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.

Whew, that title is a mouthful.

It’s been almost two years since I last mentioned an airpot on Gibberish in my insulated coffee mug shoot-out. I had a Thermos-branded glass-lined airpot back then, too. It was $15 before tax at Target. In the years that followed the write-up, the plunger started to wear on the old Thermos. I expected to find another easily — but not so fast.

Target has apparently stopped stocking the airpot in stores and instead offers one that is about $60. I searched Amazon.com and a few other coffee sites (including where my conical burr grinder was purchased), and $60 turned out to be about the bottom of the price range for “real” airpots. There were some that looked like my old Thermos airpot for about $35, but I’d be dammed to pay and extra $20 for something that gave up the ghost on me.

Leave it to the guy who’s made a career on the Web and e-commerce to look at Target.com dead last. Sure enough, there’s the 2-quart glass-lined airpot for sale. It’s still $15, and the lid was updated a little bit. I bought three: one for home, one for the office, and one for the attic — just in case I couldn’t find them again.

How does it stand up to the original? Pretty damn well so far.
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Almost four years ago I reviewed the Dyson DC07 Animal vacuum cleaner. Since then I’ve moved on to a DC14 Full Kit model. What I have never done in those four years is properly remove the trim to clean the “beater” brush bar that sweeps dust and other stuff into the vacuum.

Before I went back and read the directions (cough) I would just take a razor blade and cut away any hair or rug yarn that was wrapped around the beater bar. After reading the directions, I discovered that you can remove the plastic trim at the bottom of the vacuum. I wasn’t entirely sure how hard this was going to be, or what to expect, so I got out the camcorder and went to work.
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Snap. My flimsy sponge holder snapped at an arm, rendering it into a $2 suction-cup-and-plastic piece of garbage. Oh well. I was headed to Target anyway.

Target, in an effort to distance themselves from Wal*Mart as a “bargain” store, refuses to carry any sponge holders at less than $7. I know, because I bought the cheapest one I could find. I didn’t want a stainless steel sponge holder, or a combo dish drying rack plus sponge holder plus time machine.

The KitchenAid holder I bought spoke to my consumer emotions. It was more than $2, so it had to be good, right? It was made of thick plastic, so it had to be tough, right? And with giant, over-engineered suction cups it had to stick better than that $2 piece of shit I got at Wal*Mart, right?

That’s right. I got Jedi mind-tricked into buying a seven dollar piece of plastic to hold a sponge in my kitchen sink.
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I have owned some apparently very nice clad stainless steel cookware made by Cuisinart. I bought them on the advice of my (at the time) boss, who swore up and down that stainless steel was the best way to go. I shouldn’t have listened him, about the pots and pans or about buying a home, as the cookware proved a pain in the ass for day to day cooking, and he laid every last one of us off four months later.

I spent a pretty penny back then. The Cuisinart set was great at conducting uniform heat, but sucked as far as stuff sticking to the pan. I had to use a fair amount of oil or butter to keep even simple things from adhering to the surface like a mother of nine to her welfare check. Sure, the pots looked pro but the burnt remains of food did not.

I wanted something different, something non-stick, and most importantly, something cheap. I asked Starbuck for help in picking something out. She’s my go-to-gal for anything cooking related. She thumbed through some of her cooking magazine back issues and scoured a few culinary Web sites. She sent me links to a few sets, and I finally decided on the Wearever hard anodized non-stick cookware set.
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Nothing like a new car to jumpstart the desire to keep things clean again. I have a kit in the hatch of my MazdaSPEED 3 with a quick auto detailer spray, an interior cleaner spray, two microfiber cleaning cloths, a wheel cleaner spray, a tire cleaner foam, and a dash duster. So, we have the exterior and the dash covered, but what about when I chow down on two “sausage” biscuits from McDonald’s while I am on the road? The biscuits are yum, but they get crumbs everywhere. I wanted a portable vacuum that would allow me to keep the carpet clean while I was away from home.

For $10 before shipping, the ReadiVac 36104 seemed to fit the bill. Even if it was junk, there aren’t a lot of items I can pick up for ten bucks and review for Gibberish. :)
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My review about the ThinkGeek caffeine molecule insulated mug got me to thinking. Sure, I slammed the mug because it was thin and didn’t seem to be that great at keeping things warm, but was that assessment because of bias against the build quality?

I liberated a thermometer from work for a few days and tested all the mugs I had. It was time to crown a king among my insulated mugs.
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Sometimes I’ll buy something and will have to wait for the right time to review it. The Bissel Little Green Portable Deep Cleaner is a good example. I started thinking about buying a portable steam cleaner after I got Pearl. She had the shits off and on for her first month here, and after watching Lady Jaye spend nearly an hour get poo-spew out of the carpet I was like, “fuck this, I’m buying a steamer.” And then Pearl got better. Heh. I’ve used it a few times before I started this review, but I was waiting for some gnarly incident to happen. Luckily, Porter was willing to oblige by barfing up a nice present on my cream-colored carpet.
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Ever since seeing one (out of stock) on Adagio.com, I’ve been on the lookout for an adjustable temperature electric tea kettle. The idea of a mult-temperature kettle intrigued me because different drinks require different temperatures. 160 – 180F for white and green teas, 190F for Oolong tea, and 212F for black teas, herbal teas and coffee. The vast majority of electric kettles, especially in the US, are set for one temperature only, which is 212F. Not bad for when I drag out the French press, but way too hot for the white and greens I like to drink. I’ve had to resort to playing games such as listening to the sound of the water starting to boil, or the appearance of the bubbles on the inside of the pot. Most of the time, I don’t even care and just steep the tea in water that is too hot.

Unfortunately, Adagio’s UtiliTEA kettle has been out of stock since December of last year. The only reasons I could dig up were production and quality control issues. Not sure if either of those are correct; the important thing is that I’ve been on their auto-notify list for over eight months, every expected restock date has been pushed back. I thought I was screwed, and was about to write a rant here on Gibberish about it when I found out about the Upton Tea Imports variable temperature electric kettle.
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I’ve been a big fan of online tea purveyor Adagio.com for a long time. My first order with them was a green tea starter set in August 2005. I received a sixteen ounce IngenuiTEA teapot as part of the package. The IngenuiTEA is a very handy way to make loose-leaf tea in small quantities. You add two teaspoons at the bottom, fill the plastic container with water, and wait. When your tea is done steeping, you place the IngenuiTEA atop a mug and the tea drains out the bottom. Very awesome. My friend roclar did a review of his IngenuiTEA in October of 2006, which includes a video. I didn’t notice it at the time, but we own different versions of the personal teapot.
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