Vacuum coffee makers

[foraloysius]

Those Philips (not Phillips) are not very reliable. Lots of people have issues with them. They need being descaled very often and a lot of people had the problem of it being burned out. My sister in law went through 6 of them with 3 of them being replacements under warranty. Number last broke down very soon too, she is now a happy Moccamaster user for a longer time than she ever had a Philips Café Gourmet.

 

[foraloysius]

BTW, anyone here in the posession of a Bodum Santos coffeemaker?

 

[thomasortega]

That's the philips! YAY

But, unfortunately it's used.... I'd never buy a used one exactly because I know how problematic that thing is.

Months before I moved to the USA, I bought one of those plastic siphons in Brazil. Not as futuristic as the Bodum but it was cool to see.
It was OK, nothing more than that. At least it was super inexpensive, like $30 or so. I remember I just bought it because it was cool and ridiculously cheap.

 

[mattl]

If you search ebay there are two new ones listed....

 

[ea56]

Here’s a great Informative

link for those new to vac brewing. It also goes into some detail about the Sunbeam C30 and C50.

http://www.coffeekid.com/coffee/vacpots/vacpotfaq

Also, another on the history of vac brewers. There is even a description of how the GE Automatic Vacuum brew that Ed(vintage1963) just acquired.

https://baharris.org/coffee/History.htm

Lots of very good information.

Eddie

 

[tomturbomatic]

Louis, yes, I have one packed away in the box.

 

[foraloysius]

Tom, have you ever used it? I'm not too excited about it. It's a bit fragile and I think the brewing time is a bit on the short side. I have a smaller white one, I also had a bigger orange one but it didn't work well all the time, so I sent it to recycling.

 

[ea56]

The first Vacuum pot I ever owned was a Bodum Santos like in reply #40. It had one of the best filter systems I’ve come across, in fact, after I got rid of the machine, I still kept using the nylon filter disk on my first Sunbeam C30, with the frame that held the cloth filter, and it worked great in this application.

The Bodum Santos made very rich tasting coffee, but the beef I had with it was the draw down happened too quickly, not giving the brew enough time to remain in contact with the ground coffee. Therefore, in order to achieve a good, strong brew, I needed to use double the ground coffee I normally used. So this made it a no go for me. It was also hard to keep clean and the plastic scratched easily, giving it a cloudy appearance.

Eddie

 

[foraloysius]

When I used it I stirred the coffee with a spoon while it was brewing, but that shouldn't be necessary with an automatic brewer.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Louis, I used it once or twice when I had coffee-drinking guests. I think the shorter brew time is meant for finer grind coffee like used to be sold here in the 50s for vacuum coffee makers. I remember the old Chase and Sanborn cans with a drawing of a vacuum brewer on the side with the directions.  Bloomingdales used to have a setting on the coffee grinders in their delicacies department so that coffee could be ground for vacuum pots. My old KitchenAid coffee mill is set to the fineness of grind that worked in the vacuum pots without making bitter coffee.

 

Does anyone remember the heavenly aroma from the coffee mills in grocery stores?

 

[launderess]

Yes!

Local A&P had those huge red machines that custom ground coffee beans. Mother, aunts or grandmother would always caution us kids to step back and not get in way; but just loved the smell of freshly ground coffee.

 

[foraloysius]

Tom,

I used a finer grind, but I still wasn't too happy. Besides that, I brewed half a carafe a few times, when I didn't stir, it would sometimes happen that not some of the coffee would still be dry at the end.

 

[vintage1963]

Found this...

Bill, that is one gorgeous coffee maker! I sure hope one like that shows up at the Goodwill here!

The Yama arrived yesterday and as soon as I got home from work I unboxed it and experimented with it a little. This morning I made a pot of coffee in it and I have to say I was pleased with the results. The coffee was bold and rich just the way I like it and it was HOT just as it should be.

I'm looking forward to getting that GE Automatic as well.

 

[vintage1963]

Yesterday I took delivery of the GE Automatic vacuum coffee pot. It is in really good shape, all of the seals are good, the glass is intact and aside from needing a little cleaning up, all is good. However, the burner that came with it doesn't fully heat up. In other words, the coils do not get to that glowing red stage. They get hot, but not hot enough to get the water to boil. Not a huge deal really. I made a pot of coffee on the stove and the coffee turned out nice. Does anyone here know of any troubleshooting tips to get the burner to full capacity? Also, this particular model uses a cloth filter with a hole on the middle due to the ceramic rod that it would go over. I improvised this morning by cutting a small hole in another cloth filter I had for the Yama and it seemed to work fine. I may also get a glass rod to use but I am not exactly sure what size I would need.

Have a great day, everyone!

 

[ea56]

Congratulations Ed

on your new acquisition! In the photos you posted previously for this GE it showed that there was a plunger that fit into the tube of the upper bowl, and it has a flat disk that sits at the end of the tube. According to Tom’s explanation of how this works, there is a magnet in the center of the burner that this metal disk is attached to, and once this happens the magnet is drawn upwards and this engages the high heat setting. Once the water has risen to the upper bowl and the turbulence begins in the water left in the lower bowl, this metal disk breaks away from the magnet in burner, the magnet drops and the heat switches from high to low. Did you use this contraption when you tried to use the burner? This is probably what caused the heat to not be high enough to boil, its doing what it was designed to do. One of the sites that I posted a link to perviously in this thread shows how this magnet system in the GE works.

As far as a glass rod, any size will fit. And you can buy flannel at a fabric store and cut out you own filters, just zig zag stitch around the edges so they don’t unravel. I’ve done this for the Sunbeam C30’s I’ve owned and this worked fine.

Have fun with your new toy.

Eddie

 

[vintage1963]

Congratulations Ed

Hi Eddie!

I think the issue is that coils do not glow red and hot enough to start the heating/boiling process. I even left the unit plugged in for a long time but still no red hot coils. A friend of mine suggested that perhaps there is an issue with contact or loose wiring or just simply down to being an old, worn out appliance burner that cannot be repaired. I would still love to get the burner to work because I would like to experience what this GE was designed to do.

 

[ea56]

They aren’t getting hot enough if aren’t using the metal contraption at the end of the tube to “pull” the magnet “up” to engage the high heat setting. Try this test, take a long metal object that a magnet would be attracted to, plug in the burner and place the metal object over that disk in the center of the burner and let the magnet be “pulled up”, if all the coils then begin to glow, you’ve found your answer.

HTH
Eddie