Coffee Pot Just Makes Steam and The Fix

I had another coffee pot do this previously but that one was so old I threw it out. This one is only a few months old as is everything else I own.

I'm sure this must happen to a lot of them after seeing the reason, that's why I'm posting it. . I took the bottom off.... 4 regular phillips screws and 2 torx just so the average homeowner can't get it off .

There's two tubes, one comes from the water reservoir to the heating element. Within this tube is a little check valve. This apparently prevents the heated water from going back up into the reservoir.

You can just squeeze it out of the tube, you're going to probably have something stuck in it. On mine it appeared to be a piece of silicon, possibly from a o ring or something... . I'm not sure how it got in there.

It's amazing though, I looked at that little valve and started thinking how many coffee pots must have be thrown away because of debris stuck in that valve. If you had a big enough piece of coffee ground it could certainly block it up.

The cheap pots are throw-aways anyway, but I would have done the same thing you did. It's a disposable world now. The coffee never seems to taste the same when brewed through a cheap drip pot. Right now I'm using a 1970's vintage Corning 9 cup percolator. I need to search eBay for another good gasket for my Sunbeam C-30.

Best coffee I ever had was from a camping cup. It was insulated cup with screw on lid. You just dumped the grounds, sugar and creamer into the cup and add hot water. The lid has a plunger, the plunger has small screen. Once you screwed the lid on just plunge it down.

I broke down and got a Cuisinart fancy brewer with built in timer, and grinder. I wanted something nice. I used it two times and realized it's more like an occaisional company coffee maker. Way too much effort to assemble and disassemble a bunch of crappy plastic parts every time. The insulated ss carafe was poorly designed, you have to literally turn it upside down to get coffee to come out of it. Overall bad design.
I found a Mr. Coffee 4 cup maker for $2 in a 2nd hand shop. Been using that for months, simple, easy to make coffee in the morning when I'm in a stupor. It probably has a plastic check ball in it, they can get mineral buildup too, and usually let you know when the thing is taking a long time to brew and making a lot of noise. I put a little salt in the basket, just a matter of taste. Lifelong coffee addict. It will either kill me or make me live longer, depends on the article!
Along the same lines, my JVC car stereo croaked after 9 months. It was too inexpensive to bother with the red tape involved with warranty- I tossed it. I also have a Sharp stereo reciever on the desk here, that was in my brother's shop in 1971- still works fine 40 years later!

We are just using a $15 Stainless Steel 8-cup Percolator on the stove top. Works great! Once it starts percolating, I set the stove timer for 8 minutes. You want it a little darker? Set the stove timer for 9 minutes. Simple
If we have friends over, I fire up our 18-cup SS percolator.

I can't take the taste of coffee that runs thru a plastic Drip-maker.

Hey, is this the Thursday morning coffee thread????

If you run 1/2 pot of white vinegar through them occasionally it cleans out the water minerals and other gunk that accumulates. You need to run a couple pots of just water through after the vinegar to rinse out the vinegar smell/taste.

We just have a cheap under cabinet that has lasted for about 5 years now. I can tell it needs cleaning when it starts throwing a lot of steam up the face of the cabinets it is mounted under.

I use a Capresso, (not expresso), machine. Has a built in bur girnder, timer, etc. Brews coffee at the correct 104 degree temp and I've use the same one for over 20 years. A year ago the heater went on it so I sent it back to the manufacturer and for $75.00 rebuilt the entire machine to like new. So now I should be good for another 20 years. It makes the best coffee.
Tom

titleist1 wrote:If you run 1/2 pot of white vinegar through them occasionally it cleans out the water minerals and other gunk that accumulates. You need to run a couple pots of just water through after the vinegar to rinse out the vinegar smell/taste.

We do that and I tried that first but even before I did I figured it wasn't going to work because it went from functional to not working at all. This valve is plastic and it's right after the reservoir, it doesn't get any heat. I'd imagine it's unaffected by anything unless it's big enough to clog it.

Don't know what kind I've got & can't see a name on it--but--they had an extra little valve thingy with it--it sits in the drawer waiting--serious--I can't find the name must of just been on the box--one of the ones you push your cup against to fill--been going about 3 yrs, knock on wood

This valve is there to prevent the water from going back into the reservoir. If you removed the valve it would probably still work up until the point the water level got low enough that the pressure from the water being heated was greater.

Richard S. wrote:

titleist1 wrote:If you run 1/2 pot of white vinegar through them occasionally it cleans out the water minerals and other gunk that accumulates. You need to run a couple pots of just water through after the vinegar to rinse out the vinegar smell/taste.

We do that and I tried that first but even before I did I figured it wasn't going to work because it went from functional to not working at all. This valve is plastic and it's right after the reservoir, it doesn't get any heat. I'd imagine it's unaffected by anything unless it's big enough to clog it.

Yes, I wouldn't have expected the vinegar to help your issue since you described a piece of o-ring or something that had clogged things up. It was more of a maintenance suggestion to handle the gunk left behind by the water passing through the maker. I shoulda' been more specific.

But this was a good reminder for me since I took the opportunity to run some vinegar through ours at lunch today. There was a good bit of steam on the cabinet from this mornings pot, but the second pot of water after the vinegar had no steam coming out the basket area.

Thanks! You just saved another pot from the dumpster. My wife picked up a Mr. coffee at a thrift shop. It looks brand new- but it makes nothing but steam.

Took 10 minutes [after I got smart enough to do a google search on 'coffeemaker just steams'] to dismantle and pull the paper wad out of the check valve.

Must be last years birthday present, as you posted the original on my birthday last year.

Thanks again-
Jim

freetown fred wrote:Don't know what kind I've got & can't see a name on it--but--they had an extra little valve thingy with it--it sits in the drawer waiting--serious--I can't find the name must of just been on the box--one of the ones you push your cup against to fill--been going about 3 yrs, knock on wood

my hamilton beach took a crap sunday coffee leaked all over the counter ...tightened screws on bottom helped for a little while...cant bitch though it lasted over 5 years...got me a new mr. coffee the kind u just pish the cup against, same principal as the hamilton beach...hope it lasts as long

We have one of those K-Cup makers. I like that each cup is fresh, but those cups cost alot. They get costly

I've only had 2 coffee makers in my life. The first one was one I got for paying the $5 shipping to subscribe to Gevalia Coffee about 20 years ago. I kept the coffee maker ... and all the coffee they kept sending. Was in tough financial shape back then. I loved that coffee maker - was real small, so it took up little counter space in my cramped apartment at the time. Only thing that sucked was it took real small coffee filters that were expensive & hard to find. Never had a problem with it. It disappeared after a break-up and subsequent move ...

My second one is the real fancy one I've got now. It's a Bosch Tassimo ..... yuppie central! EEEEEooWWWWW! Please pass the Grey Poupon!

Not a "real" coffee maker by any stretch, but I got a great deal on it off eBay because it had the bar codes cut off the box. Just throw in a disc, make sure it has water, and in less than 5 minutes from a cold start you've got coffee. It reads the bar code off the disc, and makes the cup accordingly. The coffee ends up very small, but at least it's fairly strong. The discs are pricey too though - they've got you coming and going ... I do find them cheaper than anywhere at Wal-Mart online though.