Vacuum coffee makers

[vintage1963]

Hey friends,

Well, I have decided to explore the realm of vacuum coffee makers. I have been looking on Ebay of course, Amazon, etc. There are both modern and vintage available and most are very pricey. One I am most intrigued by is the model made by KitchenAid. I have included a video for your viewing pleasure. At over 12 minutes in length you may want to skip over a bit to get to the good part.

 

[mattl]

I've used a classic Sunbeam on and off for years, made very good coffee.  But the messy cleanup eventually got me back to using the standard Cuisinart drip pot.  The KA looks interesting and it may be DW safe, not sure, but a cloth filter was used on very early Sunbeam units and abandoned because of the trouble involved in keeping it clean. If I recall there was a suggestion you store in in a glass of water.

 

[vintage1963]

Matt,

I did find out that the KitchenAid is not dishwasher safe. Also, cleanup does seem a bit tedious. I would prefer one with the glass rod such a Cory would have but that may be just asthethics talking to me and how it looks once assembled. In any case, the prices being asked for what is a very basic glass pot could be why the vintage items don't move very quickly. I understand the unique look and provenance of such items and that they are no longer made but I am hard-pressed to spend over $100 plus shipping.

 

[ea56]

Ed,

I’ve owned several vintage vac pots over the past 14 years. Four different Sunbeam C-30’s, a couple of Cory glass pots, a Silex glass pot and a Stainless Steel Nicro, along with a Yama 8 cup vac pot, which can be bought new from several different online sellers.

For my money, the Yama wins hands down! They are reasonably priced, make EXCELLENT coffee and while they aren’t automatic they are very easy to use. It is the only vac pot I’ve kept, and still use on occasion. Get a Cory glass rod to use with it and the cleaning is easy breezy. I’ve posted a link below for just one of the many sellers.

The vintage glass vac pots like the Cory and Silex are very fragile, and their gaskets are prone to be a weak point. And any new replacement gaskets can be a crap shoot, are expensive and if you don’t have a good sealing gasket, you vac pot is useless.

BTW, its nice to see you post again. How’s your beard coming along?
https://prima-coffee.com/equipment/yama/sy-8bk

Eddie

 

[vintage1963]

Ed,

Hello Eddie!!

I will take a look at the Yama. It is good to know that a Cory glass rod can be used with it. Are there different size rods?

I've trimmed the beard back for summer but I do plan on growing it back out.

 

[ea56]

Ed,

there are a few different size Cory Glass rods, but any of them will work in the Yama. Check out ebay, as its the only place I know of that you can still buy a Cory Glass rod. I believe that Bodum also makes a new glass rod for vac pots, but IIRC they are much more expensive than the vintage Cory rods. Sweet Maria’s is also a good source of new vac pots and parts for them. Have fun with your foray in to the world of vac coffee making.

I also, grew my beard out, started about 5 or 6 weeks ago now. I’ve been trimming it weekly with a number 3 guard on the clippers, and this seems to be a good all around length for me. I’ve been using Cremo Beard Oil on it and it keeps my skin underneath the beard nice and prevents “beardruff”.

Eddie

 

[launderess]

Have never found gaskets on vintage glass vac pots

To be fragile. Have a huge zip lock bag full of them (from glass pots that broke), and all are still pliable. Have purchased NOS Silex and Cory glass units that were from 1940's, 1950's and even 1930's with gaskets all perfectly fine.

OTOH on some Sunbeam electric vac pots fragile and or dried out gaskets were a known issue.

Cory rods or similar devices:

These came about as a more "sanitary" way of making vacuum coffee than using cloth filters. They can let more sediment through into the brew than cloth, but clean-up is far easier, and one doesn't have to wash, boil, sanitize the things as with reusable cloth filters.

OTOH rods and other such "solid" filters aren't very forgiving in terms of coffee grind. If the stuff is too fine it will clog filter and thus severely slow down if not stop the pull down all together.

When rods (and other vac pot filters) first came out many either ground their coffee at home, or it was done for them at point of purchase. Thus one could either specify type of ground wanted, and or do it at home to suit type of vac pot filter. Pre-packaged coffee however varies in grind; and anything too powdery (like espresso) isn't a good candidate for vac pots that use rods/solid filters.

Have a huge stash of NOS Silex cloth filters; so just use one for a few days then chuck it into a glass jar until cleaning time. When have enough to make a full "load" then wash, boil, rinse, then allow to dry the lot.

Vacuum brewing of coffee was quite a lot of bother for most so you can see why perk pots (auto electric or stove top), then drip (ditto) soon displaced them in sales.

 

[ea56]

Laundress

I didn’t say the gaskets on the vintage glass pots were fragile, but rather the gaskets are a weak point, at least in my experience. They are made of rubber, and old rubber as a tendency to either harden or rot, which can often prevent a good seal, and hinder achieving a vacuum. What I did say, is that the glass pots are fragile. All the vintage ones I owned eventually ended up breaking, and I’m very careful, almost never break things.

As far as the glass rods go, you make good points about the fineness of the grind possibly causing problems with either grounds in the brew, or a blocked draw down. I almost always use pre ground coffee and the rods worked great. Its a personal preference. I tried all the different types of filters and next to the Cory Rod I like the cloth filter and frame that comes with the Yama Vac Pot. In fact, I used these filters in all my other vac pots if I wanted a clearer brew than the rod. But for everyday use the rod was my first choice.

Vacuum coffee brewing is a fun process, and I’m glad I tried many of the different vac pots, but I got that out of my system for now. The Braun Aromaster is so much easier, and the coffee is very good too.

Eddie

 

[launderess]

Early on after discovering vaccum pot brewing

Went with glass pots because purists on various sites said the metal versions gave coffee an "off taste". Thus how one has ended up with so many bits including gaskets from vac pots. Over the years have broken more than care to think about.

Finally simply nabbed a Flavor-Seal nearly new off fleaPay and haven't looked back. Could sit down and weep at the numerous metal vac pots (Cory, Silex, Nicro) that let pass by years ago at dirt cheap prices. Now they all go for very dear money.

Store bought pre-ground coffee is a bit of hit or miss. Some work well with glass or other solid filter rods, others not so much. Starbucks French roast is too powdery for rods, so must use filter cloths instead.

For years ground beans oneself each morning, but lately local Rite Aid has been running sales on SB coffee so to economize.....

 

[chachp]

I had the KA pot

I had the KA pot.  Used it for a few days and sold it on eBay.  It wasn't cleanup that did it for me it was how long the coffee steeped before it returned to the bottom pot.  The coffee was over brewed in my opinion and I didn't want to baby sit a pot that was supposed to be automatic so I could kill the heat before the maker thought it should be.  It was the original pot and didn't have a setting for how long to brew.  That may have changed by now.  This is a video of mine.

 

<strong style="font-family: Times; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000;">I have a Yama pot that I use on a daily basis and I use the cloth filter because I don't care for the sediment in the coffee when using a glass rod.  Just my preference some don't mind.  It really takes only a couple of minutes.  We have an instant hot water tap in the kitchen so I put that water in the pot and put it on the stove.  By the time I grind the beans the water is boiling.  Starting with hot water makes all the difference because I don't have the patience to stand and wait for the water to boil.</strong>

<span class="s1"> </span>

<span class="s1">I put the top on the pot, let the water rise and add the coffee.  I set a timer for one minute and take it off the heat and I'm done.   I stir once after I put in the coffee and once at about 20 seconds left.  Really I think about 3 minutes start to finish.  Easy Peezy.   Some mornings I want pour-over so I use a Chemex for that. </span>

<span class="s1"> </span>

<span class="s1">I've abandoned most of my automatic pots because I've managed to make this process so quick.  That hot water deal under the sink made all the difference.</span>

 

 

 

[foraloysius]

I was wondering if a start with hot water wouldn't have an effect on the length of the brewing time. Is this a thermostatic regulated process? If so, where is the thermostat situated in the coffee maker? If it's on the bottom of the machine I think it would make a difference.

 

[chachp]

Good question..

That's a really good question.  I don't know if these are timed or actually run based on the temperature of the water.  The Yama pot I use is manual on the stove.  Based on my experience with the KA pot I would guess it's based on time.

 

I never thought to start with hot water until well after I sold the pot so I don't know if it would have made a difference.  I've seen many You Tube videos where people start with hot water which is what gave me the idea.  

 

[ea56]

Ralph,

I completely agree with you about the Yama vac pot. They are easy to use and to me make the best vac coffee possible. And I also use your method of starting with hot water. But I put about an inch of water in the bottom pot, place it over the med high heat with the wire trivet, then I add the required amount of boiling water from my tea kettle (I put the inch of water in the lower pot first to temper the glass from any shock of adding boiling water, this may not be necessary, but I do it anyway). Then the rest of my brewing procedure is just like yours.

And hands down, the cloth filter and frame that the Yama comes with are the BEST cloth filter set up for any vac pot.

My Yama is the only vac pot I keep out of the dozen or so I’ve owned. It’s one new product that is really well made and thought out, reasonably priced and worth the money.

Eddie

 

[vintage1963]

I am now the proud owner of a Yama vacuum pot! Many thanks to Eddie who helped me in my search! I should have it in a few days and I am looking forward to trying it out. I will report back on my progress!

 

[earthling177]

I bought the Yama 8-cup pot many years ago.

It does make very good coffee, but between the steep price back then (it's imported from Japan, and apparently hand-made, so it was close to 100 bucks) and the need to hand wash, which makes me afraid of breaking it, it got little use. The need to deal with the cloth filter too did not make me eager to use it all the time.

A year or two later, I was looking for a gift for my dad, who loves coffee. I had no idea if he was going to like a vacuum pot, but at the time Bodum, who had stopped making their Santos vacuum pot, re-introduced a very slightly updated model, named Pebo, at around 50 bucks, so I figured we should try that and bought one for my dad. He doesn't use it all the time, also because of the hand-washing thing, but he uses it it often enough ("special occasions") and it's a fine brewer, and it helps that the filter is a washable nylon mesh, which is very easy to keep clean.

A few month ago I was at Amazon shopping for a large induction-compatible moka pot (Cuisinox 10-cup Milano) and I saw the Bodum Pebo at a good price so I got both. They are both good brewers, and the Pebo does get a lot of attention when I use it when guests are over. I don't notice any sediments, but that may have more to do with the coffee we use (Cafe Bustello, which is not ground as finely as some other coffees) than anything else.

I've ordered a reusable stainless-steel mesh filter made by Yama from Sweet Maria's and I'm going to try it one of these days when I have more time, but I expect it to be at least as good as the Pebo filter.

Vacuum brewing does not extract as much oil from the coffee as other methods, so I do not expect a cloth/paper filter to make as much difference as a reusable filter, which lets more of the oils to pass thru, but I may be wrong about that, so use your judgment.

In any case, I would also expect (not sure if it's true or not, people who have tried it, please let us know) that cutting a disk of paper filter (for example, from a filter for the Chemex) and using it with pots like the Yama or Pebo instead of the mesh or cloth filter might work just fine too, in case one doesn't like the coffee sediments or upkeep from reusable filters.

I see right now on Amazon the Yama and Pebo are both offered at very close prices (around 50-60 bucks), which I think it's a win for the competition. They are both good brewers which would make a lot of people happy.

Have fun!

 

[mattl]

For quite a while using my Sunbeam vac pot I would cut up paper filters and use them with the mesh filter.  I think the coffee was moderately better, maybe a little clearer.

 

All this talk is making me want to drag out one of my C-30s....

 

[vintage1963]

I have discovered another vacuum pot that does sort of interest me. Does anyone know anything about this particular model from General Electric, such as years made, reliability, what type of filter would one need, would a glass rod filter work on this model?

 

[tomturbomatic]

It was sold in the years after WWII and possibly just before. It was a rare, glass automatic, but it is missing all of the parts that made it work. There is supposed to be a metal disc at the bottom of the tube from the upper bowl. It held a magnet located in the center of the heating element in the upright position which was the switch for the high heat. The heating was started by pushing down on the red button in the base which also raised the magnet. When the water rose to the top bowl, the metal piece was moved by the turbulence which allowed the magnet to drop which shut off the high heat to allow the cooling of the lower bowl. The brewer used a porcelain filter.   

 

[yogitunes]

speaking of glass rods.....

Mom had one growing up, I don't know the name, and never seen one again, but it would go on top of the stove, she would set it up, and turn on the flame.....

once the water rose to the top, along with this glass rod that lifted, you turned off the heat, and within a few minutes, the coffee would be pulled down to the bottom....

but that's all I remember from it....