The Bunn is a Beautiful Thing

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fast coffee, fast clean up.

Cons: A little bit large.

The Bottom Line: 
For daily coffee drinkers and people on the go this is a great machine.

Author's Review
Before I got married I had a cheap, $10 coffee maker for the rare time when a visitor wanted coffee. My husband had a Bunn and said it was a great coffee maker. I was never a big coffee drinker so I really don't get excited over a coffee pot. (That excludes Starbucks' Carmel Macchiatos - but I have a hunch that's not really coffee.) He said he'd received his Bunn from his mom as a gift. In fact, she'd given three of his other siblings one as well. That was impressive although I don't know why she doesn't use one herself. Anyway...

Fast forward a few years and I am now a semi-regular coffee drinker. My husband drinks coffee EVERY morning - three cups. I drink it on weekend mornings or if I had a REALLY bad night with the baby. And there are several evening TV shows that we enjoy drinking coffee with. The thing is, when I decide I want to drink some coffee - if I have to wait 15 or 20 minutes for a pot to brew I might loose the urge.

That is the beauty of a Bunn! NO WAITING! The Bunn maintains a reservoir of hot water. So you put your paper filter in the basket, sprinkle in some coffee, slide it into the machine, pour some water down the top and it forces out the already hot water so your coffee is brewing within seconds. Honestly I don't know how much electricity it burns keeping the water hot day and night but your hot water heater probably does the same thing so it can't add that much extra. Occasionally you'll hear a weird noise or clunking from the machine during the day while it maintains the heat but it's not obnoxious. And, surprisingly, the exterior of the machine keeps cool so you can't feel the heat.

The machine is a bit larger than an average coffee pot. Well, it is taller and deeper but very skinny compared to a standard coffee pot. Even though it is tall it fits without problem under our cabinets above our countertop. The overall surface of the machine is white and it wipes clean very easily with a damp sponge.

I like that the filter basket is brown so it shows no stains. It works with standard size basket filters - no special filters to hunt down in select locations only!

The carafe is clear glass with cup markings on the even numbers. It marks up to 10 cups but with larger sized coffee mugs of today it is probably not accurate. Our mugs are not oversized but they are a significant size and we usually get about six or seven cups out of a full pot. But it's so easy to make another pot - who the heck cares how many cups it makes. The lid and handle are dark brown which also help it look cleaner. Most times we just rinse out the carafe and leave it to drain on a dish towel. Even after many years of use it still looks good.

The machine features a warming option that is controlled easily with a flip of the switch at the front of the machine. When the warmer is on the switch glows a nice orange-red color so it is easy to see. There is an official on/off switch on the side towards the back but if the machine is off the water is not staying hot so we never turn ours off.