ivplay's Full Review: Bunn BT10B 10-Cup Coffee Maker
My wife has a problem. Don't tell her I told you so, but she often gets a case of the dropsies, and it seems to happen when she has a glass object in her hands. She has broken two of the four hand-made coffee cups that we received as a set when we were married. Our wine glasses are short by two, and one of them cut her spectacularly when she snapped the stem while washing it. (that one required a trip to the Emergency Room!) Our brand new (less than one month old!) Corelle set of dishes is already short one tea mug! The most expensive drops she has performed, however, were the two Bunn Coffee carafes that shattered, one in the sink and the other on the floor. I began searching in earnest for a 'better' carafe, so to speak; one that wouldn't put my wife, my children and my feet in danger. I finally found it, and it carries the Bunn name: The Bunn BT-10B!
What's so special about the BT-10B?
The BT-10B is Bunn's version of the thermally insulated carafe coffee maker. Just like the typical Bunn this has a nice and large screened water inlet in the top of the unit that you pour the water into. At this point the water runs towards the back of the unit where the hot water heater is and waits for the lid to close. After you have placed the carafe in place below the coffee grounds, close the lid. There is a small plastic tab that is pressed down as the lid closes, and this activates a manual valve inside that allows the preheated water in the tank to escape via the spray head through the coffee grounds and into the carafe, thus making your fresh, hot pot of coffee. The whole process is very fast, resulting in a full pot of the hot lifeblood within 3-5 minutes if maintained properly.
What makes this Bunn different is the carafe itself, and you will find that it is much heavier than a typical carafe. The thin-gauge stainless steel exterior and interior is filled with approximately one inch of what seems to be foam insulation. The lid is a black plastic job approximately 1 inch thick, again filled with insulation to keep heat from escaping the top. Overall this carafe will keep your freshly brewed pot of coffee hot for about an hour and definitely warm enough to drink for up to two hours. The pouring spout is wide enough to allow the coffee to pour quickly and the lid seals in place relatively well to keep spills to a minimum.
Since the carafe is insulated there is no need for the hot plate, and therefore only one switch mars the beautiful black-plastic and stainless surface of this appliance. The single switch turns off the hot water heater while you are on vacation or otherwise occupied for excessive amounts of time. This is an important switch to remember as the reason that a Bunn puts out hot coffee quickly is that the heater is on all the time. If you leave for a couple of weeks there is the chance that all of the water will boil out of the heater, leaving the coil to burn up the maker and potentially your house… Better to flick that switch or do as we do and unplug the Bunn completely! If you go a week between pots of coffee, you may want to run a pot of water through the maker with no grounds in place before making coffee, as undoubtedly some of the water in the pot has evaporated in the between time.
If you have hard water you will need to clean the interior of the Bunn at some point. Many people simply run vinegar through the pot, as the weak acetic acid will dissolve the particulate buildup inside the pot. I would highly recommend that you run through at least five pots of water after the vinegar cleaning, as otherwise your next few pots of coffee will have a lingering odor and flavor of vinegar. Personally I don't do the vinegar cleaning, as I take the unit apart and take the pots to work where I use industrial strength acid to perform the cleaning. This gets the tank completely cleaned, and the tank can then be rinsed and washed while out of the unit, allowing it to dry completely as well.
Recall of products
IN July of 2005 Bunn recalled 1.75 million units including some of the BT-10B. This was done as a very low percentage of users (17 total) had the bowl or lid melt from a malfunction. It was shortly after this that several of these refurbished units were available from Bunn at the reduced price of $85, and this was when and how we bought ours! If you are looking to buy a used BT-10B or already have one, check this site out for the information on the recall:
If the one you have or are contemplating buying meets the criteria for the recall, make sure to return it to Bunn or find another unit!
Overall
Most people come to the BT-10B looking for a thermally insulated carafe that doesn't require the hotplate underneath the typical glass carafe. This does have some nice benefits, such as a hot cup of coffee for about two hours without the need for the hot plate. Since the coffee isn't sitting on the hotplate, you don't need to worry about 'cooking' the coffee in the carafe, resulting in that burnt flavor that no one seems to like. While these are great benefits of the BT-10B, we don't often have coffee sitting around our house for more than an hour; the real benefit is the fact that my wife can drop this carafe all she wants and it isn't going to break! The coffee is quick and hot, and the pot won't break; what more could you want?
Original hot-water reservoir-style home brewer with classic Bunn design and stainless steel double wall thermal carafe. Brews 10 cups of perfect resta...More at Living Comforts Etc.
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