If you drive a car with a manual transmission, you might appreciate the BUNN BX-B, a basic 10-cup coffee brewer designed for home use. If you want a drip coffee maker that you can program to brew at a set time in the morning, this is not the ‘droid you are looking for. This model is a non-automated Mini-Me of more powerful BUNNs designed for commercial uses, and it stands out among current coffee makers because of its radical simplicity. This BUNN disdains the mollycoddling ways of more automated coffee makers.
An internal thermostat maintains ideal temperature in a stainless-steel water tank. It will brew 10 cups of coffee through a paper filter in three minutes, using a spray-head design for maximum wetting and flavor extraction. It is important to use the BUNN coffee filters so that they are tall enough to contain the grounds in the basket without overflow. You can’t assume that your local neighborhood grocery store will have the BUNN filters: you might have to go to a special store or order the filters online.
Previous versions of BUNN coffee makers required the decanter to be in place as you poured the water into the top, which meant that you had to use a separate container to pour the water. The BUNN BX-B lets you fill the machine using the glass decanter because the water doesn’t start flowing until you lower a door on the top of the appliance. Just remember to have the decanter on the warming plate before you lower the door! It produces piping hot water so quickly that you might find yourself using it to produce hot water for tea or hot chocolate instead of putting a kettle on the stove to boil.
Consistent with its less-is-more design philosophy, unlike many contemporary drip coffee makers, the BUNN shrugs off the features that the market associates with convenience. Black with stainless-steel accents, this is one of the few coffee makers not gussied up with a cup-warming plate, built-in grinder or removable water tank. In its Spartan simplicity, it wouldn’t be caught dead with a timer, strength settings or a pause-and-serve function. In a world of drip coffee maker appliances given over to luxury and decadence, the BUNN is a valiant warrior, stripped down to fighting trim. It draws a line in the silica and stands up for spare elegance and durability.
BUNN knows a thing or two about customer service from its success in the commercial arena. Users of its home version coffee makers enjoy a generous three-year warranty with access to customer support via email or telephone.
The BUNN BX-B brings 40 years of restaurant coffee brewing experience into the home. Rather than clutter the product design with beeping gewgaws and failure-prone programmable doodads, BUNN constructs this drip coffee maker with commercially rated materials and assembles it in the United States. The glass decanter is durable. The water tank is of stainless steel. The brew cycle is fast and the warming plate maintains optimal temperature. The manufacturer is sufficiently confident in the durability of the design to offer a three-year warranty. If you want to rebel against the attack of the drip coffee maker clones, the BUNN BX-B might be the best of all coffee makers for you. Just don’t leave the house without first unplugging it.
