Technivorm vs Bunn Coffee Makers

[GwennP]

I have searched the forums and can't find anything on these coffee makers. I am redoing the kitchen and need to replace my Kitchen Aid Professional series coffee maker. I grind my beans each day and like a hot, strong cup of coffee. I have narrowed by search down to the Techinvorm and a Bunn, but I'm not sure which is best. Does anyone have any information on this? Also, I know a thermal is preferred for keeping coffee fresh, but it does not make it hot enough. Any thoughts? Thank you!

[scubadoo97]

We use a Bunn for many years. Some down sides, the brewing cycle is very fast. My FIL has a commercial model and we timed the brew time at just under 3 min. The other down side for some is that the tank needs to stay heated constantly so it uses a lot more electricity and if you leave town you do need to turn it off or the water in the tank could evaporate. The water tank builds up a lot of hard water deposits. The brewer comes with a spring like reamer for descaling. You can get a flow restrictor from Bunn for free that will decrease the flow out of the machine to slow the brew time.

I have not used a Tecnivorm but have a Melita Clarity which was designed like a Technivorm. What what I hear the Technivorm brews at a more correct time and temperature.

If you go to coffeegeek.com you will get a lot of information every kind of brewing method.

[ElsieD]

I don't know anything about the Bunn but we have the Technivorm and love it. We have the thermal carafe and it keeps the coffee hot. We had gone through a few coffeemakers before this one and none performed as well as this one does.

[GwennP]

I don't know anything about the Bunn but we have the Technivorm and love it. We have the thermal carafe and it keeps the coffee hot. We had gone through a few coffeemakers before this one and none performed as well as this one does.

I think I am really leaning in this direction but I'm not sure about thermal or glass. Is the coffee really hot in the thermal? Also, I have read that the Technivorm has issues in totally saturating the grounds because the water does not spray out but comes out as from a faucet. Perhaps that was an older model. Do you find this to be true? Thanks agian!

[scubadoo97]

FWIW, I had to do a modification on my Clarity coffee maker which had one hole for the water to wet the grounds. I was able to pull the plastic cover with the one hole and drill several holes so now it comes out like a shower head.

[scubadoo97]

Gwenn, I just did a search and found that Sweetmarias has a replacement spray head for the Technivorm with 9 holes for $15

http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/technivorm-9-hole-water-sprayhead.html

[GwennP]

Gwenn, I just did a search and found that Sweetmarias has a replacement spray head for the Technivorm with 9 holes for $15

Thank you!! I actually took a walk over to William Sonoma and the new models come with the 9 hole sprayer. The coffee pot is quite small,though, more like an 8 American cup!!!

[scubadoo97]

I noted on the SW site that they said that the new models now have the 9 hole sprayers. As I recall the Bunn has an 8 cup carafe as well. Well they call it a 10 cup

[ElaineK]

I can't speak to the comparison, but when my coffee guy started selling Technivorms, he had some blog posts that might be interesting to you.

http://muddydogcoffee.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/6-easy-steps-to-the-worlds-best-drip-coffee-at-home/

http://muddydogcoffee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/the-technivorm-cheat-sheet-to-making-ultimate-coffee/

[prasantrin]

I have searched the forums and can't find anything on these coffee makers.

There was a relatively active discussion with much mention of Technivorm and Bunn here .

Zingerman's likes Technivorm if that means anything.

[tim]

Is the coffee really hot in the thermal?

Hi,

The Technivorm glass carafe and thermal carafe machines use the same brewing mechanicals; therefore the coffee comes out at the same temperature. The thermal will keep the coffee much warmer.

There had been some issues with reliability on the Technivorm thermal carafe seals compounded by elusive warranty service. This may have been addressed since they have expanded their distribution.

Tim

[GwennP]

I can't speak to the comparison, but when my coffee guy started selling Technivorms, he had some blog posts that might be interesting to you.

http://muddydogcoffee.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/6-easy-steps-to-the-worlds-best-drip-coffee-at-home/

http://muddydogcoffee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/the-technivorm-cheat-sheet-to-making-ultimate-coffee/

Great articles - thank you!

[GwennP]

Thanks all.Just got my Technivorm - great coffee!!!

[barrett]

Good call.

The technivorm is about the best coffee you'll get at home without dropping serious cash.

[weinoo]

Good call.

The technivorm is about the best coffee you'll get at home without dropping serious cash.

Actually, the best "automatic" coffee you'll get at home.

I'll put a $30 French press or a $15 Melitta drip against it any day.

[Mayur]

What about the Chemex? Simply overrated, period?

[scubadoo97]

The Chemex is just a pour over done in glass. Over rated? One of the newest pour over devices is the Clever http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/coffee-brewers/filtercones/clever-dripper-with-lid.html which allows you do vary the extraction time.

[John Rosevear]

Good call.

The technivorm is about the best coffee you'll get at home without dropping serious cash.

At $300, the Technivorm already counts as "serious cash" (if not "ludicrous cash") for a drip coffeemaker, particularly when something like a Capresso MT500 or a Zojirushi makes similarly good coffee (yes, the water gets just as hot) for half the price or less... and particularly when you need to spend another $70-$400 for a decent burr grinder to really take advantage of any of these machines' virtues. The Technivorm has more snob value than most coffee makers, but is the coffee really better?

But yeah, "best coffee you'll get at home" way overstates it... a French press or an Aeropress or a Bodum Santos, properly used, will outdo any drip machine for a fraction of the cost.

[Kay]

I have never tried the Technivorm but we have used both a Bunn (used them for almost 3 decades) and a Capresso auto drip. After using the Capresso for some time, we became curious just how its brew would compare with our old friend, the Bunn, which brews faster as mentioned above, and I think has a rather larger thermal carafe. Bunn was then hauled in from the garage. We were really pretty stunned at the difference in the results in comparing 2 identically prepared pots. Extraction was much better in the Capresso.

[Kay]

Well, for what its worth, after having a little time to think about it, I thought that I might amend my previous post with a little more information, in comparing the Bunn with the Capresso auto drip. We actually really liked the Bunn and may well go back to using it someday.

Pertaining to the temperature of the hot water at brewing, the Bunn was actually better than the Capresso, with water even a little hotter and closer to the ideal, than the Capresso, by 1 or 2 degrees, I think. This surprised us at the time, that issue being one reason that my husband bought a Capresso when he started roasting for us at home, several years ago. Throughout our Bunn years, we would hear the water heater come on in the Bunn right after brewing a pot, but then rarely hear it again between times unless the kitchen was cold, and even then, it was not often and of short duration, so we actually really liked the keep-water-hot feature and do not think that it used all that much extra power.

That being said, with the Bunn, the speed that the water passes through the grounds is pretty darn fast, 3 minutes as stated above for a full pot. For the best extraction, one would definately have to experiment a little with a finer grind than one might choose for a different brewer, in order to compensate, which we did not take the time to do yet. We will probably do just that if we need to replace the Capresso as we really do sort of miss the speed and ease of the Bunn.

We went through several Bunns during the many years that we used them, and we are thinking that they lasted on average about 10 years each, trouble free. Don't know if that would still be true today.