Oh Sweet Mystery of Life At Last I've Found You! - Metal Vac Pot

[launderess]

Have been using my Sunbeam C50 for several months now (a nearly NIB eBay find from months ago that rarely was used), since cracked/broke two glass upper globes in succession.

My usual MO when an upper or lower part of glass vacuum brewer breaks is to simply hit my stash (acuminated over the years from before prices became insane), or wait for a deal to show up, then pounce. It was however pointed out to me the large and growing number of gaskets and other bits stashed in kitchen draws from glass pots that long since went into the rubbish. Long story short a suggestion came that in the absence of something more durable and that fact am not as young as one used to be (yes, that last comment was addressed at length later on),it might be time to move on from vacuum pot coffee. Since that was *NOT* going to happen dragged out the Sunbeam.

Don't get me wrong, the Sunbeam C50 produces a nice strong and very hot cup of vacuum brewed coffee, but things tend to err on the side of over extraction. A common complaint that results from design of unit. It simply is so heavily built of metal/copper that it takes the lower pot a long time to cool. Until it does the kick-down cannot begin so coffee sits in upper chamber extracting away.

So here I am with this: a vintage "Permanent" Stainless Steel vacuum coffeemaker by Solar Sturges Mfg.

After a good deep cleaning (upper globe was spotless however the lower's interior was caked in God only knows what; just what sort of water do people have outside of NY anyway? Using a few tricks of the trade got that sorted and brewed some coffee this morning. Used a Silex ceramic disk strainer with cloth instead of the metal disk and things went great. A nice smooth and clear cup of "HOT" coffee. Best yet no muck (the Sunbeam metal mesh filter tended to produce a muddy brew), and not over extracted. Once heat was removed kick-down started almost at once, which is how it should be.

 

[norgeway]

Permanent.

This was part of a line of cookware, some of the first stainless steel, sold like Tupperware, by home demonstration.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Nice!

I found one of those at a flea in Middletown, PA, in the 1990s. I don't need it for brewing coffee, but at the same flea, I bought the top part of a two mantle Coleman camping lantern that screws onto a propane cylinder. The cylinder fits perfectly into the lower bowl of the brewer so I have a safe, secure holder for the lantern when the power goes out.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The reason for the C50's long hold in the upper bowl is that Sunbeam stopped using the faster cooling nichrome wire heating element between the two sheets in mica at the center of the lower bowl and changed to a sealed rod element around the perimeter of the lower bowl. It cools slower and causes the deterioration of the chrome plating in the lower C50 bowls. When I used mine, briefly, I pulled the plug as soon as the water started on its way up and it reduced the time of the operation considerably what with trying to boil away water at the center of the bowl with heat from the perimeter. Very poor design, but must have been cheaper.

 

[launderess]

Since purchased the metal stove top vac pot haven't bothered with the Sunbeam. It has sat sitting ever since really.

However on balance, what you say is true. Sunbeam took some of the money out of the C-50 with the last redesign. While efforts were made to address previous issues with older models such as seals; Sunbeam could see where market was heading; automatic drip coffeemakers were fast replacing vacuum coffee makers both stove top and automatic.

 

[tomturbomatic]

And Sunbeam had the CASH NERVE to call their automatic filter drip machine "COFFEEMASTER". It ranked low in tests because of its slowness as it was designed to heat all of the water before dripping started instead of heating it on a pass through basis or one belch worth at a time like the Norelco pots with the black and sort of harvest plastic two piece filter that sat in the top of the carafe. It sounded a lot like a percolator except more out in the open.