Long before “Green” came into vogue household electrics were more green in the sense that they were built to stand up to actual use. That’s why there are still working ranges, mixers, percolators and other kitchen electrics from the 40s/50s/60s/70s to be found in antique shops. Very little of our modern electronics and appliances will be around 40-50 years from now to bring back the nostalgia that you can find today in any antique/collectible store. I own a Sunbeam hand mixer that is older than I am, a family hand-me-down. Dropped it and it still works — can’t say I’ve had that sort of luck with anything built in the past 20 years.

John, Cuisinart really isn’t guilty of starting this trend. As soon as globalization came along in the late 1970s and things got cheaper to produce overseas, the disposable mentality came into vogue just as soon as consumers realized that it was cheaper to buy a new widget than repair the old one. One way to fight the wastefulness is to buy a product that is essentially unchanged from the way things were built prior to the advent of cheap imports. That product is the electric perc. Contrary to conventional wisdom, not all percs boil coffee, at least not the Presto Percolator I bought and decided to keep. Not only are there fewer parts to break down when compared to a drip coffeemaker but those parts that are in contact with the coffee are made of metal, which means you skip the health hazards associated with hot liquid + plastic in other coffeemakers.

I’m not sure how much longer Cuisinart will keep their generous 3-year warranty. There are a disproportionate amount of people complaining in reviews on the web about the durability of their entire product line, from coffeemakers to immersion blenders. The exceptions are out there, but there are a whole lot more people who report that the warranty isn’t even up when the item stops working. Sure, you get other complaints with the cheaper competitors, but frequent reports of the item simply failing to power on are not typically among them. Cuisinarts brew coffee at a decent brew temperature but the price is no indicator of how long their product will last.

I DID FIGURE OUT HOW TO CLEAN THE CARAFE.

Take some dishwasher powder, put it into the pot and fill with hot water. A few hours later, the stainless steel looks bright as new!

The carafe should indeed be used to fill the reservoir. That way, you know that you are not overfilling. Besides, the markers inside the reservoir are difficult to read.

I have had my unit since they were first released some years ago. It has been totally reliable, no problems at all. Yes, cleaning the several parts is inconvenient, but quick and easy once you get the hang of it. It is worth noting that the grinding unit must be dry to be used … so if you want a second carafe of coffee, you’ll need dry that beforehand.

Leakage described by some is entirely user error … failure to seat the parts properly, and/or failure to follow the instructions to periodically do a complete cleanup of the unit. As with any device that grinds product, there will be product buildup in various places. I clean mine thoroughly about once a month. I take it to my shower and use the hand-hled shower unit, being careful not to spray onto the control surface.

A hot plate causes far more damage to coffee being kept warm than does a thermal carafe. Hot plates generate hot spots … the coffee in contact with those hot spots burns. A thermal carafe has drawn its heat energy from the hot coffee itself and is never hotter than the liquid; carafe and coffee are part of a system that is cooling together. A knowledge of simple physics would show you that the carafe itself is slightly cooler than the coffee at all times. Think about it.

I certainly agree that this carafe is hard to clean. I have not yet worked out that problem. On the other hand, I have not noticed any degradation in coffee flavor. Has anyone worked out a simple chemical cleaning technique?

Unlike John, I find that the DTC-975′s biggest advantage when compared to competing models is that it more effectively seals in heat so well that it really doesn’t need the carafe to be preheated with hot water prior to brewing. The coffee will keep warm as long as it is at least half full. The caveat is that the last cup will cool down faster just because most of the carafe is empty. This would be true of any coffeemaker with an insulated stainless steel decanter, however.

The biggest drawback to this type of coffeemaker, in my experience, is that the stainless steel carafe is hard to clean. The opening on this model won’t let anything bigger than a bottle brush inside. And unlike glass the inside of a stainless carafe doesn’t deodorize with cleaning. No matter how much baking soda, vinegar and dish soap I use it still smells of coffee from the initial use onward. I question how fresh the coffee will taste after a year or two of this when there is no way to completely get the odors of old coffee to stop clinging to the metal lining. I think these thermal carafes should be lined with glass just like an Air Pot or a normal thermal carafe that you buy separately for keeping coffee hot. Glass doesn’t react or retain odors the way stainless steel seemingly does. Yet you see people saying the coffee is so much better when brewed into a stainless steel thermal carafe because it doesn’t bake on a warming plate. Well, yes and no. Personally, I feel this type of coffeemaker is a better solution not for improved taste but for those who seek a carafe that is less likely to break (for the accident prone who don’t want the glass around), and secondarily for those who want to save electricity and/or eliminate the risk of the electrical warming plate malfunctioning, burning pets or small children or leading to a fire hazard. As for taste, however, you really want to consume the coffee that brews into a thermal decanter within one hour just like you would with any other coffeemaker. That is because an hour or less is the optimum timeframe for best taste. After that it is going to degrade whether the source of warming is a hot plate or the trapped heat inside a thermal carafe. That’s my 2¢ anyhow.