I bought the unit because I liked the idea of setting the timer for the morning and waking up to fresh ground coffee. Unfortunately the unit is so loud we can only use it during the daytime. I'm on my third unit because the grinder keeps failing. Having said that I believe that it may have something to do with my wife not locking down the hopper, because every time it has failed the hopper was not locked down. Regardless the last machine also wouldn't sense that the basket swing door was in place so the machine would beep and you would have to wiggle it around a few times before it would brew. The lid on the coffee pot is quite difficult to take off and put back on properly, although I can do it my wife has difficulties. The design of the pot makes it difficult to get all the fluid out with the lid off and almost impossible to get it all out with the lid on, hence rinsing it requires several times, and you invariably end up with a little water in the bottom. Filling the unit with water is difficult because the fill door flips upwards and back so you have to fill it from the left or right side, the sight line to tell you how much water is in it is on the right, but if you try to fill it from the right the way the human body works it is very uncomfortable to see the sight line at the same time, and because if you use their pot to fill from the left because of the design of the spout if the lid is not on it spills quite a bit because you can't really monitor it well, and the opening is quite small to pour it in. In conclusion, I get up at 5 am wrap the towel around my trusty old Braun grinder so as not to wake anyone up, fill the cuisinart from the left with the tea kettle, wrestle the top off the the pot rinse several times, fiddle with basket till it stops beeping, and finally get some stinkin coffee. The only thing I like about the unit is it has a very light beep that I can hear from my computer when the coffee is ready.
Buying Experience
Sears rocks. They always let me return the piece of crap no problem.
