Small Coffee Makers

If you are looking at small coffee makers, there is a wide range of options and price ranges involved. If you want to go super cheap, you can get a small Mr. Coffee for less than $15 on Amazon.com. This might serve your purposes, but on the other hand there are many features in a coffee maker that make everyday life run a little smoother and better.

Considering that Americans love their coffee, why skimp on something that you rely on every single morning to help get you going? There are some features of coffee makers that you will want to consider, and if you have not ever had these features on your coffee maker, you may not be aware of their benefits.

First of all, one thing that I love is a programmable timer. I always make up the coffee before I go to bed, so I don't have to deal with it in the morning. The final step is to push a button that sets a timer to get my coffee brewing five minutes before I wake up -- I love this, I could not imagine living without it. Even if you don't think you will use this, maybe you don't wake up at the same time every day -- still there's going to be a day when you have to catch a plane at 6 AM, and that's the day you will love the programmable timer and be so glad you got it. Even some of the very inexpensive small coffee makers have programmable timers, so why not get it?

The next thing you want to consider with small coffee makers is whether you like the burner-type that keeps your coffee hot in a glass carafe, or if you want to have the coffee brewed directly into a thermos, usually a brushed stainless steel thermos. If you are like me, and you drink your coffee fairly soon after it's made, I recommend getting a glass carafe burner type. With these you can see how much coffee is left, and it's also convenient for measuring water. The burner shuts off automatically after two hours, so there is no risk there. Thermos-type coffee makers can be better if you spread out your coffee drinking and don't want the coffee to be cooking itself for hours every morning. I fully understand that, as coffee can get rather thick if it sits on burner too long.

Another thing to consider is whether it comes with a reusable filter. Some people prefer these, but personally I don't mind buying the paper filters. I much prefer the ease of disposing of the filter without having to wash the grounds off in the sink. I have been told that that coffee grounds can damage your garbage disposal. This may be urban legend, but whether it is are not it's up to you whether you want to get your hands wet every day cleaning the filter. And from a conservation point of view, yes you are using up paper with disposable filters, but you're using up water cleaning the reusable one every day. And who knows, water may wind up become more of a necessary resource to preserve than anything.

Finally, you want to make sure that your small coffee maker is easy to clean. Coffee has a way of building up on things, and it should be easy to clean your small coffee maker.