of those large Papermate Pink Pearl pencil erasers (about 2 1/2 x 13/16 x 7/16 inch) in the shelf liner, with the erasers vertical (referencing the way they will be placed against the coffee maker door) inside the 5 3/4 inch wide strip, and wrapped the strip round and round vertically with a couple of layers now covering the erasers.

The erasers stay inside the wrap, because they are rubbery and so is the shelf liner.

Then I place the wrap (which is now about 3 x 3/4 x 5 3/4) against the door, with the 3 inch side vertical, and hold it in place with the bungee cord, fastened to itself in the rear. I did it myself, but a third hand from someone else would help.

This hack probably isn't for everyone, but it works great for me, and seems to be an inexpensive permanent solution to the filter door problem. My filter door NEVER pops out, and I suspect I could even use more beans and water, as referenced above.

My wife was horrified when I sought to fix this, because I originally planned to buy a giant C-clamp to hold the thing in place. I found one at a used hardware store, but I knew she would hit the ceiling if she saw this giant clamp encircling the Cuisinart, so I sought a simpler solution, which works for both of us.

Tad Cook
Seattle, WA