| Capresso 455 CoffeeTEAM Therm Stainless Coffeemaker/Burr Grinder Combination |  | Brand: Capresso
List Price: $400.00
Buy New: $169.99
as of 9/4/2010 21:20 UTC details
Seller: HOTSALEONLINE
Rating:  122 reviews
Color: Stainless
Shipping Weight (lbs): 15
Dimensions (in): 11 x 12 x 16
MPN: 455
Model: 455
UPC: 794151401501
EAN: 0794151401501
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| | Stainless coffeemaker with solid-steel conical burr grinder | | | Program 4, 6, 8, or 10 cups in mild, medium, or strong strength | | | Stainless-steel vacuum thermal carafe keeps coffee hot for hours | | | Clock/timer; drip stop; brew pause; black-on-white illuminated display | | | Measures 11 by 12 by 16 inches; 1-year limited warranty |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Includes Capresso Coffee Team Thermal Carafe Coffee Maker GoldTone Filter DVD Guide.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 122
 A fantastic coffee maker. August 12, 2006
Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA)
139 out of 142 found this review helpful
I have to say, I'm more than a little confused by the negative feedback this coffee maker seems to be receiving as we've had quite the opposite experience with it-- in fact, we've been nothing short of ecstatic with its functioning. It's a bit counterintuitive at first, but once you get a feel for its system, this is a nice little pot.
My wife and I were committed to buying a suit-all-our-needs coffee maker right after our wedding, and after substantial research, we came up with this unit.
After witnessing my brother and his wife with their grinder/brewer combination, I was filled with envy-- I hate grinding coffee. The CoffeeTEAM combines a burr grinder with the brewer, grinding into a filter basket (with an included conical permenant coffee filter) on a spring mechanism which then swings to allow hot water to be forced through the beans.
Both the beans and water are top loaded into their chambers-- the bean chamber holds enough for about 18 cups of coffee, the water reservoir holds enough for 10 cups and has a cover that flips up that rests on top of the filter basket when it's used for brewing.
The grinder has a handful of sizes you can adjust the grind to-- I've kept mine fairly large as I've been using fairly oily coffee. The beans are ground and deposited into this little chamber. This next triggers a series of springs that push the grounds into the filter basket and swings the basket to receive water.
A few points about this process-- some residual beans are left in the little chamber after the grinding. These are used for the next pot of coffee-- I discovered early on if you clean this out, the next pot will be noticably weak (they warn you the first pot will be weak in the manual, but forget to mention this-- I suspect this is why one of the other reviewers had trouble with coffee being too weak). There's a thin piece of hard plastic with a rubber washer in the middle that fits over the top of the filter basket-- this MUST be fitted evenly and the rubber washer MUST be snugly attached. Additionally, the water reservoir must be down when you push the basket to the grinder. Not doing any of these will result in the spring mechanism not swinging the basket properly-- it took me a few tries to get this right, but there was no mess made and it was more a learning curve than anything else (the good news is that if the basket doesn't swing back, a fail-safe stops the brewing process).
The coffee is brewed into a thermal carafe which must be lined up carefully to prevent spillage-- I've yet to have this spill due to line up problems and I'm pretty impatient, it's not a hard process. We haven't tested to see how long it keeps coffee hot for, but it's at least 3-4 hours. My wife takes her coffee a couple hours after brewing and has no complaints about temperature or degraded taste.
Controls are pretty straight forward, there's two buttons and a knob that serves as a third button. The knob is used to program everything-- for both on-demand and timer-triggered brewing you can set number of cups to brew and strength, the clock, and the time to kick off brewing. The top button starts the brewing process immediately, the bottom button sets the timer-trigger brewing.
You can override the grinding by not swinging the filter basket over in case you want flavored beans, etc. I've not done this. Additionally, removing the carafe during brewing allows you to pour yourself a cup from the carafe, saving those goofy slide-the-carafe-out-and-cup-in games. I just revised my review concerning this functionality as I used it for the first time this morning-- it is flawless-- carafe comes out, coffee stops, carafe goes back in, coffee restarts. Finally, the last feature of the coffee pot is a "descale" warning to indicate when you need to clean the coffee pot. In a previous review, I said this was missing, but it just came on for our maker.
All the coffee we've made tastes superb-- admittedly, I've been starting with good beans, first what we brought back from our honeymoon in Hawai'i and then from a favorite coffeehouse near where I grew up, but it's as good as any coffeemaker I've used.
Cleanup has been pretty easy so far-- we've had the maker maybe six weeks and the carafe has a wide mouth when you remove the lid so it's easy to clean (something I've hated in other carafes). The filter basket and associated components all come out and are easy to wash. I do wish the bean container could be removed, but so far, I've just been wiping oil deposits down per recommendations. The burrs are not accessible, so there's no way to clean then other than grinding no beans per recommendations.
Things I wish the maker had: a large bean container-- I'd love to have a unit that could just fit a half pound or a pound of beans-- I'm constantly having to pour more beans into it. This is a minor annoyance. Somewhat more lacking is a water filter-- my last coffee maker had this and it was a nice feature-- I've gotten around this by pouring filtered water into it, so again this is a small complaint.
None of these shortcomings are big enough to make me regret purchasing the unit, even at its price, it's served us well for the past several weeks and the coffee it makes it consistently fantastic.
 Not really worth the price October 31, 2006
Patrick Gavin (Arcata, CA USA)
90 out of 93 found this review helpful
The Capresso CoffeeTEAM Therm is the most feature complete coffee maker being made right now. It offers automatic burr grinding and a thermal carafe.
Comparing this coffee maker to the CoffeeTEAM S, which is a similar unit but without the thermal carafe, it turns out you are paying about $100 just for the thermal carafe.
I require automatic grind and brew in a thermal carafe, and after our Cuisinart gave out, I decided to shell out the lucre for the Capresso. I was primarily attracted by the burr grinder and the fact that the grinding mechanism does not need to be cleaned with each use like the Cuisinart.
After having the unit for a couple of weeks, I think I can fairly say I am slightly disappointed.
If you prefer dark roasted beans to make your coffee, do not buy this unit. Oily beans stick in the bean hamper and do not make it into the grinder unless you actively push them. Since the main feature of this unit is supposed to be the ability to grind and brew while you are still in bed, I consider this to be a serious design flaw.
The unit works well with light and medium roasted beans. I'd like to have a little more control of the amount of beans used in a brewing cycle though.
Update:
I made the unfortunate discovery that the pour while brewing feature (pretty much standard on most coffeemakers these days) does not work very well on this unit. The valve under the basket has a tendency to stick, even after a thorough cleaning. A sturdier spring may fix this problem.
Other minor issues:
It isn't idiot proof. There are a few things that are not obvious about this coffee maker.
The pour dot on the thermal carafe is difficult to see.
For nearly $300 I expect a coffee maker that works flawlessly. This unit is definitely not flawless.
I plan on modifying mine to fix some of the flaws. Too bad Capresso can't be bothered with functional design issues.
Another update (07/01/08):
After having my CoffeeTEAM for a while, it has grown on me a little. I will say this- if you are trying to decide between this Capresso and the Cuisinart Grind and Brew, go with the Capresso (unless you are really into dark roasted coffee). The CoffeeTEAM is MUCH easier to clean between pots. I am pretty sure the Capresso has paid for itself in under a year in the time I've saved.
Also surprised by the negative comments.... September 1, 2006
Stuart
53 out of 54 found this review helpful
I bought this coffee maker recently as I was looking for an all in one unit that allowed me to automatically brew coffee every morning. After reading the negative reviews I held off my decision to buy for a while and then decided to purchase and boy am I glad I bought this baby.
I am extremely happy with this unit. My ONLY negative comment is that the Strong coffee setting results in coffee that is a little wealer than I like. It would have been nice for Capresso to include a feature for over riding the nominal coffee strength settings. Still, you can get around this by selecting strong setting, and 10 coffee cup servings and only filling water resovoir to 8 or 6 cups.
Yes, this unit is a little more complicated than a standard drip coffee maker so you will have to have sufficient intelligence to read the manual and absorb the material. I have had no problem with the grinding, filter basket movement or brewing issues described in earlier reivews. It all works perfectly IF YOU READ THE MANUAL AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.
This machine meets all my needs. I can set timer and fill water container in the evening and wake up to freshly brewed great tasting coffeee in the morning. The thermal carafe actually keeps the coffee hot for 4 hours or longer without scalding the coffee like standard coffee machines. The best part is that it takes less than 30 seconds to clean the gold filter, filter holder and carrafe. The grinder is removed from the brewing and so is not contaminated by steam like some of the cheaper units.
All in all this unit meets all my expectations and I am extremely happy I purchased it.
After using this coffee maker for a couple of weeks I am still very happy with it BUT I have to admit that the placement of the filter basket, filter and filter cover are very finnicky. You must have them positioned just right otherwise the basket will not swing back and lock under hot water spout. I think a lot of the problem is from these parts being maunfactured from plastic. One other thing to do to make sure you don't end up with coffee all over the counter is to ensure the caraffe lid is on tight before brewing!
 Pleased overall: Recommended for coffee geeks in a hurry July 8, 2007
Michael K. Johnson
36 out of 36 found this review helpful
I purchased my 455 CoffeeTEAM because of an upcoming schedule change; I had been using a separate burr grinder and a press pot to make coffee, but my new schedule won't allow time to do that. Having become used to good coffee, freshly ground, I'm a bit spoiled. I use only light roasts, so I can't say anything about how well this unit works with oily roasts that I don't like anyway.
My search was limited; I was looking for a combination burr grinder / coffee maker with automatic start and good control of water temperature. That narrows the field; almost all the automatic (timer-based) coffee makers use blades rather than a burr grinder, and many heat the water too hot.
The reviews I read were good; Capresso made me much more comfortable with interpreting the reviews and determining if I personally would be happy with the unit by providing the manual at their web site as a PDF file.
I am a geek. I like complex toys. The user manual makes it clear that this is intended as a precision instrument for people who care about coffee. I am pleased that they chose to optimize for high quality coffee rather than trying to make a piece of fool-proof hardware. If you like toys that don't provide you with choices, and you prefer convenience to quality, this might not be the unit for you.
It took me about two weeks of experimentation with different settings to be confident that I was getting the taste I most prefer.
Things I like:
* Coffee quality is good -- in my opinion, not quite as tasty as coffee from a press pot (no surprise), but very good.
* Keeps the grinder away from the steam, so the beans stay dry.
* Does not spew coffee grounds on the counter -- even when I forgot to install the collar that is intended to contain the coffee grounds in the filter, it still didn't make a mess.
* Operates faster than promised in the manual -- the first cup is ready so fast that it hardly matters if I forget to turn on automatic mode before going to bed at night.
* Caraffe is excellent at keeping the coffee hot.
Things I dislike:
* I doubt that any competing product is quieter, but I still wish there were a way that the grinder could be quieter so as not to wake up the baby.
* Sharp edges on the threads of the caraffe mouth, combined with an opening more narrow than my hands, make washing the caraffe uncomfortable. (I have larger hands than average, so this may not apply to you.)
* Half the time saved over the press pot is lost in the more extensive cleaning required. At least I can do it after I have my morning coffee instead of before, so I'm more awake to do it.
* Adjustments are available only by two-cup units.
* Single-knob programming reminds me of the user interface disaster BMW puts in some of their 5- and 6-series cars ("iDrive multifuntion knob", ugh, not for me, thanks). Clearly designed with a preference for looking good sitting on the counter, and the wording in the interface seems to have been selected by a programmer rather than a user interface expert.
Things I wish I had known:
* I wish I had ordered at least one extra goldtone filter; it clearly won't last forever.
* I think the initial washing instructions are insufficient; the first pot of coffee had a bitter, almost rubbery taste that disappeared after the first use.
* Having tried a few times, I have come to the conclusion that it's just not possible for me to make all ten cups in one batch and be satisfied with the taste. Better to make two smaller batches. I doubt that this is unique to this unit; I'm sure this is my learning about drip coffee makers generally, since I had previously been using a press pot.
Overall, if you are a coffee snob (I mean that in the best possible way!) and feel the need to wake up to fresh, high-quality coffee, I recommend this unit. I am pleased with my purchase and would make the same decision again. The things I like about this unit are the important things when it comes to good coffee, and the things I dislike are minor irritations at most.
Great! Fresh! Hot! Coffee January 24, 2007
K. Mercier
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
After reading a lot of negative reviews, I was nervous to try this out. I have a commercial espresso machine and grinder and am very particular about my coffee. Usually all-in-one deals are just ok, however I'm glad I bought this one. I think a lot of the disparity in reviews may have to do with the type of roasted bean used. For example we started with a darker, more oily bean and had mediocre results on strength but when we switched to a lighter roasted bean (which has more caffeine BTW), it was like night and day.
1. Read the instructions and it's very easy to use.
2. If you like strong coffee, you will need to "trick" it by adding less water - However the "trick" works wonderfully. We set it on 10 cups, strongest setting, finest grind, and fill it with 8 cups of water.
3. It doesn't leak, or create a mess as other reviews suggest. Those problems may be related to "user" error.
4. The first pot is WEAK - do at least one test run so when you really need it to be strong, you've got it to where you like it.
5. The thermous keeps coffee much hotter than any glass caraffe/warmer plate I've ever used. Because of this you can bring it to the table rather than having to go back to the machine every time you want a refill.
6. TIP: Good beans equal good coffee. Store your beans in a cool, dry place (No, not the freezer). Try and buy beans that have been roasted recently. We use Illy beans - they're not cheap but are vaccuum-sealed so they don't lose flavor while sitting on the shelf at the store or in Starbucks.
7. TIP: Use good water (this machine has no filtration). 99% of your cup of coffee is water. If your refrigerator has a filter, get your water from there. You'll notice a difference in taste immediately, regardless of what machine you have.
8. TIP: Warm up your mug. If you have an Insta-hot tap on your sink fill up your mug with hot water to pre-warm it. Pouring hot coffee into a cold mug will get you less than hot coffee. You'd be suprised how long your coffee will stay hot, if your mug is warm to begin with.
Overall, the taste is unbelievably fresh and the machine is easy to use and clean.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 122
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