Slow water drip

First of all it depends on the hardness of the water. Vinegar doesn't really work in the heavy lime belt area of the midwest. It is better if you use lime away. It is an ecolab product that is great at lime removal. Use one cup per pot. Then rinse two pots worth if this is the kind of machine that uses the same water that is put in during each brew cycle. Some brewers have a reservoir. Bunnomatic is an example of that kind of brewer. If you use lime away in that kind of brewer you need to run about thirty pots to remove all the lime scale remover from the brewer. Slow brewing can also be caused by over softened water. I drove from Indy to Iowa after installing a brewer and then a day later the store put in a softener and over softened the water causing the coffee filter to clog up with sodium. Also check the sprayer disc or head where the water comes out. Over time coffee "paste" will build up around the outlet and if you don't wipe it clean or "smear" the coffee grounds around the outlet that will slow down the brewing cycle. I have thirty years as a brewer technician and it is usually one of the things I have covered, providing that the heat element isn't defective.

Cuisinart Brew Central Coffeemaker DCC-1200 Series
Steaming, gurgling, and slow coffee production

My Cuisinart DCC-1200 started to slow its brew time, gurgled non-stop, and steamed up my kitchen. Visiting numerous self-help repair sites, I read about vinegar treatments, CLR flushes, and flushing the water chamber to clear any stray coffee grounds.

First I started with the easy process of flushing out the water chamber. No luck. Then I moved on to performing a couple of vinegar "self-cleaning" runs, the gurgling continued. I then graduated to a 50% strength CLR flush, the gurgling and steaming continued without change.

It was time for surgery. One post that I read suggested opening the bottom base plate and snooping around. Here's what I learned that worked.

1. Open the bottom base-plate on the DCC-1200 unit using a T10 Torx precision screwdriver (less than $5 at your local hardware store). You will need to loosen four (4) screws - two built into the feet and two found on the opposite ends of the base plate.

2. Check to see if the electronic wires are clean and intact. Mine were. No electronic issues for me.

3. Locate the two dark-orange colored flexible water tubes. One tube pulls water from the water chamber (reservoir) routing it to the heating element. The other routes hot water from the heating element and circulates it to a pipe that connects to the shower unit above the coffee basket.

4. Feel along each of the two dark-orange water tubes. One may contain a hard section where an in-line plastic filter unit is located. Remove this tube by loosening each end. Note that the end connected to the heating element may be a bit more difficult to remove as it may be melted onto the metal section it covers. A little tugging will release it. Don't rip it, be gentle and it will eventually release.

5. Push the in-line plastic filter unit out of the tube and inspect it. Mine was roughly ½ inch long, made of white plastic, contained a small round ball much like a small ball bearing), and several pieces of large coffee grounds. I removed the coffee grounds and made sure that the small ball was re-inserted into the center of the filter unit.

6. Push the plastic filter back into the dark-orange flexible tube and reattach it to the two connections on the coffee maker. Reset the bottom plate in place and line up the four screws. Tighten the screws with the Torx T10 - the screws strip easily so don't overdo it.

7. Flip over the unit and make your coffee. My result was that the unit returned to normal coffee production - no gurgling, no excessive steaming, and its normal production time. The brewed coffee tasted better as well - probably due to the earlier vinegar and CLR flushes.

8. Happy coffee break to you!

I had the same problem...but the solution is simple. Use a product called C L R. You might have seen it advertised on TV to clean calcium build up. It really works! I ran it through my machine several (4) times--first concentrated--then a 50-50 mix with water. Make sure after the machine is cleared that you clean it thoroughly with water. Good Luck.