[john1]

Hi,

I have a Philips Senseo coffe maker.
Maybe many others have one also.
They were very popular, perhaps they still are.
I am quite happy with it, but now i want to pack it away.

To pack it away i want to empty out the water.
I can't seem to see how to do this.

I don't want to pack it away with water in it.

I have visited the Senseo site, its just an advert,
and of no use as any sort of manual or handbook,
and of no use to figure out how to empty it out.

I have removed all of the bits that can be removed by the user,
and i have turned it upside down and shaken it, and sideways,
and shaken gently, and shaken hard.
About a cupful or so still slops around inside.
I dont want to pack it away with water still inside it.

Ive tried pulling and pushing bits on it here and there,
in case theres a bit you have to press while you tip it up.

I am not happy about this situation at all.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Regards, John

***********

***********

[Who's Me]

did you try turning it on and let the water brew out?

[john1]

Hi "Who's Me",

did you try turning it on and let the water brew out?

Thank you for answering, however i do not understand what you mean.
Perhaps you could say it again using different words ...?

Cheers, John

[hewee]

If your happy with it then why do you want to pack it away?

I know I had a coffee maker that had the tank in it that always had water in it so it was great because it would be heated already and brewing was faster. But that was long ago. I think one pot was made without adding water to it to get the water down. But to get the rest you have to open it up and take the lid off the tank inside.

[Who's Me]

Fill with water
place a bowl under the coffee outlets (large enough to hold all of the water)
press the power button
then press both the one cup and two cup buttons at the same time
the machine will shut itself off when it is done (this will take a while)
that should flush all of the water out of it
Hope this helps

[john1]

Hi Hewee, Hi Whos Me,

I think that opening this up to get to the tank inside would be an
awkward operation, and may well damage some of the plastic parts.

It delivers the hot water via a pump, so the suggestion from "Whos Me"
to use this pump to empty it out, actually sounds like it should work.
I would think that this unit has some arrangement to prevent damage
to its heating element, in the event of insufficient water.
I will try this method of emptying it out, whilst listening to it
carefully, and being on alert for any suspicious burning smells.

Cheers, John

[hewee]

I would do as Who's Me said too John.

How my coffee pot was put together and the Philips Senseo coffe maker are not the same and now days things are not made to take apart too so you can break it trying.

[john1]

Hi,

Yes, i did as 'Whos Me' suggested, but it would not empty the tank
inside, it leaves about a cupful or more in there.
However i have learnt something from 'Whos Me', that pressing both
buttons will run the pump continuously, that is useful to know.

I found that by running the pump, and holding it on its side, and
shaking it vigorously, i could get the pump to gradually splutter
the water in the inner tank, out of the top nozzle/outlet.

I did this until i couldnt get any more drips to come out. I reckon there was at least a cupful that came out, maybe more. I can not hear
water slopping about inside it now, like it was before.
The pump won't run with the heating element on so i did not have to
worry about anything getting too hot.

I have left it indoors with all its bits off and its lid open, hoping
that whats left in there will dry up after a few days.

If your happy with it then why do you want to pack it away?

Well my kitchen is not large, and i also keep lots of things in my
kitchen which takes up space that really should be for kitchen things.
The area that i use for food preparation, and for making cups of tea,
and cups of coffee and so on, is not a large area.
I already have a kettle there. When i was given this coffee maker, and
a couple of packs of coffee-bags for it, i thought thats very nice, it
will make a nice change from instant coffee. I might even get to prefer
the proper coffee. So i gave it a try.

After a pack of 'Douwe Egberts' coffee-pods, I still prefer instant
coffee from Nescafe.

So, its getting cleaned out and packed away.

Heres a picture of it. It's a brown one, the blue one was just a
picture i found on google images.

******

******

Regards, John

[hewee]

Yea it takes up space and I have the same trouble here and even worse the upper cabinets were put up to low so lots of things from microwaves, coffee makes etc I have to get the hight size to see if it will fit so it's a paid if you wanted one coffee maker but it's to tall to go under the cabinet. Plus got very little counter space here so only a coffee maker, toaster and small microwave in there.

[john1]

I know what you mean about the 'counter space' and the the height under
the wall mounted cupboards. Most of my counter space along one side is
taken up with a small television and a desktop PC (Ethernet through to
front room). I put the wall cupboard up myself years ago, and i allowed
22 & 1/2 inches (57cm) which seems to be about right.

This coffee maker needs at least eighteen inches (46cm) of height-room
as the lid swings up to a vertical position, to put the coffee bag (pod?)
into it with its handle sticking straight up, as you can see from that
picture, its not made to fit under anything low.
I suppose you could put the coffee bag in, holding the lid partly open ...

I don't have a microwave oven, maybe i should get one.

Maybe i should clear out my kitchen too, most of the stuff in there has
very little to do with kitchens.

But i seem to have more than enough to do these days without finding extra
stuff to do. I dunno if i can find the time to do the stuff that i already
have piling up. And the garden has put on a spurt of growth, now that all
needs a good trim. Well at least the car has got through its MOT, i had
to change a track rod end, i consider i got off lightly there.

Mind your head on those low cupboards,
Cheers, John

[hewee]

22 & 1/2 inches is good space to have under the uppers. I got 13 & 1/2 inches so you can see how it limits so much. The upper cab over the sink is 24 inches from the counter so is ok but still to low because most would open and the door would be over your head where this one you got to stand back and open it. Got about 4 inches over the riffer too so bet getting a new one your have to make sure it is not to tall. Then over the range is ok but there is no range hood. It's a older 1941 O'Keefe & Merritt 1950's type of range.
http://www.vintagestoves.com/stove/decokeefe36/ It is not just like it but could not find any others at the site like the one here. One here has a all chrome top and the cover that folds up as a shelf is more like this one http://www.vintagestoves.com/stove/gaffers/ Plus the top part where the clock etc is not there. So with that cover folded up as a shelf you only got about 4 inches from the shelf to the bottom of the upper cab. So no room for a range hood or a microwave to go in the same spot. Got a foot of space over the top of the upper cabs too and there is 1x4 wood up at the ceiling because that was for nailing the upper lip of the cabs to but then they were put in lower but all the backing is still nail to the ceiling.
This http://www.vintagestoves.com/stove/welcome/ site has lots of nice old VINTAGE STOVES etc but they redo them and it cost a lot of money to buy one. Don't know how much cheaper it would be if they redid one for you but still you got to ship it to them.

So you know what limit space is like too but I got you it worse then you do.
Hey I have hit my head with the doors over the sink more then once.

[john1]

Hi Hewee,

I was only joking when i put to mind your head on the cupboards, i did
not realise just how low they really are !

( what's a riffer ... ?)

I was most surprised to see the type of fancy old cooker you have there
i much prefer the older cookers too. I went to a lot of trouble fixing
up my cooker, which is a 'Parkinson Cowan' from many many years ago.
When other people see my cooker they will often say things like, Hey,
i remember my mum had one of those! ...
or sometimes they say, my gran

But i like it, and it is a very good cooker.
A long time back now, the lady next door(left) was getting a new cooker
she was looking forward to it arriving, she had picked it out at the
showroom and she was quite pleased about how it would look in her
kitchen.

Just by chance, i asked her about her current cooker, and she said its
an old 'Parkinson Cowan' she's had it for years, but she said its old
now, and i want a new one.

So i asked her if i could a look cos mine is an old 'Parkinson Cowan'
so she showed me it, and its a slightly newer version, but basically
the same model, so i aked her if i could have it.
She said she'd think about it, but i am pretty sure it was destined
for the tip (local council junk yard).
Next day she said i could have it for twelve quid.
I was a bit surprised, cos 12 pounds GBP was a bit much for an old
cooker back around ninety five, or ninety six roughly. (24 dollars)
But i didn't complain, i smiled and gave her 12 quid, said i hoped
she liked her new one, which curiously arrived that morning, and took
the old one back home to my place.

It was in nice order, she had looked after it, a little chip here and
there on the hob griddles (the black bits) but that was expected.

So over the next week or so i gradually swapped bits and pieces over
on to my cooker in the kitchen, ones which were preferable in some
way. Maybe shinier, maybe not scratched, and i changed the 'Magitrol'
which i never liked, to a normal burner.

Anyway about a month later i bumped into her again, and told her how
pleased i was with that cooker, and how i had used bits of it to
spruce up my kitchen cooker.

She told me she was not getting along well with her new one, and she
missed her old cooker, and she wanted to have it back. She said it
was the best cooker she had ever had and the new one did not seem to
be as good as she thought it would be.

I told her, sorry but its all in bits now, and all the best bits are
on my kitchen cooker now.

Thats how i got one of my cookers.
Since then i have had another couple from the local council tip, in
various states of decay and disrepair, they have been carefully taken
to bits and the useful pieces kept. I now have enough spares for this
model that i do not have to worry about any more.

Here is an old photo of it in my kitchen.
It still there, still in regular use.

*****

*****

Regards, John

[john1]

side note,
the Magitrol was a sort of temp controlled hob burner,
with a stat in its middle. They were prone to damage
i didnt like them much, i thought the ordinary ones
were just as good, but some people thought they were
excellent and liked them. I took mine out.
John

[hewee]

John,

Yes you was joking but now you know it's no joke with the upper cabs as low as they are here.

A riffer is a refrigerator.

Yea I like the wider older stoves too. Like the top burners and bigger burners they have. The oven is smaller then what most stoves have because it is not as wide. The left side that looks like two doors is really one door and has one shelf so really just for keeping smaller pots and smaller cookie sheets in.
Had at the last place I live a even nicer older stove. It had a deep fryer and other goodies but not the parts to use them. Oven was in the center and then a door on each side with the deep frayer on the one side and storage on the other. What I loved and I was living there for some time before I found out was the cookie sheets the oven had that were inside of each door. You open the door and there was a reless to get the cookie sheet. You only seen the bottom side and it was finished just like the rest of the stove in white so that was how I missed knowing it was more then the inside of the door. Then the top side of the cookie sheets were like the inside of the over. Longer then most cookie sheets but only about 10 inches wide. Very easy to clean too. I wanted to take them too when I moved seeing how no one else seem to know that they were even there. Brother lived there a couple years and never knew about the cookie sheets.

But they made lots of great stoves back then and they don't make them like that anymore. Plus they are wider and have lots of added goodie built into some of them.
Never seen a stove like you got and for a older one that is wider the over is also wider. I got me a nice big cookie sheet and it would not fit in the side storage because it came out about 1 inche so you could not close the door. So I said opps you better see if it will work in the over too and you could not close the over door. Where on a wider over you would just trun the cookie sheet and it would go into the oven just ok.
What is tha on top of your stove by the plates? Is it a warmer?

What else I like in the place I lived before here was the kitchen sink that was just one big sink but it was also one big long counter top with space on each side and like a buildin dish drainer on the one side and then it had a back on it too and the water came tru the back splash. Don't see them around anymore but they nice. Rest of kitchen at that place was bad. Had a couple metal kitchen cabs that were added.
Hey great you got another old 'Parkinson Cowan' stove and did not have far to move it either because those things are heavy.
No way sending stoves like that to the dump. Look at that web site and you can see people want them and getting one all redone like new can cost a whole lot of money.
Plus look at how sad it is for the lady next door now with that grat new stove that just is not as good as what she had.

Magitrol? You mean the center top burner?

But hey if your like working on the old stoves then you need to find a place that will buy them and or the parts you don't use. Even parts that you may seem to think are no good they may still take and if you can find a place like the vintagestoves site then they would I bet what them to use to fix up the stoves they redo.

[john1]

Hi Hewee,

Magitrol? You mean the center top burner?

The 'Magitrol' was a short-lived temperature controller that was put
on one of the hob back burners. You could set the temperature on the
knob a bit like you set an oven, it reads the base of the pan.
It may have been a good idea, but i would rather have a normal gas
burner, so i changed mine. I kept the pieces so that i could put it
all back together if i wanted to.
After a few years no-one remembers them much now.

What is that on top of your stove by the plates? Is it a warmer?

Thats another thing that is quite common in this country, its called
an eye-level grill. Not all our cookers have the grill ( toaster) up
high like that, but some do. I prefer it up like that.
I have tried to take a few pictures of it with it lit, the pictures
dont really do it justice, it actually gives a very even grilling,
but it looks patchy from the photos.
And i'm afraid it looks rather grubby too, but it works very well.

Cheers, John