The roasting chamber of my coffee roaster had developed a crack near its top. It had done this before. The crack slowly grew but it didn't break apart. I didn't want to put any stress on the crack so I didn't wash the pot for a long time. Finally I couldn't see into the pot so I broke down and washed it. The next time I roasted it broke.
I'm guessing a bit of water got into the crack and expanded while roasting and blew the crack apart. As I said, this had happened before. When it did I bought a second roasting chamber before the first one's crack finally gave way. The replacement gave me grief. The lid didn't fit well and took a lot of effort to get it to go on. That made roasting a chore. So I bought a yet another pot. So I had an emergency backup pot on hand. With a Phillips #1 screwdriver I was able to adjust the backup pot so the lid goes on easily. And life went back to normal.(It turns out that I have yet another backup roasting chamber. My first coffee roaster died with a terrible screech last year so I bought a new roaster. It, of course, came with its own roasting chamber.)
The last week or two gave me something new to worry about. The handle of the portafilter, the thing that holds the coffee grounds for an espresso maker, developed a worrisome jiggle. When I'd put the portafilter into Silvia's group head the handle seemed to go a bit further than the filter. Yesterday I went to Whole Latte Love's web site to order a replacement but then got involved in other chores. (Hey, their 10% off sale goes through tomorrow!)
But that was too late anyway. Last night while making our New Year's Eve party's coffees the handle came off.
And life got complicated.Fortunately, I'm a guy. Guys can fix things. Guys got duct tape. Well, duct tape wouldn't hold a portafilter's handle on. But guys also have Vise Grip locking pliers.
The pliers hold real good!
They'll work just fine till a replacement portafilter comes.And life went back to normal.
By the way, while we're on the subject of coffee, here's a picture of what occasionally shows up in Silvia's drip tray. The iridescent film is so pretty.
10 comments:
Now all you need to do (as you keep telling me) is descale Sylvia. Can't a guy just have some fun instead of always having to do chores?
I will draw a veil over this episode so that Michele won't freak out. When it comes to coffee, the nectar of life, she is as serious as Chuckbert.
So, when the crack cracked up did the beans fly everywhere?
You know, a little
Silastic would've worked wonders on that cracked top.
I'll try to descale Silvia tomorrow and clean out Rocky.
And the beans didn't fly out while roasting. The lid held the shard in place till I opened it up. That's a good thing since losing coffee beans is not nice.
Darn, I had just run out of Silastic. Shucks.
I'm feeling your pain. I would hate to lose my ability to roast. I am thinking about buying a bigger roaster.
I'm SO sorry you've been having coffee roasting problems and I hope everything is functioning werll again. Life without coffee can be mighty dreary.
dreary.....and painful
I dunno about that, mmeutsler! Life without coffee has been pretty dang good here!
Door: knock-knock
Izzy (opening the door): Hello?
Two Coffee Witnesses: Have you accepted Coffee into your life?
Izzy: Of course not! Life is pretty dang good here without it.
Coffee Witnesses: We're sorry you feel that way. We'll stand out here and pray for you to help you see the error of your ways. We will try to save you from being eternally separated from the Almighty Coffee.
Izzy: Please go away...life is dang good without it.
Coffee Witnesses: You'll never know. Sad.
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