Coffee (rec.drink.coffee) Discussing coffee. This includes selection of brands, methods of making coffee, etc. Discussion about coffee in other forms (e.g. desserts) is acceptable.

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Default Clarity is here!



Last week, I made one call to QVC's order line a little after 2 o'clock in
the morning and scored the last Melitta Clarity 10-cup coffeemaker they had
at the time. I was told I could expect it to arrive on March 24. UPS
delivered it to me a little before noon on March 22. Its own packing box
was packed into another box which was half again the volume needed to pack
it propperly. The rest of the volume of that outer box was about 1-3 filled
with those yucky foam packing "peanuts". The coffeemaker had shifted to the
bottom and to one end of the outer box, a good reason not to use those foam
peanuts.

Two more-or-less form-fitting heavy foam inserts cradled the Clarity and
kept it away from the sides and ends of its factory-sealed shipping box. A
flat piece of thin bubble wrap material kept the bottom of the carafe from
directly touching the warmer plate, and a folded cardboard insert was placed
between the carafe lid and the bottom of the filter basket, with a cut-out
to protect the dripstop valve. The carafe was wrapped in one layer of
bubble wrap around the sides and held together with a piece of tape. The
hinged covers for the brew basket and the fill tank were held down by small
pieces of tape. The plug pins on the 1-meter long heavy polarized power
cord were protected by a cover and the cord was folded over four times and
tied with a bread-bag plastic tie. The machine was placed inside a heavy
plastic bag before it went into the foam cradle inserts. The factory did a
nice packing job; QVC less so, although there was no damage to either box,
no bashed corners, no scars made by forklift tynes, no indication that the
package had been dropped, banged around, or been dropped on by something
larger and/or heavier.

By comparison, CostCo had shipped my Presto in its factory box alone, no
outer box with any kind of energy-absorbing packing material. That package
also arrived here, and just after the Christmas package rush, with no camage
to the package or its contents.

Now, we open up the machine for first impressions.

When I got it all unpacked and untaped and unwrapped, I found a machine that
somewhat reminded me of the form factor of that Technivorm I saw at the SCAA
conference in Atlanta last year. I do like all that stainless steel on the
base of the unit and around the housing area for the pump and electronic
elements. The smooth clear plastic of the water tank seems to be a bit thin
and not very smoothly finished off on its top. At least Melitta did not cut
a hole in the back of the tank, chosing instead to have some slots cut into
the tank's hinged plastic cover.

The filter basket is among the largest available for machines that take the
Melitta No. 4 style filters. The large no. 4 gold-tone permanent filter
that came with a Krups Cafe Aroma 12-cup model barely fits inside the
basket, filling it up completely. That filter won't even fit inside the
considerably smaller basket of a Presto model.

I can see why some people have already broken the glass on that
straight-sided pot-style carafe. I don't particularly like that thin
handle, but it is at least large and comfortable to hold. It would also be
nice if the carafe lid had been designed to actually more completely cover
the top of the carafe.

I notice that the carafe also does not completely cover the warmer plate, if
the carafe is placed toward one edge of that plate, there's half an inch of
potentially hot plate to catch an errant finger, a design feature I haven't
seen on any other machine, Melitta models included, since the 1970's or
maybe 1980.

There's that less-than optimal dripstop mechanism, a dripstop that probably
won't. A spring-loaded valve pushes the stopper up vrom the bottom when the
carafe cover pushes it up. Gravity and a spring lower the valve plugging
the drip hole with the small rubber stopper inside the filter basket when
the carafe is moved out from under the valve. This is the same design as
they use in the Presto. I wonder if that's a feature of that "scandinavian
design" both models crow about on their makers' respective websites. At
least, the Clarity's cover is design such that, the valve will have time to
do its thing and those last few drips of liquid will fall onto the cover and
be channeled into the carafe instead of onto the hot warmer plate the way it
does thanks to the poorly-shaped and much smaller carafe cover on the
Presto.

You could get just about any carafe that is at least six-and-one-half inches
tall and up to at least six inches in diameter to fit comfortably with the
Clarity. The stock carafe is only about five inches in diameter, and does
not even completely cover the warmer plate. Though it looks like it might
be bigger, measuring with a measuring cup shows that the carafe of the
Clarity and the one with the Presto hold exactly the same amount of tap-temp
cold water, just over about 50 ounces. We're talking ten very small cups
here. What with the Scandinavians? I thought they are famous for drinking
great vast quantities of coffee, and all day, you know, that "Swedish
gasoline" thing I used to hear about all through the 1960's and into the
1980's.

This Clarity is not very heavy, but it's a relatively big sucker. It will
won't counter space about six inches wide, about half an inch less than the
Presto, and at least 14-1/2 inches long, at least four inches more than the
Presto. Clarity stands about 13-1/2 inches tall and you'll need to pull it
out from under any modern American standard overhead cabinet to swin the
covers open. Stand that vrew basket cover straight up, and you're looking
at about a 22-inch overhead clearance requirement.

The form factor of the Presto goes almost perfectly with the form factor
design of the Solis Maestro grinder. You'd almost think they were made to
go together. Aesthetically, the Clarity doesn't go with anything in my
kitchen, but then again, I tend to favor function and practicality over form
and style if I have to choose one over the other.

What were these designers thinking here? They tout brewing temperature, as
Melitta has for quite some time now, yet the water path is going to route
the heated water through five and one-half inches of vertical pipe placed
right in the middle of the water tank full of water that is at whatever
temperature you get when you draw it from the cold water faucet. ON the
Presto, the travel path for the water is completely outside the fill tank.
That definitely strikes me as being, Not Good!
Once that water gets out of the tank, it just flows over a 3/4-inch wide
7-inch long plastic channel formed by the two parts of the filter basket
cover, and plops out through a 1/4-inch diameter hole in the filter basket
cover, positioned over the center of the basket. No shower head here! The
Presto has an actual shower head, even if it is cheap plastic and even if
six of its nine nozzles come plugged.

I'l brew the first pot of coffee without taking a drill to that water
pathway to add more holes for better water dispersion over the ground coffee
during the brewing process. I think Ted's "shower head" mod for the Clarity
is missnamed. They really cheaped out in that department. I guess you're
not going to get what you don't pay for, but I"ve seen even cheaper machines
with real showerhead style spray nozzles connected to the water tank by
rubber or plastic hoses.

OH, nice control interface. What could be simpler! A nice small but sturdy
two-position rocker switch on the back end of the base, under the slightly
overhanging water tank, well protect from any stray streams of water. Turn
it on, turn it off. No ill-fitting LCD, no tiny pushbuttons connected to
the control board via cheap and flimsy contact points.

NOw it's time to make this new toy do it to it. One cup of vinegar and the
remainder of the fill tank for cold water straight from the tap. It took
about 8 minutes to transfer a tank full of water into the carafe. The water
is definitely on the high end of the temperature range, as I expected, but
not any more so than the Presto, or the older Melitta IBS-10S, or the early
1990's Krups Cafe Aroma, or the 1990's Braun FlavorSelect models, KF-15X and
KF-18X, examples of all of which machines I currently have here.

I noticed that as the wter level in the tank drops, I can definitely feel
that vertical pipe getting mildly warm, so there is definitely some heat
loss to the surrounding cold water in the tank as the heated water travels
to the single opening in the basket cover. It must be heated pretty close
to boiling vefore the water enters that pipe.

Since the brew basket cover is made of thin plastic, it gets very hot on
top, so there is considerable heat loss through that cover before the water
drops into the filter to brew the coffee. The design of the older IBS-10S
and IBS-12S Melitta units was superior in this regard.

The second "brew" was plain cold water to run out the residue from the
vinegar water. It still took about 8 minutes, just a little faster than the
Presto, and at little over 20-percent slower than the Braun KF-157 would
take to brew the same amount.

Let's brew some coffee! Well, sort of. I don't happen to have any
freshly-roasted high-quality single-origin whole bean coffee in the house at
the moment, so we're not gonna evaluate fine distinctions here. This is
going to be a recently-bought batch of Eight O'clock Colombian Whole Bean
100-percent Arabica Coffee. I'll use exactly the same amount of beans as I
would use in the Presto, and the water amount will be exactly the same,
since both machines have the exact same "full" capacity. I'll use the same
grind setting on the Solis Maestro grinder, and the ginding and the brewing
will be part of the same coffeemaking operation.

Since it's eight O'clock coffee, even though it ain't exactly cheap by
supermarket standards, it's not 10-dollar-a-pound specialty coffee, so it
won't hurt too much if I decide to experiment a bit and provide the kitchen
sink drain with some extra acid-based out-slushings.

First pot of coffee from the Clarity: I"m not wowed at all. Even with a
coffee like Eight O'clock Colombian Whole Bean coffee, I should still notice
any difference if one machine actually brews better than the other. I did
use the permanent filters in both machines. I doubt that, with this so-so
coffee, I would have changed anything noticeably much had I used Melitta No.
4, FlavorPore paper filters in each machine instead of the permanent
filters. Maybe I'll do that later when I get some really good coffee in
here and see if there is any difference.

I had just poured out the remainder of a batch from the Presto before I
brewed the first batch in the Clarity. Comparing the two outputs, I did
notice a slightly snappier estringent bite in the brew from the Clarity
compared with the brew from the Presto. There was an ever-so-faint extra
hint of a spicy note in the brew from the Clarity that was not there in the
brew from the Presto, but I doubt the overwhelming majority of average
coffee drinkers would be able to detect any difference at all between the
two brews. I was specifically looking for any differences and barely
noticed it. Unless I find myself surprised when I test these two machines
using a good-quality specialty coffee, I'd say that the Presto and the
Clarity definitely brew to a draw. I don't think the difference is even
enough to claim that the Clarity "wins by a nose" over the Presto. The
results could even be different if I repeated the test a couple hours later
for all I know.

I noted that the Clarity turns on with the rocker switch pushed down instead
of up, the exact opposite of what most North Americans would expect. That
doesn't do anything to the qulity of the output, but most people would
definitely notice that design quirk.

One more test for this first round:
The Presto, which is controlled by a programmable interface, shuts off the
warmer plate after two hours if you don't interveen and shut it off
immediately after brewing stops. I have noticed that while the Presto keeps
the coffee hot, it never has that burnt, caramelized convenience-store
coffee taste and smell even after it has sat on the warmer plate being kept
warm for more than an hour. Clarity seems to keep hotting up indefinitely
if you keep it turned on. I poured off my 20-ounce mug full and let the
rest of the brew sit there on the hot plate for about an hour and 20
minutes. It definitely had that burnt caramelized smell, which might have
been partly due to the fact that more water could evaporate more quickly
through that rather large opening in the top of the carafe, whereas the
Presto's carafe would significantly limit that evaporation possibility. I
did not sample any more of that coffee. It became a sink drink.

Mod! already!

When I pulled that bottom plastic piece off from the filter basket cover and
saw how they made that water channel leading to that one hole over the
center of the filter basket, I figured I would do my own version of Ted's
"shower head" mod. I drilled out six additional holes inside that pathway,
each one only slightly smaller in diameter than the one supplied by the
factory. So now, both the Presto and the Clarity have been "shower head"
modded. No repairs under warranty possibilities for eacher of these two
machines now! I hope they don't crap out any time soon!

MOre, Later! When I get some real coffee in here!

Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA
Email: Phone: 1-404-814-0768

"I used a hand phaser, and ZAP! Hot Coffee!" - Yeoman Rand, Star Trek.
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