Hi, Sue. The coffee brew is coming out of a single little hole in the bottom of the basket. This is to slow down the outgoing trickle, so most or all of the grounds will be immersed in hot water at the same time.
(This is actually the most efficient way to make coffee, which is why the water only has to pass through once, and why drip coffee has the highest caffeine content of any type of coffee.)
But if you use too fine a grind of coffee grounds in an auto-drip coffee maker, it “traps” too much water at once, slowing its trickle down too much. Then the water will tend to overflow over the sides of the paper basket, and bring some grounds into the hole with it.
Even worse, the too-fine grounds tend to form a “mud” in the basket. When this mud overflows the paper and gets down to the drain hole, it can clog it up — sending water and grounds over the sides of the brewing basket too, and onto the counter or floor!
So more is not always better. If you’re grinding your own, don’t overdo it; and if you’re buying it ground, go for medium grind rather than fine. It should be slightly grainy, rather than powdery. A powdery fine grind will compact too much. An espresso pump can push water through the compacted powder; but mere gravity and drip can’t.

One other thing can cause the brew to overflow: using the wrong size paper filter! If the machine calls for #6, don’t use #4; etc.

Cheers,
David

I agree with Karen, #22. The automatic drip coffeemaker manufacturers don’t publish their design specifications on how hot an optimally functioning machine should get. That leaves the guesswork up to us. You can get automatic drip coffee fresh brewed into a carafe anywhere from 150 – 180 depending on the brand. Mr. Coffee seems to settle around 165, whereas KRUPS and Cuisinart dispense slightly hotter (170-175). Not sure about BUNNs because I have no direct experience with that brand, but most users report that those brew a very hot cup ‘o joe.

Karen has a point, here, however. We all know the optimal temp for proper extraction if we’ve read anything on the web (just below boiling. However, there is only one Dutch-made coffeemaker endorsed by the trade association for achieving this. Which implies that results with other machines will be hit or miss, with variation in brew and extraction temps even between machines with identical model numbers. It also seems to diminish the flavor/heat when an automatic drip coffeemaker is beginning to wear out or scale over inside from infrequent cleaning. It’s vitally important to descale with diluted white vinegar religiously!

AROMA

Moreover, what is the significance of the “smell test”, which is to say if your coffee tastes bad and your grounds smell burnt, is it getting *too* hot. Can you tell by the odor of the used grounds anything about how little or how much extraction, and can it be a reliable troubleshooting method? This, too, is something I’ve never read anything about, but conceivably it might yield some clues as to how well an automatic drip machine is running.

SEMANTICS

RE: #21

Alan, the key word here is the word “AUTOMATIC”, as in automatic drip coffeemaker. That is the industry nomenclature, and has been since the early 1970s. You are confusing Jeremy, and others here, by leaving a critical modifier out.

Second, do not put hot water into your automatic drip coffeemaker (in answer to a previous question).

ON TOPIC

To those going off on tangents about non-automatic drip brewing methods (Alan, etc.): Please stay on topic! The subject on *this page* is the use of an automatic drip coffeemaker, the type most people are going to have questions about. You don’t need to tell the “coffee snob” how to do other types of brews or even the pros and cons between them because they’ve already made up their minds. The article on this page is going to be useful to new coffee drinkers and/or people trying to figure out if there is any way to get their new automatic drip machine to produce a more flavorful brew. Personally, every time I start with a new automatic drip coffeemaker, I find myself having to experiment with the coarseness of the grind, the amount measured out per cup and to also account for the fact that some automatic drip coffeemaker manufacturers define a cup as 5 oz whereas other brands a “cup” is 6 oz (but never a standard 8 oz size).

A CUP IS NOT A CUP

The article here, in this instance, doesn’t even touch on the havoc it plays when one realizes that their 10-cup automatic drip coffeemaker is actually making only 6.25 8 oz cups (5 oz), or for a 12-cup Mr. Coffee, at a presumed 6 oz measure, a total per pot of just nine 8 oz cups. That’s why the measurement you use for one coffee machine may not produce similar results for another. One might be using a 5 oz cup, and the other 6.

So here’s the deal, folks: The New Orleans style coffee is fascinating, but it is off topic. Moreover, for those who want to talk about the percolators that some people hate and others love, there’s a separate page on this site just for that topic.

ARE THERMAL COFFEEMAKERS A POOR CHOICE FOR BEST TASTE?

I would like to see comments here where people share their best tips for a good cup of coffee using an *automatic drip coffeemakeer*, either the conventional glass decanter type or the stainless steel thermal variety.

Example: I have found that brewing from an automatic drip coffee machine into a stainless steel thermal carafe gradually imparts a somewhat “old coffee” taste to the all-metal carafe, despite using baking soda, dish soap and vinegar to clean the carafe with each and every use. I once bought a certified KRUPS refurb stainless steel thermal carafe model from a mainstream retail store and even straight from the factory it smelled of old coffee associated with prior use. Then, when I recently purchased a Cuisinart DTC-975, the coffee odor began to cling to the inside of the thermal carafe from the very first use and no amount of soaking and cleaning has made it as “odor neutral” — like-new smelling — as my old machine using a glass carafe. There has to be a negative impact to the coffee flavor when just ONE USE will make the receptacle into which it brews start smelling stale or off. With continued use, I suspect the coffee itself can’t be far behind. Or at least that is *my* theory — and most recent disappointment since I was looking forward to the thermal design carafe in pursuit of coffee that wasn’t “baked” on a warming plate.

The coffee itself can be drunk in two ways, either as cafe au lait (a half-and-half mixture with scalded milk) or straight in a demitasse. If you are familiar with Cuban coffee as either cafe con leche or cafe cubano, you have the general principle. My Oklahoma ex-inlaws used to call my coffee “starter coffee” because they had to mix it with water.

My own five-piece pot is a different design than Alan’s, for my bottom filter is flat, with a lifting handle (so a paper filter is not an option), while the top filter (more of a disperser) is rounded.

by the way, the best machine to use for consistent results and no hassles is a bunn pour-over model.

good luck

If you must use an “electric” drip pot, then it will heat its own water. You don’t start with hot water.

As I said before, read my first post. There i no need for confusion. If you must use an elecrtic “something”, then get a modern one of some sort, not an old aluminum or stainless antique.

Alan