Reddit reviews Cuisinart DCC-1200 Brew Central 12 Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, Black/Silver

Not only that but, despite this incredibly long and detailed explanation, making your coffee better is really easy. Any one of these changes will make an improvement. Do all of them and you might never bother going out for coffee again.

1. Use whole bean coffee and grind it yourself. A good grinder doesn't have to be expensive.
   
2. Get a good drip maker. Cheap ones don't always hit the right temperature. I've had this one for years, and it gives me a great pot of coffee even from grocery store beans.
   
3. Make sure you're using the correct amount of coffee. A coffee scoop is 2 tablespoons. Use one scoop per cup. If you like your coffee bold (like I do), use one slightly rounded scoop per cup, and if you're making more than 6 cups, toss in one more.
   
4. If your tap water tastes funky, so will the coffee you make with it. Run it through a brita filter or something first.
   
5. This sounds snobby but bear with me - buy your coffee from a local roaster. It's really not much more expensive. Dunkin Donuts wants $9/lb, my local roaster has some varieties for $10-11/lb. It will be fresher and taste better.
   
   For 1 and 2, I'll admit that buying $110 in equipment just for your coffee is a lot, but both the drip maker and the grinder will last you for years and years and will give you better coffee the whole time. If it saves you from buying just one cup of coffee per week, it pays itself off in a year.
   
   The others cost very little, and will make an improvement immediately.

I have a Cuisinart Brew Central. I have had it for probably 6 years, it was given to me by my brother second hand and he had had it for a few years before that. It is the best coffee maker I have ever had. We love it so much that recently when my husband was cleaning the pot and it cracked we just got a new replacement pot, because there no way we are replacing this workhorse.

Edit to add: I have extremely hard water, I have never run anything through this thing to clean it, though I do change the filter in the water tank about once a month, they are like $10 for something like 36 of them on amazon.

The thing is that "cheap" machines don't get the water hot enough to make "good coffee."

If you have a library card, you can check out the Consumer's Reports website (log in via your library) and they rate a number of under $100 coffee makers. The ones on this website are the ones certified by the SCAA to get hot enough consistently.

For what it's worth, I had one of these and it was fine, and has an acceptable 4-cup setting. I sold it to a friend who still uses it. It doesn't get the water quite hot enough, but it's not terrible.

If you like Cuisinart and your family just wants a simple mechanism, I'd go with this. It's way below your budget, but it's really good for a simple cup of coffee. My parents are similar to you, and they've had this machine for years. Just make sure you clean it after every use! People don't seem to clean their coffee machines...

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It also has a timer that you can adjust to brew automatically, which I found useful when I had work at 6am.

We have this Cusinart one - I really like that it's programable, it filters your tap water for you (with charcoal filters), and you can decide how long the burner stays hot. And it's Cuisinart! We've had it for over a year now and it works great.

Check goodwill. I know, I know. It sounds dumb and gross. But I found a Cuisinart DCC-1200 at my local goodwill yesterday for $8.98. I cleaned it with the vinegar method mentioned in the other comment, and it works like a champ.

So Cuisinart has a really good line of programmable coffee machines. [This one] (http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DCC-1200-Central-Programmable-Coffeemaker/dp/B00005IBX9/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&srs=2587949011&ie=UTF8&qid=1381849396&sr=1-1&keywords=cuisinart) is the newer version of the model that I have. I have used this machine almost daily for the past 4.5 years and never had any issues with it.

First, the grinder. You want a burr grinder, not a blade grinder. Burr grinders cost more, but are well worth it. They make a very even grind, where a blade grinder just chops up the beans and getting the right grind is impossible. A burr grinder lets you set it for what you're using (course grind for French Press, medium grind for drip maker, fine grind for espresso maker, etc). I have this one.

You can get a nice drip coffee maker if you want to make a pot. You can combine the two like I'm about to do and get a drip coffee maker with a built in burr grinder. I have this one.

If you're looking to make single cups at a time, there are other options like pour over's, Chemex, etc. The key is to grind your beans right before you brew the coffee. Good beans may be the most key ingredient. Companies like Tonx ship fresh roasted beans regularly on a plan, you can go that route. For example they can ship a 12oz bag every two weeks. You get beans that are only a few days roasted. Fresh roasted beans produce the best tasting coffee imaginable.

In the market for a new drip machine. I have this one and hate the shit out of it and it's starting to flake out on me. I don't have $100+ to spend on the only sub-$200 machine I could find on the wiki. This one at $80 was already a lot for what I can afford, and was a disappointment almost the entire time I had it. Need recommendations!

At one point I had this coffeemaker that I bought new from Amazon. Lost it in a move. I've now replaced it after seeing it at Goodwill multiple times for like $5.

But I've also found that Goodwill's prices vary. One store near my work is usually twice as expensive for everything as the one near my house. So that's worth keeping in mind as well -- the pricing is pretty arbitrary.

Trader Joe's costa rican is amazing as well, but about double the price I believe.

My suggestion:

https://www.amazon.com/Capresso-560-01-Infinity-Grinder-Black/dp/B0000AR7SY/

Along with

https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-Central-DCC-1200-Programmable-Cofeemaker/dp/B00005IBX9/

Or a french press. You'll have awesome coffee to take with you in a thermos every day.

We've had this one (or the slightly older version of it, I suppose) for 8 years.

I already have a reputation as a bit of a coffee fiend. If I bought that thing and put it next to my bed than I wonder if the people in my life might start to become a little concerned...

This machine looks really cool and it is kind of a novelty, but it is a bit impractical. I would probably use it pretty consistently for a while and then use it less and less until it is just another thing cluttering up the place.

At any rate, I already have a Cuisinart pot with a timer in the kitchen that I use almost every day. I set it to start making coffee 15 minutes before my alarm goes off and the smell of fresh coffee coming up from the kitchen usually wakes me up before the alarm. I also love my Cuisinart coffee pot. It makes a great cup of coffee and I have had the thing forever.

Price History

I'm currently a fan of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's French Roast. I picked up a small bag at the grocery store, enjoyed it, then stumbled across the much larger bag at Costco.

It seems to be a hit with others, as well, as it's the only coffee I've made for people that they asked about what it was.

I've made it in both drip and french press. I'm still getting the hang of my french press, so the drip is more consistent, but both are good.

We got this coffee maker about a year ago...

http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DCC-1200-Central-Coffeemaker-Stainless/dp/B00005IBX9

It's easy to program and has a water filter (like a Brita) built into it. It's a nice machine. It's not the most expensive, but was expensive to us. (limited budget)

It's a lot cheaper than our trips to the coffee shop though. Now we just buy about 2 pounds a week on Tuesday, the day our local roaster roasts.

I also invested in a really nice thermos.

The coffee they make here at work is AWFUL.

After much searching and reading and reviewing, I chose this one. We've had it for 2 years, and loved it every day.

Here is the desktop version of your link