Brew any K-Cup or grind your own coffee, the SS-10 does it all.
Wait, grind your own coffee?
Yup!
The Cuisinart SS-10 comes with a reusable pod for your own ground coffee that stores away handily in a storage compartment on the top of the machine. No more putting it in your junk drawer and losing it 6 months later.
You can also use the hot water button for instant coffee, tea, hot cocoa, oatmeal, or soup, and the handy Rinse feature ensures your use doesn’t taste like the one prior.
We also like the blue backlit LCD control panel with some notable features:
The control panel lets you set your defaults and modify from those defaults with each cup you brew.
The removable 72 oz water reservoir is enough for six 12 oz cups, and the removable drip tray can accommodate travel mugs up to 7.5″ in height.
We like our coffee strong and hot. Brewing on the Extra Hot setting, we were able to get a cup of coffee at 191°F, which is hot enough for us.
Using the refillable pod we were able to get a strong 12 oz cup. A 12 oz K-Cup was pretty good, too, though not quite as strong as a freshly ground cup.
Because this machine has a reusable capsule for your own ground coffee, you can do away with those expensive, wasteful, less-than-stellar Keurig K-Cups in favor of your own coffee beans.
May we recommend something from Kenya or Ethiopia freshly ground with a burr coffee grinder?)
All components of the Cuisinart SS-10 brewer are easily removable for cleaning. Both the K-Cup funnel and HomeBarista reusable pod are dishwasher safe. It’s recommended you wash the drip tray and water reservoir in the sink by hand.
With almost all K-Cup systems, clogs happen. Like most other single-serve brewers, you can fix this by inserting a paperclip into the Exit Needle or the K-Cup piercer.
There’s Descale icon on the LCD screen that notifies you if it’s time to clean out the inside of the machine, which you should do every 3-6 months. You can just use equal parts vinegar and water, though the Cuisinart SS-10 user’s manual suggests two parts water to one part vinegar.
Also make sure you change the charcoal water filter every 2 months.
Cuisinart is one of the leaders in kitchen appliances, and we've had few issues with their products in the past. Even more reassuring is the SS-10's 3-year limited warranty.
The SS-10 unit is made of plastic with some stainless steel parts, but it doesn’t necessarily feel cheap.
While we only used it for a few weeks without any performance issues, our supplemental research for this Cuisinart SS-10 review turned up a lot of happy owners who reported this brewer was more durable than similar Keurig models.
From Keurig to Green Mountain to whatever you keep in stock, the Cuisinart SS-10 is compatible.
We prefer a “grind it yourself” mentality and lean toward single-serve brewers that are compatible with refillable pods.
With the Cuisinart SS-10: Check.
A super-convenient bonus that impresses us more than it should: This brewer comes with a side storage compartment!
Whether you prefer the K-Cup pod or the reusable ground coffee pod, you don't want to lose either. If you have a cluttered kitchen drawer where small attachments go, never to be seen again, you'll really appreciate this side storage compartment.
Seriously, it’s stupid simple but we love it.
Instead of using a needle to pierce K-Cups, this unit has a blunter, less sharp plastic piece that sometimes struggles to puncture the top of the K-Cup. Should you run into any issues, the easy fix is to pre-puncture the K-Cup pod, just like pre-drilling a screw.
Single-serve brewers are great for their convenience — it doesn’t take that long to brew a single cup — but the SS-10 is still a little slower than most.
