Coffee. The Best Way to Make It While Living in a RV
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We have been on the road now for over 9 months. We have stayed at RV parks, National Parks, State Parks, National Forests, BLM lands, and in parking lots. We have had full hook ups, no hook ups, and solar power. We have constantly changed our set up and strived to improve it, seeking what makes our life the most comfortable for our family.
If you are a fulltime RV family, especially a new RV family, you can probably relate to constantly buying things and trying them out, just to find a better option later on. We are completely guilty of doing this, many times, throughout our months on the road, and I hope to be able to help you make the right decision on the first try.
One thing that I have tried many times to get right is how to make coffee in a RV.
If you are anything like me coffee is not just something you drink, it is a way of life.
Until I get a few cups in me in the morning, my brain just feels foggy. I can not concentrate, and I just do not feel as sharp. As a mom, wife, small business owner, and travel nurse I need to be the sharpest I can be, and that means lots and lots of coffee.
In our sticks and bricks home it was a no brainer, we just had a normal Mr. Coffee automatic drip coffee maker that plugged into the wall.
It was easy and I never put much thought in to it.
When we moved into our RV, I brought along that trusty Mr. Coffee and did not think twice about it.
But RV life is completely different than life in a sticks and bricks home. One major difference between the two is in the power situation. In a sticks and bricks, you may occasionally think about tripping your breakers if you plug in quite a few high draw appliances. In a RV, you have to pay a lot closer attention.
Do you have a 50 amp or a 30 amp RV?
Is your A/C on?
Do you have an electric fireplace on?
Are you using a high dryer?
These are all things you must notice before using any appliance that pulls a lot of power, and an electric coffee maker is a very high draw appliance. I know it sounds crazy because the coffee maker is so small, but think of it like this, anything that heats up draws a lot of power to do so.
The faster an object heats up, the more power it draws to do so.
For example, an electric coffee maker usually produces coffee at about 195-205 degrees in temperature in about 5-10 minutes, according to the National Coffee Association.
It usually takes a crockpot about 3-4 hours to reach the same temperature range. When you think of it this way, you can see how a coffee pot would draw more power than a crockpot.
If we were using full hookups, it was a pain to make sure no other high draw appliances were running before turning on the coffee pot, but it was not impossible. However, if we wanted to boondock and run off our solar power instead, the electric coffee maker just pulled too much power for our solar set up to handle.
We have a decent solar set up with 450 watts of solar panels and a battery bank made up of 3 batteries, a 12-volt lead acid battery and 2 6-volt lead acid batteries. And yet, we still couldn’t power our coffee pot easily. It just depleted our energy stores too fast.
We had purchased a cheap, metal stove top coffee percolator from the camping section at Walmart. It seemed to be the perfect solution. It allowed me to make strong coffee without using any power. Plus, it was made from metal so it would not break along our travels.
It was a Stansport Camper’S Percolator 20 Cup Coffee Pot costing only $21.99
It even contained this little metal basket to hold the coffee grounds instead of coffee filters, but the way this pot was set up the coffee grounds always ended up in the bottom of the pot. I tried many things to fix this, but I could not find a solution. I even tried making coffee filters fit in the basket. They helped some but not enough. I had to find a different solution.
I ended up pulling out the old Mr. Coffee electric coffee maker again.
But one day, we were walking through an Ace Hardware and I found it. It was a One-All 8 cup Clear Stovetop Percolator, part of the Café Brew Collection. It was only $18.99, but it was worth every penny.
I have not pulled out the Mr. Coffee since purchasing this baby.
It is made out of the same glass that a normal coffee pot is. It has a plastic basket for the coffee grounds, similar to the metal one in the other pot, except this one actually keeps 90% of the coffee grounds inside of it. It still lets some coffee grounds through, but it is small enough that I am able to deal with it. The only other complaint I have with it is that it is small. It says it is 8 cups, but it is not, or at least not for my cup size. For my husband and I, we can each get almost 2 cups of coffee per pot. I end up having to make 2 pots when we are both drinking out of it, but I don’t mind that so much.
It is small, and it stores easily on my stove top during the day and in the sink during travels.
It uses no electricity, and it is able to work regardless if I have full hookups or we are boondocking.
I honestly wish I had found out about this one sooner.
I am not sure why more RVers are not using this for coffee, but I am in love with it and wanted to share my find with you.
Are you a coffee lover?
It also makes a good pot of tea if you are into that.
If you give this percolator a try, let me know! If you have an amazing coffee making secret, let me know that also. I am always looing for anything that would work out better than what I am currently using.
*Note percolators and drip coffee makers are similar, but they are not the same. They make a stronger cup of coffee so use a slightly less amount of coffee grounds with a percolator.
