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Reddit Reviews
Came here to see and what is said about the Bunn … I have the bunn and thank goodness I’ll stick with it, Amazon wall plug and actually I have the one that looks straight from the diner, and then we don’t use the hot plate but pretty sure we have had it 15 plus years now, been in this house 18 years and I know we quickly went thru a few coffee makers before settling on this.
We’ve had our Bunn 12-cup brewer for about 5 years & it works great. My favorite thing about it is that it keeps a reservoir of hot water, so it starts brewing immediately when filled. Brews 12 cups in ~3 mins.
This seems awfully fancy for “no frills”. We have a Bunn O Matic commercial that will outlive me. Only downside is that they are always on, so if you don’t put a timer on it you will use a lot of electricity. Upside is that you can even plumb in the fresh water supply if you like.
Something to know about the big commercial brewers that I have worked with is that fresh water is pumped into the water tank as the brew is happening. The tank water is heated to 195° to 200° and held there until the operator chooses to brew coffee. The freshly pumped water cools the water in the tank, so your overall brew temp rapidly decreases. The range of temps that the coffee is exposed to during the brew process is large.
I've always had BUNN pots, but the quality on the residential ones has gone to crap, a few years ago, I splurged and bought a commercial grade one that plumbs directly into the water supply! The hot water tap is nice for my wife who loves hot tea and the kids for cider or cocoa.
I second this. Always look to the commercial products. Simple, less buttons and less electronic circuitry to short and fail. Our Bunn at my 24/7 workplace sees multiple pots per day over three shifts. Still going strong for the over 20 years I’ve been here.
Do you care how it looks? The commercial Bunn machines are pretty plastic free with the right accessories. Can find them for around $500 used. Will last forever.
We had a BUNN before our Moccamaster and the only downside is that if you have hard water it can be a challenge to descale with the reservoir. Otherwise the BUNN's are solid with a simple design and easy to swap components. We have been using the same BUNN commercial brewer in my office for over 25 years. The burner went out due to a spill long ago and I was able to order a new one for around $20 and swap it out in 5 minutes. We use filtered/RO water so have not descaled.
No combination coffee brewer/grinder is going to be anywhere near BIFL. Too much complexity. BIFL coffee makers arty typically simple/analogue like a Moccamaster or a Bunn. Sometimes folks pair their Moccamaster with a smart outlet plug set to kick on at a certain time... but then you lose the benefit of fresh ground.
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