My year-old coffeemaker no longer gives me a hot cup of coffee. Is it worth the trouble to replace the heating element? Can the heating element be replaced?
By Dorothy from Johnson, NY
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We live in a throw away society. Our repairman tells me it's far cheaper to just get a new one.
My motto repair everything, because you can! not because it's cheaper. If we naysay it's easier, it's cheaper what are we telling our kids our grand kids who today cannot change a tire or oil in their cars. They repeat, because it's cheaper, it's easier, I might get my hands dirty. Who benefits from this type of thinking?
(get rid of your repairman!)
Regards,
Richard
What a fool that "repairman" is. That is like going to the dry cleaners with a soiled suit and they tell you "it is better to just buy a new one", this would obviously put them out of business eventually !
I am a small engine & appliance repairman who would only say such a thing if repair was impossible for some reason. I find the "old" American made products are all so well built they are all worth repairing and usually made to do so too.
If you decide to buy another coffee maker, why not offer the coffee pot and filter holder on freecycle and put the rest in recycling? You might be surprised that someone could be looking for just that part of a coffee maker. I am a firm believer in freecycling here in Georgia.
I think you will find that it will cost too much to replace your coffee maker, if you can get parts at all. I would suggest that if you find yourself replacing it choose a stove top percolator and thermal carafe at walmart. The thermal carafe needs to have a glass insert to work well. You may find that you save a of of money because the coffee maker doesn't need to stay on to keep the coffee warm and the coffee doesn't get really strong and unless you burn out the bottom of the percolator or drop the carafe it will last for as long as you are brewing coffee. In case you are wondering, stove top is wonderful, I wonder how I drank the coffee maker coffee before.
It is sad that we live in a throw away world, but a new coffee maker is probably cheaper than fixing it.
It may be that this coffeepot is still on warranty, and you may be able to get it replaced from the manufacturer. My mother-in-law had hers replaced twice, free of charge, as the replacement one didn't last long either. Third one was the charm! Anyway, if you still have the info, box, directions, and so on, check it out.
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Does anyone know if there is a safe paint and way of re-painting the hot plate on a coffee pot? I have refurbished a few coffee pots, but have always turned down perfectly good units because the hot plates looked so bad.
Open it from the bottom and pop out the metal lid. Sandblast it or sand it with very fine sandpaper or steel wool until you see shiny metal. Quite often shiny metal looks pretty enough and does not require paint.
If you do want to paint it, let it dry well, then spray paint it with automotive engine paint. That is not a water soluble latex paint. If you have to clean up overspray, use turpentine. Best to hang it on a stick outdoors and spray it there.
Engine paint can stand temperatures twice as hot as the coffee pot keep-warm plate ever gets.
The trick is to sand down through the burned on crud and get to shiny metal.
Have FUN!
DearWebby
There's something called High Heat Paint. People paint Oven doors and baseboard heaters with it. I am not 100% sure if you can use it on your coffee pot's hot plate, but it may say on the can, or you can ask someone at Home Depot!
