Use the right dose of medium grounds, fill the reservoir with fresh water, and let the machine do the rest. The coffee and the cleaning decide the cup; the buttons barely matter. An auto-drip filter machine is the quiet workhorse of coffee: switch it on, walk away, come back to a full pot. It's the easiest way to brew for a houseful of people, and it makes a clean, familiar cup.
When filter coffee disappoints, blame the stale coffee, the wrong dose, or a jug that hasn't been cleaned since summer. The machine is rarely the problem.
What you need
- Your drip filter machine and its basket filters (paper or the reusable mesh)
- Medium ground coffee (our Filter grind is exactly this)
- Fresh, cold water (not yesterday's from the reservoir)
The ratio: how much coffee per cup?
Around 60g of coffee per litre of water, same as most brewers. In practical terms that's about 9g (a generous heaped tablespoon) per "cup" mark on the jug. Note that a machine "cup" is usually 150ml, not a full mug, so a "10-cup" pot is really about six mugs.
If your coffee's always weak, this is why: people trust the machine's cup markings and under-dose. Add an extra spoon.
How to brew it, step by step
- Fill the reservoir with fresh cold water to the level you want. Fresh matters: water that's sat in the tank picks up a stale, flat taste.
- Put a filter in the basket. If it's paper, a quick rinse with hot water first cuts the papery note.
- Add your grounds, a generous heaped tablespoon (9g) per cup mark, levelled across the basket.
- Switch it on and let it run its full cycle. Don't pull the jug out mid-brew for a sneaky early cup; it throws the ratio off and makes a mess.
- Once it's done, get the coffee off the warming plate. This is the big one: that hotplate slowly stews the coffee and turns it bitter within 20–30 minutes. Decant into a thermos to keep it drinkable.
The maintenance nobody does (but should)
Filter machines quietly get grim inside. Old coffee oils go rancid in the basket and jug, and mineral scale builds up in the water path, both of which taint every brew.
- Wash the basket and jug with warm soapy water after each use.
- Every month or so, run a descale cycle: fill the reservoir with equal parts water and white vinegar, run it through, then run two full cycles of clean water to flush it. Your coffee will taste noticeably brighter.
Grab the Filter grind or browse the full range. And for a single serve, a drip bag is really a one-cup filter brew: same style in the cup, no jug to scrub and no hotplate stewing your second one.
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Quick answers
How much coffee per cup in a filter machine?
About 9g, a generous heaped tablespoon, per 150ml cup mark, which lands at 60g per litre. Remember a machine "cup" is usually 150ml, so dose for the real volume, not the number of mugs.
What grind for a filter coffee machine?
Medium, like coarse sand. Our Filter grind is cut for it. Too fine and it over-extracts and can overflow the basket; too coarse and the cup comes out weak.
How often should I clean my coffee machine?
Wash the basket and jug every use, and descale with vinegar-water monthly. Rancid coffee oils and mineral scale are the two biggest hidden causes of bad drip coffee.