After about three and a half years of heavy usage, my Melitta Fast Brew coffee maker finally bit the dust. I noticed a few days ago that the coffee wasn’t as hot as usual. That was a bad sign, especially since I put the finished coffee directly into a glass-lined Thermos air pot to stave off overheating by the burner and heat loss.
I threw a fresh pot (water only) and put my thermometer inside the carafe as soon as the Melitta was done brewing. The proper brewing temperature for drip coffee is around 195°F. Accounting for some heat loss by brewing into a room-temperature carafe, I’d expect the final temperature to be around 180°F or so.
The Melitta brewed at 160°F. Definitely a bad sign. The stainless steel heating element in the Fast Brew is surely dying.
We’re limping along with the Melitta for now. I figured it was time to order a new machine to replace the old bird before she died, so a Bunn is on the way. I’ll run the Bunn for a bit before doing a write-up and give the Melitta a proper burial.
Rest in peace, my sweet.
The death of a beloved coffee maker is always hard. I was thinking yesterday that mine maybe on its last days. I schedule her to brew coffee at 4:30am almost every morning… she’s been missing a few scheduled brews recently. The memory is always the first to go. ;)
Once you’ve got your new one, it would be interesting to tear that one down and see if the heating element can be replaced. I’ll do it, if you don’t want to do the surgery.