sjrtvk's Full Review: Bunn BT10B 10-Cup Coffee Maker
When we were married nearly 6 years ago, one of the splurges that we spent our wedding money on was a Bunn coffeemaker. We loved that it made excellent coffee quickly. Our original Bunn lasted until last fall, when the carafe broke. Bunn's replacement carafe is a new style, and frankly is the worse designed coffee carafe I've ever used. It dribbled coffee all over the counter every time we poured it. Every time. So, we had come to the decision that we needed to replace our faithful coffee maker. Because we often leave coffee sit for a few hours, a thermal pot was high on our list. Unfortunately, we just couldn't afford plunking down the $169 for the Bunn Thermal. We eventually settled on the new Hamilton Beach Brewstation, which worked fine, but clearly was not the same high quality as the Bunn.
Lo and behold... along came Santa disguised as my father. When a giant box arrived at our house for Christmas, I had no idea what it could have been. I hadn't told my dad that we had replaced our Bunn, so I was really surprised and excited to see the Bunn Thermal in the box. My husband didn't miss a beat and ran to the kitchen to remove the Hamilton Beach from counter to make way for the Bunn.
The setup instructions were a little more complicated than I remember our original being, but within a half hour, our coffeemaker was ready to brew. Oh how we had missed the sound of coffee nearly instantly flowing into the pot. The coffee is as good as we remember, and definitely better than the Hamilton Beach.
The carafe is a 10-cup pot. Unlike our old Bunn, a separate water measurer is NOT included with the Thermal Coffee Maker. You simply use the carafe to measure and pour the water. If you are familiar with the older style Bunns, a separate water measurer is necessary because as soon as you pour the water in the top, the hot water flows from the water head. This design change is facilitated by a switch in the water pouring area that does not activate the hot water flow until the lid is lowered. This is an excellent design enhancement, in my opinion.
From the time you put the lid down it takes about 2 minutes and 45 seconds to brew a full pot. The thermal carafe is easy to clean, and it keeps the coffee hot for about 3 hours. After about 4 hours, I did pop a cup into the microwave for about 15 seconds to warm it up a bit, and the coffee tastes as good as it does first thing in the morning. I have also noticed that leftover coffee can still be at least lukewarm 8 hours later. So if your are a single coffee drinker household, you could re-warm leftovers late in the day and still have a good tasting cup of coffee.
The positives of this coffee maker are many:
*fast brew time
*superb flavor
*thermal carafe eliminates 'burnt' coffee smell and flavor
*thermal carafe allows for less coffee waste
*water doesn't flow until the lid is put down
The negatives:
*Expensive initial cost, but coffee savings may make that up
*Bunn filters are helpful (but not required) due to the shape of the brew basket. Non-Bunn filters are shorter and can cause grinds to wind up in the pot.
*Somewhat large footprint takes up a lot of space.
*Difficult to measure water for partial pots.
All in all, this is a first class coffee maker. The brew flavor is exceptional. It's truly worth of the price, and is a great addition to any kitchen.
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