No Coffee! ARG

[ibyers]

Here I sit grumpy and wanting to vent.

Decided to take the family out camping after working for 7 days straight, 18 hour days, due to the flooding in Southeren Alberta.

Got up early so I could log into work, I went out and fired up the generator, Champion 2000i.(before anyone makes a smart comment about early morning, and running the generator, the closest person is about half a mile away).

Came back in and threw a T-Disc in the ol tassimo. It brought my genny to its knees, then it went into overload. Weird! I thought. This Tassimo is rated at 1350watts, ny genny should have handled this no problem. I shed all the other loads and tried again, same result.

No worries, I thought, I brought both gennies. I went back out and hooked them up to the parallel kit. Fired them up and came back in. This time it did not go into overload, but they sure were working hard. The Tassimo was sounding really rough, then POP! it blew up a T-Disc. After 6 discs, I had half of cup of coffee...

Both gennies run the A/C, microwave, etc. but they both can't run this little coffee machine.

I did a quick search on the site and it appears this has happened before to "Hedge" on his Honda eu3000i
His post

I wonder what makes this little coffee maker not play nice with inverter generators.

too early for a beer?

[travelnutz]

Cloud Dancer,

Now you're talking even if the coffee brand etc might be different as we only use fresh ground from whole bean cherry flavored ground very fine but that's our choice. Beats ANY of the overpriced coffee disk types hands down we've ever tasted. No external AC hookups needed nor even a generator. Just plug into one of our silent MSW inverters (1500 watt to 2500 watt) that is always installed on every RV we've owned since the late 1980's and WALLA!, fresh delicious hot wonderful coffee in 5-10 minutes and the only sounds ever heard is the coffee brewing followed by guaranteed elongated AHHHs!. Starbucks etc is an extreme ripoff as is the dick type coffee units in our opinion and also the opinion of the many we've brewed coffee for. Very telling as most of those who have had a cup of our brew now have inverters also and many are using the same ground fresh from whole bean coffees and are saving gobs of money while stating they now are having "better tasting coffee" blissfully and without any extra noise or vibrations.

[Cloud_Dancer]

I had to read the whole thread in order to figure out what's Tassimo.

I realized again how old-school I am. I do NOT leave without what's in this photo PLUS a stovetop percolator PLUS a propane stove. There's no life without good morning coffee:

[wa8yxm]

YC 1 wrote:
Are the generators Pure Sine Wave?? If not, many things do not play well with modified sine waves.

Yes, Inverter generators are Pure Sine Wave, at least all the ones I've heard of are.

I used to have a Tas myself... T-Discs are too expensive, Went with a Proctor Silex single cup automatic drip, Can use Senso pods (But not T-Discs) I liked the Tas. but too expensive.

[JaxDad]

ibyers wrote:
Came back in and threw a T-Disc in the ol tassimo. It brought my genny to its knees, then it went into overload. Weird! I thought. This Tassimo is rated at 1350watts, ny genny should have handled this no problem. I shed all the other loads and tried again, same result.

No worries, I thought, I brought both gennies. I went back out and hooked them up to the parallel kit. Fired them up and came back in. This time it did not go into overload, but they sure were working hard.

I think you'll find the Tassimo is actually 1600 watts while brewing. According to Champions website a 2000i genny is 2,000 watts max, but only 1,700 watts continuous.

Add to that the fact that most manufacturers "specifications" are, well, rather 'optimistic'. Then add a little science, if the loaded down genny drops down in rpm, and therefore voltage, then the current load rises proportionately.

So in the end, even without any other loads other than the Tassimo, the genny just wasn't going to do it.

[poppin_fresh]

Tassimo did have a recall a while back on brewers that were defective and would cause t-discs to explode. Did you see if yours was on the list?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/02/massive-recall-of-tassimo-coffee-brewers-after-10-year-old-burned-hospitalized/

[Gene_Ginny]

Just to make you feel better I came accross this story:

Massive Recall of Tassimo Coffee Brewers After 10-Year-Old Burned, Hospitalized

LINK

[westend]

Fredzo wrote:
By the time you had to get out the second gennie, I would have just chewed up the K-disc!

Nom-nom!

LOL!

[Fredzo]

By the time you had to get out the second gennie, I would have just chewed up the K-disc!

Nom-nom!

[ibyers]

Thanks all for the replies.

I do have both a coleman coffeemaker (stove top) and a perk. BUT! I didn't bring any, just those t-discs. I ripped open a few and added to the coleman. it was a little weak but made it through the morning.

[mockturtle]

Since I mostly dry camp, I use my little stove-top percolator most of the time. I also have an electric drip coffeemaker and a French press. Coffee is much too important to leave to the uncertainties of electric power! 😄

[Islandman]

Go back to basics, just use a perc and cook on the campfire or your stove top. The stove is probably better since it always takes awhile to get a good fire going, especially if it's raining outside.

[LastOfTheBohica]

I commented on the other forum that the OP referenced in his post.

I had a Kuerig cause my generator a little bit of grief. I had to do a reset on the generator to get everything to work properly. I haven't had a problem since.

It could be that Tassimo's are far more finicky. They supposedly have more "brains" (barcode reader) than other single serve coffe makers. The fact that it is exploding the T-disks sounds like the "brains" can't tell how much water to use.

Maybe the inverter is providing a MSW that is screwing with the coffee maker.

[silvercorvette]

I posted a thread about 12 volt coffee makers and discovered THIS COLEMAN and THIS COLEMAN I haven't had a chance to buy one yet but I have been using THESE MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE BAGS. They are like tea bags only they have coffee in them. They are week if you use a large cup. If I am drinking a mug I put in 2 bags

[MrWizard]

as i remember it, the 1350w is the avg amount of total power used to make 1 cup
the actual real time instant power is much higher to heat the water real fast