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New Outlets Lead to Better Sounding and Tasting Coffee
Coffee aficionados always grind their coffee before brewing. You should start the grinder first, and then pour the beans in. This ensures the motor is up to speed before it starts, ensuring an even grind and reducing stress on the motor.
Most mornings I’m pretty desperate to taste the first sips of coffee in order to function at all during the day, so I usually start the coffee brewer before the grinder has finished, so that there’s almost no delay between the last grind and the first hot water hitting the top of the pile.
One oddity I had noticed when I first moved in was that turning the coffee pot on slowed down the grinder. The reason seems straightforward. The pot draws ~ 1475 watts, or around 13 Amps. Far more than my entire stereo rack combined, which only gets close to this when I turn the amp on, and otherwise plays around 3 Amps, including the TV!
Anyway, turn on the coffee pot, and the coffee grinder slowed down. Makes sense. The high current draw was causing the voltage to sag (drop) under load. It did however concern me a little so I decided to upgrade all the kitchen outlets. Mind you, this 17 year old house had suffered some use and abuse from prior tenants which made me want to replace switches and outlets anyway. Charred contacts and plastic bits stuck in corroding outlets demanded rehabilitation.
The kitchen outlets were on a 20A circuit, but daisy chained and back-stabbed. Replacing them all with Eaton commercial/residential outlets (including GFCI where required) has in fact had a meaningful improvement in my coffee experience. Now when I turn on the pot the grinder doesn’t slow nearly as much as it used to. Not sure if I can taste the difference, but I can sure hear it and it makes me sleep more comfortably knowing that there’s less heat and loss in the circuit.
Of course, I’ve done the same in the home theater / stereo room as well. Can’t say I’ve measured a difference, but knowing that the poor connections and old outlets are gone makes me happy.
I’m not ready to recommend boutique outlets to anyone, or boutique wiring methods. I am however saying that getting well made (at least Residential/Commercial), modern outlets that are not back-stabbed for an old home is probably more than worth it.
My next step is making sure my microwave and coffee pot are on the same circuit so there's no voltage mismatch.... 🤣🤣🤣🤣
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I have a small kitchen so I found a built in coffee maker made by Brew Express. It is hard wired, no outlet and has a direct feed from my breaker panel. It also has a 1/4" water line feeding it which is connected into my home R.O. filtration system. The only gripe I have is using a thermal carafe instead of a hot plate to keep coffee warm. The water hits the beans pretty hot, but if you're only making a half-pot, the mass of the carafe can reduce the temperature of the coffee to where it is only warm, not hot. |
@tomic601 There are workarounds to the "start the grinder before pouring in beans" process. First, my Baratza grinder's hopper is UV-protected and conveniently roomy enough to hold ~ a weeks worth of beans. The motor start up is easily tackled by rewiring the grinder to use a motor from a Technics SP10. Instantly up to speed! Their's a thread on ASR where someone measured the air pressure exerted on the beans during the pour from bag to grinder hopper. Wear on the beans was proven to vary, dependent on relative humidity, proving that coffee will taste better on drier days(No they didn't taste the coffee). By planning my hopper filling schedule using the 10 day forecast(European model, of course!), I minimize bean wear variability much like a servo speed controller. Spencer |
- 56 posts total