COFFEE FILTER EXPERIMENT
I heard a while ago that there was or going to be a shortage of coffee filters... oh, big effing deal, I thought.
Well, surer than s..., my local store ran out and the guy I talked to said he was using paper towels. That sounded kind of hokey, but I decided to try rinsing all the grounds off a used filter, drying it, and re-using it.
No joy. Biggest problem was fitting it back into the filter holder when dry. Don't do it right and the coffeepot's rate of hot water delivery exceeds the filter's throughput and coffee grounds end up in the carafe because of the overflow.
So I decded to preform them when wet by draping them over a suitably sized chicken soup can, ~3-1/2" diameter. Pic shows unused filters, the dried filter over the can with a rubber band, and a couple of dried preformed used filters.
Apparently, there's some kind of standard between the coffeepot makers and the filter makers so the pot's delivery rate to the basket does not exceed the filtering rate of the paper. My pot is 900 Watts, which kind of surprised me that it was that much. I'd'a thunk more like only 200 Watts
Because of the inevitable filter clogging, I can't use these recycled filters more than once or twice, depending on how carefully they're rinsed out. And when wet, the paper is pretty fragile. The hardest part of this "green" operation was getting them centered on the chicken soup can for drying without tearing them.
Anyhow, I found another store which had beaucoup filters, so I hoard-bought two packs of them. But for what it's worth, here's the cutting-edge latest-and-greatest tomorrow's news scoop on coffee filter technology.
Terry
Disclaimer: It is not absolutely necessary to use a chicken soup can.
