The BUNN VP17 Series is best suited to commercial uses that don’t require mass quantities of coffee to be available at once — think diners and restaurants.
BUNN states that this machine brews up to 3.8 gallons (14.8 L) per hour.
Is this actually the case?
In reality, this unit takes about 15 minutes to heat up enough to brew a large 3.0 L airpot. To brew the next airpot you need to wait another 15 minutes.
To get BUNN’s fully advertised 14.8 L of coffee per hour, you’ll have to diligently sequence your brews so as not to miss a single second. More realistically, you’ll probably brew about 12 L per hour.
Like the other commercial coffee makers listed, VP17 doesn’t come with the decanters, but it will work with any standard 64 oz decanter. You can find them for around $10-$15 apiece on Amazon.
The warming plate is extremely hot, so you won’t have a hard time keeping your coffee scalding hot, but you’d better make sure you don’t leave less than half a pot there for very long.