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Ugh, no coffee!

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sparkydave

sparkydave

Jedi Knight
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My coffee maker died on me yesterday. Put in the water and the grounds, hit the button, and... No coffee. The heating element wouldn't heat. Now the maker is less than a year old, so being the engineer I am, I figure I can fix it, right? So I borrow one of the special bits for tamper-proof screws (I wonder why they call them that? :crazyeyes: ) from a friend, and get the thing open. Hmm, there are two thermal fuses, both clamped to the heating element, and one is opened. Strangely, they are rated at different temperatures, and the lower one opened. So I spend the $1.69 at Radio Shark to get a new fuse. Slick! Fix the $30 coffee maker with a $1.69 fuse! Well, it seems the thermostat has shifted temperature to something higher than it should be. I made sure the thermostat clicked off while I had it open, and all seemed OK. Then I put it back together, put some water in, and went through a brew cycle. :eeek: When the water in the pot started boiling and the smelly smoke came out of the base, I figured out that perhaps it's time for a new coffee maker. Maybe there's a reason why the ex-wife was leery of me leaving the coffee maker unattended. :nonod:

Meanwhile, the stuff from the machine at work is... Not as good. :sick:
 
You should have spent the $1.69 for a cup of coffee and the time you took to fix it to shop for a new one :smile: Sometime it just does not pay although I would have done the same thing probably. My mister coffee must be 10 years old and still doing OK. not the pretiest thing on my counter but a cup of good coffee it will make. Nice & seasoned after 10Y.
 
I just use the microwave and instant coffee. When I want a cup, I want it now. Sometimes the 2 minute heat up time for the water in the microwave is too long.
 
cool.
 
:lol: I know you are all going to laugh but... I have several (actually 7) pyrex on the stove coffee pots. I put salt on the top of the coffee filter pack and as soon as it starts to perk, put it on low and then about 5/10 minutes later it's ready. I judge its doneness by the color. I always make 8 cups and use two filter packs (one decaf and one regular as husband who travels every other week brings me home the hotel packages as he doesn't drink coffee. When all is done, I have my mug of coffee and put the rest in a glass bottle, into the fridge and then its ready when I am. Microwave for hot and also have iced coffee on hand.

I do have an automatic one but bought it strictly for the expresso part. Sometimes I do use it but generally not.

I must brag and say my coffee is always great and my kitchen smells wonderful.
 
I first started drinking coffee when I was about 30. I have not been without it since. My late grandfather once said"I'll drink coffee as long as a days work will still buy a pound."

Regards John
 
I went thru this a month or so ago. Stoopid thing has that thermocouple arc-welded to the element. Bah. I bridged it. ONE pot and the thing konked out again. I suspect the solder melted but didn't bother to open it up. Have the Pyrex stovetop pot stashed ~somewhere~ in th' hovel but didn't find it. I can't operate without COFFEE... Boiled water and made "campfire" coffee. Next day got another unit, $5 flea-market one, MrCoffee, still in th' box new. So far it works fine...

Usual routine is: 5AM brew up, first batch gone by 9. Next brew-up... etc.

By 4:30PM it's time to switch to th' CAB's. :devilgrin:
 
DrEntropy said:
Usual routine is: 5AM brew up, first batch gone by 9. Next brew-up... etc.

By 4:30PM it's time to switch to th' CAB's. :devilgrin:
Click to expand...

Same here - "Sun's over the yardarm!"
grin.gif
 
Aye, Cap'n. :cheers:
 
The last coffee pot that went south on us lasted about four months. Of course it decided to spew hot water all over the counter (hot water tube ruptured). I would not have thought much of this, but it did it first thing Saturday morning. I drove to Dunkin Donuts to get my first pot, and was the first person in line at Target when the opened the doors.

So far the Mr. Coffee has worked find for about a year. Now that I have said that, I am sure it is going to self destruct on me. Maybe while I am out, I will pick up a replacement just in case.

I will have to look for one of the Pyrex models. I like that idea, especially for hurricane season.
 
I got my new Mr. Coffee last night. The last one was Black & Decker, so maybe I'll have better luck with this one. Thought really hard about the fancy shmancy ones that have the built in automatic grinders so they grind the beans and brew, but couldn't quite justify it seeing as how I already have a grinder. The coolness factor wasn't worth the expense.
 
I definitely need to part with the Doc and the Rev.
 
I used to have a couple of Bunn coffemakers. Whole pot done in about 2 minutes. Then I took one of them apart after it started leaking. Ewwwwwwww. No more pre-heated bacteria water for me.
 
Being an aircraft mechanic, when you're on midnight shift, you live off of coffee. We have one of the restaurant style three burner coffeemakers at work. There's always at least one full pot of coffee. Now we used to have a guy that would make coffee so weak that you could look through it if you poured it into a clear plastic cup (hey when you're tired and cold, you don't complain about the cup). Anyways, I complained about how weak it was, and I was told to make it then. I made it my way, and surprisingly I was the only one drinking it. One of our guys who was a Marine made the comment that he could tar the runway with my coffee.
 
From a Marine, Rob, that's high compliment! :jester:


...I'd drink it.
 
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