All About Coffee Makers

When everything seems to be ok on the outside, then the problem must be on the inside, so here are some tips to help you identify the most common problems and, if you are lucky, repair your coffee maker yourself. Sometimes coffee makers (as nearly everything) get broken for no apparent reason.

If your coffee maker to a different outlet, just to be sure this is not the cause. Possible causes and solutions: This may be caused by a burnt fuse, a defective power cord or something more important. Problem: The coffee maker does not lit, there are no sounds coming from it, and it never heats up.

If it still does not work, contact a coffee maker repairer.

Symptoms: The maker is on and heats up, but hot water is not coming out. Problem: The coffee maker is turned on but you are not getting any coffee.

If it unclogs, run water through your coffee maker a minimum of three times, in order to wash out the vinegar. Try using your coffee maker with vinegar instead of water. Sometimes water leaves calcium and other mineral residues on the tubes, clogging them after a while. Possible causes and solutions: The tubes may be clogged.

Problem: The coffee maker is turned on but you get only dirty cold water instead of coffee. Symptoms: The maker sucks water and pours it onto the coffee, but this water is cold.

Consider buying a new coffee maker. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do, as replacement coils are extremely difficult to find and install. Possible causes and solutions: The heating coil of your coffee maker may be dead or dying.

Does Coffee Really Taste All That Good?

Before anyone gets up in arms lambasting this as a blasphemous suggestion, be assured that the question comes not from an observer, but a partaker. Or has it just become a habit?

Specific qualifications include: decades of indulging in somewhere between a cup to a quart daily on average; sampling of countless brands; mixing it up with varieties from espresso to cappuccino; often grinding my own beans; and though an early user of cream and sugar, taking it straight longer can be remembered.

But a while back, after preparing the morning brew, I actually paid attention to the first sip. It's an accepted routine that mostly happens on autopilot. Normally coffee gets consumed without much thought.

Nor did things improve after drinking more. Rather, it actually caught me up short just because it was so blah - in fact the taste was really somewhat unappealing. I suppose there was some anticipation of that delicious initial taste, but it didn't happen that way.

There was simply no apparent reason for it not to taste good. Likewise, neither was the water, measuring, or anything else in the production process to blame. The problem was not the coffee - it was a premium brand with a name familiar to all.

Initially I wrote it off as some unknown anomaly, but it happened the same for a couple more days. Experiments with switching out the coffee itself, water and other variables didn't really seem to change much.

Over time, I didn't notice so much, but then again it's unusual to notice a lot anyway until later in the morning when the brain kicks into gear. But from time to time I try and savor that first sip especially, to see what I really think about it.

The results are still mixed. Sometimes it appears to be pretty good, yet others it just seems like coffee - nothing special, just comfortable. Will I continue to drink it - absolutely. Why, is hard to say, but probably that's where the habit kicks in.

Try an experiment yourself. Savor that next cup and really focus on the taste. Is it actually as good in your mouth as in your mind?

Or is it sort of like golf, where hitting a perfect shot from time to time keeps us coming back despite all the crummy ones in between?