Best Coffee Makers for an Office

An office coffee maker is judged on different things from a home one. It will be used by people who did not choose it, cleaned by nobody in particular, and asked to produce coffee in bursts rather than steadily at a quiet kitchen counter. Capacity, speed and resilience beat refinement, and the machine that makes the nicest single cup is often the wrong one for a shared kitchen.

How to choose an office coffee maker

Office coffee maker capacity: how many cups does a team need?

Thermal carafe vs glass carafe on a hot plate for an office coffee maker

Office coffee maker by budget

Drip vs pod vs bean-to-cup office coffee machine

Office coffee maker running costs

Multiply honestly. Twenty people at two cups a day is 40 cups, and at 60 cents or more a capsule that passes $6,000 a year before anyone counts the machine. A drip brewer or a bean-to-cup machine running on bulk coffee cuts that cost by a large factor, so at office volumes the machine's own price stops mattering almost at once.

Capsules still win on one axis: nobody has to clean anything, and in an office that is worth more than it sounds. If you do go that way, look at the Keurig coffee makers before you decide.

Why maintenance kills an office coffee maker

The Zojirushi has a removable, fully washable water tank, which almost nothing else here offers, and a permanent stainless filter. The Ninja CP307 has two permanent filters that are top-rack dishwasher safe. The Moccamaster sells replacement parts, so it can be repaired instead of replaced. For capsule or bean-to-cup machines, a removable brew unit is the equivalent, and our guide to removable brew group machines and the notes on cleaning a bean-to-cup machine show what that involves.

Do moka pots and French presses work as an office coffee maker?

Stovetop pots such as the Bialetti Moka Express, the Alessi 9090 and the Hakan cezves are made for one kitchen and one household. An insulated press like the Coffee Gator, which keeps coffee warm for about 60 minutes, or the Secura stainless press, helps a desk or a small team, but both are one-person jobs. If you work alone, see coffee makers for one person instead.

Does an office coffee maker need a programmable timer?

In practice the coffee sits on a hot plate stewing until someone notices. The Moccamaster has no timer at all, only a switch and a half or full carafe selector, and shuts itself off after 100 minutes. The Cuisinart 14-Cup shuts off after four hours. Brew on demand, and pick a machine that stops itself.

Which office coffee maker should you buy?