Need advice on drip brewers - Page 2

Recommendations for buyers and upgraders from the site's members.
Elliot
Posts: 219
Joined: 5 years ago

#11: Post by Elliot »

HA! What great timing for this thread! Sorry to OP for jumping back in.

I have finally decided it is time to buy a batch brewer. Been doing pour overs of various kinds for years and with a toddler, well, the ritual is less appealing. Mass consumption is more so.

I am basically looking for a "best of the best," as if I compare it to what I have spent on espresso stuff (fortunately, my wife is not a member here), none of these are that pricey. Flavor is the only thing that matters. I don't care about aesthetics or any of the other factors. Good coffee above all.

Using Monolith MAX and Monolith MC4 (ordered but not yet here) as grinders.

bean74
Posts: 94
Joined: 2 years ago

#12: Post by bean74 »

Randy G. wrote:re: Bunn - Maybe things have changed, but a number of years ago I had a used A10 and used B10. They work the same. The water is in a boiler and kept hot. Pour water into the top and it displaces water in the boiler which is sent to the brew basket. iirc, the B10 has a present button thermostat. The A10 has a bulb thermocouple and internally can be adjusted. I modded my A10 with a different thermocouple assembly mounted so that the shaft poked through the wall so the temperature could be adjusted. The B10 is a cheap wannabe. The top area where the water is poured is RTV glued to the boiler. A leak there means a new machine. I tried to reseal the B10 I had and it finally ended up as trash.

The one thing they had in common is if you pour all the water in at once and you have a too-fine grind, have a mop ready. The basket will overflow and that does not go into the carafe- it pours over the edge of the basket, onto the counter, and onto the floor.
I had never heard of the B10, so I had to do some searching for it. Looks like a cheaper variant on the same concept. It wasn't even listed on the Bunn's site for commercial machines.

I've also never had an issue with the A10 overflowing the basket. It surely can be done, the volume of the pot is larger than the volume of the basket, but you'd have to intentionally grind and load coffee way finer than any sane person would or should ever do for a pour-over machine, in order to make that happen.

The A10 is a small commercial machine, designed for diners, coffee shops, pretty much any place that's going to put heavy use on it. Back when I bought it, they had it double-listed on both their commercial site (https://commercial.bunn.com/equipment/coffee) and their consumer site (https://retail.bunn.com/). It's solid, but don't load it with espresso grind... or you will need a mop.

Oh, one more thing I just remembered, which could be a source of Randy's problems. There are different shower heads for the A10, with different flow rates. I remember swapping mine when I got the machine ten years ago, and it's likely the second-hand A10 you bought may have had one of the high-flow heads installed.

jtferraro
Posts: 122
Joined: 11 years ago

#13: Post by jtferraro »

TomC wrote:There's other machines that are in development coming to the market soon that will be the new plus ultra of filter brewing that might be home-friendly at a significant cost; so I'd wait a while longer before making big buying decisions.
I'm also in the market for a new 'regular' automatic drip coffee maker. Been using an old Bonavita for years but the carafe finally started leaking. I've been using our Chemex as the new carafe but it requires me cutting down the stack height of the Chemex filters and I either have to grind more coarsely or monitor the water level in the carafe to ensure it doesn't flow over the top. Thinking of upgrading to the R6 but was curious about what 'other machines that are in development' are, and when they'll actually be hitting the market.

Thank you,
-Jeff

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Randy G.
Posts: 5340
Joined: 17 years ago

#14: Post by Randy G. »

bean74 wrote:Oh, one more thing I just remembered, which could be a source of Randy's problems. There are different shower heads for the A10, with different flow rates. I remember swapping mine when I got the machine ten years ago, and it's likely the second-hand A10 you bought may have had one of the high-flow heads installed.
I should have been more detailed when I made that statement. I did change to the slower shower head. The flooding problem was caused by me. I was using too fine of a grind. But even with the slower flow head I needed to use a coarser grind then I would have liked.
EspressoMyEspresso.com - 2000-2023 - a good run, its time is done

bean74
Posts: 94
Joined: 2 years ago

#15: Post by bean74 replying to Randy G. »

Bummer. I guess it's not the machine for you, then! Truly, every machine is a compromise, you just have to find the one that checks most of your boxes.

I just thought of one more strike against the A10, which I had forgotten to mention in my earlier post on it, in case anyone else reading this thread is considering it as an option. Since it's an always-hot machine, and you never know when the thermostat will trip those 1000 watt heating elements to fire up, it can't share a typical 15A residential circuit with your espresso maker. Or put otherwise, if you don't have separate circuits for these two machines, you'll always want to flip the off switch on the A10 when running your espresso machine, and then remind yourself to turn it back on when you're done. I ended up pulling a second circuit to the counter where these two machines sit, to alleviate myself of that routine, after forgetting to turn the A10 back on too many times.

I loved my A10 for many years. Specifically, the years when I was making a pot of coffee at least once per day. Now that I'm almost exclusively on espresso, the A10 just became this annoying thing I need to water several times per week, to prevent the boiler going dry. It may be time to just drain it and pull the plug, and fall back to another method when I want some pour-over. But that's more about my usage than the machine, I stand by it being a rock-solid machine that makes some wonderful pour-over coffee.

jtferraro
Posts: 122
Joined: 11 years ago

#16: Post by jtferraro »

jtferraro wrote:I'm also in the market for a new 'regular' automatic drip coffee maker...
...thinking of upgrading to the R6 but was curious about what 'other machines that are in development' are, and when they'll actually be hitting the market.
I should add I'm not a fan of the Behmor Brazen's aesthetics. Any suggestions and info appreciated.

Thanks gang,
-Jeff

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