When we moved into our house two years ago (WOW!), my in-laws bought us me a lovely new coffee maker. It’s a fairly basic machine, which suits me fine because I don’t drink coffee that often (even less so now that I’m pregnant because even decaf seems to give me migraines) and Stefan doesn’t touch the stuff at all unless it’s in the form of a double espresso. But I have been craving a bit of coffee for the last few days, so I gave in today considering that it’s still below 60 degrees at noon and the sun is shining.
Unfortunately, this coffee maker has a strange habit which involves one of the features that I love: There is a shut-off valve that will let you pull the coffee pot out before it finishes brewing but not pour coffee all over the burner. Seems like a great concept – and it does work very well. Unfortunately, there is some sort of glitch with the part of the machine that holds the upper coffee grounds part in place…so a few minutes after you start brewing coffee, the little door opens. As long as you’re not far away, all is fine. You close the hatch, nothing leaks out, life goes on. BUT if you are not in the room or don’t check the machine from time to time, you get this problem (or worse):
Not so cool. In fact, as I went to take the photo, the door popped open which is why it’s open here. Because what happens is, the machine doesn’t realize it now needs to stop running. The shut-off connection is broken so the water keeps running and then will spill coffee and grounds all over the place. My pot of coffee was quite small this morning and I thought things sounded strange in the kitchen so chaos was avoided. But the first time this machine was used by one of our friends, he was brewing a full pot and nearly the entire pot of coffee was brewed on the counter instead of into the pot. But it encouraged me to the clean the counter and floor!
I believe it has something to do with the steam that builds up as the coffee brews…but it’s not exactly practical. I guess I need a sign to mount near the machine that informs people to beware of the evil machine; for those who do not heed its wrath early in the morning will surely have to clean the counter, cabinets and quite possibly the floor, too.
