energy efficient coffee maker

[Artemus]

I regularly camp near a "Starbucks" or "Dutch Bro's", I find they use little or no energy? I am known as a wilderness loving, hard core camper, and I admit, its not for everyone. I would prefer Keurig to a vintage Mr. Coffee if I had to decide. Yet a "Corning" stove top percolator is hard to beat! Lol

 

[DougnDawn]

Keurig here also. I have a reusable k-kup, grinder and buy coffee beans. Never priced it out to see how many cups I get from a bag of beans but it does last a long time, so I think it's reasonably priced. Once you get the grind you like and the right amount of coffee into the k-cup, you have a custom cup of coffee just to your liking!

 

[h2ojocky]

As the OP stated, he is looking to save energy. Most folks seem to like the Keurig, but there is no energy savings there. We use the stove top percolator for 2 reasons. No need to fire up the generator and the coffee tastes great. We have also used a french press. We do have a plug in percolator for when we have 50 amp hookups. We tried the Keurig but could not get a strong enough blend for DW.

 

[ray fischer]

Thanks for all the replies. Since my main objective is to save power while in this cold spell, I conclude that my best option is to quit setting my coffee to go on at 6:00 AM, get up & turn off the elec heater, turn up the furnace, then turn on coffee pot. Going thru propane so fast, I went to tractor supply today& picked up spare 30 lb tank. Now I can rotate tanks & get re-filled w/o urgency. I forgot about the stove top perculators, haven't seen one since my tenting days. I do enjoy Keurig , but we only drink water & coffee and brew about 20 cups a day & keep in a big carafe. I'd go broke with Keurig. God Bless, Ray

 

[richfaa]

Just plugged our Mr Coffee 4 cupper in our Kill-O-watt meter and it draws 5.05AMPS. The keurigs are just to expensive for making a cup of coffee.

We purchased a 1 cupper at the cast Connection store at Disney for 1.99. a Mr Coffee that you would see in a Motel room. Made coffee just great.

 

[Overlord]

quote:Originally posted by Artemus Gordon

I regularly camp near a "Starbucks" or "Dutch Bro's", I find they use little or no energy? I am known as a wilderness loving, hard core camper, and I admit, its not for everyone. I would prefer Keurig to a vintage Mr. Coffee if I had to decide. Yet a "Corning" stove top percolator is hard to beat! Lol

We take this along, just so we can avoid going to "FiveBucks" for latte's.

It draws 11.0 peak amps at 121 volts according to my Kill-A-Watt EZ meter, so 1331 watts for operating. If run at 110 volts, it would then be drawing 12.1 amps.

Easily run on a 30 amp hook-up, although I would not use it while using the microwave oven or other high draw appliance, like the electric water heater, at the same time.

 

[MDL-THOR]

Wife loves coffee, me not so much, so I got her a Nesspresso system. It's about 65 cents a cup, a little more for the latte due to the milk, but she loves it and it's compact. There are also reusable capsules for it, so you can put whatever you want it in (tea, coco, Starbucks best dark roast, etc). Now the real issue is how much power it uses, so I'll have to do a test.

In the past, we've done power management due to our old 5ver having only 30 amps, so we turn of the hot water heater and the electric heater when she drys her hair or makes coffee. That's worked for us well, but I admit it takes watching your usage. This manual power management may help you no matter what coffee maker you get.

 

[richfaa]

Apparently I have no class at all when it comes to coffee. I have boiled coffee and in my steel pot in a foxhole and it tasted great. Campers coffee is boiling coffee in about any container you can come up with then separate as much of the grounds as you can. Taste great. My cheapo Mr Coffee does Coffee great .Have a cup beside me now. Good stuff. We have purchased that "premier" special blend coffee and it is still just coffee that cost more. We use 8 O Clock store brand Jamaican dark roast or just about any brand we happen to reach for as long as it is plain ole coffee. I am a low life when it comes to coffee.
Power I have no clue.If I pop a breaker I know I am using to much.

 

[WaltBennett]

Just got back from a trip to WallyWorld - visited the coffee maker section as this thread had me thinking. There were several there that will take Kureg cups OR grounds (so you can mix your own blend, or just save a ton of money!). A couple would brew up to travel mug sized batches.

I still like ours though. It's a Mr. Coffee 10 cup with a metal thermal pot. It brews and then turns off completely, and the pot keeps the coffee hot for several hours. I think that would be the most energy efficient way you could go.

 

[Tom S.-MOC]

quote:Originally posted by H. John Kohl

quote:Originally posted by davidaf

Lost count but Keurig for us too. Haven't used it on the inverter as yet. Anybody have a kill-a-watt or something handy to determine idle and active draw?

I am working off six to eight month old memory. In the heat up stage I remember the Keurig Vue drawing around 250 Amps on 12 volts when powering with the inverter. There could have been 15 to 20 Amps 12v of other current drawer. I believe I saw between 15 and 20 Amp hour drop in the couple of minutes to make one cup of coffee. Again It was a while ago. I also was using the fill your own cup for my Keurig Vue and could not justify the major power draw and bulk storage requirement. I use my own coffee in the Mr Coffee 4 cup now.
Again working off old memor. I hope this helps.

John, did you factor in that once the Keurig makes the cup, it's done, whereas the Mr.Coffee stays on keeping the pot warm?

 

[Tom S.-MOC]

Stop drinking coffee and this whole thread becomes moot.

 

[KO4A]

Tom S., when I am on the inverter I turn off the coffee maker and inverter. My second half a cup is not quit as warm but still good. Or I put all in one large coffee mug. So yes I have taken it into effect when on the inverter. I also turned off the Keurig once it had brewed the single cup.

 

[boat391]

In the stick house it's MR. Coffee in the Monty it's stove top coffee made in a lifetime stainless steel pot brews much like a mr. Coffee boil water pour it over the grounds and it turns out fantastic make it to any strength you wish and can be kept warm all day if desired makes 12 cups and only costs the price of the coffee you like plus the propane used and if you prefer store bought water over some park water. We boondock all of the time so mr coffee is just not a option for us. Even with the inverter system and all the 6 volt batteries I just don't go there.

 

[HOOK-MOC]

We enjoy our Keurig. Always fresh, easy and convenient. Bought an adapter that allows use of regular ground coffee, cuts down cost dramatically.

 

[shovelhead86]

I hope you forgot a decimal point on the 80 amp statement; You would trip the main 50 amp breaker and be in the dark.

quote:Originally posted by Alwims

We use the stainless Bunn coffee maker. http://www.amazon.com/BUNN-Velocity...=1391962931&sr=8-6&keywords=bunn+coffee+maker Makes 10 cups in 3 minutes. We have tested the warmer and it uses about 4 to 6 amps when on. It does heat water for the next pot and uses an ungodly amount of amps to heat the next pot of water, about 80 amps, but it doesn't last but about 2 to 3 minutes then shuts off. It uses very little to keep the next pot's water hot.

When boondocking we use this http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-5008C...61778&sr=8-1&keywords=coleman+camp+coffee+pot

We set it on one of these, http://www.amazon.com/GasOne-GS-300...62377&sr=8-10&keywords=gasoline+camping+stove

I brought one of these to deer camp when they first came out and I was the hit of camp. They make a pot of coffee in about the same time as a mister coffee and IMHO it's just as good tasting.

 

[davidaf-KEY]

20 cups? yep i'd chuck the Keurig! In the camper we use a Coleman Camping Coffee maker. It looks/acts just like a normal drip maker except sits over the burner so no AC. I may just pick one up for the Montana if the Keurig eats too much battery power via the Inverter. I generally only use it in the AM so on generator would be the normal use case.

 

[Alwims-MOC]

quote:Originally posted by shovelhead86

I hope you forgot a decimal point on the 80 amp statement; You would trip the main 50 amp breaker and be in the dark.

quote:Originally posted by Alwims

We use the stainless Bunn coffee maker. http://www.amazon.com/BUNN-Velocity...=1391962931&sr=8-6&keywords=bunn+coffee+maker Makes 10 cups in 3 minutes. We have tested the warmer and it uses about 4 to 6 amps when on. It does heat water for the next pot and uses an ungodly amount of amps to heat the next pot of water, about 80 amps, but it doesn't last but about 2 to 3 minutes then shuts off. It uses very little to keep the next pot's water hot.

When boondocking we use this http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-5008C...61778&sr=8-1&keywords=coleman+camp+coffee+pot

We set it on one of these, http://www.amazon.com/GasOne-GS-300...62377&sr=8-10&keywords=gasoline+camping+stove

I brought one of these to deer camp when they first came out and I was the hit of camp. They make a pot of coffee in about the same time as a mister coffee and IMHO it's just as good tasting.

I was talking amp hrs pulled out of the batteries when on the inverter. It draws 6.93 amps when on the grid to heat the next pot. The warmer draws .61 amps. Sorry I wasn't clear as we measure just about everything being pulled from the batteries now days.

I probably should have just talked about the Coleman Camping Coffee Maker only and stayed out of the electrical portion of this thread.

 

[MDL-THOR]

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

Apparently I have no class at all when it comes to coffee. I have boiled coffee and in my steel pot in a foxhole and it tasted great. Campers coffee is boiling coffee in about any container you can come up with then separate as much of the grounds as you can. Taste great. My cheapo Mr Coffee does Coffee great .Have a cup beside me now. Good stuff. We have purchased that "premier" special blend coffee and it is still just coffee that cost more. We use 8 O Clock store brand Jamaican dark roast or just about any brand we happen to reach for as long as it is plain ole coffee. I am a low life when it comes to coffee.
Power I have no clue.If I pop a breaker I know I am using to much.

Made my day... LMAO! So true!

 

[Overlord]

A French Press is also a good option. They make a great cup o'joe.

 

[jfabernathy]

The best coffee I've made is using the French Press. They are usually less than $20 a press and the coffee needs to be coarse ground so that's easier to accomplish with a manual crank grinder. So you could do the best coffee every with no electricity.