Product Review: Cuisinart 12-Cup Programmable Thermal Coffeemaker

Cuisinart is known for making premium appliances, including top-notch coffeemakers. After all, Cuisinart doesn't just call them coffeemakers, but refers to its coffee brewing appliances as the Cuisinart "coffee bar collection" on its website. So, does the Cuisinart 12-Cup Programmable Thermal Coffeemaker (DTC-975BKN) stand up to the daily grind? The answer is a definite yes!

First, the Cuisinart 12-cup programmable thermal coffeemaker just looks great. The stainless thermal carafe appears sharp and updated. Beyond being stylish, Cuisinart claims that this is the only 12-cup thermal coffeemaker on the market, so it's your best option if you want to keep a lot volume of coffee warm.

Folks who use programmable coffeemakers often fear setting the program time too early and waking up to cold coffee (yuck!). Well, that's what makes the thermal carafe so great - your coffee stays warm for hours. I had never used a programmable coffeemaker, so I had feared that the Cuisinart programmable thermal coffeemaker would be too hard for me to use. Setting up the clock and program time is easy, even for the technology novice, and you can easily turn the program on and off.

Having the capacity to make 12 cups of coffee is great, especially for entertaining large groups, but I have to say that the stainless carafe is my favorite part of the Cuisinart 12-cup programmable thermal coffeemaker. OK, so I've already said that it looks great (I'm telling you - the stainless carafe looks that good), but it really does keep your coffee warm all morning. It's easy to pour and spills much less than conventional coffeemakers.

The only adjustment that I had in getting used to using my Cuisinart 12-cup programmable thermal coffeemaker was properly adding the water with the stainless carafe. The water reader is on the side of coffeemaker in a spot that isn't necessarily easy to read, so it took me awhile to figure out the right amount of water to put in. Other than that, this coffeemaker is really easy to use.