Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

To make drip coffee, a machine has to do just two things well -- heat the water adequately, and disperse the hot water over the grounds. Oddly, most coffee makers fail at one or the other. This Cuisinart does both pretty well, which is why it is probably the best machine on the market right now under $200 (and the reviews at Amazon testify to that). TEMPERATURE: The overwhelming majority of brands do not heat the water adequately -- if the water at the grounds is only getting to 175-180 degrees, you will have sour, weak coffee. Ideal temperature is around 202-205. Using a digital thermometer, I measured the DCC-1100 at 197 in the filter basket, which is quite good. DISPERSION: The second task is showering the hot water over the grounds somewhat evenly. Many coffee makers just stream it in from a mini-faucet, so they overbrew the grounds in the center of the filter and neglect the grounds around the edges. Result is weak, slightly bitter coffee. The very expensive Capresso machine has this problem -- it heats water to nearly 200 degrees but delivers that water poorly. The Capresso, which costs close to $200, makes mediocre coffee (at least it did for us). The Cuisinart isn't perfect in this regard but it does have a "shower head" design that disperses the water pretty well. One other tip, which applies to all drip machines: Don't start with cold water. Room temperature is good. You can do this by running the tap partly warm, or by pouring the water the night before and letting it get to room temp. It gives the heating element a much better chance of getting the water to a good brewing temp.