1. Don't overuse your urn
Parts of the urn may deteriorate if the urn if left on for hours at a time. Limit your use to two hours at a time.
2. Use a heavy duty timer with your urn
This will help you prevent leaving the urn on for too long.
3. Use a separate circuit / outlet
Coffee urns can draw a lot of power. Make sure to use them on a separate line from other appliances or you might risk tripping a breaker.
4. keep it clean
See the cleaning tips above. Calcium build-up in urns can cause short circuits and ruin your urn.
5. Use a thermos
Use a thermos for storing and transporting hot water from the urn.
6. always use the spigot / basket
Even if you are only using the urn for hot water and not tea or coffee, use the spigot and basket. the spigot (long metal tube that comes with the urn) circulates the water and keeps certain parts from overheating.
7. Don't overfill
Estimate how much hot water / coffee you'll need. Just you using the urn? only put in a few cups - not fifty.
8. Make sure it's closed
Check the cap to make sure it's securely in place. With high quality urns, hot water will spurt up the spigot and you don't want to send the top flying.
9. keep it close to an edge
If you don't have young children running around, keeping the urn close to the edge of a counter / table will help with the filling of carafes and thermoses.
10. Broker urn? Fogetaboutit.
Urns are expensive, but unless you know someone who's reliable at fixing small appliances, it's better to buy a new one than repair one. Repairing can cost a significant fraction of the purchase price and take months and months.
Hot water and coffee urns on Squidoo