West Bend Commercial Coffee Urn Highly-Polished Aluminum NSF Approved Features Automatic Temperature Control Large Capacity with Cup Per Minute Brewing and Easy Clean Up, 100-Cup, Silver

I bought this coffee urn several weeks ago and have used it every week since...for TEA! I drink a lot of tea, all kinds of tea really, but mostly black, and it has to be FRESH brewed. I used to make tea every 1-2 days using one of those lightweight plastic brewers, which works fine too, it just couldn't keep up with my demand & I was getting really sick & tired of making it so often. Now I make it just once a week on weekends, 2.5 gallons at a time. I had researched a bunch of different kinds of commercial type tea brewers, but for some reason they seem to run in the $200-600 range. I've made a lot of tea in my regular coffee pot too, so I started looking at these large coffee brewers as a possible alternative. I figured for the price, it would be worth a try. So far, I absolutely love this thing! So easy to use, so easy to clean! If tea would stay fresh for 2 weeks at a time, I'd make 5 gallons instead. I bought a 2.5 gallon plastic water jug (rectangle gas can shape) with a spigot from Walmart for a few bucks, fill it up once the fresh brewed tea cools down, and store it in on the top shelf of my fridge. It's a miracle. So the point of this long review is really to brag about this thing as a cost-effective tea maker, as it's already proven to be an incredible coffee maker. I've also got a half-dozen other uses in mind for it! Zero complaints.SPECIAL NOTE: If you plan on using this machine to make tea (or coffee for that matter), you MUST keep in mind that the "cup" marks on the side of the urn indicate the philosophical international "standard" (it's complicated) fluid ounces for a cup of coffee (roughly 5.5oz), NOT the U.S. standard of 8 fluid oz. in a cup. So that's roughly 100 5.5oz cups of coffee. When you brew tea with tea bags, their measurements are 8oz. per cup as a serving. 320oz in 2.5 gallons is 40 servings at 8oz./cup. The family size tea bags I use brew 4 8oz. cups per bag, so I need 10 bags for 320oz. Just saving you the trouble...

I wanted a medium sized pot for serving mulled cider or wine for parties. I used a crock pot last time and it was not as easy when I had a group sized coffee pot to put it in. So I bought this to have it ready for the next group party we go to. I can't respond to how well it makes coffee because I do not plan to use it for that. 30 cups is just the right size for what I needed.

Our very old West Bend 30 cup urn gave up the ghost after temporary employee submerged it in a sink full of dishwater. Yes it was unplugged. Another brand was ordered without my permission.That unit could not brew 1 cup of coffee. So I ordered a new 30 cup West Bend urn and we now have perfect coffee every day.

I just got this 3 days ago and have made 3 pots of coffee so far.I burnt my tongue on the very first sip of coffee because it was so hot.It takes about 30 minutes for my large mug of coffee to cool down until I can drink it safely without burning my tongue.I really like the percolator because it keeps recirculating the water over the grounds making the coffee stronger while using less actual coffee grounds.You know when the coffee is done because it stops percolating.There is a groove on the bottom of the inside of the percolator so if any grounds get through the basket, they will settle in this section and won't pour out the spout.It keeps the coffee extremely hot as long as you have it plugged in and coffee in it. It doesn't burn the coffee like a regular coffee maker will do.I would of given it a 5 rating but the lid does not lock in place as described on Amazon's page. It just turns into a slot and can easily come off and if tipped over, it will still leak even with the lid in place. The lid is also not heat resistant as described on the Amazon page. The lid is just plastic and the coffee is percolated up against it so when the coffee is hot, the lid gets hot.If you accidentally knock it over, DON'T try to grab it because you will burn yourself since the only spot that doesn't get hot is the base. Even the plastic handles get pretty warm.The spout works really well but since it is really low, you have to slide the percolator close to the edge of the counter to get a large cup under the spout. This may be hard to do because the plug cord is somewhat short so you need a electrical outlet close to where you want to pour your coffee. It is just long enough to do this on a standard kitchen counter (from the back edge of the counter to the front edge of the counter). However, doing this, you truly take a chance of knocking it over onto yourself and having extremely hot coffee leaking out on you since the lid does not lock into place and still leaks even when in place and tipped over!3 things would truly make this a GREAT percolator:1. give it taller legs so you can get large coffee mugs under the spout without having to slide the percolator close to the edge of the counter.2. Actually make the lid lock with some kind of stop so it clicks into place.3. Make the lid insulated so it doesn't get hot from the coffee percolating up against it.You can't make it truly spill proof because the heat and steam would build up inside and make the lid explode off unless you make some kind of pressure release in the lid.I would still recommend this percolator because I really do like it, but I would also warm people of the hazards of it being extremely hot.

This is the same coffee urn we've used at church for the last 20 years. Our old one finally decided it was no longer going to brew, so we needed a replacement. It arrived brand new in the box, with instructions and works exactly as the old one used to. It's perfect!

I'm flummoxed on how this received such a high rating from thousands of reviewers. Upon receipt of my very own, the lid would not "latch" into the slots of the handles because the flimsy tabs were bent too far upwards. Quick fix I thought, but how easily the wings, and the portion of the lid they are attached to, bent uncontrollably, even with wide-faced lineman pliers. In fact, the whole housing and lid felt extremely flimsy that could easily be dented. The second problem was after washing the lid, stem and basket to rid of any manufacturing residue and letting them dry, there were deep splotches of horrible discoloration adorning most of the surfaces of the cheap aluminum alloy, rendering them completely unsightly. I can't believe this is actually built for "commercial" use at all. And thirdly, there's no on/off switch. It's always on, until you unplug it. I never got that far to actually put it to use due to the horrible surface discoloring from washing it before first use. Packaged for immediate return. Going with stainless steel urns for the next one...

So before using this product, i was using a standard 12-cup drip. My spouse and I drink A LOT of coffee in the day, as we own a business out of our home. I was making coffee probably 3-5 times a day and i will say it was quite tedious. So when our old one broke down, we bought this one in an effort to not make coffee so much. I'm sure the purists will not like me for this, but i make coffee now once a day and it is good (to us two) until the very last cup of coffee, which usually does start to not taste as good, but the rest of the coffee is great. Every morning, i make coffee once and it lasts until the next morning. It does actually keep the coffee hotter than our last standard 12-cup coffee maker. And our coffee area has been SO clean since we got this from not having to constantly make coffee. Plus we go through less coffee ingredients now (sugar, creamer, coffee). i usually put 1.5 cups of ground coffee in this. i am in love with this machine! Will buy again if/when it kicks the bucket, that's for sure. For our purposes and our context, this machine has been a huge improvement over the standard 12-cup, worth the extra you spend on it. It takes about 20-30 minutes to brew, really not a big deal considering it's good for the whole entire day.

West Bend has been getting a lot of flack just like a lot of major brand names do as they ride off their brand name reputation while making cheap products, but for what this little urn does with its basic feature with no bells and whistles, It does the trick for me which is to make loads of coffee. And that's all that really matters.I started off doing a ton of research reading all reviews for coffee urns and even getting those with temperature controls, the see-through window and all of that jazz. But at the end of the day I just need something with no frills and less to fix or spend.I highly recommend getting a basic 2-3 feet black extension cord that is a single socket without all the bulky extra outlets. The cord is way too short, and you want to be able to be safe with washing the urn without the plug falling in the sink, or having too short a cord to reach an outlet.

Buena compraEstoy feliz con el producto

As advertised. Good item

this was for my work, we have had several through the years, they usually leak or something breaks on them, we have had this for over a year of daily use (I waited to do the review), and it has held up well.It is easy to clean, no issues, a great purchase and fair price.

una cafetera increible. Da la batalla para los eventos que programamos.

会社で、コーヒー会として使用してます。朝セットすれば、一日持ちます。格安コーヒー会として大活躍です。