Awesome machine, just didn't work well with our soft water

Author's Rating:

Pros: FAST coffee

Cons: With softened water: used more grounds than our standard machine

The Bottom Line: 
We loved the way the Bunn worked. Beware of problems with soft water. Hopefully, you'll have better luck than we did. In spite of the problems, we miss this machine!

Author's Review
My husband owned a Bunn coffee maker when he was single but had given up coffee and gave the machine away.

Now he's married and drinking coffee again and we needed a new machine... so we went with the machine he raved about: BUNN.

I have to admit, it is an impressive machine. It is state of the art. Bunn is the machine you see in most every restaurant and for good reason.

Bunn is pricey at $100, but it is AMERICAN MADE and comes with a FULL 3-YEAR WARRANTY... you get what you pay for.

The brewing technology the Bunn coffee maker uses is incredible. It has a reservoir that keeps water hot until you need it. When you pour in a pot of water, gravity forces the hot water out to brew your coffee and the cold water goes into the reservoir to be heated for your next pot. That's how you get a 3-MINUTE POT OF COFFEE; no waiting for your cold water to be heated.

As far as complaints of not being able to brew less than 4 cups. It is not designed to; the manual states that 4 cups is the minimum amount that can be brewed. The machine must need the weight of the 4 cups of water to be able to use gravity to start the hot water flowing to brew the coffee.

Also, as is the nature of standing water, the hot water in the reservoir will evaporate over time. The manual addresses this to: for a couple of days, you simply add a little water to the reservoir before making your pot of coffee. For extended periods, the machine has a vacation switch, or you can empty the machine and start fresh later.

And as far as a timer goes: who needs one with this machine? It takes JUST 3 MINUTES FOR A FULL POT OF COFFEE! We would set it up and just leave the lid open until the morning. In the morning, with a flip of the lid, it was on its way and done brewing before we had the rest of breakfast ready!!

Now the sad part:
Unfortunately, we couldn't get a decent cup of coffee out of this gem. We have a water softening system. And it seems that soft water and Bunn don't get along. At least, not at this house. (Maybe its the particular method our softening system uses?)

Bunn anticipates problems with soft water and gives instructions in the manual: grind the coffee coarser and call for a replacement sprayhead. We did both.

And I must admit, Bunn Customer Service is efficient! I got an answer from a rep (no recording) within 3 rings. I told her we had followed the instructions in the manual and needed the soft water sprayhead. The rep didn't question/lecture me on procedures; she simply said "Sure. What name and address do I mail this to?" I was off the phone in 1 1/2 minutes (our phone times calls)... WOW!!

Anyway, after much trial and error- changing the grind, using more grounds- we figured out making a decent cup of coffee was just going to be way too expensive for us with the machine: we were up to twice the quantity of coffee grounds and still getting weaker coffee than with the standard drip machine we had replaced.

All in all, we don't fault this machine; it had to be our water. Unfortunately, using unsoftened water from our tap is not an option... tastes icky, in no way could have improved our coffee!!

After two weeks, we returned the machine and went back to a standard drip machine. :(