Cuisinart DGB-500 12-Cup Coffee Maker

Pros: None that I can think of except its compact size?
Cons: Not worth the effort .... not exactly exciting fresh coffee either.

Excited when my son presented me with this Coffee Maker last Christmas.

So far, gunk everywhere!

And NOW the grinder is stuck tight!

NO help anywhere that I can find from Cuisinart.

Takes all the fun out of coffee.

Seven Month life-span for the $$ has me thinking twice before making any other "Cuisinart" purchases!

Pros: Nice looks
Cons: Bad coffee, hard to clean.

Just add beans and program the start time, what a great idea! BUT, wait 'till you have to clean the thing. As another feature it only grinds the coffee one way (medium coarse) and the hopper for the beans is undersized for the strong stuff I want.

Pros: None
Cons: To many to mention in 15 words or less

This is the second Cuisinart Grind and Brew coffee maker I have purchased, I like to concept of grinding and brewing, the first one quit, so I tried the new model, what a mess it is, it leaks, I can't find the filter in my local store so have to find a mail order house that I can order from. It is messy and hard to clean. I have had this one for just a few months and I am shopping for a new one, NO MORE CUISINART coffee makers for me!

Pros: The coffee tastes ok, and there's a setting for extra hot.
Cons: THe cleanup, the mess, the hassle.

Our old grind and brew capresso finally died, and we went ISO a new one. My sister owns the Cuisinart, which seemed to make nice coffee. Only I didn't realize it until after we bought it how much maintenance it takes.
Very poorly designed--the moisture condenses on the top where he beans go, it gets gooey and runny with coffee "syrup", it has to be cleaned constantly, and makes a mess. There's already some rusting from all the constant moisture.
We stopped using the grind feature (one of the reasons we got it in the first place!) because it was such a hassle, and my husband just drinks tea in the morning. It's also noisy.

Pros: It makes coffee.
Cons: It is poorly thought out and requires a ton of effort to clean.

Because of a very glaring design flaw, steam rises through the machine and into the grind mill, turning coffee grinds into a pasty mess inside the mill and requiring a difficult cleaning each time- by difficult I mean you need to clean around tiny nooks and crannies where the only way to reach is by wadding up a sponge and cramming it inside, or else by using some sort of specialized cleaning brush...

I don't know about you but when I first get up in the morning and make coffee... the last thing I want to do is spend 5+ messy minutes cleaning the coffee maker first. I would definitely not recommend this item.

Pros: It made coffee when it wasn't broken.
Cons: It stayed broken.

I wasted nearly $100. on this stupid piece of junk. It broke 6 times with normal use, 1 pot/day. I sent it back, paid the expensive postage to send it, got a new "refurbished" replacement coffee maker in return that would break too. When the warranty ran out I threw it in the garbage. I previously trusted Cuisinart but not any more.

Pros: Great idea for a coffee maker
Cons: Needs a LOT of maintenance.

Great design for a coffeemaker, but after a few month it broke. The grinder motor failed. Cuisinart replaced it. Used the new one - it failed after about 2 months. Got another from Cuisinart - it failed too.

This went on for 3 years and seven coffeemakers. I asked the service reps why this is happening, but all they could do was send me new machines. They even upgraded me to the model 700 - but had the same problem - the grinder motor eventually fails to work.

A salesman at Williams Sanoma had a suggestions: He said that the coffee beans I use are very oily and are causing the grinder motors to seize up. He suggested running bread crumbs through the machine twice a weak, to absorb the oils and prevent them from gumming up the works. I tried his suggestion and low and behold - it worked.

One would think that the service reps at Cuisinart would know something about this issue - or put it in their manual.

It's a messy hassle, but I've learned that if I run bread crumbs through the machine about twice a week, the coffeemaker actually does work.

Pros: Looks nice
Cons: Doesn't work, hard to clean, expensive, poor quality

I have had my machine about a year. I loved it for the first three months then water and sometimes coffee sludge started leaking from the bottom. I wish I had brought it back!!! I thought it was something I was doing but the same thing happened when anybody in the household made coffee. I put a dish towel underneath and thought Ill have to live with it, it was to late to bring back. After that at random times during brewing cycle the compartment where the water and coffee grinds meet would pop open. What a mess! It was so lovely to wake up to coffee everywhere but in the pot. Now we would have to be there when the coffee pot brewed and be quick on our feet so when it decided to pop open we could avert a mess. Today I am researching info on a new coffee maker. This one is in the trash. Also I tried to get through to the company to no avail.

Pros: Convenient for brewing coffee.
Cons: Overall a disaster. A lot of clean up work after coffee is brewed.

My wife and I bought this and have trouble from the start. Nice looking but makes inconsistent coffee. Clean up was a constant problem with coffee grinds and coffee backing up into the grinder. Cleanup was difficult. It finally stopped working completely after a year. Out it goes!

Pros: It looks cool.
Cons: Don't buy it if you like coffee.

If you like Coffee that you can see through the Cuisinart Grind and Brew is the just the thing for you. You can get a decent pot of coffee out of the thing with if you brew only 6 cups of coffee or if you forget about the auto grind feature and just fill it up with ground coffee yourself.I have used high quality whole beans from Starbucks as well as Green Mountain Roasters ... the problem is not the beans.

The hopper capacity for the beans is woefully inadequate. Call Cuisinart customer service and be placed on hold for 5 minutes listening to recorded messages about how "your call is very important" ... then be amazed when the message says "we are sorry but at this time we recommend that you call back or leave a message" ... this will happen every time you call ... after you leave a message don't hold your breath for a return call ... if you try to stay on hold you will be disconnected.

Buy yourself a cheap coffee pot with a timer and grind your own beans ... the Cuisinart "grind and brew" DGB 500R is a flop.

Pros: None
Cons: Expensive; no temp adjustment; drips!

This is one of the worst coffee makers on the market. It is missing some very important features for coffee drinkers. There is no temperature adjustment. There is no way to tell how much water is in the machine when the lid is closed. And finally, the machine drips profusely when the pot of coffee is removed even when the brewing cycle is supposed to be complete. Worst investment!

Pros: Looks Nice
Cons: Doesn't make a good cup of coffee.

I bought this for my husband for Christmas. Obviously, I should have read the reviews here first. Bought it primarily because it had a 1-4 cup option, which it turns out, is really pointless because it makes a bad cup of coffee, whether it's made for 1 or 10.

The water drives up to where the grinder is, resulting in the need to thoroughly clean this thing after each use. My husband is back to his tiny Capresso which has none of the bells and whistles this one does - but it does make a good cup of coffee.

Pros: It brews coffee.
Cons: Too many parts. Difficult to clean. Loud.

I purchased this machine because I bring in coffee for my officemates once a month. I thought it would be a good size coffeemaker that had the options that I wanted, mainly the grinder and programmable options. Now I'm wondering if my officemates were worth this hassle!

As just a plain ol' coffeemaker it's fine. But after you make your first pot you'll realize the effort you have to put into this machine. After you brew a pot, if you want to immediately make another you have to clean no fewer than 7 parts! One of these parts almost immediately started leaking, and it's extremely difficult to clean out where it leaks.

If you use the programmable feature, be sure to be out of the room when the grinder goes off. On more than one occasion it has made me jump almost out of my shoes when it started up. It's very loud. If you don't have an alarm clock, you won't need one with this machine.

Since coffee can splatter and spill, black is the color to get. I can't imagine how dingy the white one would be.

Pros: Freshly ground coffee every morning. Keeps coffee hot.
Cons: Too many parts, too hard to clean, too noisy.

We bought this model to replace a KitchenAid coffee maker which was much superior quality. Not worth the effort to clean all those parts everyday! Can't wait for this one to break so I can buy another KitchenAid.

Pros: Great way to make fresh ground coffee.
Cons: To much maintenance.

We bought this coffee maker to have fresh ground coffee in the AM. It works well in the brewing of the coffee but the noise level is a bit much. There also could have been a clear water level window as well as a vapor barrier on the water tank. I think that it is the water vapors and condensate in the grinder that make a sticky slurry that renders it almost useless after several brews. It requires a total dismanteling of the basket door assembly when the door starts to stick shut and is hard to close. Several times we thought the door was shut but it flew open several seconds after the grinding started and threw coffee grounds out. This was not shown in the instructions since it must not have been seen as an issue. Cuisinart must have only brewed coffee with it one time in testing. It does have it's good points and I hope that Cuisinart will produce a better unit some day. This one is not it.