Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Coffeemaker
Comment: I recently replaced my Mr. Coffee that I had had for a long time. I am very satisfied with this coffeemaker. It looks great and it makes a wonderful hot cup of coffee. In reading some of the reviews, yes it does make condensation. But I think most coffeemakers do. As far as any other complaints other people have had, I really haven't experienced any problems as of yet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Coffee Maker!!!
Comment: Overall, this is the best coffee machine I have ever used. It is also the most money I have ever spent on this type of appliance, but it was worth it. The part that you pour the water into is a little small, BUT, the lid and carafe marry well... There is no dripping when there shouldn't be. It is a substantial weight and I love the way it looks in my kitchen. The basket is cone shaped, so I rest it in a small, nice looking, wide mouth jar when adding the ground coffee beans. Problem solved, LOL.
I definitely recommend the purchase of this appliance
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A good coffee pot with some design flaws that quickly become obvious
Comment: So, our Krups coffee maker died and we needed a replacement. The wife had a gift certificate to Amazon so we started shopping there. The newest Krups didn't get very good reviews but this Cuisinart sounded promising. After all, the gift certificate covered it. We got the white and stainless model.
Good points--it looks good and makes a good cup of coffee. But it took a few pots to figure out how to get a good cup of coffee out of this pot. After fiddling with the amount of water and the amount of coffee and then finally using the gold filter for a pot, we got some good tasting Joe. We have four or five gold filters from various pots we've had over the years and none of them ever got any use--until now. Using unbleached paper filters with this pot resulted in weak, unflavorful coffee. Don't know why, but we were disappointed until we tried the gold filter.
Bad points---there's quite a few of them.
What time is it? Unless you have the pot on a shelf that is eyelevel, you will not be able to see the clock. Not much of a problem until you have to set the program for auto brew. You have to get in a stooped position to see the time settings and this really hacks me off. What genius came up with this?
What program are you using? On the white model, the knob that selects the program has one tiny black line inside one of the knurls of the knob. If there is a bright light directly over the pot, I suppose you can see it okay. In our kitchen, the pot is under overhead cabinets that cast a shadow. The setting line looks the same as the knurls of the knob. If there was one nice big dot on the front of the knob, you would be able to tell what you were doing. Again, who was this design genius?
Let's wash the carafe. If you have the black model, you'll never notice this but if you have the white model.... The top of the carafe has a plastic lip that surrounds the rim. Coffee will get underneath this lip and evaporate, leaving a nice ugly ring of old coffee stains. How would you clean it? By taking apart the carafe, I guess. The genius strikes again.
Fireworks. No, not really. But this pot crackles and snaps the whole time it's on. I have no idea what's going on with it but it's distracting. Read the morning newspaper and listen to the popping in the kitchen. Nice way to start the day. I don't know if this was a design genius idea or it's just this particular pot.
Yeah, condensation does drip down the back of the lid but that's not a big concern to me. I have no problem pouring water into the reservoir or pouring the coffee into a cup. In fact, the carafe drips a lot less than any previous one I've used.
Now, the bad points I listed is stuff you can live with but you really shouldn't have to. We're living with the poor ergonomics, at least for now. But beware: it's not as great a coffee pot as some of the reviewers would have you believe and it's certainly not the world's five-star coffee maker designed in heaven.
Now, the real disappointment. Right after we got this pot, we decided to replace the Mr Coffee we have in our RV. The wife found a DeLonghi 12-cup coffee maker at Target for $30. We figured, what the heck, at that price we can toss it out after a year if we don't like it. And it was only going to get occasional use when we use the RV anyway. When she brought it home, I plugged it in and discovered everything that was wrong with the Cuisinart was right with the DeLonghi. The clock is put in at an angle so you can read it, the controls are readable and set-up and use didn't even require reading the instruction book. First cup of coffee out of the pot was better than the Cuisinart.
I'm thinking of having coffee in the RV in the mornings.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good, but not hot enough
Comment: I bought the Cuisinart DCC-1200 a couple of weeks ago on the basis of good reviews by both Alton Brown in his book "Gear for Your Kitchen" and America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated. Only after I'd received it did I realize it was the same coffeemaker a roommate had when I lived with him several years ago, one which I thought was good at the time.
The Cuisinart replaces a manual coffeemaker by Melitta that I used and loved, but which was wearing out and isn't made anymore. I like the manual method because I like to control all the variables, including water temperature.
And while I like this Cuisinart very much, that's where it falls short. While experts vary by a degree or two, most say that a perfect cup of coffee should be brewed at temperatures between 185 and 195F. Unfortunately, the DCC-1200 maxes out at 175F (measured with an instant read thermometer at the end of brewing). This occurs whether I'm making 1-4 cups (there is a special setting that is supposed to brew 1-4 cups at a hotter temp to compensate for the shorter brew time) or more than four.
Other than that, I like the machine. Some people don't like the end-of-brewing beeping, but I find it to be convenient and it's only four beeps after all. I also like that it has a charcoal-activated water filter built in and a decalcification warning, although I haven't had the coffeemaker long enough to know if it works and whether it's just a gimmick. The variable carafe hotplate control is nice as well, because I hate burnt coffee. If I'm going to be leaving a full pot to stay warm for a while, I turn it down a notch, but for brewing and immediate pouring, I leave it high.
Clean up is easy, and the pot doesn't dribble all over the counter when pouring. Some users warn that's too high to fit under some cabinets, which might be true, although I leave it on a baker's rack which alleviates the problem. Overall, I'm very happy with Cuisinart. Now let's see how it lasts in the long term.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Top Notch Coffee Maker
Comment: Just received our Cuisinart DCC-1200 coffee maker and we are very impressed. It is solidly built and well designed. Our 20 year old mr. coffee finally petered out and started overflowing and spewing grounds...
This unit is easy to use straight from the box. It has some great features too:
timer function (to have fresh coffee waiting for you when you wake)
auto off (never have to wonder again if you turned the coffee maker off!)
a warmer plate to keep the freshly brewed coffee warm
1-4 or 5-12 cup settings (if you select 1-4, it double heats to ensure that such a small amount is as hot as if you made more)
a self cleaning button to let you know when it needs cleaning
Some folks mentioned that the water resevoir opening is a little close to the coffee grounds and that is true. But just fill the resevoir first, then put your coffee in. Then it won't be a problem if some water spills astray.
The only other Con that I see (someone else mentioned too) is the digital read out should have a back light. It is kind of hard to read.
The unit comes with a nifty replaceable charcoal filter, and good tasting water is essential to good tasting coffee.
It also comes with a permanent gold grounds filter.
We are thrilled with this machine and the coffee tasted great!
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