This is my coffee pot:
(image from Amazon.com)
Thanks to the power of blogging and the power of order history, I can see I bought it in January 2019, and that I paid $75 not $99. According to the U.S. government’s currency converter (also very useful if you would like to see if your raise was actually a raise: I recently got a nice raise that means I now make almost as much per hour as I made when I was hired in 2019), $75 in January 2019 is roughly $90 in April 2023, so I did not get quite as much of a deal as it might appear, but still a little bit of a deal.
For over four years, then, I have had this coffee maker, and I have been happy with it overall. It is of course rusting (the heating plate and also the metal plate on the underside), because what regularly-water-contacting item (shower curtain rods, bathroom light fixtures, coffee makers) is NOT sensibly made out of metal that rusts when it comes in contact with water? But my only OTHER complaint is that every single day when I go to fill the water reservoir, using the coffee pot, the water sloshes simply everywhere: into the part where only the filter and coffee grounds are supposed to go; all over the counter; etc. I have tried MAKING REALLY SURE the coffee pot lid is on securely. I have tried CHANGING THE POURING ANGLE. I have tried BEING LESS IMPATIENT WITH THE POURING SPEED. I have tried PULLING THE COFFEE MAKER WAY OUT AWAY FROM THE WALL to make sure that’s not the issue. I have tried saying “GODDANG IT WHY WON’T THIS STUPID THING POUR RIGHT!!!” really loudly. I have tried everything.
Well. I have tried everything except USING SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE COFFEE POT. Last night for the first time it occurred to me that I don’t need to use the coffee pot to measure the water. I can use, say, a large plastic cup. Which, as it turns out, works SO MUCH BETTER. It does mean I need to check the side of the coffee maker to see when I have put enough water in, and it means I need to refill the cup multiple times instead of filling the coffee pot just once. But ALL THE WATER went INTO THE WATER RESERVOIR, so.
I can relate. When I bought my coffee maker, the reviews repeatedly mentioned this issue; so I also ordered a cup (?) with a spout, like one would use for creamer and that solved the issue for me.
As for the rust, maybe Barkeepers Friend would remove it.
Pitcher – THAT is the word I couldn’t find in my brain this morning. Had to come back to explain. *snort – cup with a spout….*
What’s funny is that I didn’t even REALIZE that you could have used “pitcher” I was 100% with you then you corrected yourself and I was all “Oh…yeah…that’s a word too” LOL
Swistle: This has been a problem at my house too. I’m giggling because it’s such an easy and obvious fix that I’m sighing heavily. :)
Sometimes it takes us way too long to think of the obvious-in-hindsight solution, right? My dad used to say, we get too soon old and too late smart. At least you figured it out now! That will lead to less frustration.
My son is a genius and uses the sink water sprayer. That would have never occurred to me…
I used to do that when our coffee pot sat near the sink. Game changer!
!!! (*mind-blown emoji*)
I’ve honestly never thought of that either. I’m going to experiment with things to pour with today.
You were the person who taught me how to put a little water in the spaghetti sauce jar and shake with lid closed to then extract more sauce from
jar … now I do it every time! Glad you found a solution for your coffee pot.
Oooh, this is a good idea! I missed this Swistle tip, so thanks for repeating it.
It’s always so aggravating to me when I need a hack to use a supposed convenience item! And also, I find pouring into the reservoir from my Mr. Coffee pot dramatically less sloshy when I pop the lid off entirely, weirdly enough.
VICTORY!
Hurray for easy solutions! We have a Mr.Coffee machine that has a detachable reservoir that you fill up at the sink and pop back on the side. It’s amazing and I love it.
We have this kind, too, and I will never buy the other kind again! It’s also great for when one needs to make more coffee right on top of already-existing coffee that’s in the carafe.
Same and it’s an absolute game changer. There’s no going back for me.
I bet a pyrex measuring cup (if you have one of the large ones – 4 cup or 8 cup) would be good for this, with less checking once you find out what the right level is…
(but yes. It *should* work with its own pot really well. But do these things work logically? No, no they do not.)
Anyway! Congratulations on the victory, and yes WHY do they make all those parts rustable? (… aside from planned obsolescence. Ah, capitalism.)
You might think so, but I assure you that my 2-cup and 8-cup pyrex measuring cups pour water down the side when I try to pour it from their spouts. They are cheap varieties, though I don’t know if the pricier ones pour better. They’re fine for thicker things like cake batter though, so I keep using them.
I definitely find that water pours best from a thin-edged plastic vessel, especially if it has any sort of spout indentation, so a large plastic drinking cup or plastic pitcher would get my vote.
I find Pyrex annoying for a different reason. The markings come off in the dishwasher leaving you with a blank small pitcher the pours poorly. Why can’t the measurements be etched?
Yikes! Maybe our 4-cup one is unique in its pouring flow. (we do have a glass pitcher that dribbles like mad, though. and also a glass pitcher that never dribbles. Sigh.)
Thin-edged plastic vessel either with a spout or that you can sort of squeeze a bit to make a spout has also worked well for me for plant-watering, though, so I could see it being useful in the kitchen as well!
We don’t tend to send ours through the dishwasher much, since they’re mostly used for water, and therefore have not run into the markings wearing off (also yikes!). These things are good to know for the future and for not betting on pyrex measuring cups elsewhere being pour-able!
YES. Excellent solution.
Reminds me of how we had this potato masher that kept getting caught in the drawer when we opened it, so that you would have to stick your arm into the half-open drawer and move things around until there was nothing blocking the mechanism. And my mom came to visit and PUT THE MASHER IN THE UTENSIL JAR ON THE COUNTER. Genius.
I have a similar machine and I have the same exact problem, and it has never occurred to me to use something else to fill. Well. I am going to try this now!
Spirit sisters with you! I got a perfect coffee maker/keurig combo for Xmas. But OMG pouring the water in is unbearably difficult. I am going to be wild and crazy like you and….use a CUP tomorrow. Can’t wait to cure this pain point!
I have this coffee pot. I have this issue. I have never thought of this solution.
!!
Maybe you could measure the amount of water with the coffee pot (like you did previously) and then use that to (re)fill the cup you are using to pour it into the machine? Then you won’t need to check the side to see if you’ve put enough water in. Or am I missing something obvious and that’s not helpful at all?
This is *increasing* the amount of genius already contained in the post.
I came to make the same suggestion. Maybe mark it with a Sharpie if it is an otherwise unmarked pitcher/vessel.
This reminds me of filling up our dog’s water “bowl”. We use a Coleman Little Playmate cooler I’ve had since 1984-big shout out to that company because that is still going strong. Anyway, at times we have had as many as four dogs, and the cooler is great because it is heavy duty and holds lots of water. So…I used to pick it up and take it to the sink to fill it up, usually sloshing water on the floor when I put it back down. Finally, I realize that yes-I could use one of the numerous pitchers to fill it up! I won’t say how many years it took me to figure that out…