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Post by vaporvac on Aug 11, 2019 14:03:39 GMT -5
Good tip, mach12. I would think hot water would dissolve any residue without soap anyway... for the glass container. That's funny about the distilled water being kept next to the diapers!
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Post by nana on Aug 11, 2019 15:55:43 GMT -5
Well, I already washed one of my filters with soap. I won't use that one when my brother comes! I wonder if soaking it in vinegar would be OK? I won't be using this daily so drying it out for storage seems like the way to go, and vinegar should rinse out any oils so they won't go rancid. I don't see any harm in washing the glass parts though.
Hemp filters would be nice. Cotton is grown with a lot of chemical inputs, and I didn't see any organic ones online...Sheesh--am I becoming a coffee snob too?
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Post by mach12 on Aug 11, 2019 21:45:12 GMT -5
Vinegar is a great option. I'm not sure what mix you use but I kind of default to 2 parts water to 1 part white vinegar. I don't think you did any harm washing in detergent. It'll rinse out with hot water and be fine. That used to be how we did the bags until somebody discovered Oxiclean Free. That stuff's amazing with coffee and tea stains and stuff like that. Another thing that's pretty amazing is the Barkeepers Friend foam spray. I came across a good writeup on BKF (with some good links, too) at www.whatsupfagans.com/bar-keepers-friend-ingredients/. I stumbled across the site doing a search on drip pans and thought it was pretty interesting.
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Post by vaporvac on Aug 12, 2019 11:22:44 GMT -5
mach12, do you think the BKF foam would substitute for DPD? I love BKF!
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Post by mach12 on Aug 12, 2019 12:23:05 GMT -5
I originally bought the BKF foam just for that reason and I think it even does better in some cases. I just bought an aluminum pot that has that burned on stuff on the bottom and am going to do the side by side cleaning like I've done with some other stuff. So far the best things I've found are the citrus based grill cleaner and the BKF Foam (which, according to the article contains ascorbic acid, which I understand is the magic ingredient in the grill cleaner).
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Post by nana on Aug 12, 2019 12:33:29 GMT -5
I will probably have to use some vinegar, or else only use the filters once or twice. Today we tried it and half the pot didn't return to the bottom! It was the fourth or fifth time we used it. Same coffee, stirring technique, etc. I think the cloth is clogged because of my hard water. I'm used to that problem. I didn't think it would matter so soon. Once we get all the kinks worked out, I think it will be the pot I use if I'M having coffee, because it really does taste better to me. It has less of whatever it is most coffee has that caused me to make tea my go to pick-me-up.
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Post by nana on Aug 13, 2019 8:38:35 GMT -5
A vinegar soak ansd scrub did the trick! The filter is back in business, I have my timing down pat, and I am happy to have yet another old kitchen appliance fufilling its purpose!
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Post by vaporvac on Aug 13, 2019 9:49:08 GMT -5
That's great! What do you think caused it not to go to the bottom last time...the clogged cloth? What is your timing? My only issue initially was using a finely ground coffee, but once I read the instructions I changed that and have had no problems. I need to use mine again. It's so much fun! : )) Have you used the percolator? Poor thing. It's like the neglected child competing with the flashy extrovert.
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Post by Chuckie on Aug 13, 2019 18:26:55 GMT -5
That's great! What do you think caused it not to go to the bottom last time... Were you talking about the GROUNDS, or the SWEETS she was HAVING with her coffee?!!! LOL CHEERS!! Chuckie
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Post by vaporvac on Aug 13, 2019 21:43:51 GMT -5
That's a secret I'd like to know! : ))
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Post by nana on Aug 14, 2019 19:40:18 GMT -5
That's great! What do you think caused it not to go to the bottom last time... Were you talking about the GROUNDS, or the SWEETS she was HAVING with her coffee?!!! LOL CHEERS!! Chuckie I'll have you know I resemble that remark!
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Post by nana on Aug 14, 2019 19:58:09 GMT -5
That's great! What do you think caused it not to go to the bottom last time...the clogged cloth? What is your timing? My only issue initially was using a finely ground coffee, but once I read the instructions I changed that and have had no problems. I need to use mine again. It's so much fun! : )) Have you used the percolator? Poor thing. It's like the neglected child competing with the flashy extrovert. I think it was the clogged cloth. You can't believe how hard my water is. It's almost crunchy. I don't want to get a water softener because I like the way it tastes so much, but it does cause some problems with the amount of scale it can leave behind. Between the weave tightening up a bit with use, and my water, it wasn't able to flow freely. At least soaking in vinegar fixed it, so that must have been it. I soak lots of things in vinegar, or else soak a washcloth in it and wrap it around things that are too big. The timing became simple thanks to Mach12 and his posting of the silex instructions. Online they seemed to say it needed to gurgle for only a minute or so, but the old instructions wanted a full four minutes which as it turns out is almost exactly the amount of time it takes if I unplug the base as soon as all the water goes up. It now is my husband's favorite cup of coffee! But he's too lazy to finagle it by himself. The various percolators will still see use if he is making it instead of me.
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Post by mach12 on Aug 14, 2019 22:12:58 GMT -5
I read that the cloth traps oils and acids in among the fibers and will eventually clog with them. I remember reading somewhere that you're supposed to rinse it in hot water and then in cold water after each use and that you get a max of 5 cycles before it needs to be washed with detergent or a vinegar/water mix to get the trapped acids and oils out of the cloth. I've been digging the past couple of days as time permits and found a Silex instruction sheet that talks about the hot & cold rinse but no luck on the 5 uses part. I'll keep looking.
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Post by nana on Aug 15, 2019 7:03:59 GMT -5
5 cycles is right on the money as far as I can tell!
I've been looking at so many vacuum and siphon coffee things that my head is spinning, but as with most things, a lot of what I read seems unnecessarily complicated. My husband, who drinks coffee every day, is not some kind of aficionado who would be able to tell if the water temperature was 202 or only 198, for example. If it's coffee and it tastes OK he's fine. And I only drink it occasionally. I drank more coffee this past week or so while we've been experimenting than I have in the past 6 months. If I don't watch out it may become a habit!
But I love this coffee pot for its looks and the lovely physics of its operation, and the fact that it is 80 years old and still does exactly what it was made to do. I'm glad I read about these on the forum, because I knew what it was when the auctioneer held it up out of the box of junk it was in and called it some kind of lamp. My neighbor bought the box for the birdfeeder that was also in there, and gave me the pot for free, which makes it extra sweet!
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Post by vaporvac on Aug 15, 2019 10:27:48 GMT -5
That's hilarious! They were so clever back then, making lamps that could brew one's coffee, as well!: ))
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Post by mach12 on Aug 15, 2019 14:32:55 GMT -5
If it's coffee and it tastes OK he's fine. Sounds like military training to me. When I was in the Navy we had these big steam heated percolators that were plumbed into the ships steam system. They worked the same as any percolator and had the basket but you put a liner in it and the liner looked like nylon. The liners work great when running grapes through a press by the way. They always said the worst thing you could do is leave the basket in the pot because it would steam the acids and oils out of the grounds and into the coffee - even had an article about it in the "All Hands" magazine the Navy published that also emphasized that. If nothing else we were serious about our coffee. I guess I still am. Here's a picture of me and my team in Mosul, Iraq. I'm the one with the coffee cup.
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Post by nana on Aug 15, 2019 19:38:10 GMT -5
A likely looking crew! Have coffee, will travel.
Man, those uniforms really do provide camouflage against that rock wall!
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Post by Chuckie on Aug 15, 2019 20:46:17 GMT -5
A likely looking crew! Have coffee, will travel. Man, those uniforms really do provide camouflage against that rock wall! I remember when I bought this place circa 1986, our cul-de-sac was FULL with soldiers from the Command & General Staff College ("War College" at Fort Leavenworth, most were ranked Major whilst here). We had F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S block parties, even though I was a BACHELOR then. 'Course all the "Majors" were MARRIED, and their wives "frowned" on boozing, so they hung out on my back deck. MANY a time I'd come from carrying mail (NEVER locked the doors then), and a group of them would be drinking on MY deck, smoking, playing the stereo LOUD, and playing with my dog Dewey. They'd ALL get shipped off to Germany come years end back then, and I think I went about 10 years before I bought toilet paper, cleaning supplies, bottles of hootch, etc--as they could NOT take booze with them, or any OTHER liquid for THAT matter---plus they wanted to keep their shipping weight w/in limits. ANYHOW, what I was getting at as I digressed above----the FIRST year or so, the uniforms they wore here were GREEN camo. Not a year or so LATER, they turned to the desert sand colour, and when I inquired, ALL said, " OH, the NEXT battles we'll be fighting will be in the DESERT scenario, NOT the forests on the CONTINENT!!!" Kinda thought that "funny" then, but proved to be QUITE true, alas!!! CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by mach12 on Aug 16, 2019 3:06:05 GMT -5
When we deployed to the Gulf war I was stationed in Germany and we didn't have desert camouflage so the entire VII Corps deployed in the green woodland camouflage. When we started gathering up Iraqi prisoners they were scared to death of us and when we finally found a guy who could speak English we asked him why they were in such a panic. He told us that they were told that the Americans in green were the most dangerous and had been brought in because we were trained in Soviet tactics. I'm not sure exactly what that meant but they seemed to think they had one foot in the grave as soon as they saw us. We'd start handing out bottles of water and they looked at us like "the old poison water trick, eh?".
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Post by nana on Aug 16, 2019 6:42:54 GMT -5
You were tougher than you knew, huh? My husband wore the green woodland type when he was in the Army. He got out of active duty and became a reserve recruiter after Desert Storm. I was happy about that for many reasons, one of which was the dress greens required only that I iron his shirts, rather than dealing with those damn BDU's that were so hard to starch and iron with all their pockets and gussets and whatnot. He was never sent to the Mideast, so he never had the desert color.
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Post by vaporvac on Aug 16, 2019 11:00:51 GMT -5
Fascinating discussion! Mach12, that instructions that came with my '30s Universal percolator also say to immediately empty the grounds which I always do. Who knew the Navy was so meticulous? I'll have to ask my dad about that. I suspect he'll agree as he makes a great cup of coffee.
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Post by karitx on Sept 13, 2019 16:05:20 GMT -5
I saw this ad posted on a vintage appliance group on Facebook and thought that the vacuum pot on the stove looked like yours, nana , with the flowery scallops on the top and bottom. I've also wondered which stoves those thrift cookers belonged to, since I've seen a few of them with that top. One more bit of not-terribly-useful information to store in my head. Meanwhile, I can't remember the names of the two people I met at lunch today. Doh! The original post (from a group called The Golden Age of Illustration) says, "Albert Dorne (1906–1965): illustration for advertisement for Frigidaire, which appeared in magazines in September 1948."
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Post by vaporvac on Sept 14, 2019 12:12:21 GMT -5
I love how the coffee is in the upper chamber! What a great ad and such a colourful kitchen.
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Post by mach12 on Sept 14, 2019 22:09:11 GMT -5
I thought for a second that Minnie Pearl was doing ads for Frigidaire, but no price tag hanging from the hat...
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Post by nana on Sept 15, 2019 15:09:48 GMT -5
That does look like a stovetop version of my pot, only mine doesn't have a scalloped top, just the bottom. I wonder if it did at one time. The bottom one I do have is cracked and hanging on by a thread. I sure hope the Mr and Mrs have a bunch of kids, because if not I might think she is trying to kill her martinet of a husband with calories. Look at her face, she's definitely thinking something along the lines of "...just one more pound of cholesterol oughta do it..."
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Post by mach12 on Sept 15, 2019 15:13:12 GMT -5
Speaking of vacuum pots - I can't believe I never heard of these Farberware Coffee Robots! There's one on e-Bay right now but the condition looks questionable, especially for the price they're asking. Now something else I need to watch for while I'm cruising the shops...
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Post by nana on Sept 16, 2019 19:59:36 GMT -5
How much for the walking model? It could bring you your coffee in bed!!!
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Post by mach12 on Sept 16, 2019 22:26:47 GMT -5
How much for the walking model? It could bring you your coffee in bed!!! If a robot can trip over a rug, with my luck that's how it'd be delivered!
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