Cuisinart DCC-T20 14-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker Touchscreen, Black

Impressive coffee maker! And it’s attractive, minimalistic, and designed well! Coffee tastes great; way better tasting than what came out of my very dependable, but eventually dying of old age, Hamilton Beach. The machine is easy to set up, program, add water, add and empty grounds, and clean. Paper filters aren’t needed and won’t be polluting the planet. The coffee is perfectly hot at the original temp setting and will stay hot for 2-3 hours, depending on the chosen burner on/off time. The coffee temp can be increased with a different set up. I’ve never had a problem or errors with the machine in the 7 months that I’ve used it 3-4x/wk. No overflows; which, I would guess resulted from user error. Based on how we insert into the maker the two coffee ground holders, it’s possible to insert one or the other pieces out of alignment. It doesn’t feel like a design defect, though. These two pieces are cone shaped, like a cone coffee filter. One piece is a thick black holder that dispenses and guides coffee into the pot and holds the mesh coffee filter. We remove these two to clean the grounds and liquid coffee remnants. There’s an edge divot to direct proper insertion of the black holder, and we can feel a slight snap when the first/black holder is inserted into the maker. The mesh cone needs to sit in and align with the black holder below it. It’s pretty straightforward; but, its alignment importance may need to be more significantly highlighted in the manual. Maybe this part of the set up gets overlooked as we robotically prep our coffee. The last few seconds of the brewing cycle is loud, kind of like the pump is pushing steam through the machine…similar to the sound of an espresso machine. The carafe is 14 cups which can lead to a heavier pour. Personally, I quickly got used to it and like the bigger size. The pour doesn’t spill or drip on the counter. The carafe’s lid removes and cleans easily. The last bits of brewed coffee get caught on the carafe’s rim and won’t pour. I dread the conflict and compromise of either using a straw to drink from the carafe black coffee (coffee needs milk and sweetener!) and the guilt of washing down the drain that liquid gold. The turmoil is worth it, though!

After several weeks of research on which coffee maker would replace my 10 year old Brewstation, I settled on a Cuisinart Perfect Temp model. While deciding between the DCC-3200 and the T20, I chose the T20 for its style as well as function.Upon unboxing of the T20, I was surprised by how light weight the unit was with so much light weight plastic. That was a little off-putting as we sometimes correlate quality with heavy/sturdy construction. I know current manufacturing using lighter materials may make that an old-fashioned comparison. I hope to prove the new way is as good or better over the life of this T20, should it also last 5-10 years.At 14 cups this can make a BIG carafe of coffee. I read several reviews that said the carafe was ‘clunky’ because of the way the lid is not hinged. I find it VERY useful and easy to use. Removing the lid is as simple as popping it off. Nothing complicated as detaching the typical hinge based lid. Pop it off, complete your washing of lid and carafe, then snap it back into place. The glass carafe is not heavy (empty), and the handle was sufficiently ergonomic to pour easily. Many reviews (of many coffee makers) will comment on if a carafe empties completely. This one empties easily enough with a typical pouring angle. It will leave a bit still in the bottom (about 1/8th of an ounce), and you will have to up-end the pot to fully dislodge. I don’t find that to be uncommon and we do that anyway when washing and putting the pot away for the day anyway.The touch-screen works well. A single touch turns on the full screen, showing all the display “buttons”. There you can adjust many settings such as:- how long you want the warming burner to stay on (auto shut off)- how hot you want that burner to keep the coffee (Low/Med/High),- Clock Setting (and delayed/timer brew functions)- Sound control on/off (for the touch screen and for the coffee is ready alert and the auto-shut off alert)- You can also set the size of pot to make (1-4 cups or 5- 14). FYI That part is more to adjust the heat and timing, as you will still need to only add the amount of water you intend to brew.Don’t fill the reservoir to the max (14 cup) and expect only 4 cups to be brewed.Also, I suggest you use a separate container with a good pour spout to fill the water. The reservoir opening is not large and you will want to have some accuracy to where you pour. We use an old “Brita Filter” container and it works wonderfully. I have marked it for various amounts (4 cup, 10 cup, 14 cup, etc) so we can easily fill it for the desired amount of coffee. The reservoir on the coffee maker fills from the right side of the machine and there is a clear plastic window indicator with markings to aid you in filling to the desired number of cups.The grounds basket utilizes the #4 cone filters and the machine also comes with a golden mesh basket if you want to eliminate using paper filters. We actually use both the paper filter AND the mesh basket together and we enjoy the smoothness of the coffee with ZERO sediment making its way into the carafe.-Let’s get to the good stuff: Making Coffee. One of the primary selling points of this coffee maker is the focus on brewing the coffee at the optimum suggested temperatures (195-205 F). Since it is in the name (“Perfect-Temp”), I am not surprised to find this unit mostly stays within those temps during the brew cycle, resulting in an excellent tasting cup of coffee every time.