Yes I did. Set it down in the edge of the countertop while trying to sidestep a cat. Set it down overbalanced and on down it went, crashing onto the tiled floor.
This is a problem. The Kugel is a spherical thermal carafe from the German company Alfi and it's got a nice glass vacuum flask inside. They'll last for decades if you keep them clean and, you know, refrain from dropping them. On the outside, it looks like an old-fashioned road flare with a handle, or at least the matte-black ones I like do. Here at Roseholme Cottage, we fill ours with coffee hot from the Chemex and it stays hot for hours.
Alas, it sounded more like iced tea when I picked it up, a kind of slushy, liquid-damped tinkling as the bits of the former vacuum flask sloshed around in the coffee, which was dripping out through gaps and cracks in the outer shell. I put it in the trash.
Steaming gently on the counter was a cup of coffee I had just poured, the very last cup I was ever going to get from that carafe.
It turned out that they're something Amazon offers Prime customers free same-day delivery on, so when I got home from work, an exact replacement was waiting. Sometimes this living in the future thing is pretty nice.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
9 comments:
Pop of a vacuum flask blowing is so strange. I suppose it's the combination of the implosion and the glass crackling? Hate that sound. Invariably costs money.
Saw the headline and wondered how you can break a pudding
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugel
A fixture of my childhood, and so simple even I could make it unaided.
I lost my favorite old Thermos-brand thermos bottle that way, the old-fashioned one with the plaid print on the steel exterior.
That horrible glass slush sound is unforgettable. Hope the new one works just like the old one.
They make stainless vacuum flasks, Bobbi. Not *quite* as thermally insulated, but for all practical purposes, unbreakable:
https://www.outsideonline.com/1785831/what-are-best-stainless-steel-insulated-water-bottles
And JayNola, it's just like when a TV picture tube implodes...
Blackwing - Thermos sells replacement glass inserts, but when I last needed one some 10 years ago I found it cheaper to just buy a current model plastic thermos that used the same glass insert, and swap parts between new and old.
We've replaced the various parts on our two Alfi Juwels several times now - they were inherited from out parents and originally bought in the early 1960's in Europe. Parts were had from an outfit in Southern Florida at that time but they can be readily had in the US from several suppliers, just google them up.
A new insert would not have fixed this -- the plastic housing cracked, too. As for stainless steel, it's not as easy to keep clean as glass. With only plain coffee and hot water in it, most of the time rinsing and vinegar is all it takes for this carafe, with only occasional washing with soap to keep the O-ring and pour spout clean.
Did you take the cost of the Kugel out of the cat's allowance?
Naw, he pays me back in companionship!
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