Cuisinart’s variety of coffee makers has made it one of the best leading brands in the industry. If you’re ever looking for a reliable and an affordable choice of a coffee maker or a kitchen appliance, Cuisinart would make your best bet.
The Cuisinart SS-15 is a versatile coffee maker that’s been around for a while, and it has proven to be a great machine with a near-perfect review score. So in this post, I will talk about this model and how it compares to its sister model, the SS-20.
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The SS-15 is a two-way coffee maker that can make both single-serve cups – using K-Cups, or a full coffee pot using ground coffee. It’s a popular pick among people who are looking for a machine that does both full pots and single-servings of coffee.
The single-serve side has three serving options: 6 oz, 8 oz and 10 oz. It is compatible with K-Cup pods from any brand and of any kind. This means you can use it to brew coffee, tea, hot chocolate or any beverage that is available in the form of a K-Cup pod.
On the coffee pot side, you have a 12-cup carafe (glass) to brew a classic pot. You have a selector to Bold brew to make your coffee stronger, and you have the option to select from three carafe temperatures (Lo – Medium – High), that would mean the temperature of the warming plate. Only the pot side has automatic auto on with a 24hrs digital clock.
The machine has two separate water reservoirs for each sides.
Included with your machine a reusable K-Cup filter pot that allows you to use your own coffee grounds for single cup brewing. It also includes a charcoal water filter.
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The SS-20 doesn’t look much different than the SS-15 model. It has both brewing sides, the single-serve side with three brew sizes: 6, 8 and 10 oz. The carafe serving size is 10 cups, and it’s thermal on this model. Like the SS-15, it has two separate reservoirs for each side.
Since it comes with a thermal carafe, the SS-20 does not have a warming plate. It has the BOLD option and it has a digital clock with auto on/off option.
What Is The Difference Between Cuisinart SS-15 vs. SS-20?
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The difference between the these two models is not huge. Two things you’ll want to keep in mind:
Do you want a glass carafe or a thermal carafe? And the capacity of each carafe.
The glass carafe of the SS-15 has a 12-cup capacity while the thermal carafe has 10-cup capacity.
The K-Cup side is identical on both models, so there’s no difference there.
Cuisinart SS-15 and SS-20 Problems
Overall, these coffee makers perform as they should without any problems. But you’ll want to look out when using the single serve side when using smaller cups. Unfortunately, the drip tray is not high enough to raise shorter cups, when can cause a lot of splashing when the coffee pours down. When using a travel mug, the drip tray can be removed to accommodate it and the splashing isn’t a problem when using such a cup, or a larger mug.
More Cuisinart SS-15 Comparisons
Cuisinart SS-15 vs Keurig K-Duo
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K-Duo is Keurig’s two-way coffee maker that makes both single-serve coffee as well as a full pot of coffee. It was made a competitor to the Cuisinart SS-15, although Cuisinart’s machine came years before Keurig’s.
Which makes a better choice, though? Keurig’s K-Duo or Cuisinart’s SS-15?
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Although on the carafe side, both Cuisinart and Keurig offer the same 12-cup capacity, Keurig’s K-Duo has an additional serving size on its single-serve brewing side, it brews up to 12 oz of coffee.
Unlike the Cuisinart that uses separate reservoirs for each side of the machine, the K-Duo has one large 60 oz reservoir shared between the two sides. This is great if you do not want to fill the water tank at every use of the machine, especially the single-serve side.
While both the Cuisinart and Keurig machines compatible with refillable K-Cup pods, K-Duo does not include one like the Cuisinart SS-15.