Want a Stronger Brew? Try Your Coffee Old-School With These Percolators (2024)

Percolators: the mere word conjures up dusty recollections of church basem*nts and grandparents’ kitchens. Once the de facto coffee brewing method in many mid-century American kitchens, the advent of automatic drip coffee makers in the 1970s relegated it to the realm of anachronistic ephemera. There are plenty of coffee aficionados today who have probably never tasted coffee brewed in a percolator.

“Percolation is a nostalgic brew method as one of the first to ever achieve widespread commercial success.” says Ryan Castelaz, author of “The New Art of Coffee: From Morning Cup to Caffeine co*cktail.” “Water is heated in the bottom basin of the percolator until boiling, which creates steam pressure that moves the boiling water up a tube into an upper basin where coffee grounds are placed. The water is infused with the coffee and then moves back down into the lower basin, recycling until the heat source is cut and the steam pressure dissipates.”

While percolation may be a bit arcane, it’s nevertheless an enduring and practical way to brew coffee and there are quality percolators that utilize the centuries-old method in a thoroughly modern and cutting-edge context. We tested a number of the top percolators, and these are our favorites.

Our Favorites

• Our Top Pick: Farberware 12-Cup Percolator
• Best Budget: Cook N Home 8-Cup Coffee Percolator
• Best Stovetop: Elite Gourmet Classic Stovetop Coffee Percolator
• Best 10-Cup: Moss & Stone Electric Coffee Percolator
• Best for Camping: GSI Outdoors Glacier Stainless Steel Percolator Coffee Pot

About Our Tests

We examined 20 popular coffee percolators, evaluating their performance in terms of design, ease of use, performance, ease of cleaning, and durability. We tested the percolated coffee against our preferred brewing methods, noting the time required to brew, the ease of pouring, and the presence or lack thereof of any coffee grinds in the cup. We also cleaned the percolators afterward to see how much time and effort was required. Each percolator was rated based on the following criteria:

• Design: How does it look? Is it attractive? Is it easy to store?
• Ease of Use: Is it intuitive? Is the user experience positive? Are instructions required?
• Performance: How efficiently does it brew coffee? How does the coffee taste? What’s the temperature like?
• Ease of Cleaning: How easy is it to clean? Is it dishwasher-safe?
• Durability: Does it feel durable? Does it seem like it would fare well with years of use?

Our Takeaway

With its large capacity, its overall ease of use, and the delicious coffee it consistently churned out, we found the Farberware 12-Cup Percolator to be our top scorer. If a stovetop percolator is what you prefer, however, you can’t go wrong with the Elite Gourmet Classic Stovetop Coffee Percolator, which brews rich and tasty coffee as quickly as any stovetop model we tested.

How to Pick the Right Percolator

Stovetop vs. Electric

Choosing between a stovetop and an electric percolator comes down to which features and characteristics are most important to you. If budget is driving your decision-making, stovetop models will often be less expensive (although there are exceptions). If it’s a matter of ease of use, electric percolators boast the convenience of not requiring an external heat source, like a stovetop or fire—you do, however, need access to an electrical outlet. Electric models also often feature “keep warm” features, designed to keep your coffee at a uniform temperature after brewing is complete, which is a little trickier to achieve on the stovetop.

If portability and versatility are your main concerns, stovetop percolators can accompany you into the great outdoors and be used on a camping stove or over an open flame, and some models have capacities of up to 36 servings. Finally, if ease of cleaning is a consideration, nearly all percolators are easy to hand-wash, but electric percolators generally can’t be submerged fully in water or placed in the dishwasher.

Capacity

When deciding on the capacity of your percolator, ask yourself how much coffee you’ll potentially need at any one time. For a single user or a couple that consumes no more than three to four cups of coffee per sitting, there are 4-cup percolators that are quick to use and easy to store. If brewing for a larger household, or an office or institutional setting, consider an 8- or 12-cup percolator for increased capacity. Finally, if you’ve got a whole campground’s worth of thirsty coffee fans, opt for a 36-cup behemoth to make sure the whole crew is caffeinated for the day’s adventures.

Care

All percolators can be hand-washed, and many stovetop percolators are dishwasher-safe. For a truly deep clean, a small brush might be needed to scrub inside the spout and the tube. Be sure to towel dry percolators with a shiny, stainless steel finish, to avoid water spots. Of course, don’t forget to check the manual of the percolator you buy for specific instructions.

The Leftovers: Other Percolators We Tested

The Cuisinart Classic 12-Cup Stainless Steel Percolator is a sturdy and aesthetically-pleasing percolator that offers high capacity brewing and also features a detachable power cord for ease of serving. We did find, however, that the coffee brewed in this percolator wasn’t as strong as in some other models.

On the other hand, this 12-cup electric model from Presto and this Hamilton Beach version brewed up a delicious coffee with rich and robust flavor. But external parts—the carafe on the former, lid on the latter—got extremely hot during the brewing process.

The Stanley The Cool-Grip Camp Percolator is a rugged and sturdy model that would make for an ideal camping companion. Lightweight and durable, it also brews up a fantastic cup of joe. During use, it does get quite hot, so the manufacturer recommends removing the silicone grip when on the stove itself so it doesn't burn or melt.

Common Questions

Why would someone choose to use a percolator over other coffee brewing methods?

In a coffee culture offering easy access to pour-over equipment, immersion devices, and espresso machines—not to mention all manner of coffee makers that will dispense a hot cup of joe at the push of a button—why would anybody choose to opt for an antiquated method like the percolator?

“Since the percolator is kept at near boiling, the coffee is often much stronger than drip, pour-over, or even immersion,” says Castelaz. “For those who like super rich-bodied coffee, with intense flavors and increased bitterness (here’s looking at you, strong and black coffee lovers), the percolator can be the ideal method.”

Castelaz also points out the utility of percolators in contexts where many people want coffee all at once, e.g. offices, institutional settings, or parties. “Percolators can also be fantastic for brewing coffee for large groups, as the resulting strength from a large dose of finely ground coffee means everybody needs far less coffee to feel its effects,” he says. “If a similar technique was tried in a French Press, it would be nearly impossible to plunge, and a pour-over or drip machine would simply clog. Thanks, science!”

How do you make the best coffee in a percolator?

This is a matter of personal taste—and, most likely, lots of experimentation. While the brewing process is fairly uniform, especially with electric models, adjusting the amount of both water and coffee grinds can result in either lighter or bolder brews. Still, as Casteraz explains, percolation is harder to fine-tune than many other methods.

“Temperature management is almost impossible with a percolator, which means the barista has very little control over the extraction of the coffee, and the consistency of extraction batch to batch,” he says. “Drip coffee brewers, and almost all other manual brew methods, allow greater control over variables like brew temperature, saturation time, and flow rate, which generally create more consistently delicious cups of coffee.”

Jordan Michelman, co-founder of Sprudge and co-author of “But First, Coffee,” agrees that percolators are perceived in serious coffee circles to have certain limitations. “Percolators are fun and retro but they're not really popular in contemporary coffee,” he says. “I have literally never been served a percolator coffee at a cafe or in a serious coffee setting. But I would be really open to trying it!”

As a general rule, most coffee experts agree that starting with filtered water and fine quality beans, freshly ground if possible, will yield the best possible cup of coffee regardless of brewing method. (And, of course, don’t neglect to keep the inside of your percolator very clean.)

Is a percolator the same as a moka pot?

Not exactly, but close. The Moka Pot, a 1933 invention that takes its name from the Yemeni city of Mocha, also relies on a heat source to force boiling water through a tube and into an upper chamber. Unlike a percolator’s operation, however, the brewed coffee doesn’t cycle back through but rather stays isolated in a separate chamber from the boiling water. “The resulting brew of a percolator is going to be more identifiable as ‘brewed’ coffee, [while] the resulting brew of a Moka Pot is going to be closer to espresso,” explains Michelman.

Do you need coffee filters for a percolator?

Most percolators are designed to be used without filters, as the basket serves that role. “The metal coffee filter is built into the percolator,” explains Castelaz. “The central tube makes additional paper filtration difficult, but not impossible.” This design quirk means that percolator users may occasionally wind up with a few stray grinds in their cups, though these should be minimal or nonexistent when properly using a quality model.

Why Take Our Word For It?

Jesse Porter is a Los Angeles-based writer whose work has appeared in numerous food and beverage publications. He’s also worked as a sommelier at several of LA’s finest Italian restaurants. He analyzed our real-world testing and incorporated it into our recommendations, as well as interviewed experts for their advice. As a writer, his relationship with coffee is complex and layered, since his profession necessitates that he has both a dependency on it and a litany of strong opinions on it.