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Presto Scandinavian-Design Automatic Drip Coffeemaker, Brewing Temp

The first victim in my possibly statistically insignificant, and admittedly somewhat non-rigorous brewing temperature test was the Melitta Clarity drip coffeemaker. The second victim, tested a little over an hour ago as I write this, is the Presto "Scandinavian-design" programmable automatic drip coffeemaker. This one claims to have three heating elements, one for the water heater, one for the warmer plate, and an auxiliary one higher up in the plumbing path to ensure that the brew temperature will be closer to the top end of the optimal brewing temperature. When I removed the Clarity from the counter and held it upside down to get all that residual water out of the plumbing, my glue job to reattach that broken foot under the water tank end of the machine gave it up and that plastic foot hit the floor. Maybe I'll try Super Glue or Crazy Glue or something similar to that on it next time. Gluing plastic to plastic is usually tricky, since we don't always know the exact chemical composition of the two plastics being joined.

I uaed the same gear and the same basic method to test the Presto. The water tank was filled to the maximum amount it can comfortably hold of water straight from my coldwater kitchen faucet. The thermometer said the temperature of that water in the tank was 76.1 degrees Fahrenheit. The air temperature in the room within aprox. 1 foot, (30 centimeters) of the coffeemaker was 78.1 degrees Fahrenheit.

The ground coffee, which was cooler than the water, having been in the freezer before being ground, was 57.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

The first drops of water hit the coffee about 16 seconds or so into the brewing, as measured by the countup timer on the "stopwtch" function of the digital watch. Since I was holding the thermometer positioned in the filter basket throughout the brewing, with one hand, at least one second ellapsed between the time I hit the brew button on the Presto and the stopwatch function on the watch. Throughout the test, when the watch announced the ellapsed time, at one second intervals up to ten seconds, ten second intervals up to one minute, one minute intervals up to five minutes, and five-minute intervals after five minutes, I could ellicit the spoken reading from the thermometer almost immediately. Other times, probably reflect at least a one-second actual time difference. Note, I did say I'm not claiming this to be laboratory-science-rigorous by any means. Exact repeatability from test to test probably won't happen spot-on, but I believe it is close enough to give a reasonable real-world picture of what is happening in the brew basket regarding temperature. One would expect the first few spurts of wter to be cooler, and that the temperature of the saturated coffee and water mixture in the basket would rise, hopefully fairly rapidly, toward that ideal brewing temperature range as the brew cycle progresses.

The tip of the thermometer's probe was down inside the filter basket, submerged in the coffee but not touching the very bottom of the filter cone throughout the brewing time. A couple of minutes after brewing stopped and after allowing some time for water to finish dripping out of the basket into the carafe, I swung the filter basket out from under the drip spouts, and positioned the Presto's narrow spout so I could place the probe down into the carafe to get a temp reading of the coffee in the carafe, while still on the warmer plate after brewing stopped, but before turning off the warmer plate.

Here are the times, each on a line, followed by the temperature reading, on a Fahrenheit scale. For comparison purposes, 100 dg. C. is 212 dg. F. 95 dg. C. is 203 dg. F. 90 dg. C. is 194 dg. F. 85 dg. C. is 185 dg. F. 80 dg. C. is 176 dg. F. 10 dg. C. is 50 dg. F. 15 dg. C. is 59 dg. F. 20 dg. C. is 68 dg. F. 25 dg. C. is 77 dg. F.

10 seconds, 57.5 15 seconds, water drips, 20 seconds 58.6 30 seconds, 133.8 40 seconds, 151.5 50 seconds, 157.5 1 minute, 170.1 1 minute 9 seconds, 173.4 1 minute 21 seconds, 180.8 1 minute 35 seconds, 183.8 1 minute 47 seconds, 185.5 2 minutes, 192.1 2 minutes 10 seconds, 191 2 minutes 22 seconds, 194.6 2 minutes 33 seconds, 195.4 2 minutes 46 seconds, 203 3 minutes, 204.4 3 minutes 12 seconds, 204.2 3 minutes 23 seconds, 204.7 3 minutes 33 seconds, 204.7 3 minutes 47 seconds, 205 3 minutes 58 seconds, 205.1 4 minutes 10 seconds, 205.2 4 minutes 21 seconds, 199.5 4 minutes 34 seconds, 195.5 4 minutes 43 seconds, 194.1 4 minutes 56 seconds, 198.4 5 minutes 10 seconds, 199.3 5 minutes 13 seconds, 201.4 5 minutes 22 seconds, 201.3 5 minutes 29 seconds, 201.2 5 minutes 37 seconds, 201.6 5 minutes 47 seconds 201.6 5 minutes 56 seconds, 202.1 6 minutes 8 seconds, 202.8 6 minutes 15 seconds, 203 6 minutes 22 seconds, 203.9 6 minutes 29 seconds, 204.1 6 minutes 36 seconds, 204.6 6 minutes 42 seconds, 204.6 At 6 minutes 30 seconds, increased sputtering noises signals that we're nearing the end of the tank. The electronics may be getting a bit hot despite a protective heat-resistant lid cover under the electronics housing of the thermometer. Several pressings of the talk button on the thermometer do not ellicit a spoken reading. 6 minutes 33 seconds, 6 minutes 50 seconds 7 minutes, heavy slurping 7 minutes 13 seconds, 206.1 the water slurp is louder than the thermometer. 7 minutes 34 seconds, 202.9 8 minutes 20 seconds, switch clicks, pumping stops, no announced reading 8 minutes 45 seconds, 203.1 9 minutes, 203 degrees Fahrenheit 9 minutes 24 seconds, 202.4 9 minutes 39 seconds, 202.1

Transfer thermometer from brewing basket to carafe:

11 minutes, 182.3 degrees Fahrenheit 11 minutes 8 seconds, 182.4 11 minutes 26 seconds, 182.1 13 minutes 12 seconds, 179.3 13 minutes 35 seconds, 179.7 13 minutes 47 seconds, 179.5 14 minutes 2 seconds, 179.2 14 minutes 14 seconds, 178.9 15 minutes, 178.5 15 minutes 12 seconds, 178.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

That temperature dip between four-ish and five-ish minutes was interesting and unexpected. Based on these two tests, the brewing temperature of the Presto ramped up much sooner and more rapidly than it did with the Clarity, and the optimal brewing temp between 90 and 95 dg. C. 194 and 203 degrees F. was maintained over a considerably greater percentage of the total brewing time.

With both machines, despite differences in carafe shape and size, I found the drop from brew temp inside the basket during brewing to carafe temp with a minute or three after brewing stopped to be quite significant, over 20 degrees Fahrenheit with both machines, over 25 degrees with the Presto, even though the presto's warmer plate may be a couple degrees hotter than that of the Clarity, despite the larger diameter of the warmer plate surface in the Clarity.

Somebody posted fairly recently that he thought his Presto brewed hotter than his clarity. My test would appear to confirm that observation to be true.

My only possible explanation for that near 8 degree temperature dip in the Presto's test profile may be that the auxiliary heating element must shut off briefly during the brewing cycle to prevent it from bringing the brewing temperature up to the boiling point, which is generally considered to be an undesirable occurrance when brewing coffee, regardless of the brewing method.

If you forget and leave the Presto turned on after brewing, the machine, including its warming plate, will be shut off after two hours. With the Clarity, remember to throw that two-pole switch. It will stay on until you turn it off or unplug it.

Last Friday afternoon, I had brewed a fresh pot in the Clarity and then left with somebody else to do some shopping, and was gone about two hours, leaving the clarity turned on, keeping the coffee cooking in the carafe.

I checked the mailbox on the way back to the apartment after that little trip and this thermometer was there, having arrived that afternoon. My first test of it was to get an air temperature reading, and then I submerged its probe into the Clarity's carafe, and figured the thermometer had stabilized on a constant reading when I got three consecutive readings that were the same. It reported that the Clarity was holding the coffee at a temperature of 175.6 degrees Fahrenheit, just a couple degrees or so cooler than the reading I got in the carafe very shortly after brewing when I ran that brewing temperature test a couple days ago on the Clarity.

Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA Email: snipped-for-privacy@bellsouth.net Phone: 1-404-814-0768

Reply to
dososaurus
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| all that residual water out of the plumbing, my glue job to reattach that | broken foot under the water tank end of the machine gave it up and that | plastic foot hit the floor.

Try a PVC plumbing solvent adhesive (from the plumbing section of your hardware store). Make sure there isn't a layer of another glue dried on the surface to be glued.

| brew basket regarding temperature. One would expect the first few spurts of | wter to be cooler, and that the temperature of the saturated coffee and | water mixture in the basket would rise, hopefully fairly rapidly, toward | that ideal brewing temperature range as the brew cycle progresses.

On some drip makers, temp can be made more uniform by preceding the brew by a 'blank' brew (no coffee in the filter).

How did the coffee taste?

- David R.

-- Less information than you ever thought possible:

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Reply to
D. Ross

Interesting obsrevations.

I've noticed, quite casually and anecdotally that my Presto produces better coffee than my Clarity. I know that goes against the conventional wisdom here, but I think a lot of that is driven by the obsessive aquisition of Claritys a while back more than any objective reality.

The Presto is in my office and the Clarity is in my cabin, so it's impossible to do a head to head comparison. However, when brewing the same coffee a day or two apart, I consistently think the Presto produces a more flavorful cup. Then again, it could be that I appreciate a decent cup of coffee more when stressed out at my desk, where it's an essential survival item, than I do when I'm totally relaxed.

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Reply to
RoqueJa

When I tested my clarity and my Presto, the Presto reached the optimum temperature range sooner than did the Clarity, and it reached a higher temperature by about three or four degrees than did the Clarity.

I will note that neither of my two samples are now exactly stock original. The Presto has a showerhead style drip nozzle with nine spout areas, three of which were open to the flow when I got it. Now, all nine of them are open, even though the six additional holes are slightly smaller in diameter than the three factory-drilled ones.

The Clarity hadc one aprox. half-inch diameter hole through which water could drip out of the channel formed in the two parts of the head cover. There is not really any kind of showerhead, just a 1-inch wide path where the water is pumped in until some of it falls out through that single hole over the center of the brew basket. I added about six much slammer holes around the original one, but made no attempt to try to stop up the original center opening as was described in the "Ted mod" posted here back in NOvember or December of last year. I think that speeding up the exit of water from the top of the Clarity may have bought me a minute or so of earlier coffee saturation at the expense of possibly one to even three degrees Fahrenheit of maximum brewing temperature in the Clarity. Because the Presto's business end is more like a real showerhead, I would guess, but can not prove by measurement, that my modification to the Presto probably gave me a bit less of a temperature drop.

My little temperature testing experiments convince me more than ever that you may be fooling yourselves if you think you are really brewing at 200 degrees F. or better if you are using a manual pour-over brewing method. YOu'll have your hot water at its highest temperature right when you take it from the separate heat source, and it will begin cooling, surprisingly rapidly as soon as all that container surface comes in contact with room-temperature air. By the time you get that water over to the cone which contains your ground coffee and begin pouring, the pouring action will lower the brew temp even faster. You'll get your high temp at the beginning, and probably temps below the optimum brewing range well before you're done pouring, stirring and dripping, unless you start with a fairly large volume of water, and brew only about one cup, like maybe ten ounces or less, at a time. With the a good drip brewer, you'll get cooler water at the start, but optimum temperature water through most of the brewing cycle. The machine releases heated water just a couple inches above the top of the coffee in the basket, and continues to heat as it pours, and both the top of the brew basket and the top of the carafe or mug in the machine are covered, reducing heat transfer out to the surrounding air. The better brewers will trump the manual pour-over every time, especially when brewing larger amounts of coffee in a single brewing session. The only way you'll come close with the manual method is to use twice as much or more coffee per amount of water as you would need with the automatic method to get the same strength of brew.

I notice that when the manual pour-over brewing fans here trumpet the ease of use and low cost, they conveniently forget to talk about what goes into heating up the water before they can start pouring it over the coffee in the cone. Having used both ceramic and plastic Melitta pour-over cones, various sizes of Chemex pour-over cone/carafe combinations, including back in the

1970's and early 1980's before their overly-thick and overly-oil-absorbing fliters were degraded, and having used various cheap, no-name knockoffs of both Chemex and Melitta style pour-over cones, and having used at least three dozen automatic brewers of various capacities from over a dozen different manufacturers, all in the past 35 years or so, when it comes to drip brewing, I'll take a good automated electrified brewer any old day, even for an amount as small as 16 ounces or so.

On 2005-07-04 snipped-for-privacy@index.cmx said: Newsgroups: alt.coffee,rec.food.drink.coffee Temp Interesting obsrevations. I've noticed, quite casually and anecdotally that my Presto produces better coffee than my Clarity. I know that goes against the conventional wisdom here, but I think a lot of that is driven by the obsessive aquisition of Claritys a while back more than any objective reality. The Presto is in my office and the Clarity is in my cabin, so it's impossible to do a head to head comparison. However, when brewing the same coffee a day or two apart, I consistently think the Presto produces a more flavorful cup. Then again, it could be that I appreciate a decent cup of coffee more when stressed out at my desk, where it's an essential survival item, than I do when I'm totally relaxed.

Between my Clarity and my Chemex, I will say that, using the same brand and blend of coffee beans, the same grind, and the same ground coffee to water ratio, my Presto produces a more flavorful cup than does my Clarity. The Clarity emphasizes that sharp, acidit, estringent bite, especially from more darkly roasted beans. I like that acidic bite, and I tend to prefer darker roasts overall than most of the east-coasters and former east-coasters who seem to be the majority in this group. I'm not a fan of Starbucks, not for most of the same reasons as I usually see as criticisms here, but because I think they do over-roast all their coffees, and they roast them all the same, so it doesn't matter at Starbucks whether you're drinking a Sumatra Mandheling, a Colombian Supremo, a Kenya Double-A, or a Kona blend, because you'll never taste any difference among them.

My Presto brews a much smoother pot of coffee, and the resulting brew highlights more of the suble characteristics of a bean/roast combination. With the Eight O'clock 100-percent Colombian Whole Bean Coffee, mixed with Eight O'clock 100-percent Arabica Whole Bean French Roast coffee, more of the fruity and floral characteristics of the Colombian beans showed forth in the brew from the Presto.

My experience tells me that, between these two machines, if you like it strong and estringent, and you prefer roasts done much more toward the darker end of the spectrum, go for the Clarity. If you like your roasts more toward the New York City light end of the spectrum, and especially if you like to drink a lot of unblended single origin, single cultivar coffees, you might prefer the output from a Presto.

If nothing else, your data do support a difference between the two (at least between your two) coffee makers. On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 21:43:58 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@bellsouth.net wrote: >The first victim in my possibly statistically insignificant, and >admittedly somewhat non-rigorous brewing temperature test was the >Melitta Clarity drip coffeemaker. >The second victim, tested a little over an hour ago as I write >this, is the Presto "Scandinavian-design" programmable automatic >drip coffeemaker.

----SNIP----

Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA Email: snipped-for-privacy@bellsouth.net Phone: 1-404-814-0768

Reply to
dososaurus

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