Best iced coffee makers of 2024 - our tried and tested favourites from De'Longhi, Breville and GRIND

One of the best iced coffee makers is not just for the summertime, for some (me included), it's an appliance that can feed a year-round passion. While heading to your favourite coffee shop for an iced this or that is a lot of fun, the £££s can start to add up quick, which is where these machines and gadgets are as essential as putting something on ice on a hot day.

The best iced coffee makers differ from the best coffee machines thanks to built-in settings or features that enable you to either make cold brew for yourself at home or pour specially brewed coffee over ice. They're aren't a neccesity, no, but if you mostly drink iced coffee they'll certainly make your life easier.

To cover every budget, we've tested a cup which allows you to make cold brew at home, a budget filter machine, and a top of the range bean-to-cup machine that has built-in iced coffee programs. So all you need to do now, after reading our expert takes on each one, is decide which one suits you best.

The quick list

If you're looking to get from A to B quick, then our quick list will get you where you need to shop, fast!

The best iced coffee maker overall

This De'Longhi machine costs almost £1000, which we know is pretty wild. But, if it's an at home barista service for iced drinks you're looking for, the Eletta is faultless. Bean-to-cup coffee machines are ordinarily the most expensive way of making a cup of joe at home, but if you want it, they can give you the highest quality at-home coffee at the touch of a button.

The Eletta Explore takes that idea one step further, with a huge menu of drinks available, as well as a dedicated cold drinks offering. In total, the Eletta Explore offers: 'Cold Americano, Cold Cappuccino, Cold Cappuccino Mix, Cold Latte Macchiato, Cold CaffeLatte, Cold Flat White and cold brew options.

Our reviewer Helen loved the depth of choice available with iced drinks. The Eletta Explore registers exactly how cold you want your iced drink and then instructs you on exactly how many ice cubes you should add to your cup. Helen also noted that rather than just hot coffee pouring over ice, the brew technology of this machine means that the brew process is actually formulating an iced drink.

Helen found cold drinks as easy to make as hot drinks, and the overall set up and use of this machine couldn't be easier, too. For cold cups of coffee, it's the superstar buy you need.

Read our De'Longhi Eletta Explore review for the full details.

Best budget iced coffee maker

This is a basic filter coffee machine (featuring a reusable filter basket), which also comes with a double-walled iced coffee cup. Pop that under the machine's spout and fill it with ice, and you've got a DIY iced coffee at home. It's a very simple machine, with no frills compared to the decadence of the Eletta Explore, but for those looking for a bargain, it'll fill an iced-cappucino-shaped hole.

There's no special brew process at work here to craft cold brews. Instead, the hot coffee will be going over ice, so you need to make sure there's plenty of it in the cup below. There's also no capacity for milk frothing, so you'll need to do that separately too.

I did find throughout testing this buy that it tended to be a little leaky after dispensing coffee. Despite that, though it's a budget option, I really love the included cup that comes with this machine, and think that it's a great standalone buy.

Best cold brew iced coffee maker

This cold brew cup from one of our favourite coffee brands GRIND helped our writer Jullia to kick her takeaway coffee habit for good. At £30, it's a perfect inexpensive buy if it's specifically cold brew coffee you're after.

To operate it, you add your ground coffee and water to the bottle the night before you want a cup, or up to 24 hours beforehand. Then, pop it into the fridge so that it can steep overnight, and wake up to a delicious cold brew to enjoy on the go. It has a huge 1 litre capacity too, so there's cold brew enough for your entire household.

Our tester Jullia loved how easy to use this gadget was, and with no need to make space for a coffee machine on your worktop, it's a gem for small kitchens too.

Our GRIND Cold Brew Bottle write up has the full details.

How we tested these iced coffee makers

Here at Ideal Home, we're passionate about thoroughly reviewing the products we recommend to you as per our testing protocol. We're also a team that's big on iced coffee, which is why you'll see this list is curated of products tested by different members of the team. Regardless of who tested each product, each iced coffee maker has been put through it's paces at the home of each reviewer, with each person looking for the product to fufill a set criteria.

That includes ease of use, smoothness of set up, the quality of parts and the resulting coffee, and considerations on value too. With all of that considered, we've settled on the rankings above. To see more on how we tested these iced coffee must-haves, take a look at our testing gallery below.

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So now you've got the low down on all of the best iced coffee makers that have our seal of approval, the only thing left to do is decide which one is right for you. And start stock piling ice cubes, of course.