Bunn coffeemakers are designed and work differently than any other coffeemaker you've ever owned. Before you purchase one, it's important to understand how and why. It took me quite a while reading their site and reviews, and even then it took owning one for me to really understand. This will hopefully save you some time. Let me start by saying I purchased this machine on my own with no discounts or incentives. Bunn... you owe me! I purchased my first Bunn several months ago after considerable investigation and I am thrilled with it. For the past 10 years I've had multiple Mr. Coffee's and a Nespreso machine, and have drank coffee from various other machine's at friends homes. I thought all at-home coffee tasted bad and burnt and blamed the coffee bean companies. Only now do I understand it was the machine designs ruining things. To understand Bunn you must first realize the functional design of every other coffeemaker on the market is wrong. Those coffee machines wait dormant for you to indicate that you want a cup of coffee, and then go about boiling the water and channeling boiling water over the ground coffee. The result of this process is that you wait around endlessly... literally waiting for water to boil... for 5 to 10 minutes and then drink the result of boiled water poured over coffee grounds (bitterness). The Bunn approach is that a) you shouldn't have to wait for water to boil; and b) boiled water (212F) is the wrong temperature for making good coffee. Bunn's carafe (at least for my model) holds roughly 10 cups of water, but the water tank in the machine holds 20. And THAT is the genius of their design. Why does the machine hold twice as much water as the carafe can handle? The Bunn coffeemaker has a stainless steel water heater tank inside of it that ALWAYS has exactly 10 cups of water at the perfect temperature for making coffee. When you Fill the carafe and pour it into the machine, the machine uses the new cold water to displace the existing hot water. The result is that the existing hot water immediately starts pouring over the grinds. Within around 5 seconds coffee starts pouring at a steady flow into the carafe, and those first 5 seconds are the time it takes to soak through the coffee grinds/filter. It's immediate. The flow is also somewhat heavier/faster, and within 2 minutes (faster if you're not filling the whole pot) you're completely done. The speed of this machine will blow you away. Further, the temperature the machine holds the water at is around 195F... the correct temperature for making good coffee. Why does the coffee out of your existing machine always taste burnt? The design of those machines relies on the water boiling... that's how the water moves through the system. Boiling water is 212F, and at that temperature the water scalds the beans resulting in a bitter taste. No it's not the beans or even the plastic... it's the water temperature ruining your morning brew. Immediately all those bitter store coffees tasted amazing. Smooth... delicious... with flavors I had never noticed before. I suddenly had to go back and re-purchase every coffee brand/type I'd ever written off so I could re-evaluate them. It's literally changed my entire view on coffee. Now, not every coffee you buy at the store is going to be amazing... luxury beans will still be better, but by and large this machine significantly moved the needle on every one. Previously I'd rate every coffee I'd ever made at home from a C to an F. Now it's A to C, with even the worst cup of store-brand being nearly as good as the top luxury beans with previous coffeemakers. Between the speed of brew and the amazing results, this machine is AWESOME. There are some more notes with design points you should understand: - There is no "On" button for starting the coffee making process. Remember the water is already hot and waiting, and the process uses displacement, so nothing electronic needs to happen to make a pot of coffee. There are two on/off toggles (they glow blue when on) that do other things as follows: a) In the way back of the machine there is an on/off toggle that controls the water heater on/off. This should always be set to on, unless you're going on vacation (and even then you could just unplug it). That's likely why they stuck this toggle so far back. You won't even see it unless you're looking for it. b) On the front of the machine there is an on/off toggle which everybody will think starts the coffee making. It does not. This on/off toggle simply controls the hot plate below the carafe. You can turn it on if you want, or not... it doesn't matter unless you're trying to keep the coffee already-made hot for a long time. - The coffee making process starts by closing the lid to where you pour in the new water. I haven't opened up the machine to see exactly how it works, but it appears the lid pushes down on a small lever which opens up the inner mechanism allowing the new cold water to push out the existing hot water. This is the hardest part of getting use to this machine. First off you'll want to be pressing some button to start the process... it will feel awkward not to. Seconds... you have to remember not to close the lid until the carafe is in place or coffee will start pouring out. - However much water you pour in, the machine will put out the exact same amount, to the drop. The machine always has precisely 10 cups of water in it... if you pour in 3 more cups, it will dispense exactly 3 cups of hot water. I've tested this and the accuracy is spot-on. - Remember what I said earlier... the carafe holds 10 cups and there are 10 cups of hot water already waiting for you in the machine, but the internal tank holds up to 20 cups. So you can fill up the carafe completely and pour it all in at once, and the machine will not overflow. Also... the pour-in area of the machine is great. Right up front and easy to access (unlike the Mr. Coffee) and the water just goes straight-in with no splashing, missing or over-pouring. - About 5 mins after your coffee is done being made, the machine will automatically kick in heating up the new water to the necessary temperature. It's not overly loud or annoying but you can hear it if you're in the same room. It's another 5 minutes or so to heat the coffee up. - The pour-over on the grinds is great. The flow is very fast, and yet when you take the grounds basket out there is no ride-up of grinds on the filter. I've never seen a single ground make it through into the coffee pot. Also, I should turn the basket upside down over the garbage and the used filter/grounds come right out clean. I usually pour a spritz of water over the empty basket out of habit... but I probably don't even need to do that. There is never residue. - The manual says to pour a minimum of 4 cups of water into the machine for any batch. The carafe also has a minimum indicator at 4 cups. This worried me as I often just want to make a single cup. I fill up a mug of water everyday, pour it in, and then put the mug where the carafe is supposed to go and the machine works flawlessly filling it with coffee to the exact same level. I don't know why they said there is a 4 cup minimum and maybe I am somehow slowly damaging the machine by not obeying them, but it works just fine to do it. If I had a complaint about this machine it would be the hot plate. The hot plate gets too hot (just like every other machine on the market). The result of leaving it on too long is... you guessed it... thick dark bitter coffee. I recommend using the hot plate only for short period of 20-30 minutes max. Also it would be great if the hot plate turned off on it's own after some amount of time. Overall I cannot recommend this machine enough. The coffee is so smooth and delicious you'll never go back.
