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When I first brought my Black & Decker CM1609 8-cup Thermal Coffee Maker, I had the impression a miniature space ship had landed on my kitchen counter. I mean that in a good way—the stainless steel and glossy black and sleek space-shuttle lines look great.
Its parts are sturdy (and the thermal carafe unbreakable) and it looks to last for a good long time, so I look forward to my automatically timed coffee greeting me every morning.
Black & Decker CM1609 8-cup Thermal Coffee Maker product features:
It’s the type of glossy design that could get messy if it weren’t easy to care for, so I’m grateful for the easy-to-wipe soft touch programming buttons, the removable parts that pop painlessly into the dishwasher, and the “Perfect Pour” design of the carafe which (true to its name) doesn’t dribble everywhere when I pour a cup. Once in a while I give the stainless parts a swipe with a paper towel and glass cleaner to clear up my telltale fingerprints all over the machine, but essentially the Black & Decker CM1609 8-cup Thermal Coffee Maker is a sleek machine that stays looking sharp. On the outside, at least—the interior of the carafe is harder to clean thoroughly, due to an inconvenient lip, but a baby-bottle brush takes care of that without too much trouble.
I did discover that the top section of the carafe (where the black parts meet the stainless steel) can come a little loose, in which case the dishwasher gets water into the insulated walls of the carafe which are meant to stay vacuum sealed for thermal protection. The water sloshed around for a while until I finally took all the pieces apart entirely, and I’ve made sure since then that the components are tightly fitted before it goes into the dishwasher.
Aside from the single dishwasher incident, my favorite component of the Black & Decker 8-cup Thermal Coffee Maker is the carafe itself. Given my long and tragic record with shattered glass carafes, I’m tickled to be in possession of one that seems unlikely to break no matter what mishap might befall it at my hands. The thermal insulation does such a good job of keeping the coffee hot (warming instead of scorching!), that the automatic shut-off of the coffee machine’s heating elements kicks in immediately after it finishes brewing.
The insulation also enables me to set the carafe on the table during breakfast or dessert, allowing family and guests to pour refills for themselves without getting up, and with the insulation the coffee stays hot even on the table. I used to own a thermal decanter, separate from the coffee maker I owned at the same time, and I achieved the same aim by pouring brewed coffee from the coffee maker’s carafe into the insulated one. I’m happy to eliminate the extra steps and the extra cleanup, and take the existing carafe straight to the table.
Programming the Black & Decker CM1609 8-cup Thermal Coffee Maker is simple and intuitive. The five neatly labeled soft touch buttons on the base of the machine surround a digital display which shows your programming options as you progress. Once the clock and the automatic brewing-time are set, you can operate simply by pressing the single button that puts it in “program” mode (meaning it will brew at the pre-set time), or of course you can use the on/off button to brew any time. It’s a good cup of coffee—and it will stay hot!
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