Capresso 5-Cup Mini Drip Coffee Maker, Black and Stainless Steel

When I looked at the pictures they looked like the front where the time is had a light. But when I received it no light. That was why I bought it. It works good but not sure if worth price when front doesn’t light up. THANKS

I really liked this compact coffee maker. It worked well and made just enough coffee in the morning for two people. It was easy to program too. The removable black filter holder is very fragile and the spring mechanism and parts that help the coffee drip can easily break off. Twice it happened while I was cleaning it and I was able to find the tiny rubber ring that holds it in place. Now I seem to have lost the ring while washing it. I cannot get a replacement piece or even order a new filter holder from the Capresso website. So now I am left with a non functional machine and will likely need to buy another machine. It has only been 3.5 months since I’ve purchased the machine too.

I’ve been using this for about an year now, so far it has held up fine. I chose to buy this one because:
1. I had been using an AdirChef single cup coffee-maker but wanted to make more coffee in one go (for morning and for taking to work). The 5-cup size of this coffeemaker was perfect for my needs. Note about the size: The “cup” of 5-cup is a European measure, and it’s also the standard for coffee-makers in the US. If you are going from 1-cup drip coffee-makers to this (like I did), don’t expect it to make 5 times the amount of coffee from your one-cup coffeemakers. Here, 1 cup = 5 oz. As I drink from a standard 12 oz mug, for me it makes enough for 2-servings of coffee.
2. Capresso is a relatively known/specialized brand for coffee equipments. I don’t think they’re the best-ranked or anything, but it’s just that personally, I feel more comfortable buying a coffee-maker from a company whose main business is coffee-related items, and not a variety of stuff from toothbrushes to exercise machines.
3. It has a hot plate and an auto-shutoff. The coffee stays hot for two hours, and after two hours the machine shuts off automatically. I keep the coffee machine plugged to the wall and so far it has been completely safe. I haven’t measured the temperature of the coffee, but freshly brewed it’s very hot (at least, hot enough for my taste). On the hot plate, it’s a little less hot (not steaming), but still good enough to take out and drink comfortably any time within the 2-hr mark.

Other details:
Coffee-filter: It comes with a reusable gold-tone filter, but I don’t like cleaning it up everyday, so I use paper-filters (basket type, 4-6 cups). My taste-buds aren’t refined enough to sense a taste-difference between this and the 1-cup coffee maker I had, and anyway it isn’t a fair comparison because the sizes are different. The other coffee-maker I have is a moka-pot which makes much stronger coffee, again no way to compare tastes.
The carafe: It’s glass, therefore easy to clean. I don’t have a dishwasher so I don’t know if it’s dishwasher-safe. But it’s easy enough to clean by hand. Except, the glass is very light so it feels flimsy and fragile in your hand. I don’t know how shock-resistant the glass is, and I have no intention of testing it. Other than that, I like the design of the carafe. It has volume markers, for both water and coffee. So you can use the carafe to fill your desired measure of water, knowing how much coffee it will produce (some water will be retained by the ground so the coffee will always be little less than the water). The lip of the carafe is well-designed and feels nice to pour from (doesn’t spill).
The stepwise cup markings inside the water-reservoir: These are very helpful for me because I can pour water directly from the water-filter and know the measurements. In my previous coffeemaker, I used to fill the carafe/mug with filtered water and then pour it to the coffee-maker’s water reservoir, or just fill it to some random measure (which is very bad for making coffee). Having a measuring system inbuilt to the reservoir helps to bypass that step. I specifically like that it’s inside the reservoir and not to the side like many other coffee-makers, because I have very little space in my apartment so I don’t have to free the side of the coffee-maker to be able to see the markings.
The 24-hour programmable timer: I like to grind my coffee just before brewing, so I haven’t tested this feature.

Overall, I like this coffee maker. The one negative is that there is always some drops of coffee falling to the hot plate as you remove the carafe. It badly affects the smoothness of the ‘pause’ function. At first I was worried about the coffee droplets on the hot plate, but as I said in the beginning, so far it hasn’t caused any problem.

It’s a nice little coffee maker meeting my requirements for colour, compact size, auto shut-off, reusable filter and serve-while-brewing feature. It also is nice to have the clear measured markings inside the water reservoir, for easy, precise filling.
However, the coffee is not as hot as I would like it to be, I find the flat, fully plastic-bottomed, reusable filter very difficult to clean (compared to my previous experience with cone-shaped reusable filters), and when there is more than 3 tbsp of coffee grounds in the basket, the water-spray nozzles get covered in coffee grounds during the brewing process. It is annoying to have to clean them (have never had this problem with prior similar coffee makers), and finicky as well.
I have not tried the program feature, so cannot comment on that.
For the price I paid for this machine, I had much higher expectations.

I wrote a review originally when I bought this can’t seem to find it anywhere so this is a 3 1/2 year update and I’m happy to say it is still working just fine 2 things to know :
1. is that when you’re cleaning it if the LED screen gets wet it will not like that and effect it’s readability.
2. The LED screen could be lit MUCH better…..,VERY hard to see on countertop under cabinets in low or indirect light
3. probably like any other coffee maker, if you have hard water with lots of minerals in it, you will need to run white wine vinegar through it a couple/few times a year to clean off the heating elements to keep them working efficiently. The brew speed will drop dramatically if you don’t . THAT will be a good clue TO DO IT.

I was surprised and disappointed …. Pissed actually…. at how hard it is (was) to find a SIMPLE 4-5 “cup” coffee maker that is programmable and SIMPLE.
Look no more.