Overall, the machine produces a good and consistent cup of coffee, and I would recommend it to anyone who believes in getting what they pay for.
Positive Product Points
Very easy to set up and use Generally consistent cup of coffee No hot plate to ruin coffee after 15 minutes
Negative Product Points
way too much coffee left in feeder channel weak spring for swinging filter basket
Detailed Commentary
I own 3 Coffee Team machines and have been quite happy with them. One of them was having a problem for which I returned it to Williams-Sonoma, as they provide a LIFETIME warranty on all of their coffee makers. The one I brought back was over 3 years old, and I was told that they no longer sell the Coffee Team, so they REPLACED it with a Coffee Team Therm unit at no charge to me (hence the reason I've listed the price as the price I originally paid for the Coffee Team). After having the coffee machine for a couple of months, I have noted that the spring which makes the filter basket swing from the grinding position to the brew position is rather weak, and most of the time the basket does not swing all of the way over, causing water to drip onto the top of the basket cover and then onto the counter. I therefore have to manually push the basket all the way over, which obviously makes using the machine in an automatic mode impossible. I realize that this may be a problem with my machine and not a design problem by Capresso.
I have encountered two problems with the machine that do seem to be design related. First is the fact that there seems to be a lot of grounds that stay in the feeder channel. I don't use oily beans, and the grounds that are left in the channel are quite dry. From watching the grounds move through during grinding, they seem to move by bulk flow as the grinder pushes more into the channel. However, there should be some mechanism.....probably gravity, or gravity with vibration....that will allow discharge of the grounds into the filter. While it is easy to clean the feeder channel, this would have to be done after every pot to ensure that no "old" grounds made their way into the next pot.
The other problem I have noted may be related to the former one. Occasionally I have noticed that my pot of coffee is extremely weak, and after looking into the filter basket, it appears that the amount of grounds is less than I generally encounter for the same grind amount and coarseness. I suspect that the feeder channel is the problem, but this happens only occasionally, so it's always after the fact that I note the problem and therefore cannot localize it. I would be interested whether any other users have encountered any of these concerns.
Buying Experience
I purchase all of my coffee machines at Williams-Sonoma specifically because they warrant them for the life of the machine. I therefore do not have to worry about replacing any machine once I have purchased it there. On the occasion that I needed them to honor the warranty, they upgraded me from the Coffee Team to the Coffee Team Therm at no additional expense. I couldn't be happier with the way they do business.
