The idea of freshly-ground coffee may seem appealing, but this unit does not deliver well. To begin with, the grinding unit is the cheap, rotary-blade type and it produces too course a grind for drip coffee. The result is under-extracted coffee that's too weak. The unit is so poorly designed that the steam from brewing goes straight into the grinding section, leaving a layer of sludge all over it and requiring a thorough cleaning after every use. In fact, at first I thought that the unit deliberately ran water through the grinder! I doubt a dishwasher would be able to clean all of the nooks and crannies in the grinder unit. The whole thing is a pain to clean, with at least six separate parts to wash. Every coffee maker has some non-removable parts that need occasional cleaning, but this one has many more than the typical number of recesses and hidden surfaces that evade a casual wipe. If you insist on a coffee maker with built-in grinder, then buy something else. The only other such coffee maker that I have direct experience with is with the Capresso system, which is an excellent unit, though more expensive.

It makes excellent coffee if you use Eight O'clock Columbian roast coffee and brew a full pot every time. BUT...it's he!! to clean, and, if you wash it in the dishwasher, the plastic dries out and cracks. Even if you DON'T wash it in the dishwasher, the plastic breaks--little pieces. SO, too bad it's not made better. It's LOUD, but if you set it to brew coffee in the morning, it's kind of like an alarm clock!

I purchased my first 500 in complete faith of the Cuisinart brand. I have three other kitchen products by that company and they work great. I should have known there was a reason why there are more than 50 negative reviews of this coffee maker.

It is very poorly designed. I have had two go bad in less than three years - the length of the warranty. I will admit that Cuisinart has replaced the machine twice, but the last time was a real hassle.

It is obvious that they know they have a disfunctional product. The lady who answered at customer service asked numerous questions about how I was using the machine, in an overt attempt to place the blame for their poor product on my use habits. When that failed, she tried to tell me the reason why my machine was no longer completing a grind and brew cycle, while spewing most of the water out on the countertop and steaming up the front of the machine, was because the "cleaning cycle" was not being reset by me.

According to her, the coffee maker has a sensor in it that "knows" when I have decided to run a vinegar-water mixture through for decalcification and it is waiting for me to unplug the machine so it can "reset" its cycles. Give me a break. They have obviously given the cs folks a page of BS to read to those who call complaining about this particular device.

Don't bother spending your money on this badly designed hunk of junk. I will use the new one they sent me until it fails - I estimate 4 to 6 months, based on past experience - and then I'll trash it for a better machine.

I received this product as a gift for Christmas in 2003. I replaced the first unit in April of 2005. The grinder became difficult to remove and the coffee pot stopped percolating water. Cuisinart replaced the first unit, but I paid for shipping. In March of 2008 my second unit failed. There is a small leak in the plastic seam near the front of the pot. I have already purchased another coffee pot.

Grinding your beans before brewing will likely improve the taste of your coffee. I have even purchased this pot, or the stainless version, for friends and relatives as gifts. However, I would never purchase this product again.

If you have convinced yourself to spend this amount of money on a coffee pot, buy a conical burr grinder instead. The benefits of a conical burr grinder far out weigh the benefits of a blade grinder. The conical burr grinders cost a little more than this pot, but they are well worth it. After the burr grinder, get a cheaper pot or French press.

This pot is nice for getting a consistent flavor if you are making a full pot. Cleaning the pot EVERY TIME YOU USE IT is a nightmare. The grind is ok, but the steam from the pot goes into the bean reservoir and causes them to be wet and sticky making cleaning difficult. I got sick of cleaning the container every day and that is how I really discovered the benefits of a conical burr grinder, using this pot just to percolate water. After 2 failures, I found a cheaper pot.

I rarely take the time to write a bad review about a product, but this thing is just terrible.

First, I should note that I am a fan of super strong coffee, but I am also an extremely "make due" type of person too. I have not found a way to make coffee in this thing that I find acceptable.

If I use the darkest roast of beans from Starbucks with a third the amount of water the manual of this thing suggests, I will get coffee that I find passable. What an expensive way to make coffee!

I feel like it is a waste of money to use this thing, and I can't for the life of me figure out why it makes such weak coffee, but it sucks and I give up. I have started using my roommates french press to make coffee, since I threw away my old coffee maker (it cost about twenty bucks and lasted for several years).

I could live with the fact that it is terribly loud and that it is a pain to clean, but to go through all that and have sub-par coffee? No, thanks.

Did you know this coffee maker was manufactured 4 years ago, which as cuisinart has informed me they are no longer under warranty. It doesnt matter if you bought it 4 months ago as I did, and have problems, there is nothing they will do for you. And let me tell this I have contacted Cuisinart 4 times the first 2 months after I bought it, it has leaked water constantly out the bottom of the unit itself, they will do nothing, why because it was manufactured 4 years ago. I paid 100 for mine, the cheap 20 dollar makers, brew better coffee than this one, and last longer than 2 months. I gave it one star only because I had to.

This coffeemaker has a decibel level which seems to approach SST-level. We have a one story ranch house with the bedroom on the other end of the house from the kitchen. When I used this product, it woke my wife up when it was grinding the coffee. This was replacing a Melitta Mill and Brew which did not wake my wife up.

The other disappointment is the inability to adjust the coarseness of the grind. Thus, you need to vary the amount of coffee beans or water to adjust. This is not very efficient.

The Melitta let you adjust the grind level.

The Cuisinart is now on its way back to the seller.

Several of us have purchased this coffee grinder/brewer. Some prefer the carafe, but we like the hot plate with the pot. That is personal preference. Either way, the grinder/brewer has been wonderful and we have enjoyed the product and found no pitfalls thus far!

this product is the best coffee brewere/maker we have ever used it is easy to operate easy cleanup and the taste is excellent

06/04/08 updated ONE-STAR review: If I could change this review to make it a one-star, I would. We used this coffeemaker for five months and it recently went to the trash can. It spilled grounds all over the place, all of the time.

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Pros: Boyfriend (the coffee drinker of the house) seems happy with the quality of coffee brewed.

Cons: Makes a mess. Read other reviews.
Tough to clean. Read other reviews.
Grinder is abnormally loud...
I will expand on this one, because in the 15 reviews I scanned, no one mentioned the decibel level of the grinder.
I have been around coffee drinkers, with their coffee-grinders, all my life. And so I know that at least some aren't buzz-saw loud. My boyfriend gets up considerably earlier than I do, and as I lay in bed trying not to lose my dream, it inevitably morphs into an airplane or vacuuming scenario. As consciousness connects I realize that this coffeemaker (in the kitchen down a hallway from my room) sounds identical to a jet engine at take-off...
So now he doesn't use the grinder part of the machine in the early A.M.. Having to use his (much quieter) $3 thrift store grinder, then transfer grounds into this machine, makes the purchase of this expensive all-in-one unit pretty stupid.

We own 3 grind and brews and this is by far our least favorite. It is so much harder clean than the others (both Melita's). It has so much build up inside (which we can't get to) that is feels like gravel every time you open the filter basket. We brought the Cuisenart to the lake so we didn't have to use it as miuch. I would recommend the Melita grind and brew as it is less expensive, easier to clean and makes better coffee.

I LOVED the coffee from this coffee maker so much that I didn't even mind the fuss involved with cleaning all those parts. I even brushed off my concerns when it started acting "wonky" a months after we got it. If it didn't run properly, I assumed I forgot to turn on the timer. If it stopped halfway through brewing I thought maybe I didn't fill it properly. I kept making excuses for the erratic behavior until it abandoned me about 16 months after our love affair began. After the initial feeing of mourning, anger set in. There is no way a coffee maker that cost this much should die so soon! (over $100 on sale in 2004!) NO MORE over priced gadgets that are all flash and no substance. I went back to the store and bought the Bunn coffee maker that has been faithfully brewing my morning coffee for over two years without a hitch - and cost about the same!

Believe the bad reviews. In addition to being difficult to clean, the front door has popped open on several occasions while it was brewing. This caused a HUGE MESS all over my counter and floor, consisting of wet coffee grinds and hot water. Very frustrating. BUY SOMEONE ELSE'S COFFEEMAKER!!

We got this coffeemaker through a promotion. We love it. It took a while to figure out the correct amount of beans to get the best flavor. My advice is 1 scoop of beans per cup of water. If using preground coffee, I only use 1 scoop of coffee per 2 cups of water. I'm not fond of strong coffee. The charcoal filters are hard to find and very expensive through the Cuisinart website. My coffee tastes fine without the filter.

This is a great coffee maker. Best coffee I ever had using fresh coffee beans. Ground coffee is great too, but I prefer the fresh coffee beans. The ONLY problem I am having is with the grinder basket. The blade unit is very loose. It seems like when the water is pushed up to wash the coffee ground down into the filter basket, water is getting under the grinder blade unit, which is causing coffee to drip down against the back wall of craft unit. I called about this problem and was told to contact Dependable Resouces. They want the whole unit back because they don't sell parts. We are buying the same coffee maker again and ordering another grinder basket from Cuisinart Parts & Service. Now I can make Ice Coffee and Hot Coffee at the same time.

This was a Mother's Day gift from my daughter several years ago. I have to agree with other reviewers about the cleaning. Cleaning the five removeable parts (grinder and lid, basket, filter, and lid) is not really too bad as I usually only make one pot per day, in the morning. It's all the non-removeable parts that must be periodically cleaned that become a problem.

The basket pops out the front and if the groove and button latch that cause this to work don't get cleaned out after every few pots it will begin to stick. Either it won't open or it won't close. If it doesn't close properly then the basket pops out while brewing, and you get a real mess. Getting even a wet paper towel in there to clean it is not easy. I have wiped out what looks like caramelized coffee many times over the years I've had this. If it were possible to disassemble these parts and wash them in the sink things would be much better.

Last week while yet again trying to clean out the non-removeable parts as the basket cover was starting to stick again, the right top corner of the cover broke. This corner holds the basket in place and so is required. I have glued it back on, and the unit is still working, but that corner is not going to handle the stress of the latch and groove getting gummed up again so I'm not sure how long this will last.

I have ordered a refurbished 300 since it appears to have fewer interior moving parts. No doubt the grinder assembly will still need cleaning daily, but, as I said before, cleaning those parts was never a problem. I take them out and wash them in soapy water then let them air dry during the day. By evening, when I'm ready to set it up for the next morning, they are dry and ready to use.

I like the coffee it makes. I don't mind the grinder noise as I set it to go off at about the same time as my alarm. Hit the snooze on the alarm for ten minutes, and when I get up I have coffee. My only complaint is that as long as parts inside the unit get gummed up and need cleaning then it should have been designed such that those parts could be taken out for proper cleaning.

This coffee maker is a really great product to have if you like good coffee and are an everyday drinker. It saves a lot of time to have the grinder built in. To be able to leave it set to start grinding the next morning is awesome. It's extremely easy to clean and easy to use. I definitely recommend it for serious coffee drinkers.

This coffemaker has several nice features and looks nice on the counter but the inherent design is lacking. Rather than grinding and brewing in the same basket (like the the Melitta) the Cuisinart grinds the coffee and throws it into a separate basket. This results in some coffee remaining in the grinder and being wasted. It also makes it impossible to adjust the grind level so a lot of the beans fail to be ground fine enough. No matter how many beans I use, it is impossible to make a strong cup of coffee. Plus, each time you use the coffeemaker, there are at least five items to wash. Get a Melitta instead. It's cheaper, easier to clean and makes a superior cup of coffee.

Coffee maker well made and user friendly. Makes a pot of very good coffee fast.

This coffee maker is the best. Easy to clean, markings on the coffee pot make it easy to read how much coffee you will make.
Unit is loud but, only when ginding the coffee. Ground coffee that is exposed to oxygen loses it's flavor. If you want delicious coffee, fresh gound is the way to go.
I was nervous about the reuseable filter but it cleans easily every time. Plus I never have to buy filters, which saves waste and money. You can use paper filters if you want.
I have had it for nine months and I love it.

1. This pot makes a really great cup of coffee! I use 1 level Cuisinart scoop (a very small-size scoop) of beans per 2 cups of water on the carafe's marking line. It makes a very economical, rich, and delicious cup of java, every time!
2. Yes, the grinder sounds like a grinder, all right. It's a little louder than that of a separate grinder, but it only takes 15 seconds.
3. Clean-up is a zip--5 minutes, total--to hand wash, rinse, and dry the carafe and lid, the 3 filter basket parts, and the 2 grinder parts. I think of it as a meditative ritual, not quite as historic as preparing Japanese tea, but equally rewarding, in the end. ;^)

I hate this coffeemaker. I have never written a review before, but I hate it so much I have to spill. It is a major pain to clean (particularly the grinder) as everyone else says. not only does it have to be completely clean, it has to be completely dry or the grinds will coagulate on the lid of the grinder and will not go into the filter basket. It was such a pain to clean and use that I eventually bought a separate grinder to use instead.

Then approximately nine months after I bought the coffeemaker it started shutting down in the middle of the brewing cycle. If I banged the side hard enough and long enough it would start again. Less than one year after buying it, it stopped brewing completely. If I had the receipt I would send it back to the manufacturer. I am very annoyed because this was not a cheap coffeemaker, and I originally bought it because of the reputation of the Cuisinart brand. I am very fussy and quality and temperature of my coffee is very important to the success of my day, and my overall outlook on life!

So I gave up on the Cuisinart completely, and went out last night and bought a Black and Decker Cafe Noir for $16. Works great. Coffee is hot and well brewed. Don't buy this overpriced, cheaply made Cuisinart piece of junk, it is not worth the money they want for it.

I purchased a Cuisinart DGB-500 in black for our vacation house ... it replaced a Capresso grind & brew that had literally fallen apart after two summers of use (really infuriating because the machine cost $200.00+) .... I like Cusinart products and thought for $100.00 I would be able to get a decent cup of coffee ! The machine exceeded my expectations .... the coffee is great, the machine is easy to use and easy to clean. I decided to replace my other Capresso machine (in my year 'round house) shortly after that when the LED display stopped working. When I couldn't find a white one in the store, I looked on Amazon and there it was ! So now I own two Cuisinart coffee machines and love them both. I would never again waste the money on a Capresso !

I think the idea is novel, but the cleanup is ridiculous! It sends the water right through the coffee grinder making a huge mess. Also, in white, it gets filthy on the outside as well. I bought this for my husband as a father's day present, and this year I bought him a machine we'll actually enjoy.

Like a Jaguar, this coffee machine is an overpriced pretentious pile of junk. The bits of metal, glass, and plastic that were used to manufacture it were worth more as base commodities. If you are lucky it might do the job it portends to do, but will do it poorly. If you buy one the probability you will have some kind of problem is very high. In the end you would be better served by buying a Hyundai.

Lets begin with the grinder mechanism. It does a very poor job at grinding the beans. You will find bits of beans that were never fully ground stuck in the top. After its done, steam rises to the top of the assembly and will make a mess of the powdered beans that never made it down to the hopper. You will have to use about 33% more beans with this device for a given strength of coffee given that the grind is so coarse and the amount of grind that never makes it down the hopper.

The entire complicated machine and assembly has to be thoroughly disassembled and cleaned after every use or you will begin to notice off flavors in the coffee. Water also seeps underneath the grinder piece and you have to clean under there too. There is a metal plate with holes in it at the bottom of the hopper which makes the cleaning difficult.

Also, the spring loaded door that holds the filter basket after some time will begin to refuse to snap into place.

Today I just broke the carafe after two years of owning this pile. My machine is Grind & Brew model no. DCC-490SA, and I can't even find a replacement carafe anywhere. Such support! I guess nobody wants to keep this thing around long enough to replace the carafe!

I've been meaning to write a review on this for over a year. My husband bought this for me, which I appreciate. However, the grinder is louder than a plane! The Capresso is much quieter than this thing. Mine is a couple years old now, so maybe they've improved it?

I agree with much of Neurotome's review. When Cuisinart tells you to rinse and dry each component they MEAN it. If you do not, the condensation builds up in the grinder and it is full of water. You will not be able to make coffee the next day without drying it out, including the chute, because the grinds will stick. If you just choose to not use the loud grinder for a while, which I did, the moisture still builds up and you will get mildew. I learned this the hard way. I did not have any problem with the plastic parts warping, though, because I would never put plastic components in a dishwasher, since that would expose them to very high temperatures.
Seriously, unless you are willing to remember that once the coffee is done to: open the top, take out the grinder, pull the lid off the grinder, rinse both, let them air dry, open the basket, empty it, dry basket and its lid...don't get this thing. You will have a loud mildew-fest.

I'm giving this 4 stars cuz I just barely used it.

I JUST unpacked my machine and am sipping on my first cup of coffee. I didn't use whole beans, put in ground. I was kinda sadened to get my package in the mail because of all the bad reviews, so I had a preconcieved notion that I had wasted my money based on the negative aspects everyone pointed out. I read the reviews AFTER I bought the thing (oops!). I don't know if the grinding feature will be horrible just yet, but I shall see. I did have the grinding feature on for a second and YES IT IS LOUD LOUD LOUD!!!! Even if I wake the dead, my coffee priorities come first! ;) I can couple its uses- coffee maker & alarm clock. Isn't that when we need to wake up anyways?

I'm currently sipping my first cup of coffee and I am suprised what a difference the filter makes!! It is a really good cup of coffee compared to my Krups coffee maker that comes without a water filter. I just used the remaining folgers I had in the fridge. Between my Krups unit and this unit, I can definitely TASTE the difference by using the same cheap coffee in both. Bitter in one, smooth in the other.

I can see how some people may be disatisfied with this unit because of the effort in figuring out the grind/water proportions to get their desired taste, but I did my first cup with the 1-4 selection (4 cups) using their provided coffee scoop and it was just fine for me. In fact, a really good cup of coffee!

I'll have to see if the grind feature is as horrible as everyone says it is. I did buy this unit for the "grind and brew," hype, but I'm not a coffee nazi and can live with using preground because the taste is noticeably good.

As for the clean up, I'm the type of person who rinses off the non-vital parts and washes the necessary parts. So for this machine I'd rinse out the basket, lid, grinder with lid, and wash the filter & coffee pot w/lid. Takes 1 minute. I don't know why everyone is so hung up on the clean up. If you're the type of person who needs to wash everything spotless, then I can see why there may appear to be so much to clean, but if you're a quick clean type of person, I don't think its that bad.

I have owned two of these things [I know, my fault, but I thought the first one was a fluke basied on Cuisinart's reutation]. The first one laste a year befre the grinder just quit working over night. I had to go 20 miles to their recommended repair people to fnd out thaat Cuisinart doesn't make parts for this, so it was landfill. Bought another because I liked the concept o 2-in-1. The ground coffee often doesn't make it into the basket. The grinder NEVER gets all of the coffee out, so I have to use extra. It has to be cleaned every other day to function at all (I don't have to do that with my regular grinder). And the button that lets you pull out the pot in the middle of brewing often sticks open and the coffee goeas all ovver the countertop. Never again! And I'm questioning ever buying any other Cuisinart product.

I have owned this coffee pot for a few years now. Overall it is good. The biggest problem is that the grinding is so loud, that it will wake the dead. If you live in an apartment, condo or townhome, you probably do not want to get one of these. It will wake up your neighbor.

I bought one of these a year or so ago, and now it sits idle on my counter. It started producing sub-par results after about 9 months.
I have tried many of the grind n' brew products, and none have lived up to the hype or price.

After spending a week in London, I found that most coffee shops use a Bialetti type brewing system. I bought one, and my morning coffee is strong, flavorful, and brewed right... with little or no clean up or prep.

Anyone want to buy my used Cuisinart?

The Grind-n-Brew is for you if you literally have nothing else to do but make coffee, and you enjoy getting dirty. If you are a negative person, and you need something to get you off on the right foot, so you can feel miserable all day, the Grind-n-Brew is for you. If it were not for the fact that it is cheaply made and over-priced, it would be a fine coffee maker for people who do not mind taking 20 minutes out of their morning to clean (that's right you have to dismantle it and clean it EVERY time you use it) their coffee maker BEFORE getting a cup of coffee. However, on top of being poorly engineered, it is poorly built. Maybe that's an up-side. I can't wait for mine to break. It comes dangerously close everytime I need to interact with it. Oh, and as an aside, it makes crappy coffee. The place you put the beans is so small, you'd better plan on using espresso roast if you want to taste coffee.

I've had the grind and brew for almost 3 years, and have never had any problems. It makes great coffee, it's not that hard to clean, and it has adjustable settings for temperature and coffee strength, so if you fiddle with it a little, you can get it to make exactly the coffee you want.

I gave one to my cousin a couple of years ago as well, and it turned him into a total coffee addict.

Grind and Brew maker, very disappointing! Coffee NEVER hot enough. Too many grounds lost in sink drain during clean up. Cleaning up this pot is tedious.Too many parts.

With the exception of cleaning this appliance, it's a fantastic product! What appliance don't you have to clean! The coffee is absolutely delicious! I would definitely recommend this product. It's great to have a grind and brew combo!!!!!

After 3 months of use, the basket does not close properly. I take careful precaution to make sure the basket and caraffe are properly in place but three times I have woken up to coffee and grinds spilled out all over my kitchen counter and floor because sometime during the grinding session, the basket was wiggled loose and opened.

Not only that, it is a mess to clean, as you have to take off about 6 parts and clean them extensively, especially the grinder (even when you don't use it, you have to clean it because it fills up with condensation).

Never again will I buy a grinder/coffee maker. It's better to grind your own and just fill it with grounds. Trust me, it's not worth the dissappointment and frustration of waking up with a huge mess to clean and no coffee to drink.