Great grinder - so far
I've had mine for a few weeks now, purchased after my Cuisinart Burr grinders motor gave up the ghost (after 4 years, so I really can't complain). I find this grinder to be very well designed, the cover has a unique little inner lip that keeps the coffee in the canister - very clever. I've had no problem with any of the fit and finish of the parts (I did pitch the rubber cover, it's useless, just leave extra coffee in the grinder with the plastic top in place). It's also much quieter than the Burr grinder - it's not silent - it is after all, a grinder. And I find that if I cycle the power a few times during the grinding process, I can get a very even grind (for 4-6 cups of coffee) after only 15-20 seconds. And this thing is inexpensive, half the cost of my Burr grinder and only a few bucks more than most other basic grinders. I purchased mine before reading all of the reviews here, and while I am hesitant based upon the previous reports, to-date, I am very pleased.

Poor performer, poor quality
I was disappointed in the performance as soon as I bought it, but decided to put up with it until it died. The grind was uneven, with some beans barely cut in half, despite the length of grinding time. I was relieved when the blade mechanism broke this week, 26 months after purchase.

Nice looking while it lasted...
The grinder lasted about 8 months. It did its job if the grinder was filled to capacity but if you just wanted to grind a small amount it was inconsistent as to the grindy-ness you ended up with. When the motor finally cut out their customer service wanted me to find the credit card statement from when I bought it for a replacement. I guess I'm just used to tech companies just sending you a replacement no-questions-asked that this seemed like such a ridiculous request. Do NOT buy this product. Poor quality and poor customer service. Don't be lured by its attractive looks.

Does not grind well
The best feature of this grinder is its large, removable grinding cup, which is easy to keep clean and makes it easy to get all the grounds into your coffee pot rather than all over the counter. But it is simply impossible to get even a more-or-less even grind; there's always a combination of properly ground coffee, too-fine powder, and big chunks. Examining the machine, I think part of the problem is that the blades themselves are not very sharp.

It's perfectly fine for the price
I have had this grinder for 3 or 4 months now. The minor complaints in here crack me up.

It's noisy. Big deal, you have running for 20 seconds or less at a time. Big trauma.

It doesn't grind perfectly. I paid for it. I don't expect the equivalent of store grinder. In 20 seconds you can turn your coffee into powder with a few chunks left in the mix. Another big trauma.

For those people whose unit quit working. Legit gripe. Everyone else is nitpicking and forgetting how much they paid for the unit.

Easy to clean, grinds coffee and makes a little noise. well spent as far as I can tell after 3 or 4 months.

Frustrating
You can only grind about 3 rounded scoops of beans at a time (enough for one generously sized mug). And the result is a grind of inconsistent size. No matter how you manipulate the machine, some beans are merely broken, whereas others are ground into paste. Don't put in more than 4 scoops of beans at a time because there's no way to dump the grounds out without making a mess, and you'll end up with useless grounds anyway. It seems like they took a bad product and kept adding fixes, when they should have just started over. We're not coffee snobs (we would be if we could afford to be), but this grinder is just frustrating.

This grinder was purchased to replace a Mr. Coffee blade grinder which worked just fine for 5 years. Daily use, grinding 8 scoops of beans at a time, with no problems. It only died because I burned out the motor trying to grind 10 scoops at once. -Am considering buying another Mr Coffee grinder, and am definitely returning the Cuisinart. This is the second Cuisinart product I regret having purchased. The Cuisinart name does not mean what it used to.

Really does the job/solid product
This is a lovely, heavy unit that works beautifully. I bought it mainly for spices but did use it first for coffee beans when I was having trouble with my burr grinder. Since I'm used to turning a wheel on the burr grinder to get the level of grind I need, I had to experiment a couple of times to get it right with this grinder but the result was consistent and evenly ground coffee beans. I used them in my french press and it was perfect.

I'll probably keep this exclusively for spices since I already have a burr grinder but it is a well made, attractive addition to my countertop and I found nothing awkward about using it. The top fits well and the pulsing was far more quiet than I'd expected. A good product in all I'd say.

Bad design/good looks
great look but very bad design....just the tiniest "thing" that engages the motor when you push the button down.....worked 3 times then failed to connect. I have a 10 year old "Mr. Coffee" that does extremely well, although it has high EMF's and to keep my hand away from the strong EMF's I use the butt end of a wooden spoon to push down the button while grinding coffee.....

Small & efficiant
Great coffee grinder. I have had mine for 8 years (older version?) and it is still going strong. Can also be used for spices, but clean well before and after.

Terrible Design!
The grinder is too small and you are guaranteed to spill beans everywhere. Get the Krups instead, I have that one at work and it is much better.

Coffee LITE
Everything seems to be functioning correctly, but the coffee has been weak. First cups were Timothy's decaf, supposedly a medium strength coffee. I tried the 10 oz setting first, very weak. The default 8 oz setting was a little better, but still far weaker than the tar I'm used to from Starbucks and Java City. Maybe the 6 oz setting will make a strength I can enjoy. I'll try others from the sample pack at sunrise. This is my first machine like this, so I have no base for comparison. After reading about Keurigs, I decided a 3-yr warranty from Cuisinart would be a good thing.

It seems like the water is shooting quickly through the K-cups and not stopping even a microsecond with the grounds to brew through. If I have to regularly drop down to 6 oz I'm going to feel I'm not getting my money's worth from a K-cup.

GOOD: Very quiet, stylish machine. Clear instructions.
NOT SO GOOD: Very big machine for limited counter space, and too tall in the open-for-K-cup position to fit under the cupboards above--needs at least 17 inches vertically. So I had to set up a sort of coffee bar on a table and rearrange surface space all over my kitchen.

Don't go looking for product numbers on the filled machine after you set it up. They're on the bottom of the carton.

If the problem is Timothy's coffee or just a breaking-in period, I'll be back to update.

Waste of time and money
Update 8/28/10: I called Cuisinart Customer Service and told them of the problem as suggested by another user. They are sending me out a new one ASAP and UPS has already picked up the old one (which they arranged for). Apparently I have a 3 year warranty. I'll give it another go. The customer service rep was very nice and extremely helpful.

Piece of junk. It won't brew after 2 months. I have now owned 3 Keurigs and changed to the cuisinart all in 8 MONTHS. Every one of them have broke. I drink one cup of coffee a day and this is perfect for me but I'm going back to a cheap coffee maker that works!!!!

Not a good machine....
I tried really heard to embrace the whole single serve coffee idea. Had a Breville which was having intermittent problems; it would indicate brewing, but not brew anything. It became temperamental to say the least. So, I called Breville and they provided me with a label to return the machine and promised to send me a new one.

In the meantime, I set my sites on this Cusinart Model.

It is going back to BB&B today.

This morning it took me over an hour to make a cup of coffee.

Had it only about 2 weeks.

The first cup was cold and light.

Then it wouldn't make any coffee.

After turning it off an on many times, I pretty much gave up.

I am reconsidering the single serve coffee idea; while it is convenient, not sure it is worth the hassle!

Great so far!
Have had the SS-700 for about 3 weeks now and it's great! No problems with pump issues (so far) that others have described, but glad to have the 3 year warranty just in case. Coffee comes out nice and hot and the variety of K-Cups is great-- as the only coffee drinker in the house, I no longer have to drink a whole pot of the same kind. The My K-Cup is fantastic as well and works perfectly with a few modifications as suggested in other reviews: first, insert a used K-Cup back in the holder and punch a 2nd hole in the bottom; then, take off the foil top, remove the coffee and filter, and cut off the top rim; then place the metal filter of the My K-Cup inside the plastic K-Cup. Also, roll down slightly the rubber gasket on the upper needle for a better seal. Works great and have rarely had a cup that overflows or has coffee grounds in it. The large water tank is great too-- actually can't imagine having one much smaller since I seem to refill it a lot as it is. Only challenge so far is the "travel mug" setting; nice to have, but the My K-Cup doesn't seem to pack in enough coffee for that much volume. Regular K-Cups have been fine so far on both the 8 and 10 oz. settings. Haven't yet tried the "travel mug" K-Cups, maybe those would do the trick. Very satisfied with the purchase.

Good but not for me.
This coffee maker maybe is good but not for me. I like my coffee strong and those packages are good if I would make like 4 oz of a cup. I drink 10 oz. of my cup of coffee so I would have to make 2 packages and that makes inconvenient for me.
the insert for making your own coffee works but same problem to weak for me.

Other then that it has a good future but for 0.00 it would be very Expensive and will not pay off in years for my use.

I purchased thinking my coffee would be something good but is same us regular coffee maker.

Not refreshing to wake up to coffee all over your counter
Worked great for a year and then I experienced the same issue as other reviewers.

Spills coffee all over the counter/floor. You wake up to a hot mess instead of hot coffee!

Was great while it lasted.

not well designed
I got this coffee maker in July 2010 to replace a Capresso that is no longer made. I have not been happy with it. The pouring spout is poorly designed so that it pours very, very slowly. The water reservoir is not removable and so is hard to fill properly. The brown funnel stopped working today so I could not make my morning coffee. Cuisinart is sending me a new funnel but this should not have broken while the machine is this new. Also, the thermal top is hard to clean unless you put it in the dishwasher. Start over Cuisinart.

very good
very good. only thing is i sometimes forget to put back the cover on the carafe and well a hugh mess ensues. which they would make it so that it would not work if the cover is off.otherwise i highly recommend it!!!!

Works fine but could be better
While the coffee maker works fine and does everything as advertised (e.g. timer, clock, setting for 1-4 cups) I wonder if the people designing these things really drink coffee ? The opening for the water reservoir is a very small corner in the top right part. In order to add water one has to open the top lid which only opens to a 90 degree angle. It is virtually impossible to pour all the water from the carrafe into the small opening without twisting the caraffe and spilling some into the filter (or outside the coffee maker). Come on, people. This is not rockect science, this is a coffee pot. Have the lid open all the way or be able to take it off instead of just flipping it up 90 degrees would solve the problem. Other than that, everything works nicely. One plus: Once the coffee is done it stays hot in the caraffe for a long time.

Average coffee maker
I like everything about the coffee maker except for one thing. The thermal carafe does NOT keep the coffee hot. I am the only coffee drinker in the house so it takes a while to work through several cups of coffee in the pot, and it gets lukewarm in a hurry. I've wondered if I have a defective carafe since it cools off so much. In fact, I've emailed Cusinart customer service TWICE to ask them about it and they didn't respond either time. I'm very disappointed, both with the carafe and the company.

Reliable, sturdy, and effective
The only reason I didn't give this a five-star review, is that the coffee carrafs do not retain their heat for more than about an hour. I had a similar machine before made by Melita. After 6 years of serve daily service, it died. I guess I was spoiled. I expected the Melita's performance of 3 hours of warmth. Oh well...

Wow, THE BEST Coffee maker!
I got itas a gift from mySister!!Its the best coffee maker for TWO TO GO!! Fresh,hot nO residue at the bottom of cups!Good to the last drop! I make my CAFE BUSTELLO init!!Mercedes!!Even its PRICE is Unbelieveable!!

THE best for its purpose
I owned its predessesor and was yearning to find this, but it had changed brand names so it took forever to find it again. It's quick, easy to clean and set up again in a jiffy. Takes a few tries before you determine how much coffee to add because the cups are huge.
The only flaw: the handle on the coffee ground basket is really flimsy. Don't be surprised if yours breaks off before long. But with a 3-year warranty, I guess they'd just send a replacement basket!
In short: well worth the convenience, quick to use and clean.

Cuisinart's step backward
I have used a Cuisinart TTG-500 Two-to-Go for years. I was so pleased with it's performance I bought a new one as a replacement. However, the new replacement now has a different type of on-off switch that is difficult to turn on. Once it is turned on it can not be tured off with the on-off switch before it goes through it's entire cycel and turns itself off. Even unplugging the machine will not reset the switch to the off position. When the machine is plugged in again it will be on, not off, even if it is days later, probably weeks or even years.

Also my older model could be re-loaded and more coffee made immediately after it automatically shuts off. The new machine can only be used again after it has cooled for a long period of time. There is no way to get the machine to turn on until this cooling off period time has elapsed. And that time is not known. From my experience it may be several hours.

Other than these inconvenient irritants the new version makes an excellent cup of coffe just like the original.

not good!
I have had this coffee maker for 3 years. It have problem some time, like brew cold coffee, not working and don't drip coffee from filter. I am about to say bye to it.