The glass vacuum pots offer a lot of drama, but the way the Coffee Master holds the water and grounds in contact for so much longer giving body without making the coffee too strong or bitter is very difficult to achieve in a stove top model or in the electric Cory brewers or the old electric Westinghouse vacuum brewer with the big lower bowl. Because they contain water in the lower bowl, as soon as they are removed from the heat or the heat shuts down, it stops boiling, the cooling happens quickly and the coffee returns to the lower bowl. I have tried to approximate the Sunbeam's action by moving the glass coffee maker to another surface unit (with another safety wire) that I had heated on low for a couple of minutes. There is a way to get just the right balance of heat supplied to the lower bowl so that the coffee will just steep for a while as the element cools and then it returns slowly with the body of Coffee Master coffee. Because it is not having the steam forced into it like when it is bubbling up there, it does not become too strong. This is neurotic and compulsive, but I did it before I found my first Coffee Master. I tried all sorts of filters that I found in old hardware stores so I don't know which one did this best. Maybe it was the early C-30 Sunbeam filter with the frame for the cloth and the spring-loaded hook at the bottom or maybe it was a Silex filter with the cloth over the ceramic disc.
Has anyone experimented with the Silex Any Heat stove to see what kind of heat control it gives? The fire brick construction of the heater would make a very steady and slow cooling heat source (as well as slow heating when you are waiting for the water to boil), but the heat might have to be turned down before the water rose all of the way. The Silex company's advertising always made it sound automatic, but it was not. It's amazing how much fun you can have playing with the adult things we were not allowed to touch as children.
I Love That!
