As much as I love an espresso, sometimes you just can’t beat a good drip coffee. When you’re brewing for one, a super-simple V60 dripper perched on top of your mug will do the job nicely, but if you want to make coffee for several people (or multiple cups to get you through the whole morning), it’s time to look at drip coffee machines.
I’m lucky enough to test many of the best drip coffee makers here at TechRadar, but I’ve narrowed the list down to the top three I would recommend to friends and family, or buy for my own kitchen. There’s something here for everyone, whether you want a drip machine that can tailor its brew settings to suit your beans, one that’s totally manual with no screens or dials, or something in between.
1. Ninja Prestige DualBrew System
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The Ninja Prestige DualBrew System is half drip coffee maker and half Nespresso machine – and it’s your new best friend in the morning. Like all my top-rated drip machines, it features a timer, allowing you to set it up at night and wake to a full pitcher of freshly brewed coffee in the morning. If you want something stronger, simply drop in an espresso pod (compatible with Nespresso Original capsules), choose from two drink sizes, and you’ll have a tasty espresso in hand within a minute.
It has a traditional glass carafe and keeps your coffee warm with a hotplate. Unlike most drip machines, however, the DualBrew’s hotplate offers temperature and time controls, so you can program it to avoid stewing your brew.
The machine features an extra-large shower head to distribute water evenly over the grounds, and a handy drip-stop to prevent coffee from leaking onto the hotplate after you lift the carafe. If you’re the only coffee-drinker in the house, remove the carafe and you’ll find a fold-out drip tray that lets the machine drip directly into a cup or travel mug, ready for you to take to work.
If you’re not a fan of coffee capsules and want a machine that makes both drip coffee and espresso using fresh grounds, take a look at the Ninja Luxe Café instead.
Read our full Ninja Prestige DualBrew System review
2. Sage/Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal
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If I were buying a drip coffee maker for my own kitchen right now, the Luxe Brewer Thermal would be my number one choice. It’s sold under the brand name Sage in the UK and Breville in the rest of the world, for slightly complicated reasons, but the machine itself is the same – and it’s excellent.
Brewing a batch of drip coffee is, fundamentally, a very straightforward process (just pour hot water onto ground coffee and let it drip into a carafe), and the Luxe Brewer Thermal keeps things simple while providing a handful of genuinely useful customization options. In my tests, the default settings worked well, but if you don’t get just the right flavor from your beans, you can tweak the bloom time (how long the coffee is pre-infused with hot water), bloom temperature, brew time, and brew temperature to fine-tune the extraction.
The machine can also prepare a batch of cold-brewed coffee. Load it up with ground coffee (the Luxe Brewer Thermal comes with a handy guide to help you measure out the optimal amount), add water to the line on the tank, remove the carafe lid so it doesn’t begin to drip, and press the button to start. Your coffee will be steeped cold for 24 hours, and the machine will beep to alert you when it’s ready.
Other smart features include a delayed start timer (great for mornings), a removable water tank for easy filling (no more pouring pitchers of water into the machine on your counter), and the best insulated carafe I’ve ever seen on a drip coffee maker. Not only does it look smart, it keeps coffee piping hot for even longer than the company claims. After four hours, a half-filled carafe was still above the optimal drinking temperature, and a full batch stays hot for even longer.
Read our full Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal review
3. Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker
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If you want to get more technical with your brewing, the futuristic-looking Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is the drip machine for you. In fact, this is the machine the trainer used during my last SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) course.
The Aiden offers a choice of brewing modes, so you can pick the appropriate one depending on how much time you have to spare. Auto Brew mode works like any basic drip coffee maker, simply heating water and pumping it over your ground coffee. The pump will run until the water tank is empty.
Guided Brewing mode is where things get interesting. It lets you choose how much to brew, then suggests the optimal dosage, bloom time, and temperature based on the type of beans you’ve selected. The machine will also tell you whether to use the cone or flat-bottomed brew basket, and can detect which one you’ve inserted.
The Aiden has a cold-brew mode too, which uses hot water to bloom the coffee, then switches to cold for the remainder of the process. It’s a clever trick that means your drink takes just 1.5-2 hours to prepare compared to 24 for traditional cold brewing. The flavor profile is impressively similar, so hats off to Fellow.
Like the Luxe Brewer Thermal above, the Aiden has a removable water tank that’s easy to fill at the tap. The Aiden’s tank has a larger, more ergonomically designed handle, which makes it easier to carry when full, which is a point in its favor.
However, the Aiden loses points for its carafe, which lets heat escape too easily. Fellow claims it will keep your batch of freshly brewed coffee hot for hours, but during my tests, it cooled noticeably within 45 minutes. It was nowhere near as effective as the Luxe Brewer Thermal.
In short, the Aiden brews exquisite drip coffee, but you’ll need to be ready to enjoy it straight away.
Read our full Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker review
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