If you love a good cup of joe and don’t really want to go to a coffeeshop to enjoy one, a home coffee maker is what you’re looking for.
If you enjoy a good cup of coffee in the morning or throughout the day, looking for the best home coffee maker on the market seems to be quite natural. We all want our cup of java to be delightful, but we’d also like that preparing it was convenient and hassle-free. That’s when a great coffee maker comes handy.
There are quite a few coffee machines on the market and sometimes it might be difficult to choose one that will satisfy all your needs and won’t drain your wallet. You can find coffee machines manufactured by companies such as Mr. Coffee, Keurig, Cuisinart, Presto or Brunn, but how to choose one?
Table of Contents
How To Choose a Coffee Maker?
When choosing a coffee maker, make sure you will consider few important factors such as your needs, quality of the machine and customer reviews. That will help you in making a conscious decision when buying a coffee machine and you’ll buy an appliance that will serve you well for a long period of time and make your coffee (and life!) more pleasurable.
Factors to consider:
- Your needs and wants. Do you need a sophisticated device with tons of various features? Do you really find all the additional bells and whistles useful and will use them? If so, considering a more expensive, feature-rich coffee maker is reasonable. If you need a simple coffee machine that will make preparing your morning caffeine fix more convenient, choosing an inexpensive machine without unnecessary features is the way to go. Also, if you’re looking for a coffee machine that’s easy to use, make sure you buy one that doesn’t require you to go through 10 steps to make a simple cup of coffee.
- Quality of the machine. It doesn’t matter if you’ll buy a feature-rich coffee-making monster or a simple drip coffee machine, always buy a high quality product. This way you’ll be able to make the best coffee possible using that device. What’s also important: avoid cheap plastic materials – it’s said that plastic can affect the taste of the coffee in a negative way and you really don’t want that to happen.
- Customer reviews. Reading customer reviews will help you big time. After reading a couple of reviews you’ll have a pretty good idea what to expect from the device and whether you’re going to like it or not. Make sure you read a couple critical reviews, but remember you can’t always rely on them entirely. Why? Sometimes an unlucky buyer will get a lemon (or a customer has unreal expectations) and state that the device doesn’t work as it’s supposed to. If it has happened once or twice, it’s nothing to be concerned about, but if there is a reasonable group of customers that complain about a certain feature, chances are it’s really an issue you should consider.
Electric Coffee Percolators
Presto 12-Cup Stainless Steel Coffee Maker
Presto 12-Cup Coffee Maker is an all stainless steel appliance. It’s an electric percolator that can produce 4 to 12 cups of rich coffee, as fast as one cup per minute. Once your coffee is ready, this coffee maker keeps it hot (please remember coffee loses some of its flavor after a while). People love percolators mostly because they can make great tasting coffee and this one is no different.
Please remember that you need to grind the coffee yourself, preferably using percolator (a bit coarser) setting, so you won’t get a mouthful of grinds. As I’ve mentioned earlier – the coffee is very rich and there will surely be some sediment at the bottom, but not much. When it comes to cleaning the device, one of the customers recommends to unclog the filter basket with a brush as the best (and quickest) way to do it.
Please note that a small group of people complains that this coffee maker doesn’t last long.
West Bend 58030 Automatic Party Perk
West Bend 58030 is a 30-cup automatic coffeemaker with 2-way dripless faucet. It features an automatic temperature control, so as long as the device will be plugged, the coffee will stay really hot. It’s a great choice if you often have guests – everyone can serve themselves and the coffee will always be hot.
It’s a percolator that’s easy to use, easy to clean and keep the coffee hot. Oh, and one more thing, many people find perked coffee the best!
Drip Coffee Machines
Mr. Coffee 4-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker
Mr. Coffee Programmable Coffeemaker is an inexpensive 4-cup coffee maker ideal for one- or two-person households or families with one coffee drinker. It has few really useful features like pausing brewing (so you can pour a cup and continue brewing) or programming the unit in advance for morning coffee. It’s easy to use and makes great coffee.
This coffee maker has quite a few critical reviews on Amazon, but if you’ll take a look at the newest ones, most of them are 4- or 5-star reviews, so the product is better than it was a couple of years ago. If in doubt, check out some of the newest customer reviews to decide if it’s a coffee machine for you. Make sure to read at least one or two reviews written by people who use this appliance for more than half a year!
Hamilton Beach Two Way Brewer Single Serve and 12 cup Coffee Maker
Hamilton Beach Two Way Brewer is a coffee maker that supports two ways to brew – single cup or 12-cup glass carafe. This way you can easily make a pot of coffee for your family in the morning and if one needs a quick cup of java during the day, using the single cup features makes it a snap. Of course the set includes a 14-oz. stainless steel travel mug with lid and a 12-cup glass carafe.
This coffee maker features a brew strength selector – you can choose regular or bold coffee, depending on your preferences. If you wish, you can program the device to brew coffee at selected time. You can do it up to 24 hours beforehand, so you can set the timer for coffee to be ready first thing in the morning. The single cup brewer uses Senseo Pods or ground coffee, so it’s 100% up to you what to choose.
Bonavita BV1800 can brew 8 5-oz. cups in about 6 minutes. You can choose a model with stainless steel carafe (that keeps the coffee warm for longer) or a glass carafe model. It’s a pretty minimalistic appliance – it has only an on/off switch. No timers, dials, clocks or stop button. It’s designed to be used in a one way – prepare everything, switch to “on” and get tasty piping hot coffee after 6-7 minutes. Please note you cannot pour a cup until the whole cycle is finished.
If that’s important to you, it’s a SCAA-certified device. The most important thing people love about this coffee machine is that it makes a great coffee, so if you’re with the lack of some features, it’s a great choice.
