Kitchen & Housewares : KITCHENAID coffee maker 10 cup DIGITAL kcm-515 ST-STEEL
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Brand: KitchenAid EAN: 0509469673812 Feature: kitchenaid coffee maker Label: KitchenAid Manufacturer: KitchenAid Publisher: KitchenAid Sales Rank: 65701 Studio: KitchenAid Features:
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from: KitchenAid |
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- Excellent coffee, quirky machineI received this Kitchenaid KCM-515 10-cup coffee maker as a gift over a year ago. It makes excellent coffee. It has some quirks, however. I've had both Braun and Krups makers prior to this one.
The good: Handsome clean design. It makes an excellent flavorful cup of coffee. The stainless carafe, basket and filter are easy to clean. The carafe keeps the coffee hot for hours. The timer and electronic functions work well.
The quirks: Adding water is inconvenient at best. The two hinged door openings on top are less than ideal. It appears that the intent of the design is to add water in the smaller back opening, but you need to have the larger front door open to see the water level. The target area to pour water in the front is too small. At 5'10" I am tall enough, but this would give a shorter person fits. The result is no mater how careful you are, you're going to spill water all over the countertop. Additionally, whatever the problem is with the design of the pour spout in the carafe, it's almost impossible to pour a cup of coffeee without dribbling some coffee; pouring too slow is worse than pouring too fast!!? Replacement charcoal filters are difficult to find at times.
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- coffee taste like dishwaterWe purchased this coffee maker three weeks ago to replace our aging Krups which still make good coffee but getting slow to brew. The KitchenAid makes horrible tasting coffee. I don't know if it is because the brew temperature is not hot enough, or what. I just know the coffee it brews is so bad that we can't drink it. If you like good coffee, do not buy this coffee maker. Generally, we are a fan of KitchenAid products, like their refrigerator. But they sure screwed up with this coffee maker. Oh well, at least I have something to give my sister for Christmas.
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- A mixed bag - we're returning itWe were ready to upgrade to an automatic coffee maker with a thermal pot. We were disappointed with this coffee maker and have decided to return it. Here are the reasons, in descending order of importance:
1. The coffee is not hot enough. This was a deal-breaker for us.
2. The shower idea is nice, but it ends up showering grounds over the edge of the filter and into the coffee pot. Grounds in my coffee = yuck.
3. The elapsed time indicator is kind of weird. Immediately after brewing, an indicator light goes on showing how much time has elapsed since the coffee was brewed. Nice idea, cheap execution. Instead of a digital LCD display of elapsed minutes, they three indicator lights, labeled 30, 60, and 90. The 30-minute light goes on immediately after brewing, the 60-minute light goes on at 31 minutes, and the 90-minute light goes on at 61 minutes. Doh! They should have labeled it 0-30, 30-60, 60-90. Nit-picky? Sure. That's why I put it third. But minor design flaws are amplified in products you use every day.
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- Is it coffee or is it?I have had my KA for over a week now and stuff comes out that looks like coffee but after a week of hoping the taste will improve, I have decided to sprinkle whatever it is on the lawn to keep the bugs away. You can read the instructions until Hell freezes over, But the problem is that it just does not get the water hot enough to properly extract flavor from coffee. My old Melitta that this machine was to replace, made really good coffee but has been discontinued.
Rating:
- Died just after a yearOnce the warranty ran out, the heating mechanism died (ERR2).
I enjoyed it while I had it, but I've now had to buy a third coffeemaker in as many years, much to my husband's chagrin! (Prior to this one I had the Cuisinart DTC-975BKN Programable Auto Brew 12-Cup Coffeemaker, Black but it kept clogging up and flooding my countertop.)
I like the wide-basket design and wide-open carafe (easy to clean!), and I *love* KitchenAid. I never had trouble with the programming feature or how hot my coffee was - in fact, I've retained the carafe as a back-up.
Not sure why they have an automatic shut-off on this model since the coffee goes directly into a thermal carafe and therefore there is no nasty coffee-burning hot plate on the bottom, but I guess it was easier to engineer that way for the full line.
Wish me luck for better coffee karma this time! I'm going with Capresso now.
Good luck to you, and happy java!