Here at Coffeeness we set ourselves apart from other review sites by buying and testing products hands-on. But there’s no point in spending extra money for a large brewer if you’ll never use the whole thing. Overall, the Cuisinart DCC 3200 is a perfect all-rounder for XL batch brewing. I’m obsessed with smart home tech and channel my obsession into new stories for Consumer Reports. When I’m not writing about products, I spend time either outside hiking and skiing or up in the air in small airplanes.
Like the SS-15P1, it has a 12-cup glass carafe with a heating plate and reusable gold tone mesh filter. The $218.49 Cuisinart SS-20P1 is the stainless steel thermal carafe version of the SS-15P1, the focus of my Cuisinart Coffee Center review. There’s not a whole lot of difference between the two models, aside from the fact that the carafe is not made of glass. There’s a built-in energy save mode on the single serve coffee maker side, which will dim the lights after 30 minutes of being idle, kind of like when your computer goes into sleep mode.
Not to be deterred, I switched to a coffee with a darker roast profile. Plus, I used a much finer grind setting to compensate for the quick brew time. For those of you who enjoy single servings of dark roast coffee, let me say this machine is a winner. The results were rich, chocolatey and incredibly satisfying.
Remember to start with the ratio, one tablespoon of beans to one cup of coffee. You can always add more or less depending on how strong you want your coffee. If you’re like me, you probably struggle to wake Hamilton Beach up, so you need a cup of joe. Depending on what brewing method you use, this can take 30 seconds or 10 minutes. Incidentally, I started out using six scoops of medium ground coffee for a six-cup carafe.
In our tests, the spout on the Hamilton Beach didn’t dribble water when pouring, and the wide handle was comfortable to hold. Unlike some models that require you to open the lid manually, the conveniently opens with a push of a button located at the top of the handle. This is a valuable safety feature when you’re attempting to empty a kettle that’s still hot. This model also boasts two water-level windows, allowing you to see how full the kettle is, regardless of which way you place it on the base. Although review aggregation can’t cover every model we’re interested in, we did see some interesting patterns across the data collected. For instance, it’s clear users appreciate both speed and variable-temperature controls, since those were often the two most-mentioned topics in reviews.