Semi OT, drip coffee makers

Theres cold brew but it's a lot more messing about.

Freaking delicious though.

Isn't the failure usually the thermal fuse?

A friend has a $600 coffee maker, more like an expresso machine really and it might be a lot more than $600, I don't recall, a fancy German unit. It crapped out and they found a video showing the likely culprit to be a power transistor. They got me in the loop and I confirmed that was the likely failure and ordered a new part and put it in when it came. Worked like a charm! It was quite a piece of work and made the standard drip brewers look like total junk which is what they are.

I use the drip and don't mind waiting the 90 seconds it takes to heat the water on the stove. A friend has a small water heater that works just as fast as the stove if not faster and doesn't lose as much heat to the room while doing it. I have no idea where she found it, maybe at an Asian food store, the construction reminds me of a small rice maker, which I want to buy. I guess I need to check ebay.

You can make the situation 3-4 times better by buying the cheap coffee makers when they are on sale for $9.99. I've never had one fail. One had the on/off switch right on the front begging for you to spill coffee on it. I taped a piece of plastic over that to protect it.

An electric kettle to boil water and a French Press makes pretty good coffee, but it's a PITA to use. Funnel with paper filter is easier to toss. I made about a gallon at a session and stuck it in the fridge. Obviously, I'm not a connoisseur.

My latest venture is into Keurig Gen 1. You can find them for cheap to free at garage sales and thrift stores. They're broke, no matter what they say. Buy two. Take the good solenoid from one and replace the always bad solenoid in the other one. Put a switch on the plug, cuz that solenoid is always engaged, even when you think you turned the power off. And it sits right next to the water heater. Use the DIY K-cups. No sending plastic to the landfill and the cup of coffee costs about 10% of what you'd pay for the real thing. But it's still a PITA to empty/refill the cups. Keep a few of the real K-cups on hand so you can impress visitors with your extravagance and wanton disregard for the environment. ;-)

I dunno which one you are using but around here, the basic "just a switch" Mr.Coffee 12 cup is only around $15 not including tax.

I've never had the base unit go bad, we're on our 3rd one in 15 years and they are only replaced when we break the glass pot. Sounds stupid (and it is) but they (Target) wants $14.99 for the replacement pot alone and a penny less ($14.98) for the whole thing. So I have a couple spare base units under the counter.

Like you, it's in use at least once a day.

It just dawned on me, what we do that is probably different is we don't leave it running after the coffee is brewed. We always use a decanter, something like this:

and right after it's done brewing, pour the pot into it and shut off the base unit. So the base just brews and we don't use it to keep the coffee warmed. I suppose if the base is left on for hours at a time it'll shorten the life span quite a bit.

So I guess if you picked up a decanter and get into the habit of using it, the Mr.Coffee will probably outlive you.

-bruce snipped-for-privacy@ripco.com

Sometimes yeah... I've 'fixed' maybe 3 of these now. This time not. Last night I was thinking it could be something in the micro processor, But I couldn't (didn't work very long) get into it. Hmm maybe I can ditch the uP and just put voltages on the wires to turn the relays on and off.. there's ~6-8 wires coming from the uP area.

George H.

A switch I can fix. All the ones I see around here (amazon) have timer's and other bells and whistles I don't need (or want.)

I was thinking I might find an old used simple coffee maker on ebay.

My mother in law has an old drip maker that must be ~10-20 years old.

No Kerig! I know they are all the rage, but I like to grind my own beans and then make one big pot. (I'm an old fart and I don't want change. :^)

And what's the average lifetime of a Kerig?

George H.

Yeah that might be part of it. I leave to warmer on and they now have timers to turn it off after 2hrs or something.

I've also lost a number of glass carafes.. I'm very cautious with the carafe. I wash and dry it and put it right back into the machine. (most breakage seems to happen when the pot is left next to or in the sink and something else bumps it. A stainless steel pot is one answer.

Thanks Bruce, George H.

.... and right after it's done brewing, pour the pot into it and shut off t he

I've always said that if you want to make Starbucks coffee at home, brew a weak pot of coffee and let it sit on the heat for 8 hours. Weak, burnt, and bitter coffee for a lot less than Starbucks charges.

We do the same. As soon as the brew cycle is finished we get the pot off t he built in hot plate and poor what's left (after serving our first two cup s) into an insulated carafe.

I was fortunate to find a vintage Thermos Coffee Butler (made in W. Germany ) on ebay for $15 delivered in never used condition to replace the one we h ad that suffered an internal glass breakage. The generic one that we had d id not keep anything hot for more than an hour. The vintage Coffee Butler will keep hot coffee HOT for 8 hours at least without imparting that burnt and bitter taste that keeping direct heat on it causes.

My parents bought one of these in the '50s. I still have it, it still works and I've never had to repair it.

At the local Walmart they're around $20.

A couple years ago, my new one stopped working. It seems that something sticky found its way into the water reservoir and gummed-up a simple ball valve in a rubber hose. That was easy to clean once I figured it out.

Recently the light burned out in the on/off switch. Mr. Coffee does not sell that switch, so you have to go looking for a replacement. I found an NTE 54-525 at Newark Electronics for less than $2, but they wanted $10 for shipping! I ended up buying several items to spread out the cost of shipping. Gone are the days when you could buy such stuff in a local store.

Fred

What is most likely bad? Switches or connectors. I don't think I would bother trying to fix the MCU. If you are convinced it's not a fuse or contact, I would suggest buying a new one this time. These things can start house fires.

Have you considered a French press? I guess you still have to boil the water.

Maybe you should complain to the coffee machine maker? I had a shower head from Water Pic once and the collar broke after a couple years. I wrote them complaining about the collar being made of plastic and they sent me a metal one. Maybe Mr. Coffee makes a decent unit that won't go bad a month after the warranty is up.

Brewed coffee keeps perfectly fine in the fridge. But tossing all those coffee grounds is such a waste. They are excellent for compost and vermiculture. My roommate would have a cup every day and the worms love both the filter and the grounds. But he is living with his girlfriend and the worms are suffering caffeine withdrawal.

Indeed!

I'm guessing less than two years based on what I'm seeing at garage sales. That solenoid runs very hot 24/7. The plastic valve disintegrates. If you plug it in for 5 minutes a few times a day, it should last forever. At least, that's what I'm hoping for. The real K-cup coffee does taste better than the refillable ones. I've done a lot of experiments to try to improve that, but the only ones that improved the situation used proprietary filters that cost about as much as the coffee you're brewing.

The drip pots I've used had nothing but a switch and a heating element (plus the safety thermal cutout). Not much to go wrong. I always turned them off immediately and reheated the contents in the microwave a cup at a time as needed.

I still like the coffee made in the French Press better. Made it once a week and put a gallon of it in the fridge. But it takes half an hour to run several cycles thru the press and clean up.

This thread made me realize that the only reason I use the Keurig is my emotional investment in fixing it and all the little DIY K-cup versions that I collected. And the coffee tastes worse than the alternatives.

Where did I put that French Press???

The 'gold cup' SCAA coffee standard is 45 minutes. A local restaurant a few years ago had timers and signs, and always had great coffee, presumably partly because they followed that rule. There are brewers that don't have a warmer at all, just brew directly into a Dewar flask. I'm sold on that. Like this:

But if you really want good coffee... read this

I have a couple of Gevalia-branded ones that have lasted for years and years. Ebay is your friend. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Right during the week it's only on for ~10-15 minutes. During the weekend it may be longer, but as you say the coffee slowly goes from coffee to Java to Joe. (my terms). You can stand the spoon up in Joe. :^)

George H. There are brewers

I took a look and there are a number of different Gevalia models.

In fact, it is amazing the proliferation of coffee makers. There may be more types of coffee makers than there are types of coffee!

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With nothing except my own palate to go on, I'd say that 45 minutes is thre e times to long. 15 minutes is the absolute maximum coffee can stay on dir ect heat in my opinion. Decanted into a prewarmed insulated carafe, coffee will still be quite potable for many hours with no loss of flavor or gain of bitterness IMO.

My wife and I both drink coffee black, which is why I believe we're particu larly sensitive to overly heated coffee.

BTW, the best coffee I've ever had is coffee that's reconstituted from a co ld brew concentrate in a coffee machine. I've had this several times in se veral fine restaurants, and it's amazing - enough so that the first time I had it I had to corner the manager and ask how they "brewed" it. Strong an d complex flavors without a hint of bitterness or any defects such as after taste. Why this hasn't become a hit in the consumer end is beyond me.

BEST COFFEE EVER