Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Tale of the Coffeemaker

We have an ancient, old coffeemaker. It hangs very quietly under a kitchen cupboard, saving space, as it should. Hubby loves the "program" feature, as he makes up the coffee the night before and programs the timer to start our morning coffee at 7:00 a.m.

One day back in January, I had decided to take down this ancient coffeemaker and clean it out - top to bottom. Not just running a vinegar rince through, I'd wanted to do a complete tune-up.

As I removed this ancient coffeemaker from its comfy perch, gritty, rusty, crumbly stuff spilled out from the bottom. Oh no! I hate having to run out and replace an appliance. Would much rather check out appliances before they get to the "forget it" stage.

And, as everybody who reads my posts knows, Hubby loves to fix things. Hmmm - what to do. Shake it up some more and watch it disintegrate? Rattle, rattle. Sure enough, more rusty crumbly stuff came out.

That's it - off I go to the store. After all this really is an old coffeemaker. Time for a new one.

Came back with a rather inexpensive one, knowing Hubby would say "a coffeemaker is a coffeemaker - what's the point of buying an expensive one?"

To make a long story short - this one (although the same brandname) did not brew as good a cup of coffee. Both of us tried to pretend it was as good - until the coating on the "hotplate" started wearing off.

Not good - this appliance is only a month or two old. I guess they don't make them like they used to.

I ignored the problem for a while, in my usual fashion. But, after a while when the problem didn't go away (now really, how was it going to do that?) I got mad and checked online for this particular brand. Got a phone number and gave the customer service rep all the info (serial number, etc.) She told me to cut off the plug (yes you read right) and send it to them along with a brief explanation of the problem, my name, address, etc. and they would send me a new one.

Oh good! But - how am I going to make coffee in the meantime?
Luckily, Hubby had hidden the ancient, old coffeemaker in the basement, and while I was trying to figure out who I could possibly borrow one from or if there was another solution to this, he triumphantly walked into the kitchen, cradling his treasure.

No, he didn't "fix it". Just cleaned it up and now our coffee tastes better than it did in the new coffeemaker.
Go figure!
Now what do we do with the new one when it arrives?

4 comments:

denverdoc said...

Dang, my coating wore off the hotplate of my new coffeemaker in short order as well. I thought perhaps I'd been too rough, but what is rough about using a damp sponge to wipe it off? They're just cheap d*mn hotplates. Coffee is okay though. Aren't you worried the rusty crumbly stuff will rot your brain?

beckie said...

Wendy, Good for you! At least you did complain and got something done about it. I'll just bet your husband was very proud of himself. Glad to hear your snow is almost gone and you will soon have blooms!

JeanMac said...

That's easy, just let Hubby hide ot again - may need it:)

Wendy said...

You're right Judy, those hotplates are really cheap. Nah, I'm not worried about ingesting that rusty stuff. It's only at the bottom and around the cord - doesn't get into the coffee. The danger is that the cord will probably short-circuit.
Oh, Beckie - I can't wait for those blooms. It's been too long already.

JeanMac, I'm sure you're right. Hubby will hide it again anyway.