Coffee Makers Review
Drip Coffee Maker Considerations
If you have ever been camping, then you know how easy it is to make coffee without electronic gadgetry. Light a fire. Bring water to a boil. Throw in ground coffee and steep for almost five minutes. Settle the grounds by adding a tablespoon or two of cold water and enjoy. At the other end of the spectrum is a far more convenient (although kitchen-bound) method: the electronic drip coffee maker. Drip coffee makers show quite a surprising variety of useful features and product design approaches. We invite you to read articles about coffee makers. After careful analysis, we find the TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award winner to be the Cuisinart Programmable Automatic Coffee Maker, the TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award winner is the KRUPS Programmable Coffee Maker and the TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award winner is the Mr. Coffee 12-Cup Programmable Coffee Maker.
Drip Coffee Maker Buyer’s Guide
In our review we are examining the ever-popular family-sized drip coffee makers, not espresso machines, French presses or percolators. All of the drip coffee machines in our review are affordable and have 8-12 cup capacity. If you concentrate on which basic design features and capabilities are necessary and then consider nice-to-have convenience features, there is a product specific to your needs. As you ponder the best coffee maker for you, consider also the length of warranty and the availability of customer service.
Basic Features
If you live alone and drink one cup of coffee every now and then, a 12-cup capacity coffee maker might be too large, that is, until you host a dinner party. After deciding on capacity, the next thing to decide is whether you want an insulated holding tank with a dispenser, or a carafe that rests on a hot plate. In light of the clearance between your kitchen counter and the bottom of the kitchen cabinets, take into account the height of the unit and whether or not it is designed to be loaded from the front. If you choose a product with a water filter, it will make better tasting coffee and reduce scale buildup, especially if you aren’t using filtered water to begin with. Power output in watts is another basic feature to consider because there is a correlation between power output and brewing time.
Convenience Features
Once you‘ve decided on the basic features, turn your attention to features of convenience. Options include water level indicators, programmable clocks and the ability to sneak a cup during brewing. When the brewing is complete, do you want to hear a beep? If you want the machine to shut itself off after a period of time, are you happy with two hours, or do you want the option to decrease or prolong the shut-down time?
Help & Support
Every vendor in our coffee makers review provides telephone support with varying degrees of response time, and some offer email support. Warranty periods range from one year to three, which is quite a range, so be aware of the warranty period as you make your selection.
When you are weekend camping in the wilderness, it is all very well to wake up, stoke the embers from the previous night’s fire and boil water for coffee. Back in the workaday weekday world, it is far more convenient to wake up to the smell of fresh coffee that you programmed to brew on cue.
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