The wife and I recently bought a new coffee maker which came with a wire mesh coffee filter. We thought - great, environmentally sound, and the coffee tasted great. Then…I tried to get the grounds out of the darned thing. They stick like mad, and I am personally averse to running them down my 65 year old cast iron pipes for fear they’ll create a nice oily blockage with time.
So, any advice on how to clean the thing? Right now I’m wacking the heck out of the thing on the side of the trashcan (which will likely shorten its lifespan dramatically). Obviously, not drinking coffee is not an acceptable solution…
Interesting. Sometimes I bother to tap most of them into the trash can before rinsing it in the sink–but I haven’t worried about the plumbing because I generally run the grounds through the garbage disposal and flush them away in that manner. The only food substance I’m known to have created a plumbing blockage with is pasta–once Jeff opened a trap in the basement after the sink had become sluggish and got blasted by a wad of macaroni.
If I were you, even without a garbage disposal, I think I’d tap (lightly) most of the grounds into the trash, then rinse under running water.
I tap mine into the compost… don’t you know that roses thrive on a diet of coffee grounds
and banana peels?
I do rinse the remainder down the sink - there is a garbage disposal, but really, coffee grounds
are already ground up.
We do add bacteria to the plumbing (our brand is ‘BioSmart’) in order to eat any organic
solids in the drainpipes and prevent future clogs.
If you really don’t want any going down the drain, rinse it into a bowl and pitch the result
it into the garden. Coffee grounds are effectively high-nitrogen fertilizer, and acidically neutral
(the acid goes into your cup), so they’re good for most growing things. (Too high of a
nitrogen content my encourage green growth to the exclusion of fruits and flowers, but
that’d take a lot of coffee grounds in a very small space. Anyway, most people generally
don’t want their grass to flower or seed, so use it as a lawn greener if you like.)
Thanks everyone for the advice. Our compost heap is in a wire frame, so wacking the filter won’t work too well out there. I’ll continue with the tapping method, worry less about the drain, look into this bacterial cleaner stuff, and look into something to put the grounds into prior to taking them to the compost heap that will seal to keep out all the ants (they make an annual pilmgramage into our kitchen this time of year, I’m not sure what they want since we keep things clean, but my personal theory is they’ve developed a taste for coffee grounds).
Yeah, we buy whole bean coffee and grind it at the store on the setting just above espresso so it’s nice and dark. The beans are roasted locally, and they seem to have a higher oil content than canned coffee. I’d not thought about our coffee choice being an issue.
I recommend this company: http://www.bugspray.com
Look up ants alphabetically. I followed their instructions for the “3-prong” approach with great success, and without the rampant toxic spraying that was recommended by terminix.
Speaking of ants, I was bothered by them recently, no matter how scrupulously I kept any food cleaned up or sealed away, until I tried this cruel method. Don’t read further if you’re of delicate constitution, or against mass murder.
I had some ant bait traps set out, but the ants ignored them. So I left a can of soda pop out in a corner of the garage, and the ants started swarming it, of course. I let them drink their fill for a day or two, then I took away the can and replaced it with an ant bait trap. It’s slow-acting poison that the ants take back to the rest of the ants, poisoning them all (including the queen). They swarmed all over the bait, but in a few days their numbers started dwindling…and a few more days later there were no ants at all. Not a single ant has returned since then (several months ago).
I’m afraid, BoneQuint, that if ants have discovered your house, there is no stopping them without “terminating” the colonies near enough that they consider you part of their foraging territory. I don’t care for it at all. But I’m unwilling to give up my house to them.
If the ants are after coffee grounds they must really be hungry. We used to put the grounds, tea leaves, banana peels, egg shells into a half gallon milk carton opened up and sitting on the sink for that purpose. Then every day or so bring it out to the garden or mulch pile. If you’re worried about the ants maybe a gallon jar with a big top and a lid would be better. I guess that doesn’t address the wire mesh not coming clean though.
The gold filters are really nice but I don’t know if that’s what you have or if a gold filter would fit in your machine. With the wire mesh filters though you have to grind the beans fairly coarsly or you’ll get grinds in the coffee. The other thing is the type of beans like someone asked about. If they are oily like a French Roast or Sumatra then maybe they would be more apt to clog in the wire. Columbian usually is a drier bean but you don’t want to change the kind of coffee you like to suit the wire mesh!
I tried the gold mesh filters but ended up going back to using a single cone Melita filter per cup, not very enviornmentally sound but maybe the cones are biodegradable too I don’t know. With these you should grind the beans alot finer than with the wire.
One last thought is about grinding at the store. It’s convenient but you don’t get the freshness of grinding it yourself and those little Braun grinders are pretty inexpensive. What got me to stop store grinding was one time I ended up getting a flavored coffee taste evidentally from the residual grinds of the last person who used the grinder.
I agree with Peggy. Try putting a paper filter in the steel mesh filter, if that is possible. I drink Walmart’s brand of instant coffee, so that tells you where I am coming from. When my brother visited me, he had to go out for some real coffee.
With regard to the presence of ants in your kitchen, try to find out where they are coming into the house (probably under the door). Try putting the oil of pennyroyal at this point. Also, I have learned to live with a few ants in my kitchen without freaking out like my friend, Martha, who immediately calls an exterminator when she sees an insect in her house.
In my opinion, ants in the house = healthy house. No insects at all in the house = unhealthy house. Mice, now that is another matter.
That’s scary- and there have been a few times when I’ve thought “this would be a terrible time for this thing to malfunction” while scooping out the last bit of ground beans from the grinder.
Speaking of coffee does anyone else rinse the paper filter under water before putting it into the cone? I read somewhere that it helps remove the paper taste that can get into the coffee. Have to admit I don’t usually do it though.
