The Cuisinart SS-15 Maker Coffee Center is designed to give you lots of choices with just one machine. For those days when you need a single cup to wake you up before you drive the kids to school, there’s a single-cup brewer that works with K-cups or your own reusable coffee filter. You even have your choice of 3 different cup sizes so you can down a small dose at home or take a travel mug with you. This Cuisinart can also deliver a 12-cup carafe that’s great for when you’re hosting a weekend brunch or book club meeting. With this machine, you get both a reusable coffee filter to save you the bother and expense of buying paper ones and a water filter to improve the taste of tap water.
There’s even the removable drip tray and two reservoirs, one for each side of the machine. As with most coffee makers nowadays, the Coffee Center has a brew program feature that allows you to set up your morning brew up to 24 hours in advance. To program it, you turn the dial to Prog, choose the time you’d like the machine to start and then switch it to Auto On. You can program the brew timer, the auto shut-off, and the brew strength.
Try to gauge your average consumption and select the ideal x cup coffee maker for your batch sizes. If a single cup coffee maker suits your coffee cravings, you can then focus on other features you value. Sometimes your situation just calls for 12 cups of coffee regularly.
Over time, the coffee maker will accumulate a build-up of hard water and minerals. Once you’re ready to clean that sweet machine that brings you to life each morning, pull out the pot and the filter basket. On the other hand, you can brew up to a 12 ounce cup on the single serve side of the Hamilton Beach Keurig Duo, something the Cuisinart can’t do. For the K Cup brewer, toss your spent cup toward the nearest landfill or wash out the reusable filter cup if that’s what you used for your coffee. Oh, and be sure to have your cup in place on the drip tray before pressing the cup size button.
A Brew Pause feature even allows your guest to pause operation until a later time. The coffee maker is designed for use with ground coffee Cuisinart Coffee and pre-portioned filter packs. Despite all of these extra features, I wasn’t impressed with the overall quality of the coffee.