Customer Reviews

Brunton BrewFire Coffee Maker

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this product despite all the reviews I read that it was poor quality. I figured that maybe just the people who had problems left reviews and it couldn't possibly be that bad... well it is. It worked great for the first week or two and I thought I had beat the reviews, but then the problems started. First it had trouble igniting and then the regulator will not stay on. The coffee maker is currently completely unusable. Great idea and awesome when it worked, but the quality is very poor. It did not work more then a month for me.

Here's an update. I returned the original unit and received a replacement - their customer service was GOOD!

Now the bad news.... the replacement did not brew one pot before it encountered the same problems as he previous one - the burner kept going out and finally would not relight....

The company is going to take it back and send me a credit for something else.

this product has a really good concept but something went wrong between the original design and how they came off the assembly line. Perhaps the 2.0 version will take care of these issues. and I'm really perplexed because a couple of reviews here rave about the unit... like their's works perfect.. and I got two lemons... go figure.

original review below --------------

poorly designed... poorly manufactured and no way it makes coffee in 10 minutes...

mine had parts loose inside when I got it. Now after one pot of coffee.. the propane knob is hung/stuck in the down position.

It's a great idea and I bought it sight unseen because I respect this brand.

but this product is going to hurt Brunton's reputation if they don't get this product fixed pronto or discontinue this product.

The owners manual gives no clue what to do about the stuck propane knob nor their website.

I am shocked by the quality and design issues with this product... they need to deal with it quickly.

DO NOT BUY. POORLY MADE. THE COFFEE MAKER I RECEIVED HAD A DIFFERENT CARAFE THAN WHAT IS PICTURED HERE. THE WATER AND BATTERY COMPARTMENTS DID NOT CLOSE PROPERLY. REMINDED ME OF A CHEAP CHILDS TOY. SEEMS TO BE A CASE OF POOR QUALITY CONTROL. VERY DISAPPOINTING.

This did not work out of the box. The fire would not stay lite and a number of other problems. Not worth one star, I like the Idea if it only worked.

I understand that its upsetting when you get a product that doesn't work out of the box. The fact is every product made has a small percentage of these types of cases. I actually had this happen with a 7,000 dollar Pioneer Plasma HDTV. Its meaningless and I understood that. I returned it for a new one after all they are, without a single doubt, one of the best Plamsa HDTV's ever made. Getting unlucky with a non working unit out of the box doesn't change that. It was just bad luck, nothing more. Again I understand this sort of thing is upsetting but to come on here and give a product a 1 star simply because you got a bad unit makes absolutely no sense after all these people haven't even used the product. How can you give a proper review for an item you have never used before? These people should have simply exchanged them. The fact that they didn't exchange them and simply gave up after having 1 bad unit out of the box simply shows that they didnt have much interest in the product to begin with and thus are the last people you should listen to if your serious about buying one of these.

Anyways moving on..

I got this for my birthday this year and yes it worked out of the box, lol. I have a pretty large group of friends that I go camping with quite regularly and making coffee for everyone in the morning is a royal pain in the bu*t. I am actually surprised that it took this long for an item like this to come out. When your camping, having a cup of joe in the morning is mandatory. There is just nothing like it, In fact I love it so much that I actually bring out my own grinder and grind up my own fresh coffee each and every morning. So as you can imagine I was extremely excited when I found out about the BrewFire. Most people already carry some bottles of Propane/Butane so that just makes this that much more of a no brainer.

The main unit is made from ABS plastic and although I have only used it 4-5 times, it appears to be extremely durable. The carafe is stainless steel and has a capacity of 8-9 cups. That winds up being just about perfect when we have a large group as it allows everyone to get a cup right away. If anyone wants a 2nd cup we can always make a 2nd batch and for the times when I go camping with smaller groups, it allows everyone to have a 2nd cup without having to make a 2nd batch. It only takes about 10 minutes to brew a pot and the unit can keep a pot of coffee hot for well over 2 hours. That is more than enough time, at least for the people I go camping with, as we don't sit around for long periods of time in the morning. We usually spend about an hour packing up and eating breakfast.

Of course you can use this for a lot more than just camping. I am an architectural photographer and pretty much every job requires at least some morning shots. I have to have all of my lights and camera's set up by the time the sun breaks the horizon and it takes a couple of hours setting it all up. Having the BrewFire will allow me to brew up a pot of coffee right on location. I also do a lot of traveling and shooting for myself and there are times I just sleep in my SUV and start shooting the minute the sun comes up. Again having the BrewFire will allow me to brew up a pot of coffee in my car right before I start shooting. Its almost as if this was designed especially for me and my lifestyle.

By the way I just found out that this received a "Best of Gear" award from Explore Magazine and an "Editors Choice" award from Camping Life. This by itself should tell you a lot about the quality of the BrewFire. These awards are not just handed out lightly. They thoroughly test each piece of equipment that receives a nomination. Overall I couldn't possibly agree more with their conclusions. The Brewfire is one of the best equipment ideas I have seen in a long time after all a coffee maker is really like the last piece of kitchen equipment that wasn't also available in a portable version for camping and given how popular coffee is in the camping community, well again I am just surprised that it took this long for a company to design something like this.

I absolutely love it and I expect that it will become extremely popular in the years to come especially in some of the more serious hiking/camping/climbing circles.

Brunton has done it again!!

I purchased one of these units. It worked great for about a month and half. Then the regulatoe would not turn during a camping trip. I needed coffee and ran to Gander Mountain and found another one so I purchased. Well that unit never brewed even one pot of coffee so back to the store it went. I called the company and they said the model had "issues" ussually with the regulator they sent me a new regulator. The people at the company are very friendly and provide good servie. I received the new regulator and installed it. I tried it at home and it worked and brewed a pot of coffee so I thought perfect. I really loved this unit when it was running. Well that weekend I headed off camping got up in the morning tried to brew a pot and nothing happened. I thought maybe some air was in the line and so I left the gas on awhile and then turned the machine spark on. WELL GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!! Flames SHOT out of the bottom of it and it turned into a smoldering piece of junk. I called the company this week and they said the unit I had made by Brunton had many issues and is not longer produced their sister company took over the product and made a number of improvements. So they are sending me that model. I hope it does work as they say it does. So do not buy the grey coffee maker that is the old model. The one that is black is the new and "improved" one. I will update this comment when I get to try that one out to see if it actually is improved.