On the hunt for an electric percolator

[jakins]

Thermostat adjustment

My favorite Percolator is the P50 I have two, The Universal and the GE badges. Here are some pics of the adjustment screws there may be something like it on the Potbelly percolator

 

[snail]

Hey another millenial!

I'm 34 and my other hobby is bodybuilding so I don't fit the mold either lol. Once I finish my hotpoint stove project with its timed outlet I plan to get a vacuum siphon machine. In my experience the percolator uses a lot of coffee and the coffee tastes pretty bitter to me. I see glass and metal siphon style machines on ebay. I think the metal ones would be safer to ship but I like the look of the glass ones. Looks like siphon machines often have a rubber gasket and we all know how rubber ages so.. something to consider.

 

[jakins]

as I said

I do love my P50 Percolator but it is not my daily driver. My Daily coffee is made in a Yama Siphon Coffee maker. 8 cup same size as most of the vintage siphon makers.
if You want vintage you can go with the Cory all glass coffee makers. the all glass is a bit fiddley but if you want vintage there is no rubber to worry about. Cory Made 3 sizes of the all glass a 4cup, an 8 cup, and a 12 cup I have found the 8 and 12 cup Pots. the cory 8 cup s are the dcl and dcu the 12 cup is DIL and DIU. the YAMA can be found on amazon. The Cory Ad I found at a flea market about a year ago

 

[ea56]

Re:#32

You can’t beat the Yama vacuum pot with a Cory glass rod for siphon coffee!  Excellent flavor and easy cleanup, no filters to wash.  The best  vacuum pot for a daily driver.

 

I’ve had vintage Cory and Silex vac pots with rubber gaskets and they can be very iffy.  The rubber ages and then it either won’t make an air tight seal so the coffee won’t travel back down to the lower pot, or worse yet the old rubber can impart a rubber taste to the coffee and boy it’s a terrible cup of Joe.  I always wanted one of the all glass Cory’s, but never managed to score one.  Now that I’ve had to give up coffee it’s a moot point.

 

I’d stay away from vintage Sunbeam Coffeemaster vac pots.  I’ve owned 5 and all of them eventually reached the point where they weren’t dependable.  The most common problem is the thermostat failing.  Then when on the keep warm setting the coffee would all of the sudden come to a rolling boil blowing boiling hot coffee all over the counter or the coffee wouldn’t stay hot.  There are a couple of small screws that can be adjusted but they are very difficult to reach and you need tiny wrenches in order to re tighten the screws after the re adjustment or the adjusted setting won’t hold.  They are beautiful coffee makers and make great coffee when they work properly but just too much trouble for a daily driver.

 

Eddie

 

[delco1946]

Hi Tom! Nice to meet another millennial and from the PNW, too! I don’t often get up to Seattle or the surrounding area, but maybe I’ll hit you up the next time I’m in the area!

I am very excited to report that I finally took my potbelly percolator apart, and the bi metallic strips have small threaded screws to make adjustments. Certainly not easy for the average consumer but once you have a disassembled, that’s a pretty straightforward process. I carefully took the base off and reassembled it without the chrome, beauty ring, and plugged it back in so I could see which switches were triggering and when, to better understand, what adjustments I should be focusing on.

There is an inner switch that trips first which takes it off the rolling, boil to avoid burning your coffee and then for the duration of the percolating process it’s on a slower boil. Finally, the outer switch trips after a certain duration of time and temperature have been met, forcing all electricity to go through multiple resistance heater units and keeping the coffee warm. 1.5 easy turns of that outer switches’ screw (counter clockwise) is preventing that switch from opening for a longer period of time and now I am getting much longer brew times .

 

[ea56]

Very impressive Christopher! I never knew before that some of the older electric percolators had adjustable thermostats. Mt experience with the Farberware electric percolators and their thermostats was once they went bad the only remedy was to replace them, they didn’t have any way to adjust them from what I could see when I took them apart.

Glad you now have your GE Potbelly brewing to your satisfaction.

Eddie

 

[launderess]

Cory vac pots without rubber gaskets

Were only produced for short time to cope with shortages of rubber during WWII. Once supplies increased and or war time restrictions on rubber ended, so did production of said pots IIRC.

Some swear by while others swear at gasket-less Cory vac pots. Some had difficulty getting a proper seal between glass globe and pot.

While have read about Cory or Silex other vac pot gaskets becoming brittle or whatever with age, haven't seen that problem. In fact have a box full of gaskets that outlived their vac pots (don't ask) and they're all supple as ever.

It may be there is "rubber" and there is rubber gaskets. The gasket for one's Flavor Seal vac pot (maybe made by Cory) is deteriorating something awful. Just nabbed a Yama vac pot for very little money but haven't unpacked. Hopefully the things arrived intact.

Several months ago also nabbed a Cory and GE vac pot set (complete). Damn fool at UPS store simply packed everything together (including parts and other bits inside upper globes), and you can guess what happened. Everything shattered to bits.

In general haven't had much luck with glass vac pots. Using such things first thing in morning to make coffee when not always paying attention is problem. One false move and usually it's the upper globe that's for it. Hence all those gaskets lying about spare.

 

[launderess]

Sunbeam CoffeeMaster

Love my C50 bought almost NIB off fleaPay many years ago now.

Don't use it often in fact it has sat sitting on counter for ages. Am leery of wearing down plating inside lower bowl during cleaning for a start.

 

[justjunque]

Hey, Christopher.
Glad you found yourself a vintage percolator, and have it working the way you like!
Sorry for commenting on a thread that's been sort of dormant for a while, but I haven't been around for a while.
Since I have a small collection of percolators, this thread caught my eye.
Then, to my surprise, the Universal pictured in Chad's first reply to your post is mine! I posted that picture when I first brought it home from the thrift store.
I never got around to using it, because I could never figure out how to address an issue with the bottom cover not fitting properly. Unlike you, I'm not at all handy with working on things. Additionally, I've since stopped drinking coffee because of health issues. I may eventually go back to it, since I don't know that eliminating it really had any effect on my problems.
I hope you're still enjoying your percolator!

Barry

 

[delco1946]

Hi Barry!

I’m still using it daily for my fancy local beans and It does fairly well. The proportions just require a lot coffee.

I used it with some Starbucks the roommate had which I’m not a fan of for various reasons but I’ve noticed must be used in very different proportions than fancy beans. I assume they brew similar to typical grocery pre ground coffee. It brewed up very well, I was impressed!

Hope you can get your percolator up and running, they’re fairly simple, just go slow and I bet you can fix it!