Sigh, you are right, the La Pavoni is, for me, the perfect coffee machine. Mine is brass and copper, the smaller one without the gauge. Just using it feels like a throw back to simpler times. (I also have a Zassenhaus grinder, blue windmill on white ceramic bowl holds the coffee and you set the grind and turn the crank). Mornings are just wonderful. I grind up enough to fill the portafilter twice while the machine is warming up. Fill and tamp the portafilter and return it to the machine. Raising the lever allows hot water under pressure access to the coffee. lowering the handle adds pressure and forces the water down through the coffee. The more pressure you apply to the lever, the more pressure you put the water under. This is totally hands on coffee making. Not for the set it and forget it crowd. It took a while (2 weeks) to get the grind right but now every cup is somewhere between wonderful and fantastic. The key is you control the process all the way through. Ken

I'm one of those who cannot make a good pot of coffee, because hubby and I are not coffee drinkers. If we have guests who want coffee, I usually have someone else make it or pull out a VERY old perculator which many of our friends and relatives seem to prefer. We have some good coffee stores and that is where I buy coffee. You can grind it then or buy the beans and grind at home. We have a keurig at work and there are two who especially seem to like it and use many different flavors. However most seem to prefer the old drip maker or the espresso machine. I do get the comment about a "good" cup of coffee. Occasionally, in a restaurant I might order a cup with dessert and there is one restaurant especially who has really good coffee. tina

I agree with Darlene87. I keep mine on a timer. I think it makes the best cup of coffee. It does use more electricty than most other brands. But I love being able to pour the water in, walk outside to get my morning paper, and return to a fresh pot of coffee (about 3 minutes). There are only 2 downsides - my brother in law used the carafe to pour in water not realizing it would start flowing through the filter basket before he could empty the carafe - if you have hard water you'll need to use the included cleaning tool more often to keep the flow steady and fast. That said, I love the Bunn. It's better than starbucks imho.

Boomer, you've tolerated what most would consider a hijack of your thread with good humor. There will be more to sift through, for relevant stuff, but learning will happen. There are a lot of dedicated posters in this site and it is a remarkably good site for little nonsense and good judgement in staying between the lines and with little flaming and insults. There are other sites for boilers and hydronic heat, however, if you really need to get into the nitty gritty. I suggest two places that I found very useful. The HVAC and boiler areas within the DIY area at terrylove.com are good. For example, right now there is a recently-active thread there about a monoflow system. That is type of system that shunts part of the water flow in a loop through radiators in sub loops using special "monoflow Ts" I doubt any significant number of systems based on that elegant principle have been installed for 50 years. It enables you to have single pipe circulation and install valves on individual radiators (thermostatic or not). Messing with the pump rate or other parameters might cause huge problems for the unwary or careless. If I had one and felt the need for some modification, I'd plan on hiring someone that knows what they are doing or spending a few hours learning about how it works. For the curious, looking at how monoflow systems work might be fun and I greatly appreciate the genius of the person that came up with the idea to begin with and the one that applied it to hydronic heat. Another site as good or better iis "the wall" at heating help.com. It is a well run site with lots of knowledgeable posters https://forum.heatinghelp.com. Right now there is a thread over there about steam vs. hydronic heat in a new build. That argument will never, never end even though the answer to me is clear.. terrylove.com the wall