CUISINART 14-CUP COFFEE MAKER: REVIEW OF THE POPULAR DCC 3200

The Cuisinart DCC-3200 is one of the best-selling drip coffee makers on the market, so it was an obvious one for me to test and review. Most people I’ve talked to love this brewer for its above-average 14-cup capacity, but I need more than that to recommend a coffee machine.

So, for this coffee maker review, I put the DCC 3200 through a battery of tests. It’s not enough that it makes a lot of coffee; it also needs to make great coffee. And it needs to do it comfortably, efficiently, and at a reasonable price.

Did this popular programmable coffee maker live up to my high standards? Read on to find out.

The Full Cuisinart DCC 3200 14-Cup Coffee Maker

I’m always impressed by the quality of Cuisinart coffee makers. In my opinion, the brand is at the top of the heap in the budget segment of the market, building durable and reliable machines that offer great value.

The DCC-3200 is no exception, with a useful set of features and excellent build quality. Let’s take a closer look at why this 14 cup programmable coffee maker is such a crowd-pleaser.

How We Rated It

• Design
• Features
• Ease Of Use
• Coffee Quality
• Value For Money

4

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All The Features You Need, None You Don’t

This Cuisinart 14-cup programmable coffeemaker is equipped with features that make it a competent performer even among top-of-the-line drip coffee makers. I’ll start with the hardware and go from there.

Hardware

This brewer uses a showerhead water dispenser design, which I think is a must to be among the best coffee makers. It ensures complete saturation of the grounds and an even extraction, resulting in a rich and flavorful brew. Avoid cheaper drip brewers that use a single stream of water in the center of the basket, which is bound to produce unbalanced or watery coffee (1).

The water reservoir has a water level indicator window on the side and includes a nice little value-add in the form of a carbon water filter. Cuisinart suggests you replace it every 60 days, but unless your water quality is terrible, I think you can get away with 3 to 6 months.

Speaking of added value, this coffee maker comes with a cone-style GoldTone metal filter basket as well as a plastic basket that takes #4 size paper filters. I love having both options, as I find different coffees benefit from different filters.

Programmable Brewing Options

This brewer doesn’t break any new ground with its programmability, but it has the key features you need. 

You can set it to make coffee on a 24-hour timer if you like waking up to a pot of coffee, and I appreciate that you can toggle the brew-finished alarm on and off. This is particularly handy if two people in the home have different wake-up times.

If you forgot to pre-program your brew, the Brew Pause feature lets you grab a cup of coffee midway through the brewing cycle if you can’t wait for that first caffeine hit.

The brew strength control lets you select Regular or Bold coffee. The Bold setting slows the brewing process to increase extraction, and I found it very effective. You can easily taste the stronger coffee.

A similar process is used when brewing less than 4 cups. Press the 1-4 cup setting button, and the machine optimizes its brew mode for reduced volume, ensuring you still get great tasting coffee.

The Cuisinart offers one feature I’ve never seen anywhere else. If there is a brief (less than 60 seconds) power outage, it will save your place in the brewing process and resume automatically when power resumes. I have never experienced a short power loss while making my coffee, but it works just as well if you accidentally catch the cord and unplug it during brewing—a more likely scenario on a busy morning.

Carafe and Hot Plate

The DCC 3200 has a 14-cup glass carafe that sits on a hot plate to keep your coffee warm. Remember that “cups” as defined by coffee machine manufacturers are 5 ounces, so this is a 70-ounce carafe.

To my surprise and delight, it’s a variable-temperature hot plate with three settings (low, medium, and high). This feature is typically only found in far more expensive machines, and I consider it a major selling point of this model.

I usually prefer a thermal carafe to keep my freshly brewed coffee hot for more than about 30 minutes. Coffee on a hot plate for longer than that starts to overheat, developing burnt or stale flavors (2). But by switching the hot plate to low after the first half hour, my hot coffee stayed flavorful for at least two hours.

I also appreciate that Cuisinart lets you program the auto shut-off time between 0 and 4 hours. If I’m just going to brew a few cups, fill a thermos, and head out the door, it’s convenient to set it up so the hot plate never turns on.

How To Use The Cuisinart DCC-3200

This 14 cup programmable coffeemaker works like any other drip coffee machine, with a few extra options depending on how you like your coffee. At the most basic:

1. Fill the reservoir with water.
2. Add around 150 grams of medium coffee grounds to the filter basket. 
3. Press the brew button. 

Press the Bold or 1-4 Cup button before pressing Brew if you want the coffee to be stronger or you want to brew a smaller amount of coffee. If you want to brew on a timer, complete steps one and two, then set the time you want your coffee and press the Program/Auto On button.

The Auto-off and Auto-on functions are built into the Brew button and Program button, respectively, and are activated by long-pressing the buttons. If you plan to take advantage of all this machine’s functionality, I suggest keeping the instruction manual handy for the first few weeks.

The only mild inconvenience I noticed is that it’s awkward to fill the reservoir using the carafe. The lid doesn’t quite open wide enough, making it easy to spill if you’re not cautious.

Brew Time

I anticipated a long brew time with this machine simply because of its large capacity. It takes a long time to brew 14 cups compared with the more standard 8, 10, or 12. But it must pack a pretty powerful heating element because it was surprisingly speedy. 

It took me around 8 minutes on average to brew a full carafe of Regular coffee and still less than 10 minutes on the Bold setting. In both cases, the water temperature was just on the low side of ideal. I measured an average of 192 ℉.

Cleaning And Maintenance

The Cuisinart is easy to clean. The only regular maintenance required is an occasional descale, and a red indicator light lets you know it’s time. You don’t need to test your water hardness or track anything. 

The descaling process itself is fully automated. Just press and hold the Clean button to enter the cleaning mode.

How Does The Coffee Taste?

The Cuisinart DCC-3200 is capable of great coffee, but I found it took a bit of experimentation to get the different roasts to extract just right – especially when brewing a full pot.

It’s a bit unusual to find a large-capacity machine with conical rather than flat-bottom filters. Research has actually demonstrated that filter shape impacts coffee flavor because conical filters slow the draw-down, increasing contact time and extraction (3). 

I love the 3200 for light and medium roast coffee beans. The conical filters ensure a full extraction and vibrant sweet or fruity flavors. My coffee never tasted weak or sour, a common issue with cheaper machines.

On the other hand, for a dark roast, a slower brew runs the risk of extracting too much bitterness – a problem that is exacerbated if you choose the Bold setting. My solution was to use a slightly coarser grind size when brewing upwards of 10 cups of a darker roast.

Brewing Smaller Volumes

I was impressed with the 1-4 cup setting. It doesn’t just use less water. Like the Bold option, it adjusts brewing to increase contact time, ensuring the smaller volume of ground coffee is properly saturated and extracted. 

Even brewing as little as 10 ounces at a time, I thought the flavor was just as good as the full carafe. In fact, it was even easier to brew darker roasts because the conical coffee filter was less densely packed.

Design And Build Quality

This coffee maker looks unmistakably Cuisinart, with a brushed stainless steel body, black plastic accents, and blue lights around the buttons. The look is neither striking nor offensive. The blue-backlit LCD screen is easy to read in the dark, but the buttons are only illuminated around the edges.

It has a surprisingly small footprint for a large-capacity brewer, measuring 7.75” wide by 9” deep and 14” tall. I like the rectangular design as opposed to the more free-form brewers. Its angular frame fits well in a spare and organized modern kitchen.

Regarding durability, I didn’t test this machine long enough to speak to its performance over the course of years. But my experience with Cuisinart brand machines in general has always been very positive in terms of longevity. They’re a bit pricier than some competitors but for a good reason. 

The engineering is excellent, the fit and finish are tight, and the ratio of metal to plastic is well above average. All that is reinforced by Cuisinart’s 3-year warranty, which is substantially longer than even some of the most expensive machines I’ve tested.

Is The Cuisinart DCC-3200 Good Value For Money?

The DCC-3200 is priced around $100, which I think is fantastic value – particularly given the included metal filter basket and charcoal filter. Having tested many coffee machines, I think this one offers an impressive balance of useful features, excellent coffee, build quality, and cost. I certainly wouldn’t have expected a variable-temperature hot plate at this price. 

The 3-year warranty is the cherry on top. It ensures you’re paying at most $33 a year for this brewer. I can’t tell you how many $30 coffee machines I’ve tested that conk out within the first year.

The large capacity of this brewer is certainly a standout feature, so the value is even higher for households or offices that drink a lot of coffee. There aren’t that many 14-cup coffee makers on the market, and of those, this is certainly the best I’ve tried.

Don’t Buy The Cuisinart DCC3200 If…

• You want a thermal carafe: A thermal carafe is the best way to keep coffee hotter for the long haul. It preserves the coffee flavor and is more durable and energy efficient. If that strikes your fancy, the Cuisinart Perfectemp DCC-3400 is a nearly identical machine with a 12-cup thermal coffee pot.

• You’re on a tight budget: I think the DCC-3200 is one of the best values on the market, but that doesn’t help you if you’re strapped for cash. For a cheaper alternative, I like this basic Black+Decker model, which brews a good cup of coffee and has a few more programmable features than you’d expect for the price.

• You don’t need a large capacity: The 14-cup capacity is one of the big selling points of the 3200. If you’re a more moderate coffee drinker, check out one of my favorite smaller machines, the Oxo Brew 8-cup Coffee Maker, or its slightly bigger brother, the Oxo Brew 9-Cup.

• You’re willing to pay more for a great cup of coffee: The best way to guarantee your coffee maker will make amazing coffee every time is to look for one certified by the Specialty Coffee Association. Some run many hundreds of dollars, but a few – like the Bonavita Connoisseur and Bonavita BV1900TS – are only slightly pricier than the DCC-3200.

The Verdict

The Cuisinart DCC-3200 14 cup coffee maker is reasonably priced, loaded with useful features, and backed by an extended warranty. Most importantly, it can make a delicious cup of coffee. 

If you’re looking for a high-capacity coffee brewer, it’s a no-brainer. But even if you don’t drink gallons of coffee, it’s still one of my top picks for the price. The 1-4 cup setting brews a rich and flavorful few cups at a time, making this brewer plenty versatile enough for any kind of coffee lover.

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