If you’ve ever experienced a coffee maker running dry while brewing, you’ll surely comprehend the benefit of plumbing it straight to your waterline.
A direct water line coffee maker can be an ideal option for the home or the office, streamlining your life by eliminating the need to refill a water reservoir every time you crave a cup of joe.
Whether you have a big family at home or coffee-loving staff at the office, there’s a plumbed coffee machine just waiting to hook into your water line.
Though selecting the best coffee maker with a water line is not easy as you have to search a little harder to find these models on the market, I’ve gathered the three best coffee makers with water lines to help you with your buying decision.
According to my research, the 3 best coffee makers with water lines are Keurig K150P Commercial Brewing System, Brew Express – BEC-110, and Bunn CWTF15-APS.
Let’s dig deeper to learn everything you need to know about Plumbed coffee makers.
What Is A Plumbed Coffee Maker?
In simple words, plumbed coffee makers are those coffee makers that are directly connected to your water line. Instead of manually filling up the coffee maker every time, the water line continuously feeds it with water and keeps it topped up.
If you have many people consuming coffee in one go, it’s useful to own a plumbed coffee maker so you don’t have to keep filling it up.
Plumbed coffee makers can commonly be found in restaurants and coffee shops. However, they can be equally useful in offices and even homes if you have a large family always ready for a steaming cup of coffee.
How To Choose The Best Coffee Maker With Water Line
Surprisingly there are quite a few options for plumbing coffee makers available in the market, which makes it a bit difficult to find the perfect combination of features.
To make sure you get the one that meets your requirements, consider the following factors:
- Whether you want it for your home or office
- How many people will be using it?
- What style of coffee do they prefer?
- Your budget for the purchase, installation, and maintenance
But before all, you need to consider whether you wish for a plumbed coffee machine or a plumbing kit.
The Advantages Of Plumbed Coffee Makers
There are several advantages of getting a plumbed coffee maker. The most prominent one is the convenience of never having to refill the water tank, especially in large homes or offices with numerous coffee drinkers.
A Plumbed Coffee Maker is even more helpful if you use the coffee machine as a hot water supply for soups or tea. Along with this convenience, you’ll also not have to worry about harming your coffee machine in case the water tank runs dry.
A plumbed coffee machine can even benefit a small household in several ways. First, your coffee machine will become much more compact as the water reservoir is eliminated.
Second, your brewing water doesn’t spend days in the water reservoir, where it can become stale or, worse, supply a breeding ground for bacteria.
Possible Pitfalls Of Plumbed Coffee Makers
There are some disadvantages to this as well, which you should keep in mind when choosing between a plumbed coffee machine and a plumbing kit.
Your coffee machine will need to be situated relatively close to your waterline. That means once it is installed, you won’t be able to move it around.
Maintenance is another thing to consider, specifically concerning expenses. The additional plumbing can cause these brewers to leak, especially if you opt for DIY installation.
Best Coffee Makers With Water Line
Here are the best coffee makers with a water line:
Keurig K150P Commercial Brewing System
Keurig is truly the brand leader for low-cost plumbed coffee machines. These user-friendly machines perfectly serve a coffee-hungry household or a small office.
The machine can prepare a variety of different espresso or milk-based drinks using k-cups.
However, you will still need to buy a separate filtration system to fit between your machine and mains water supply, so some basic plumbing know-how is still required for this low-cost solution.
One glitch – the nozzle height is not adjustable, which might cause some splashing when pouring the drinks.
Brew Express – BEC-110
If you want the convenience of a plumbed-in coffee machine while staying on a budget, the Brew Express is the best model to go for.
It has an insulated stainless steel carafe and brews through the classic paper filter method. Though it doesn’t produce any lattes or espressos, if you are after low-cost convenience, the Brew Express is worthy of consideration.
The Brew Express would probably be more suitable for a home office or a meeting room than a domestic setting. Its stainless steel carafe can hold 8-10 cups, and the unit weighs about 18 pounds (8.16kg).
The Brew Express only makes filter coffee, and there are many cheaper reservoir-based filter coffee machines available in the market. So you should only buy this if volume, reliability, expense, and ease of cleaning are your main concerns.
Bunn CWTF15-APS
Bunn is the industry leader in making filter coffee machines for commercial use. This low-cost model is particularly created for office use and comes with an ’airpot.’
This comes with a 1.9 liter or 3-liter flask that you can carry away and set down to dispense coffee remotely into mugs. The coffee is dispensed by pressing the button on the top of the flask.
This would be an ideal solution if you hold a lot of dinner parties or meetings and want to keep the pot warm.
The airpots effectively keep the coffee hot for several hours. They are highly portable, and the machine itself is extremely straightforward and narrow (23.6 inches tall by 9 inches wide by 18.5 inches in depth).
| Keurig K150P | Brew Express – BEC-110 | Bunn CWTF15-APS | |
| Pros | low-cost, simple to use, lifetime warranty, and support line | Simple to operate, easy to clean, insulated carafe, low-cost | High volume machine, very flexible great for the meeting room |
| Cons | Can be a little messy, does not brew carafe coffee | Only makes filter coffee, no hot plate | Filter coffee only |
| Best For | Its combination of simplicity and coffee quality | Simplicity and price | Work meetings and events |
How Can You Hook Up A Coffee Maker To A Water Line?
You will need a plumb kit to hook up your coffee maker to the waterline.
There are lots of DIY methods available on the internet for hooking up a coffee maker to a water line. However, there can be some potential downsides to the process:
- Modding will nullify the warranty of your coffee maker.
- Some mechanism will essentially be required to control the water flow that can only be enabled when the water level drops below a certain point.
- If you screw up, chances are you’ve ruined your coffee maker!
This tutorial below demonstrates how to hook up your coffee maker to a water line:
To Sum It All Up
Whether you work in a busy office with lots of coffee thirsty staff or just want to ensure fresh water for every brew, there are tons of reasons to opt for a coffee machine with a water line.
A plumbed coffee machine can save you the hassle of repeatedly refilling a water reservoir and will fetch clean water to your machine every time. My best picks are the Keurig K150P Commercial Brewing System, Brew Express – BEC-110, and Bunn CWTF15-APS.
These machines are ideal for those who are serious about their morning brew. They are also perfect for restaurants or offices which run through a series of visitors or customers in a morning’s work.
The models that I recommended in the article earlier are ready to take on a queue of coffee drinkers and you will never have to worry about burning out your pot again!