When buying a commercial coffee maker one important question is do you want a pourover or an automatic brewer? Or perhaps you want to use bottled water. Lets take a look at these types of brewers and see how they might fit in your situation.
Pourover Coffee Brewers
Pourover coffee brewers don’t require connecting the brewer to a water line. They come with a pitcher to measure how much water you need to brew a pot of coffee. You fill the pitcher at a convenient sink or from bottled water and pour the water into the top of the brewer to start brewing. One advantage of this type of brewer, like the Bunn VP17-2 (1U/1L Warmer) 12 Cup Pourover Coffee Brewer with 2 Warmers, is cost. They cost less than other types of brewers and you don’t need to pay a plumber to hook it up to a water line. The biggest downside is that pourover brewers don’t have a hot water faucet for tea, soup, etc. – they just brew coffee. Also, they generally don’t give you much control over the brewing – they usually don’t have options for prewetting and pulse brewing. Of course its also less convenient to fill a pitcher and pour than just pushing a button like with an automatic brewer.
Automatic Coffee Brewers
Automatic coffee brewers are more convenient than pourover coffee brewers. Because they are plumbed to a water line they allow you to just push a button to start brewing. Most automatic brewers, like the Newco ACE-AP Automatic Airpot Coffee Brewer, also have a hot water faucet which is great for those people who want a cup of hot water for tea or for instant soup, etc. They do cost quite a bit more than a pourover brewer – around twice the cost – and they require having a plumber to provide a water line for the brewer. This also means that problems with the water line or moving to a new location where a water line isn’t installed yet means you can’t brew coffee with many automatic brewers. Some automatic coffee brewers, like the Bunn CWTF15-3 (2U/1L Warmer) 12 Cup Automatic Coffee Brewer with 3 Warmers, don’t have this problem as they also have a pourover backup option. If the coffee brewer isn’t connected to a water line you can pour water in the top to brew.
Automatic coffee brewers can range from simple timer based brewing to digital brewers that allow you to control water temperature precisely and to utilize prewetting and pulse brewing to optimize flavor extraction. True coffee aficionados will appreciate the capabilities of a digital brewer, like the Curtis D500GT G3 Automatic Airpot Coffee Brewer.
Bottled Water Coffee Brewers
Bottled water coffee brewers give you the convenience of an automatic coffee brewer without the need to have a plumber connect the brewer to a water line. They also allow you to use better quality water than you
may get from your tap. Some bottled water coffee brewers, like the Cafejo TE-419 Automatic Thermal Carafe Bottled Water Coffee Brewer, just brew coffee and don’t have a hot water faucet. Others, like the Newco KB-1F Automatic Decanter Bottled Water Coffee Brewer, have a hot water faucet. Only a few models of bottled water coffee brewers are available so you won’t get options like digital brewing with prewetting and pulse brewing. You also won’t find larger volume bottled water brewers.
Bottled Water Pumps
You may need to brew with bottled water but none of the bottled water brewers meet your needs, such as higher volume brewing or digital brewer control. You may need a high volume brewer somewhere water isn’t available, like a trailer or outbuilding for events. In that case, its possible to use a bottled water pump to convert virtually any automatic coffee brewer to use bottled water. Give us a call and we can help you find a bottled water pump that will work with the automatic coffee brewer you have in mind.