Cuisinart PerfecTemp 12-Cup Programmable Thermal Coffeemaker

Update: The first one I bought lasted about 19 months. The price has increased almost 50% since I bought that one. When it died I tried a few other models that are less expensive. After a day or a week I returned those and ultimately bought another one of these. I’ve had my second one about 11 months now. I will likely never buy anything else. Best coffee I’ve ever been able to make at home. It used to be if you bought something from Cuisinart you could expect to still have it in five years. I wish that was still the case, but if I’m being completely honest I would buy a new one of these every year if I have to. I looked at every model of thermal carafe coffee maker and read a lot of reviews before choosing this one. This is, by far, the hottest coffee I have ever gotten from a home coffee maker. For me, this is a huge selling point. The thermal carafe keeps the coffee hot enough to enjoy without microwaving for at least 4 hours. Even after 6 or 7 hours the coffee is still warm and tasty. Because it does not use a warming plate to keep the coffee hot, the last drop of coffee tastes as good as the first. I will never go back to a glass caraf. I like the flavor of my coffee better than I have with any other coffee maker I've ever owned. The carafe is large. It holds almost 2 liters if you fill it to the 12 cup mark. The pour spout is designed specifically so It doesn't dribble all over the place when I pour. It makes the coffee pretty quickly. Speed depends on the settings you use and, obviously, how much coffee you're making. A full pot without the bold setting is read in about 11 or 12 minutes. It is completely programmable so you can setup the coffee to be ready at whatever time you'd like. It also has a "1-4" button for if you're making 1 to 4 cups of coffee, and a "bold" button if you like stronger coffee. Those two buttons have a similar function. They slow the water flow over the grinds so you get the full flavor in a small pot, or a bolder flavor in any pot. A note about pouring because I've seen some reviewers that didn't like how the pot pours. I don't use the pot to fill the reservoir with water. I did that the first time and it pours way too slowly. That was aggravating. That may be why others complained. So I use a plastic pitcher for filling the reservoir. It appears that the top to the pot is designed to control the flow rate when pouring. I see this as a positive. When I'm filling my coffee cup I'm never wishing it would pour faster. I'm just glad coffee isn't getting all over the counter, the floor, or me. I noticed some reviewers said the buttons stopped working after a few months or a year. I will say that it doesn't take much force at all to get a response from whatever button you push. Because of those reviews I make a point of not using much force when I hit "Brew" or whatever button I'm pushing. If you poke them hard over and over, I could see them not working anymore after awhile. This coffee maker looks nice in my kitchen. If you have stainless steel appliances it will match. It takes up a very reasonable amount of space on my counter. The measurement lines are on the right side in the middle; however you can pour the water into the reservoir from either side. The reservoir is the whole back of the unit and is accepts water on either the left of the right side. The filter basket is cone shaped. It comes with a gold screen reusable filter insert. I still use a paper filter in that as well because I don't like any sediment in my coffee. The paper cone filters cost a little more than standard filters but not so much that it is deal-breaker for me. A few extra dollars every 3 or 4 months. You have the option to use a charcoal water filter, but if you never use one it doesn't change how to unit performs. The charcoal filter's purpose is to filter things like the chloriine flavor out of your water. I use it. Some reviewers complained that the instructions are lacking in detail. Maybe the manufacturer has updated them since then. For the most part the setup is all pretty logical. The one thing I found difficult to figure out and not explained in the instructions was getting the charcoal filter into the filter holder. Turns out it is apparently so easy it looks hard. I included a few pics. On the stem portion of the charcoal filter holder is the word "open" with an arrow pointing downward. Right below that on the base is a little notch that sticks up. Just gently pull on the little notch and the front of the base flips open. The back left corner of the water reservoir has a slot cutout in the bottom to hold the base of the charcoal water filter setup. You just gently set it down in there. You don't have to force it. And it stays in place. The last pic is of the cutout in the bottom of the water reservoir. Other than that setup was really easy. The filter basket only fits in one way. It's a no-brainer to see where the water goes. The instructions tell you how to use all the buttons and features. There is a ready tone that beeps 5 times when the coffee is finished brewing. It's pretty loud. If you don't like that, you just press the "Tone" button near the clock face and the ready tone is off. It comes with one charcoal water filter, several cone shaped paper coffee filters, and a coffee scoop. Amazon sells the charcoal filters and the paper cone filters for very reasonable prices. I've been using this coffee maker since the day after Christmas 2019 and I have no complaints. I will update this review if anything changes. I've had a Bunn, and several models of Hamilton Beach over the course of 20 years. So far, this is the best coffee maker I've ever owned.

I almost didn’t purchase this coffee maker because of the negative reviews. However, we decided to buy it anyway, and we have no complaints so far. That said, here are a few things to consider: • The carafe pours a little slower than a typical coffee pot. • You’ll need to remove the lid to get the last couple of ounces of coffee out. • You’ll need to use a separate pitcher to pour water into the reservoir. • The warming plate turns off once brewing is complete, but the coffee stays hot to warm for about two hours. If any of these points are dealbreakers, you may want to look elsewhere. But if they’re nonissues—as they are for us—this is a great coffee maker that’s easy to use and has a cleaner, more modern look than a traditional glass pot.

Cuisinart DCC - 3400 Review I've had this coffee maker since October 2019, just a bit over five years. Generally, I am pleased with the quality of coffee it produces. The shower head water dispersal allows the cone filter to reduce channeling so one is more likely to have an even extraction from the coffee grounds than a single drip source. This sort of showerhead dispersal method has become almost an industry standard over the past decade or more, so I'm uncertain if even mentioning it is worthwhile in a review. My apologies to those who have read this and wondered why I even bothered. The coffee maker is dead easy to use, and it takes about 15 minutes to produce a full pot of coffee when using the "bold" setting. The actual coffee produced is not as hot out of the machine than I get with a siphon maker but is still within optimal temperature ranges. While the coffee maker is plastic, it basically just sits on the countertop and has proven quite durable. In the best of all possible worlds, I'd prefer to have the gauge showing the water level on the front of the machine rather than its side, but with enough counter space it is not a major problem to either rotate the coffeemaker or arrange the machine's location so that both sides are visible to the user. The only downside with the coffee maker is the thermal carafe. While I find the thermal carafe manages to retain the coffee temp pretty well, that positive involves compromises in terms of ease of use. I like that actual interior of the carafe is steel (stainless steel, I assume) as it is durable and seemingly impossible to break as compared to some carafes which might use a glass interior. The carafe's lid uses an interrupted screw design which allows the lid to be removed with only a 45-degree twist of the lid. A small feature, but something which allows the carafe to have a secure lid while in use and help retain the temp of the coffee. In fact, the carafe's design seems to prioritize heat retention above all else. There is a lip around the top of the carafe's interior which limit's heat loss but makes one pour the coffee slowly and it is necessary to remove the lid for the final mug of coffee in the pot to avoid dribbling coffee from just outside the spout. Cleaning the pot would require the hand of a preschooler as the top opening seems to well under three inches in diameter. I try to make do by using a scrub brush with a long handle, but it is less than satisfactory. On the other hand, I make a pot of coffee for my own consumption, as I live alone. For me, the heat retention of the carafe outweighs the difficulty in cleaning the carafe. Others may have different priorities.

My original review along with info I later added is below. Well the coffee pot decided not to brew the entire amount of water placed in the reservoir. Sometimes it would do 3/4 of the amount and other times less than half. The last day I had it I had to hit the brew button 4-5 times just to get the entire amount of water I placed in it to finally brew. I had cleaned the unit about 10 days prior to this and it was working fine at the time. Is this a result of the really hard water in my area or just a defective product? I don't know and frankly don't care. I bought a cheapo Mr. Coffee for 25.00 and can buy 4 more for the price of the Cuisinart. The Mr. Coffee brews a decent pot of coffee. I would say it is 90% as good as the Cuisinart for 1/5th the price which I can live with. I decided not to attempt a warranty claim as I just did not feel like jumping through the typical warranty hoops. Not to mention I would still need to buy a temporary coffee pot anyway. I still think it brewed a great cup of coffee but there were just too many issues with the unit to consider keeping it. First of all let me be clear that I really like the coffee this makes and my comments have zero to do with coffee flavor or ease of brewing. However there are some issues that I think need to be resolved regarding the unit and the carafe. The carafe does its job keeping coffee warm/hot. Where if fails is in how it manages to splatter coffee both in the front and behind your coffee cup when the carafe is at 50% or less capacity. It might do it when full but I only make a half a pot at a time. For those of you that have small child sized hands you should have no issues cleaning the inside of the carafe. Everyone else is out of luck if you really want to clean everywhere in the carafe. After you brew a pot and then open the lid where you add the water/coffee condensation WILL drip down the back of the unit and then onto the counter and underneath the unit as well. This obviously happens after you brew a pot. It also drips over the electrical cord where it goes inside the unit.

UPDATE 3 September 2017 Nothing out of the ordinary to report. It's been 12 weeks (since 11 June) since the DCC-3400 was delivered to my house. During that period the coffee maker has worked flawlessly. I've neither seen nor experienced any of the early onset problems I've read elsewhere. I will say this; I only brew 10 cups of coffee at a time, since that's what I did for decades (with and without Cuisinart), and I just can't seem to break the muscle habit of "ten scoops in the morning." But I brew every single morning, and when I'm on travel, my wife brews just like I do. Some habits I believe help: - I clean the basket every morning, and don't let the grounds sit, even for a day. - I wash out the pot at the same time I clean the basket; I don't let any coffee sit in the pot. - I clean off the outside of the pot and brewer with a damp cloth at least once a week. - I use pre-filtered water that flows through my refrigerator. And that's about it. It works excellently and looks as good as it works, and it delivers excellently brewed coffee. It's still a five star purchase. ORIGINAL REVIEW I purchased this coffee maker to replace an older Cuisinart DCC-1150. The 1150 had been purchased back in 2007, nearly ten years ago. It had developed a very small intermittent leak in the base of the unit. It still made good tasting coffee, and I was hesitant to replace it, but I went on ahead and purchased the 3400. Here's the key points on this purchase: 1) I purchased this via Amazon Prime, and took advantage of their one-day free delivery offer. The 3400 was ordered early Saturday and arrived around 6pm the next day on a Sunday. 2) I "brewed" two full pots of water only through the 3400. The next morning, on the first official pot, the coffee tasted great. 3) I brew New England Coffee purchased at a local Publix. 4) I use filtered water filtered by my Kenmore refrigerator which is what I've always used with the older 1150. 5) This review is on the brand-new unit after the second pot of coffee. The 3400 is more like a refined 1150. It's the same general size and shape, with the 3400 slightly larger to brew 12 cups vs. the 1150's 10 cup capacity. The 3400 has a veneer of stainless steel vs the black plastic exterior of the 1150. The 3400 comes with a stainless steel caraf, just like the 1150 did, but big enough to hold 12 cups. It brews coffee as fast as the 1150 did. What's interesting is how the 3400 has the same identical coffee basket and upper assembly that the 1150 has. Big flat buttons on the 3400 replace the smaller buttons and a knob found on the 1150. Because the 3400 is more refined, pouring water into the coffee maker is actually easier with the 3400. The opening in the back is slightly larger. I can easily pour water into it without spilling any using a standard Rubbermaid two quart pitcher. When it's nearly finished brewing a small amount of steam comes out of the back vent holes, just like it did with the 1150. When the audible finished alarm goes off, the 3400 sounds just like the 1150. The 3400 is an excellent coffee maker. It's well built, better even than the older 1150 (which was itself built quite well). It produces excellent coffee without the drama I've read about in some of the other reviews on this product. I highly recommend the DCC-3400.

This coffee maker makes a large pot of delicious coffee in 10 minutes. The coffee is perfectly hot - piping but not scalding. I wanted a model with an insulated carafe rather than a glass carafe that sits on a hot burner for potentially hours, slowly cooking the coffee and changing its flavor. With the included insulated carafe, you can pour a cup four hours after brewing and it's exactly as flavorful and nearly as hot as it was when it was brewed. After 6 hours, it's still good, not quite as hot but very warm. I consider this very good performance for the thermal carafe. But here's the problem. The carafe's opening is very small, which causes two problems. First, it's nearly impossible to pour the last two cups of coffee out of the carafe. You have to hold the carafe almost perfectly upside down to pour the last cup out, and it's hard to control which way it comes out this way. It is super annoying. More annoying is that it's hard to wash the inside of the carafe unless you have small hands. I'm a guy with average size hands, and it's challenging and uncomfortable for me to get in there with a soapy sponge for cleaning. If you get this coffeemaker and thermal carafe, get a dish sponge on a 6" handle so you don't have to stick your hand inside the carafe. Before buying this coffee maker, I read reviews from others here who have similar complaints about the carafe. It was hard for me to understand how annoying it is based on the reviews. Well, they are right, and I agree. It's more annoying than I imagined. To the point where I consider buying a similar type of coffee maker from a different manufacture with a smarter-designed thermal carafe.

I rarely rate something with 5 stars, but this coffee maker is a game changer for me. I had bought another coffee maker last November, and it was causing me to pull out my hair (don't have enough as it is). My positives: It sends a loud tone when completed so you don't have to keep going over and looking at it. It can be disabled, but I like it. It was extremely easy to set up and get started making coffee. The carafe is great, no buttons to push to allow pouring, just pour a cup and go. I also tested the heat retention of the carafe, and I was amazed at the results. I made a pot after setting it up and drank a couple of cups to verify very good coffee. I let it sit overnight, and the coffee in a half-filled pot was still hot (not as hot as the first cup, but still hot enough to drink! Fantastic! Only two small complaints. 1) the cord is obscenely short. The manual explains this as a safety issue, but I think that is marketing BS, copper is expensive, and they are trying to hold down costs. 2) It is a little difficult to fill the reservoir, especially when you are trying to watch the gauge and not exceed the max fill line. All spills are contained as the water goes right into the coffee above the carafe. So, you start off with a little cold coffee. I will get over it.

I have to modify my review after using this coffee maker for about 10 months. While it does reach the proper water temperature, I am very dissatisfied with the carafe. I mentioned these things in my original review, but the're just more important now: The lid restricts the flow of coffee out too much; its very slow to get my mug filled, and this also has the effect of cooling the coffee. The lid is also very poorly designed, making the coffee go through a chamber that does not allow one access to clean it. I have to run hot water through each opening for several minutes, or submerge it and then shake it out. So I take off the lid before pouring, which is itself too difficult for something one does every day. Finally, the interior of the carafe is weirdly shaped and not designed to easily pour out the contents. One has to tip the carafe completely upside-down to get the last coffee out, which means one cannot see where the coffee is pouring unless one bends one's head down to look under it while pouring. And, as mentioned before, the wire mesh filter basket lets too many grounds through. All these things might seem minor, but when you have to go through this every damn morning, it becomes annoying. I don't have a replacement yet, but I won't recommend this one anymore. **************************************************************************************** This coffee make brings the water temperature up to the 195 degree minimum for a properly brewed cup of coffee. I can absolutely taste the difference, and I use less coffee and better a better cup. Water temperature is the crucial factor in whether or not a coffee maker is even at least good, because without the proper water temperature, what good is it? Regarding some of the complaints reported by the one-star reviews: I only am experiencing one: The carafe has a design flaw in that the inside top is basically flat around the rim, and I have to take the lid off and completely invert it to get all the coffee out, and even then its not 100%. The lid of the carafe is also, frankly terrible. Too many crevices & a flapping valve of some kind will all just get gunked up with dried coffee in time and that will affect the taste. The carafe should have as few nooks and crannies as possible and every part of the pathway should be easy to clean. This one I have to soak under water to make sure no coffee deposits are solidifying. One other complaint: the wire mesh coffee basket works, but it is letting a bit too many fine grounds into the pot. They are not the high-end mesh filters you can buy elsewhere, but it works. If it bothers you, you can use number 4 paper filters instead. I did that for a few months to use up my supply. As for the other complains about water dripping out of the back, too much steam escaping or flooding, I can say after five months of use that nothing like this has happened to me. These sound like genuine defects, and when you consider that EVERYTHING you buy on Amazon was built in China, a high number of defects in any product is the unfortunate reality for consumers today. I strongly recommend exercising your right to return a defective product and not pay any shipping charge for doing so. For me, the water temperature is such an important factor that it overrides the other issues, and I am happy with my semi-budget model. I wish I knew what the "Bold" button does, though. I can't taste any difference when I use it but it gives me tremendous FOMO so I always use it anyway.