Excellent upgrade for the Grind & Brew. The grinder holds 1/2 lb of beans and will only grind the amount needed for up to 12 cups. The grinder is a little quieter than the 600 series but it still will be an alarm clock for you in the am.
Negative Product Points
Thermal pot pours very slow. Coffee is not immediately hot on first pour. Sticker says to rinse pot in hot water prior to use but if you program your maker thats not going to work. The burner heats the thermos for a few minutes so possibly when we use the auto program feature the first cup of "luke warm" coffee would disappear.
Detailed Commentary
We have used the 600 series grind & brew for several years. To solve the problems with clean up I just got another grinder basket and alternated- used our hand held sink faucet to quickly rinse out the grinder section each am. However now that I have the 900 series I will never go back!
At this time there are not many reviews for the 900 series. I was very pleased with the set up of this newly designed coffee maker. The storage bin for the beans holds more than will be used for one pot (no stuffing all the beans you can into the little grinder basket like the 600 series). You can set the level of the grinder to low, med or strong - we like strong coffee so ours is set at strong and for 12 cups of coffee while we use only 10 cups of water. So we are cheating to get the best brew possible for our tastes and we have not noticed any bitterness by going with the strong setting. I think you would have to get into some higher $$ coffee makers to get the same quality of coffee that comes by following this process.
The best part is the clean up process is Soooo Easy. I've only been using this maker for a few weeks so if that changes I'll re-post later. We will start using auto program now that we have tested it for a few weeks.
Buying Experience
We used the 20% off coupon at Bed Bath & Beyond. The coffee maker retails for $200.
