Cafe Duo has Duo Personality

Author's Rating:

Pros: Convenient, thermal steel carafes, coffee is easy to make.

Cons: Pours slowly from carafe, lots of plastic construction, overpriced.

The Bottom Line: 
This coffee maker performs well and is fairly solidly constructed, even though it is mostly plastic.

Author's Review
DESCRIPTION

The cafe duo coffee maker by DeLonghi is essentially two coffee pots in one. It contains two brewing stations with two large stainless steel carafes to store the coffee in.

The set comes with different colored brewing lids in addition to the black ones, so you can identify which one is decaf, tea, etc.

EASE OF USE
Using this appliance is just about as easy as you can get. You put the grinds in the reusable filter (or paper filter if you wish), poor water in the container at the back and press the ON button.

Everything is quite user friendly in terms of making coffee and setting up the machine. Programming the timer is just as simple as setting up the timer, just press SET and enter the time, and you're done. You can even set the timer for each pot individually.

Once problem you will find if using paper filters like I do to make coffee (I find the reusable ones are too porous) is that they have to be securely in place, otherwise they will fold over when wet and block the flow of water on the grinds and you'll get a weaker cup of coffee.

Another issue, which is not a big deal for me, is that the way the carafes are set up, you need to twist the lid and line up arrows to pour the coffee. Pouring the coffee is a little slow with this method but it doesn't drip all over which is a good thing.

CONSTRUCTION
This is one area that I have a problem with. As with most products by this manufacturer, the construction is mostly plastic. This is true no matter what the manufacturer but is this case, a lot of the parts such as the brewing valve is plastic. This is the only real poor placement as I could see it breaking over time. Other than that, the construction is solid even though it is mostly plastic and the carafes' handles are thickly constructed and durable.

One other bonus, since the carafes are metal, they keep the coffee nice and hot for hours!

BREWING
This is largely subjective, however I found the cafe duo, like other delonghi coffee makers, to brew good tasting coffee.

COST
The regular cost is around $150 which I think is way too much for this coffee maker. I got mine on ebay for $60. There are many stainless steel coffee makers out there for $30 or less, so if you wanted two, just buy two.

However, this coffee saves the space and bother by buying two since they are both integrated. If you could pick this up for under $100 it would be worth it, anything more and it is really a waste of money because the plastic construction does not really warrant such an item to be that expensive.

GOOD FOR
This coffee maker is ideal for a small office, or home office as it keeps lots of coffee warm for a long time and allows you to make two types at once (in case some in the office like decaf or an exotic blend). Also good if you regularly have lots of people over.

NOT FOR
I wouldn't recommend this for a restaurant or larger office as it doesn't pour very quickly and constant, continuous use might render it obsolete because of the mostly plastic construction.