Jura-Capresso C1000 Espresso Machine & Coffee Maker

Amidst all the glowing reviews of the Capresso C1000 that are floating out on the web, here's a voice of reality. Buyer beware!

Unquestionably, the C1000 is a marvelous machine in many ways, as all these reviews will attest, and it's indeed packed with features: from power-on to espresso with delicate crema is a minute-and-a-half, and it's wonderfully automatic, with no more than a button to press to get the foamy brew. When it works, that is...

The C1000's problems start with its grinder. Bean flow into the ill-designed grinder is a problem Capresso openly acknowledges. Their solution: requiring you to dry your fresh beans in open air first (!), robbing them of their best essences. When beans don't feed well, which is often, the grinder (which only runs for a fixed time, not to a certain volume of grounds) routinely fails to get enough grist for its mill. The brewer detects that there are insufficient grounds present and aborts the brewing process early, resulting in a few tablespoons of espresso, regardless of front panel volume setting.

Having battled with this grinder feeding problem for months, and receiving no more help from Capresso USA tech support than, "dry your beans for days and use the coarsest grind setting", I tired of its quirks. I decided to use the Capresso's pre-ground coffee feature instead: I grind the beans myself in a hand grinder, press the "grinder bypass" button on the C1000, dump my grounds into the ground funnel, press the "brew" button, and voila! espresso.

I had other minor problems with the unit as well, and other operational beefs, but made the best of it for a couple of years in this mode.

But then, about 6 months ago and thousands of cups of coffee later, I made a single fatal mistake: I dumped two scoops of grounds in the pre-ground coffee funnel and accidentally forgot to press the "grinder bypass" button before then pressing "brew". The C1000 happily ran its grinder and then proceeded to overfill the internal brew chamber because of the grounds I'd already added. Oooops! From that point on the unit was kaput -- it would never perform a full brew cycle again. Even after having cleared out every possible bit of sludge, ground, and bean from its every orifice, every brew cycle would from that point on halted early, resulting in my few tablespoons of coffee.

I'd dreaded calling Capresso service because of their snooty attitude I'd gotten before (the C1000 is the Mercedes-Benz of coffeemakers, and you're an idiot). Sure enough, even though I started off very pleasant, the service rep was curt, condescending, and argumentative. After a long call, and having no other option (my unit was out of warranty by then), I finally agreed to paying their $125 factory repair charge, and sent it off for weeks.

I got the repaired unit back, and out of the box the grinder still didn't work. Once again, the service reps were obnoxious, treating me as if I was using it for the first time and stepping me through the most idiotic measures. Turns out it just needed to run many times before it would work -- after dozens of trials on the phone, the grinder finally started working intermittently, and got more consistent over several days to where worked regularly for months. I was back to using the grinder again.

Then... yesterday, it happened again. I loaded the funnel with 1 scoop of grounds, went to scoot the unit away from the wall a little before pressing the "grinder bypass" button, and oops! my thumb bumped the "brew" button instead first. "Uh-oh!", I thought -- here we go again. But then I was optimistic, since the brew chamber has a capacity of 2 scoops of grounds, and I'd only put 1 scoop in, plus maybe another half-scoop or so that would result from the lowest-volume grinder setting. But no, alas!, the unit was broken again! It thenceforth steadfastly refused to brew another full cycle as before, stopping early and issuing a mere dribble of coffee again every time.

Back to Capresso USA service, my favorite folks. This time they were the worst. The rep again argued with me, saying that what happened couldn't possibly have broken the unit; no, it was my choice of beans or the grind setting, or a stone (!) among the beans -- just reading from a script. I got cut off mid-call, and had to redial, putting me into the wait queue again. The next rep gave me more of the same confrontational style. (Do they attend mandatory Attitude School?) This one gave me a different story, though, slapping me around for having engaged the grinder after putting grounds in the pre-ground funnel (duh!), and confirming that, yes, that irretrievably clogs up the unit, and I'd have to send it back for repairs for another $125. The repair warranty is only good for 90 days, and it'd been 6 months since I got it back. $125 for every mis-hit button.

Round and round we went, and after arguing and getting nowhere with her, I asked for a manager. He was at lunch, and called me back a few hours later. By then, my annoyance had abated, and I started off courteously trying to point out the minor design flaw that existed, and ... boom! he cut me off midsentence. I never completed another sentence in that call -- he'd bulldoze over anything I tried to say or question I tried to ask. Everyone loves this unit, he bragged, there was never anything wrong with them, they don't get any complaints, and I could write a letter to HQ if I disagreed.

Well, ahem! there *is* something wrong with an "automatic" unit, it seems to me, whose first processing stage (the grinder) works marginally at best, requires you to degrade the quality of the raw materials you put in it to even function at all, and imposes a costly penalty in repairs for every mis-hit button, with no possibility of remedying the problem yourself. If it is so dreadfully damaging to the brewing compartment to have an admixture of grounds from the funnel and the grinder both, then why don't prevent that with an interlock, or let the excess just fall down into the used grounds bin, or allow for cleanout of the clog?

Since the warranty was expired anyway, I disassembled the unit as much as I could (despite its being riveted closed on the back and would require breaking the case to open it completely without a factory jig). I could see the whole pathway from the grinder and grounds funnel into the brewing chamber, and there were absolutely no clogs anywhere. Making the mistake I did doesn't appear to have caused a clog at all; apparently it triggers a flaw with the internal control board, sensors, or onboard software, all of which the factory replaced in the first repair. And will now have to replace again.

Verdict: when it works, the C1000 is fabulous, makes great coffee, and is really handy. Chances are if you own one you'll love it, especially if you can get a discounted one now. It's quite fragile, though. Just don't _ever_ do anything wrong! Think _carefully_ before you hit every button, and don't let anyone use it without an extensive training session. And pray you don't need their atrocious service!

Dunno if later Capresso models have fixed the C1000's various design flaws, but after my experience I'm certainly done with Capresso as a company.