Last updated: October 2, 2026
What It Is
The Cuisinart Fully Automatic Burr Grind and Brew (usually sold as the DGB-900 series) is a drip coffee maker with a built-in burr grinder. You fill the hopper with beans, load water, set the strength, and it grinds and brews on one cycle. Most versions include a thermal carafe, a programmable timer, a grind-size dial, and a strength selector that controls how much coffee it grinds per pot.
The pitch is simple: fresh-ground drip coffee without owning two machines. For households that brew a full pot every morning and mostly drink drip, that’s a real convenience. The trade-off is that everything is mediocre rather than great — a decent grinder, a decent brewer, one more thing to break.
The Grinder: Good for Drip, Not for Espresso
See also: Best Espresso Grinders for Home: Burr Size, Workflow and Budget Matched • Breville Smart Grinder Espresso
Cuisinart uses a flat burr set, which is already better than the blade grinders in cheaper grind-and-brew machines. It produces reasonably uniform grounds at drip and medium-fine settings. Where it falls short:
- Grind range is narrow. Eight settings, roughly covering medium-coarse to medium-fine. It will not go fine enough for espresso, and the coarsest setting isn’t ideal for French press either.
- Oily beans clog it. Dark, oily roasts gum up the burrs and the chute that feeds grounds to the filter basket. This is the most common failure mode owners report — the grinder runs, but grounds never reach the basket, and you get a pot of hot water. If you drink dark roast, plan on cleaning the chute weekly.
- It’s loud. The grind cycle runs 30–60 seconds and it’s not quiet. If your bedroom shares a wall with the kitchen, the programmable timer wakes you up at grind time, not pour time.
If you’re shopping this machine hoping to pull espresso shots with it, stop here — you’d need a dedicated espresso burr grinder that can grind significantly finer and with better consistency.
The Brewing Side
Brew temperature lands in the acceptable range for drip — not quite the SCA-ideal 195–205°F throughout the cycle, but close enough that most people won’t taste the difference with standard supermarket beans. The thermal carafe keeps coffee hot for a couple of hours without a hot plate, which means no cooked, bitter second cup. That’s a genuine advantage over glass-carafe machines at this price.
Two weak points worth knowing. First, the showerhead doesn’t saturate the grounds as evenly as a good pour-over or a machine like a Moccamaster, so extraction can be slightly uneven — mild, but noticeable with light roasts. Second, the water reservoir markings are on the side facing the wall in many kitchens. Small annoyance, but daily.
Grind-and-Brew vs. Separate Machines
The honest comparison most shoppers need isn’t between Cuisinart models — it’s whether an all-in-one beats a separate grinder and brewer at the same money.
| Cuisinart Grind & Brew (~$200) | Separate Grinder + Drip Brewer (~$200 total) | |
|---|---|---|
| Convenience | One button, programmable, zero handling | Two steps; you weigh, grind, and dose manually |
| Grind quality | Adequate for drip only | A basic burr grinder gives wider range and better consistency |
| Flexibility | Drip only; grinder can’t feed another device | Grinder works for pour-over, press, moka, espresso (if capable) |
| Failure modes | Clogged chute, leaking carafe lid; one failure kills the whole unit | Replace either piece independently |
| Maintenance | Must clean grinder chute, burrs, and brew path regularly | Grinder needs occasional cleaning; brewer needs descaling |
| Counter space | One footprint | Two footprints |
If you pair, say, a budget conical burr grinder with a basic programmable drip brewer, you’ll spend about the same and get slightly better coffee plus the option to upgrade either piece later. What you lose is the single-button morning routine, which for some households is the entire point.
Who Should Buy It
Buy it if: you drink a full pot of drip daily, like the timer feature, use medium-roast beans, and value convenience over maximum cup quality. It’s a genuinely good fit for offices and busy families.
Skip it if: you only brew one or two cups (a single-serve brewer or a pour-over coffee maker is cheaper and better at that scale), you drink dark oily roasts and won’t commit to cleaning the chute, or you want any espresso capability at all.
One more practical note: the hopper holds about a half-pound of beans, but beans sitting in a hopper for days go stale faster than in a sealed bag. If you’re a freshness nerd, weigh out beans each morning and treat the hopper as a funnel, not storage. At that point, the convenience argument weakens, and a conical burr coffee grinder plus a drip machine starts looking like the smarter buy.
Reliability and Maintenance Reality
Expect two to four years of daily use if you maintain it. The failure points are predictable: the grinder chute clogs (user-fixable with a brush, annoying), the carafe lid can leak if the gasket seat gets dirty, and the heating element eventually dies like every drip machine’s does. Descale monthly if your water is hard — mineral buildup in the brew path is the quiet killer.
Replacement parts availability is mediocre. Once the grinder mechanism itself fails out of warranty, repair usually costs more than the machine is worth. That’s the nature of all-in-one appliances.
FAQ
Can I use it without grinding, with pre-ground coffee?
Yes. There’s a “grind off” mode that brews directly from the filter basket. Useful for decaf drinkers in the household or when the grinder chute is being cleaned.
Does it work for espresso?
No. The grinder doesn’t go fine enough, and it brews drip coffee — there’s no pump or portafilter. It’s a drip machine, full stop.
How noisy is it?
Loud during the grind cycle — roughly blender-adjacent for under a minute. The brewing itself is quiet.
Is the thermal carafe worth it?
Yes. It keeps coffee hot about two hours without a hot plate, so the last cup doesn’t taste stewed. It’s one of the stronger reasons to choose this over cheaper glass-carafe models.
