Bunn VPR-APS Coffee Maker

This Bunn coffee brewer does one thing excellent… Actually I take that back, it does three things excellent- It makes damn good coffee, and it does it damn fast, and in the perfect volume to fill my Curtis glass lined thermal coffee airpots. I can quickly brew a pot of my Peerless French Roast, and a second pot for my wifes Starbucks Breakfast Blend to have great coffee available all day for my family. It’s such a huge convenience to have coffee available in thermal pump pots because it’s kept hot into the evening. So it’s like having a coffee shop in your house. We drink copious amounts of coffee, preferring coffee to canned energy performance beverages. This is an excellent setup for households with software engineers and hardcore video gamers, or for the home office. I imagine this brewer is also excellent for small offices. I bring a thermal pot of coffee into the office a couple days a week. My office mates prefer coffee brewed from this maker vs the Moccamaster we have in the office. This is simply an outstanding coffee brewer.Because this might sound like an extreme use case-Quick backstory on how I stepped up to the Bunn commercial brewer level of coffeemaker for my home/office- My company gave me the Bunn dual glass carafe commercial brewer unit when they were remodelling the kitchen with different equipment.I used this dual carafe brewer for about a year, which is how I’ve come to appreciate the quality and quantity of coffee that a commercial brewer can produce. I’ve since forgone using the single cup and standard home brewers because they couldn’t compete. However, there was something amiss with the style of how the coffee was produced and how we consumed it. For sheer volume of coffee production, the dual carafe system is superior from a small commercial unit. But the warmers and glass carafe system are made for fast consumption like with a busy office or a cafe/restaurant environment.So I ended up trying a thermal airpot to store and serve the coffe- as soon as the coffee finishes brewing I would immediately pour the glass carafe into the thermal airpot. This worked great for keeping the coffee hot all day and for service convenience from not having to worry about leaving the coffee warming plates on all day or the coffee evaporating or going stale in the glass carafes.The thermal airpots worked so well and everyone loved their performance, so much so, that I thought why not consolidate my coffee setup and brew directly into the thermal airpot. Et voila!I ended up giving the dual carafe Bunn brewer to my office mate, for his new house, who is now loving the coffee fueled life because he programs from home most days of the week.If you love coffee and drink it by the gallon, this could be a great system. Experiment with the thermal airpots to find what suits you best. I happened to prefer the Curtis pots instead of the Bunn pots because they are glass lined and I take great care when handling and cleaning them so as not to shatter the liner. The reward is coffee that stays hot longer. However if you’re rough on your equipment, the durability of a stainless steel lined airpot might work out better.I did some light math and this commercial setup is more cost effective over the high end single cup brewers. And the convenience of selecting any whole coffee beans you want and grinding them just before brewing, to me, makes a difference in flavor and enjoyment.The next item to tweak, in my coffee making setup, is to procure a commercial coffee grinder so I can grind a batch of beans more quickly and consistently, without having to hold anything. Currently I’m using a Mr Coffee 12 cup grinder where I have to set it, every time, to grind 12 cups worth. And also have to tilt it to get all the beans to be ground. It grinds very well, but it’s slightly inconvenient for a daily use system. It was also super inexpensive. The commercial grinders are relatively expensive. But I can live with the current setup, for the meanwhile.Cheers to excellent coffee!