RELIABILITY IS A PROBLEM

This makes very good coffee, and is easy to use and clean up. But Reliability is poor. The grinder died after a year and a month. Krups was good enough to extend the 1 year warranty, but it still cost $35 to ship it for repair. About a year later, the water heating system died. This is apparently a very common problem for this model. Now it will cost me about $75 to have them repair it. CHINESE JUNK!

KRUPS KM7000 GRIND-AND-BREW 10-CUP COFFEE

Shipping took forever. Once it finally arrived, the quality of the product was far less than expected. However, it makes a delicous cup of Joe>

It no longer makes good coffee since most of the spring loaded parts have fallen apart. This $179 coffee maker lasted less than 2 months. I need to see how I go about getting it replaced or getting my money back. i will keep you posted.

I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR A

I've been searching for a good coffee maker for a while. Prior to receiving the KM7000, I had just a walmart special 12 cup pot and used good old chlorinated tap water and preground generic beans. It's not that I was ignorant and didn't know the coffee I was drinking was best used to mop floors, but I was just too cheap to care. After watching an episode of Good Eats, I finally put my foot down and said no more. I was originally just going to buy a burr grinder and start using filtered water, but if I was content with drinking muddy water for all these years what on Earth would make me want to clean another gadget? After reading quite a few reviews, I had my mind set on the KM7000 but the price almost put me away. Fortunately there was a best price listing from roaste.com which had no reviews and I figured I'd chance it. It paid off because I saved at least 40 or so dollars and it was set up in my house about a week or so later. But how does it perform?

For someone making the switch from the $15 coffee pot, you're probably going to have a slight experimentation phase. You'll have adjustments for grind size at the top of the unit and roast settings on the LCD screen. I followed the instructions and used the corse settings and medium brew as a start point. After about 3 uses I knew which settings my wife and I would be happy with, and it's been making our morning that much better ever since. I've stopped using tap water for my coffee, and I only use filtered now and the strange bite that I was used to before the pot is gone and its nothing but the pleasent bitterness of the beans. I bought whole beans from the store, and to be honest you can't tell how long they've been there so I suppose I may start ordering them online to see if there is even more improvement in taste.

I was worried a grind and brew unit would end up becoming a big mess, but the grind chute is well isolated from the water so the tsp of grounds that remain in the chute aren't a wet mess. That brings up a point which may be a concern to some. I brew a pot everyday, so the loss of essential oils is minimal (especially when compared to preground beans). If you rarely brew coffee, you may be better off not filling the machine with beans and either tilting the chute and tapping to empty it of grinds, or with a different unit if you're that picky. Another concern I had was if the grinder was going to sound like a construction site or not, and it's surprisingly quiet. I'm not sure what I would compare it to volume wise, as I've never had another grinder, but I suppose it is similar in volume to a microwave.

Overall I'm pleased with the unit. It makes my morning routine simple, measure the water, insert a filter, open the grind chute door, and turn the unit on. The cleanup is minimal, and the coffee is delicious.