BUNN 55200 CSB3T Speed Brew Platinum Thermal Coffee Maker Stainless Steel, 10-Cup, Black

chrisUnited States

an awesome coffee maker

the one thing that i'm still on the fence about: the water tank is plastic. i'm undecided on how i feel about the water being heated constantly in a plastic tank. our commercial version at work is metal and i'd really prefer that. but it is enormous. this coffee maker is comparable in size to most others. this replaced a cuisinart 10 cup with carafe. the start button stopped making contact inside the unit (this was the second coffee maker that had the same issue over a few years' time). after a bit of research i am very glad i picked this up. brew time is crazy quick. after the first fill of the reservoir the heater takes about fifteen minutes to have your first pot ready. i've read a few complaints about the heater being too loud. honestly, i don't think it is any louder than a regular coffee pot in the brewing process. it is nice that there is no steam to ruin the underside of the cabinets. i have pulled the unit about two inches from the wall so that i can easily pour water into the lid. be very mindful that once you've added the water into the lid, do not close that lid until you have replaced the pot! you will make a mess immediately. i guess you can spring for the fancy water pitcher but there is really no need. it comes with filters but i purchased melitta filters (8 - 12 cup) and they hold the coffee better. the original filters let the coffee grounds ride up just a little too close to the top. keeps coffee hot for at least six hours. i dig this machine... update (nov 24) i have to correct myself - this speed brew has a stainless steel tank that keeps the water hot. i was under the (wrong) impression that it was plastic. had i really looked at the deets to this machine i would have seen that. i don't know why some people have an absolute mess of grounds when they brew. i have never had that issue. my filters are shown pre and post brew. my hario ceramic grinder takes longer to grind than the bunn takes to brew. and i'm ok with the "workout." something important to point out is that you MUST replace the pot before you close the lid. it starts brewing immediately and you'll make a mess if it isn't there. also, you cannot "prefill" the tank (like the night before) and simply close the lid when ready (like in the morning). the tank will not continue to keep the water at 200 overnight and you wind up with lukewarm coffee. i did this once and i learned my lesson. frankly, you can't say that filling it right before you use it can be an inconvenience. it brews so quickly that whatever time you think you lost by not having a timer or it being set up the night before is moot. i've seen other reviews comment about the plastic housing being cheap or not flashy. i disagree. last thing to add - i use it daily, full pot. about every three or four months i will notice that it takes a few minutes longer to brew. that's when i descale with vinegar and water. lengthy process but totally worth it. hope this helps and you wind up buying this.

David M.United States

Really great coffee once you understand how it works.

I was a bit disappointed with this coffee maker initially, but now that I've figured out how to overcome one small issue, I love it! The issue was that if I put fresh ground coffee into the filter basket at night, when I got up the next morning to make coffee, the grounds would be wet and there would be some water in the bottom of the carafe. To avoid that, I would just leave the filter basket on the counter at night and leave the carafe in place to catch the small amount of water that was leaking during the night. But that was frustrating to do, and I almost returned the coffee maker because of the problem. But then I figured it out. I was leaving the water reservoir lid open at night because I had gone ahead and added my fresh water so that the next morning I could just close the lid to start the brewing process. If I closed the water reservoir lid at night and waited until the next morning to add water, my grounds would be completely dry with no sign of leakage. Here's what I think was happening.... I have the coffee maker on a smart plug because I don't want the heater running 24/7. With the lid open, the heated portion of the water reservoir is sealed off from the section where the fresh water is poured in, so when the heater was coming on, thermal expansion was causing the water to seep into the filter basket since it had nowhere else to go. With the lid closed, the two water areas are open between each other, so when the heater comes on and thermal expansion occurs, the water can expand into the fresh water section instead of being forced into the filter basket. So now I just make sure the lid is closed until I'm ready to pour in fresh water in the morning, and there's no more leaking. If you choose to leave the heater on 24/7 instead of using a smart plug to control it, you may not have the leaking issue, but I haven't tested that. I have the smart plug turn the coffee maker on early in the morning and then power it off several hours later because I don't want it running 24/7. I'm probably being overly cautious, but I like to minimize fire risks, and I don't want to use electricity to keep the water hot when I'm not using it. Once I fixed that issue, I really like this coffee maker. The coffee tastes better than any maker I've had before. The thermal carafe keeps the coffee plenty hot for about three hours, but I do fill it with hot water for a couple of minutes before I make coffee just to heat it up good. You won't be disappointed with the coffee maker once you get used to it. It's a nice looking machine, and it makes great coffee!

Mr. Steven F. WhitehornUnited States

Hot, great tasting coffee in a Flash!

Beware, proper setup is extremely important with this coffee maker. Follow the simple instruction sheet before plugging in this coffee maker. Basically, fill it with 2 to 2 and 1/2 carafes of cold water first. After plugging it in, turn on the power switch and wait 15 minutes for the 70 ounces of hot water to heat to 200 degrees. Then pour anywhere from 20 ounces to 50 ounces of cold water in the front reservoir. Yes, I really like that you can pour water in the front and without a spray head in the way. Keep in mind that as soon as you close that lid to the reservoir the coffee will start brewing immediately. Thats why it's so important to have the carafe in place with the lid turned to the closed position (the arrow points to the front of the carafe where the pour spout is.) Now you can close the lid and watch the magic happen. It takes only 4 minutes to brew a full pot (50 ounces) of hot, robust coffee. There is no pause and serve feature, lcd window with timer, brew strength selector, special cleaning cycle, or audible alert when the coffee is finished brewing. However, that also means there is less to go wrong and that means you will experience increased long term reliability. For example, there is no pump to go bad or become clogged over time. I love the simplistic beauty of this artful, well constructed and thoughtful design. Most competitors have plastic water reservoirs, because the water is heated as the coffee is brewed. This Bunn has a stainless- steel water reservoir that will never give off a plastic, artificial taste. Thats worth a lot in my book. One final thought, if you will not use the coffee maker in 3 or 4 days, by all means turn it off. The water stays at a constant 200 degrees and it evaporates over time. In 5 days or less all the water will evaporate and expose the heating element to air. This will cause it to burn out in short order. In this respect it operates like the hot water heater in your house. The heating element must be kept in water while the power is on. Oh yes, I love the 3 year warranty, that's rare these days for a coffee maker.

TylerUnited States

Hands down the best drip coffee maker I've ever had

This is the best drip coffee maker I have ever had. It's operation mechanism is beautifully simple so I have no doubts that it can last a heck of a long time. I keeps the temperature of the water at a good brewing temperature all the time. This functionality is really nice for my spontaneous desire to have coffee outside of the usual early morning because it can make a quality brew of a full pot in about 4 minutes. My personal belief is that the best way to make coffee is a French press for overall flavor. The nice thing about this coffee maker is you can put a normal-sized French press underneath and just use the maker as a hot water dispenser. I really like the styling of the machine. Typically, Bunn coffee makers are designed solely for functionality and thus are just a lot of stainless steele. They would stick out like a sore thumb in a kitchen and be an eyesore for some. This machine looks far more inoffensive in a typical American style kitchen. My only complaints are fairly mild. I wish the machine had a little more solid a feeling. Don't get me wrong, the plastic of the body is well made and fairly rigid just the machine doesn't have that reassuring heft I'd like for a machine in this price point. I also find the descaling process I must do every 3 months or so a little bit of a nuisance cause the whole process takes around 3 hours. It's easy to do but it just isn't something that you have to plan around. And on that note if you have really hard water where you live I HIGHLY recommend using bottled water for when you make coffee. Using super hard water will cause wicked bad scale buildup and probably shorten the lifespan of the machine even if you do monthly descaling with vinegar.