Best Coffee Maker Buying Guide

Last updated: December 2018

For many of us, the daily grind can’t begin until we’ve had that first cup of piping hot coffee—so the right brewer is at the top of the list.

You can spend $200 or more for a coffee maker with interactive displays and the kind of stainless steel detailing you’d find on pro-style ranges. But our most recent tests show that a consistently good cup can be had for half that.

Still, you might want more features than a simple on/off switch. A little more money buys conveniences such as programmability, a thermal carafe to keep coffee hot longer, settings that let you adjust brew strength, and more.

How Do You Take Your Coffee?

Number of Cups?
If one cup is enough to jump-start your day, choose a one- or two-cup drip model or a single-serve machine. Need more? Choose a larger automatic drip or one of the specialty machines, such as an electric French press. Most large models brew 10 to 12 cups, although typically a “cup” is really only 5 to 6 ounces, not 8.

How Often Do You Need a Fix?
If you space out your coffee drinking throughout the day, consider a model with an insulated mug or carafe. These keep coffee hot and fresh-tasting for hours. The warming plates that come with glass pots can cause coffee to taste stale and burnt from sitting around too long. But thermal carafes are not perfect. Our testers say they tend to dribble and can sometimes be difficult to handle.

Can’t See Straight in the Morning?
For some people, filling the coffee machine and turning it on is too much to handle in the morning. If that’s you, consider a unit with programming that can automatically brew each morning. (You set everything up the night before.) For the forgetful who rush out of the house in the morning, an automatic shutoff feature is also important.

Size and Height Considerations
Factor in counter space when choosing your model. All the machines in Consumer Reports’ tests can fit beneath upper cabinets, but you’ll still need to pull out most when it’s time to fill the reservoir.

Check Out Our Coffee Maker Ratings

Interactive Buying Guide

Watch our interactive video below. You can skip to different chapters on drip coffee makers, single-serve pod coffee makers, specialty coffee makers, and product features.

Coffee Maker Ratings by Consumer Reports

Match the Coffee Maker to Your Habits

You’ll find several varieties of coffee makers in the marketplace, including manual-drip systems, coffee presses, and single-serve pod coffee makers that brew individual cups using ready-to-use pods or packets of coffee. Below are the most common types.

Drip Coffee Makers

The most widely used type. With automatic drip machines you fill a chamber with water, load coffee into a filter basket, and flick a switch to heat the water and run it through the grounds and into the pot. Our top conventional drip machines reach 195° to 205° F for 5 to 6 minutes, the industry standard for optimal brewing.

Check Out Our Drip Coffee Maker Ratings

Single-Serve Pod Coffee Makers

These force water through a small packet, either a hard-shelled capsule (also called pods) or a soft packet resembling a tea bag. Some accept an adapter that takes your favorite loose grounds. Pod machines are more expensive to operate than other types because you need to buy special coffee refills. With plastic pods, there is also a lot of unrecyclable waste.

Our Latest Single-Serve Coffee Maker Ratings

Specialty

These machines brew differently from the standard drip method. Some mimic traditional French presses, suspending the coffee grounds in hot water for a period of time before filtering. (By contrast, automatic drip machines simply spray hot water on the grounds and it then drips through.)

See Our Specialty Coffee Maker Ratings

1- to 2-Mug Drip

These are designed to produce smaller quantities and come as either drip or pod models, the latter using an adapter to hold grounds. They sometimes brew directly into an insulated mug that’s ready to take with you in the car or on the train. Others accommodate your own “World’s Best Dad” mug.

How We Test Coffee Makers

For drip coffee makers, we conduct a brew-performance test to measure the brew temperature and contact time (how long water stays within the sweet spot of 195° F to 205° F for brewing).

“We also measure the concentration of the brewed coffee to make sure it’s not too weak or too strong,” says Ginny Lui, CR’s test engineer for coffee makers.

For single-serve pod coffee makers, our engineers evaluate temperature consistency and size consistency of individual cups of coffee. Then our expert coffee taste-tester weighs in.

Both types of coffee maker also undergo convenience tests to evaluate how easy it is to set timers, fill the reservoir, and clean the machine, among other things.

To create each model’s Overall Score, the results of our exhaustive testing are combined with brand-level data on predicted reliability and owner satisfaction from our annual survey of CR members. You’ll find all this in our coffee maker ratings of about 150 models.

The Lowdown on Features

Though some coffee maker features can make a machine easier and more convenient to use, there are several you won’t really need. To decide which coffee maker features are right for you, consider the list below.

Person dialing the preferred coffee strength.

Brew-Strength Control

When set, it slows water flow to produce a stronger brew.

Woman pouring a cup of coffee while machine pauses brewing.

Pause and Serve

Most machines let you pull the carafe away to fill your cup without spilling coffee all over. Be aware that if you dip in after only a cup or two has brewed, the coffee can be unpleasantly strong.

Self-Serve

These models hold the brewed coffee inside—as opposed to dispensing it into a carafe or mug—and let you fill your cup right from the machine, keeping the coffee hot.

Self-Clean Cycle

A few models will prompt you to periodically add white vinegar and water to clean the brewing mechanism. Others will tell you periodically that it’s time to clean the machine.

Water Filter

This is supposed to eliminate odors and odd-tasting coffee. But you need to replace the filter after a specified number of pots to prevent bacteria buildup. If you’re worried about water quality, a whole-house or faucet-mounted filter might be a better choice.

Built-In Grinder

If you like your coffee as fresh as possible but have limited counter space, this can be a handy feature. The downside is that some grind-and-brew machines can be laborious to use and clean. They’re also very noisy. If you like to start with whole beans, consider getting a separate grinder.

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Perk Up Your Morning Routine With the Best Coffee Maker