Best Drip Coffee Maker
Updated: February 26, 2023
Imagine the morning sun shooting across your kitchen shades and illuminating your counter. Then, a tranquil breeze comes gusting the flowy fabrics of your window, and the ever so slight beeping of a kitchen appliance signals its completion. Finally, the smell of freshly brewed coffee draws you closer to your kitchen countertop made from your best drip coffee maker!
Table of contents:
- 1. Best Drip Coffee maker
- 2. The best drip coffee maker at this moment
- 3. What is a drip coffee maker?
- 4. How to use the best drip coffee maker?
- 5. How to set coffee strength with a drip coffee maker?
- 6. How we selected the best drip coffee maker
- 7. Features you need to remember
- 8. The pros and cons of a drip coffee maker
- 9. Conclusion
The best drip coffee maker at this moment
When it comes to drip coffee makers, there aren’t many tasks entailed. It’s mostly just putting in water, coffee grounds, and pressing a button. However, there are a few details that are important to the day-to-day coffee brewing from these drip coffees–and I will be diving into details below. Here is my Top 3 Best drip coffee makers list:
The KRUPS simply brew family drip coffee maker is a very compact machine with an elegant design, without unnecessary features.
Using the Krups Simply Brew Family is everything you would expect from a drip coffee maker. Everything you need to make a simple yet robust cup without the extra baggage. With its affordability you can’t go wrong. And if you happen to be the forgetful type, the machine automatically turns off after an hour of use.
Specifications
- 10–cup carafe
- #2 Cone paper filter
- Warming plate
- The carafe has a useful water-measuring diagram that shows you how much coffee you’ll get from how much water.
- Auto-off feature
- Pause-serve brewing system
- Simple 1-button control
This coffee pot design is a basic and easy-to-use machine. It produces the best cup of coffee consistently.
Everyone knows Mr. Coffee’s reputation for making stellar machines. But this coffee maker is without complicated options and buttons. With its life and clean filter basket you won’t have any trouble cleaning it out before a new brew. And with the double-view water reservoir, you don’t have an excuse for not seeing how many cups you’ve put in.
Specifications
- Basket-style filter
- 12-cup capacity
- Dual water viewports so you can’t miss the water measurements
- Lift & Clean the filter basket
- Grab a Cup auto-pause feature
The Ninja programmable coffee maker has custom brew strengths and a hotter brewing advanced boiler that produces hot, flavorful, and never-bitter coffee. The 24-hour delay brew, adjustable warming plate, and removable water reservoir provide ultimate convenience.
We don’t know if you know this, but when coffee hits hot water, it has a few seconds of releasing carbon dioxide, sometimes called degassing. This is what most coffee connoisseurs call “blooming”. It’s an important step to let your coffee bloom after adding a few milliliters of coffee to avoid getting bitter coffee. And most drip coffee machines don’t make time for blooming, but not the Ninja CE251. This machine has a pause right after you’ve pressed “brew”, giving the coffee time to bloom and creating the most smooth cup of coffee possible.
Specifications
- Easy removable filter basket
- #4 Paper cone filter capacity
- Slow drip feature
- Removable water tanks for easy cleaning
- Spoon that comes attached to the back of the machine
- Programmable for fresh coffee right after you wake up
- Warming plate with a separate switch that you can adjust how long it stays on.
- In-Machine cleaning feature
What is a drip coffee maker?
Drip Coffee makers, you probably see them all the time. They’re the machines in police stations, teacher’s lounge, or in some medspa reception’s areas. Commonly called a “coffee machine”, these seemingly innocent-looking, boxy, compact machines can keep you awake for hours.
Usually coming with its own carafe, how the best drip coffee maker works is pretty simple. Water taken from the water tank/reservoir is passed along a heating element, which also heats the plate under the carafe. Then, the water is converted into small droplets and passes through small tubing that runs up into the funnel where your filter is, either reusable or paper, with your ground coffee. The water, being just the right temperature, slowly saturates the grounds and carries its oils and flavors down the funnel and into the pot.
Some drip coffee makers have certain settings that allow the grounds to bloom, and start making a fresh batch of coffee at a specific time of day. There are even features that keep or even reheat the coffee already made. But, that’s a machine-to-machine basis, and it all depends on what you want and what your lifestyle looks like.
How to use the best drip coffee maker
Always refer to the printed manual that comes with your machine. However, the absolute plethora of drip coffee makers out there makes it easier to have a general understanding of how to use one. Before I start explaining, it’s nice if you also have a coffee scoop at hand. This works the easiest. Or if you don’t have a coffee filter machine yet and are going to purchase it now, I recommend buying a coffee scoop also. I will now explain step by step how a drip coffee machine works.
- Make sure everything is rinsed clean and dry: you do NOT want old coffee residue in your new batch as it can make the supposedly fresh and smooth batch bitter.
- Use a coffee scoop: One coffee scoop is enough for 1 cup of Joe . If you want more coffee, you have to add an extra scoop.
- Water: The water reservoir indicates how much water you need for how many cups. Pour the required water reservoir into the water reservoir.
- Brew: Now all that’s left to do is switch the machine on or, again, depending on the specific machine, press a button and get your fresh liquid gold in no time.
How to set coffee strength with a drip coffee maker?
You can determine the strength of coffee by the amount of water and coffee scoops. The more water, the fewer scoops, the lighter. The less water and the more scoops, the stronger the coffee.
How we selected the best drip coffee maker
- Functionality: A drip coffee maker is a pretty basic machine to handle. So, we ensured that the basic functions were top-notch and worth the price.
- Performance: Many think that just because you get a more affordable machine, you’re sacrificing quality or efficiency. But that’s not the case with our pick of the lot. We made sure that, regardless of the price tags, your final result will be the best it can be.
- User-Friendly: Though most controls vary from machine to machine, we can confidently say that most drip coffee maker controls are as simple as flipping a switch and sitting tight.
- Design: This feature, albeit non-essential with function, does a lot in gracing your kitchen countertop. And besides aesthetic design, we vetted these final 3 for their functional, human-centric design as well.
- Price-Quality Ratio: Though most drip coffee makers are affordable, we made sure that regardless of the price displayed, you would get the best of the best.
- Warming plate: Yes, the best drip coffee makers have really hot warming plates. But you’d be surprised at how elusive a machine can be in hiding whether or not it does have one. So, make sure to double-check if keeping your coffee warm for longer is a deal–breaker.
- Carafe: Most carafes are glass. Some even have measuring indicators to help you measure both the water that goes into the machine and the coffee that comes out. But some are also made of double-wall stainless steel. Each comes with its own set of pros and cons.:
- Filter basket: Most filter baskets come right off of them it’s the compartment. But SOME don’t at all. So, make sure that yours can be removed for easy cleaning. Who knows, wandering hands may get something stuck in there.
- Water Reservoir: While mainly just a tank to store water for your coffee, some tanks are detachable for an easier cleaning and descaling process. If it’s a deal–breaker for you, you should look for a reservoir that can come clean off.
- Auto-Off : If you’re the type to either forget to turn things off, an auto-off feature can be a lifesaver–literally.
- Programmability: Most drip coffee makers don’t automatically brew your coffee in the morning. But they exist and can certainly brighten up your day. Some of them can be set 12 hours before on average.
The pros and cons of a drip coffee maker
If you choose a drip coffee maker, it is of course important to consider the pros and cons.
They are one of the most used coffee makers for the home. The big advantage is that they are generally affordable coffee devices, you can even find a coffee maker under $100!
To make it easy for you i’ve made an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of a drip coffee maker below.
advantages of a drip coffee maker
- You get to enjoy an authentic coffee flavor: no burnt taste and no scalding of the grounds.
- You get to save energy: This means that you can enjoy a hot cup of coffee even without electricity.
- It’s portable: Whether you’re mountain climbing, in the office, or are just chillin’ in your room, a french press is your little java companion that allows you to enjoy coffee wherever you go.
disadvantages of a drip coffee maker
- The process: this is not for someone who finds coffee preparation as a daunting task and we’d have to admit that it’s not everyday that we feel geared up to make coffee this way.
- Lesser brewing options: Of course, because it’s manual and conventional, (no buttons and presets) you don’t have a choice but to manually learn the brewing flavor that works for you.
Conclusion
In short, the best drip coffee maker is the way to go if you’re looking to get a quick dose of caffeine in the morning, or at any time. But, if you require a little more finesse and nuance in your cup, you won’t get satisfied with a simple coffee maker like this. Finally, if all you need is a quickie, the above machines are not only high-quality, but are also a bang for your buck!
If you’re a coffee snob, you probably would prefer an other type of coffee maker. If you are looking for an other type of coffee machine it is also interesting to read the following guides such as: best dual coffee maker, best thermal coffee maker and coffee maker with grinder.