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Permalink Reply by alissa mendonça on April 15, 2011 at 5:23am

just be careful to pay attention to the electrical specifications of any of the hot water towers you look at. if i am not mistaken your doing a cart so the watts used are VERY important. those quick heat up ones need a lot more juice.

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Permalink Reply by John Gibbons on April 15, 2011 at 9:56am

Yeah, true, but this is just a home deal, I am hopefully making a cart for a business, but this is simply for home brewing. 

alissa mendonca said:

just be careful to pay attention to the electrical specifications of any of the hot water towers you look at. if i am not mistaken your doing a cart so the watts used are VERY important. those quick heat up ones need a lot more juice.

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Permalink Reply by John Gibbons on April 15, 2011 at 9:59am

Andrew,

this is machine is labeled "Pour over how water dispenser", or something implying it's use for pour over coffee. It also has a normal power cord like other house hold appliances, so I'm not too worried about that. 

I guess my main concern is, can the temperature be adjusted? I do not want to pay an absurd amount, but for home use, if the temperature is consistent, then it seems ideal for me. And from what I read, you can fill it up as you please, and it's "Semi-commercial". 
Andrew Mangino said:

I have gotten 210 degrees out of similar Bunn models. Quite a few restaurants up here use these machines for instant mashed potatoes. I do not know much about pour over coffee or how much water is needed but I noticed this in the user manual.  NOTE - Due to the tank capacity and heater size, this product should be used only for dispensing a few cups of hot water at a time.  (Larger capacity Bunn-O-Matic hot water dispensers are available.) These only have a 1000 watt element so the recovery time will be a little slow. If it were up to myself, I would look for something designed more for pour over coffee.

 

Good luck

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Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on April 15, 2011 at 10:17am

John,

 

I've used one like this several times and it has some drawbacks.  At Coffeefest Seattle I used this to basically preheat the water for my french presses.  I'd dispense from this into a Hobbs boiling kettle to finish boiling the water.  This unit will not get hot enough for good pour over.  You MIGHT see a temperature as high as 196-197.  And that is as hot as it goes.  Recovery time will be poor if you draw off a much water at all, say 16oz for a 12oz cup of coffee.  Good pour-over water tower performance is directly proportional to the amount of electricity you have available.  Only having 120 guarantees compromise.  Now, all that being said, using this unit in conjunction with the boiling kettle proved to be far more convenient than only using the kettle and only having 120 available I was able to brew with water that was as hot as I wanted.  But if you want a hot water tower that will not have to be augmented you will have to look further.

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Permalink Reply by John Gibbons on April 15, 2011 at 10:38am

Thanks! That helps. The more I read and look at other products, the ZOJIRUSHI 5L boiler looks nice. It has 3 presets to it 175, 195, and 208. 208 seems about perfect for my use. I've read that it maintains heat well and heats quickly. I just wish it looked a littler nicer :/

It's also on espresso parts, and it's the only one besides the $1000+ boilers. So I'm thinking this is really the only home boiler that really works well. So far, all it's reviews have been excellent, with minor flaws with the timer. 

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Permalink Reply by Kyle Fuller on March 22, 2012 at 1:28pm

let me know how that goes! Im considering using that same machine for my pourovers on my cart.  do you think the Zojirushi would have the umph to keep up with hot water demand for catering?
 
John Gibbons said:

Thanks! That helps. The more I read and look at other products, the ZOJIRUSHI 5L boiler looks nice. It has 3 presets to it 175, 195, and 208. 208 seems about perfect for my use. I've read that it maintains heat well and heats quickly. I just wish it looked a littler nicer :/

It's also on espresso parts, and it's the only one besides the $1000+ boilers. So I'm thinking this is really the only home boiler that really works well. So far, all it's reviews have been excellent, with minor flaws with the timer. 

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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on March 23, 2012 at 6:28am

Are you in need of a home boiler or one for an actual, commercial installation?

If it's the latter, then you need to go with a serious boiler, like a 5 gallon Bunn/Fetco/Curtis, or even one of the Uber EcoBoilers.

Otherwise, you're just going to be running out of water.

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Permalink Reply by jordan smith on September 24, 2012 at 5:48am

HI, I think you have to check the electric specification.

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Permalink Reply by jordan smith on September 30, 2012 at 8:59pm

Hi, i think you have to aware about the watts specification and sizes of tank, you have also look for the electricities to be consumed. In my opinion you have to go for Internet because there are variouse model available and you can choose any of them.

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dispensers

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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on October 1, 2012 at 8:46am

You would be better served with a Fetco TOD (temperature on demand) unit.

 

 TOD water dispenser

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