Airpots

[BoldJava]

Suggestions?  I have been looking at both Bunn and Zojirushi.  Thoughts?  Thanks, B|Java

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

I have what ever Sam's Club sold me for $19.95, its glass vacuum and it keeps pretty hot pretty long.  I took it down to the lake for a day of coffee and pottery sales and made AP iced coffees all day

[ButtWhiskers]

I have gone the rounds on airpots over the last 5 years...  I have finally settled on 2.5L Bunn Model 32125, which is a stainless steel lined airpot with a handle pump.  This decision was not arrived at lightly...

I went through multitudes of glass-lined airpots.  They break too often when you do a lot of transporting, and the newer stainless models have just as good insulation.  About 2-3 years ago I started using some imported 2.2L airpots from espressoparts.com that would frequently go on sale for about $15 each when purchased in lots of 6.  There were 2 small problems with these:
1) These would vapor-lock when steam would condense in the pump, which would then cause the pressure from the heat to force the coffee out as a dribble, even when the device was in the 'closed' setting.
2) They were just a little bit small for my tastes.  I wanted something bigger.

Then I switched to Oggi 3.0L stainless airpots, which I was getting at Bed, Bath, and Beyond - everytime they would send me a decent coupon (e.g. $10 off a $30 purchase, 25% off, etc.)  These were great!  The retail price just went from $40 to $45, though.  The problem I had with them is that my Bunn Airpot brewer seems to have a sweet spot for 2.5L batches, and the recovery for 3L is long enough to where I can get 15L quicker with six 2.5L airpots than with five 3L airpots.  The Oggi is slightly less insulated, too.

The local Cash-N-Carry has the Bunn 2.5L airpots for about $35 each, and I found them to have the best insulation properties of any airpot so far.  If I brew coffee for an evening theater performance, the coffee is still hot enough the following morning so that most coffee heathens wouldn't know the difference.  They do not dribble at all.  The hand pump is more durable than the bellows kind of thing that the Oggi and most other airpots have, and seems to deliver faster when I am belting out cups during intermission.

I have tried many other airpots, but I am doubtful that one will beat out the Bunn in the realms of price, durability, and insulation.

[rasqual]

I bought a case of 6 Bunn 3L airpots for the church. These are excellent units. Of course, they go well with the Bunn dual brewer I got via Craigslist (the evening I rendezvoused to pick it up, though, sure is a peculiar story).

I do like the Bunn design -- a lot -- and I've identified no shortcomings at all (I do several pots in them weekly). I'm not qualified to give any comparisions with other models from other manufacturers, though; I've had no experience at all with other airpots.

[Chris]

I like the Zoj because of the glass lining (taste not durability).

I swear I can detect an off-taste in the Bunn SS units, as well as other vessels, but maybe I am just a weirdo.

[rasqual]

I agree with Chris. SS definitely affects coffee flavor within a half hour. Breakability, in a church setting (such violent people! ;-)  was a factor in my decision to go with SS. In a perfect world, I'd've chosen glass.

That's one shortcoming of the Bunn, I guess!

Fortunately, a batch of coffee at the church lasts no longer than half an hour.

[ButtWhiskers]

Stainless steel will facilitate catalytic reactions, and affect the flavor of coffee, if it is cleaned using chemicals which leave the surface activated.  The solution to this is to not use cleaning compounds, and allow the surfaces to become 'conditioned'.  When I am through with a pot, I triple-rinse with hot water.  Before the next batch is brewed, I fill the airpot with very hot water (at least 175?) to heat it up.  The first couple of batches in a new airpot will have some of the flavor change that Chris describes, which I believe is actually chemical reduction (gain of electrons) of some of the more reactive compounds.  Once the surface is conditioned, this no longer happens.

Glass really needs to be cleaned with chemicals or it will begin to taste skanky, and will actually start salting up with metals and organics that cling to deprotonated hydroxyl groups on the glass, facilitating further gunk.  Stainless can be well-maintained using only very hot water.

[rasqual]

...organics that cling to deprotonated hydroxyl groups on the glass, facilitating further gunk.

This general class of locution should be posted more often in the forum. As one might guess, it's a google hapax.

The unanticipated turn from the erudite to the colloquial is a stroke of literary genius.

I shall devise thee brave punishments.   ;-)

[ButtWhiskers]

The unanticipated turn from the erudite to the colloquial is a stroke of literary genius.

'Gunk' is, in fact, sophisticated technical terminology - hardly colloquial.  I have heard Nobel-laureate chemists use 'gunk' in the same sentence as words that I probably couldn't even spell.

[rasqual]

Well, what's sophisticated to some is colloquial to others of us.    ;-)

[BoldJava]

I wonder if overkill is an issue.  If I were to buy a 3L pot, filled it with just 2L of coffee, does that airspace cool the coffee.  Another words, is overkill an issue?

B|Java

[ButtWhiskers]

I wonder if overkill is an issue.  If I were to buy a 3L pot, filled it with just 2L of coffee, does that airspace cool the coffee.  Another words, is overkill an issue?

B|Java

The coffee will stay hot longer if there is no headspace.  That's part of the reason that I went to the 2.5L airpots.

[rasqual]

The airspace is insulative.

At our church, I opted for a case of 6 3L units (as mentioned), for this reason: rather than have two large 6 liter Fetco units (which would do nicely for serving), the smaller airpots allowed for serving two or more varieties of coffee at a time. Smaller batches means opportunity to shake things up a bit.

For one of the services, I only do a liter (manual pourover) of decaf, so that's 2L headroom. No thermal problem for the duration of the serving time (folks generally get their second cup, if they want it, within 20 minutes of their first). At cleanup time, the coffee's always still hot -- and I don't preheat the airpots.

Personally, I think it's better to have more smaller airpots than fewer larger ones, but that's 'cause I like to foist variety where possible. It's also good for large events, because you can have a couple brewing at any given time, while having 4 (in our case) in service.

What's the basic plan for the thing's (or the things') use?

[ButtWhiskers]

rasqual sputtered:

The airspace is insulative.

Air is a lousy insulator.

Coffee has a much greater heat capacity than air.  More kinetic energy is stored in an airpot that is full than one that is 1/2 or 2/3rds full.  The energy will be lost at almost exactly the same rate whether it is full or half-full, as the entire vessel (glass or stainless) is transferring the heat to the surrounding environment.   There is less energy to lose in the 1/2 full airpot.

Take 2 identical airpots, fill one of them all the way up and the other half-full, both with 195? coffee.  Let them sit for 6 hours.  Then tell me which one is hotter.  I have plenty of empirical proof that the full one will be much hotter.

[BoldJava]

What's the basic plan for the thing's (or the things') use?

Home and office use.  I have a 1L Zojirushi that I use in the mornings.  The next one will be just for our office use on special occasions, once a month, when we gather as a group, as the 1L is too small for the hounds.

After this discussion, I am going to go smaller rather than larger on unit.  Probably a 2 or 2.5L.  In either case, I will buy the model that is compatible with the pourover arrangements.  Who knows what the future brings.

Thanks gents.  You have me looking at stainless as well, something I would have never considered.

B|Java