What makes a glass coffee pot with attached lid leak when you pour it?
Asked by
jca (
36062
)
July 16th, 2013
I have a small coffee maker at work. It makes about 20 oz. of coffee. The carafe is glass and has a hinged plastic lid. The lid cannot rotate, as it’s hinged and so it is just able to flap up and down, or come off. When I pour the coffee out of it and into the cup, the coffee runs down the side of the carafe and onto the floor and surface that the coffee maker is sitting on. It makes a big coffee-ish mess all over.
Why is that?
I asked my coworker and she said “maybe the lid is on crooked.” But the lid is hinged and cannot rotate, so we both decided that being on crooked is not possible and therefore, not a possible solution.
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8 Answers
Well, since water finds its own level, there is clearly a leak somewhere. A crack doesn’t have to be very wide to allow fluid to leak through. If you don’t want to spend any more energy on the mystery, throw the pot out and buy a new one.
A hinged lid can be slightly bent.
I have the same problem with my cuisinart coffee maker. It only leaks if I pour too fast. It tends to flow along the plastic rim if I pour it fast. I now try to only pour as fast as the spout can handle. At least for me this has worked. Hope it helps, Fellow coffee drinker.
It maybe the pouring lip of the carafe, just like pouring water out of a cup with out a lip. I had that problem with a carafe and got rid of it.
When I pour the coffee out of it and into the cup, the coffee runs down the side of the carafe and onto the floor…
It’s the “Coanda Effect”, adhesion to boundary layer(s).
Try poutring at a different angle.
I think these things are just badly designed in general. I’ve never had one that didn’t leak if not poured with immense caution. I find it takes lifting the lid, balancing the spout over the cup, and pouring very, very slowly (or very, very quickly!).
These kinds of coffee makers don’t drip all over the place, and I don’t know why more coffee makers aren’t made with a similar spout to prevent this.
If it’s like mine, the handle/lid assembly is attached by a metal strip that goes around the carafe. My carafe was not perfectly round, and over time the metal strip would shift, then when I poured it would be coming out the side of the spout and go all over the place. Yeah, if I poured reeaallyy slowly, it didn’t do it.
Most kettles seem to do that, and it is because the lips, I’m guessing, are not curved outword. They are curved inward, slightly.
I talked to someone about it and he determined that because the pouring spout does not extend beyond the circumference of the carafe, when the coffee is filled up too high and it’s poured quickly, the coffee dribbles down the spout and clings to the glass, making a mess. So now, I still put a lot of coffee in the carafe but I pour more carefully. It’s a design flaw, apparently, but they probably manufacture it that way so the spout does not get damaged in packing.
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