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Lately, coffee from my very basic Mr. Coffee 5-cup drip brewer has been watery tasting, and I am hoping for some troubleshooting help.

I recently purchased of a Cuisinart DBM-8 (a basic automatic grinder) to replace an even more basic blade grinder. This grinder has allows for a grind amounts in increments of "2 coffee cups" starting from 4 cups.

My coffee did not become watery upon first use of the DBM-8. I usually brew using 16 to 20 fluid oz of water, and I have switched between the 4-cup and the 6-cup setting on the grinder. I found that the 6-cup setting tasted pretty good, but seemed to use up a lot of beans.

With all that said, what has happened for the past week is that coffee made using my brewer has been tasting watery, no matter if I use the 4-cup or the 6-cup grind setting, and whether I try more or less water. I have set the coarseness of the grind to medium, which I believe is appropriate. All I am getting is colored hot water.

When I inspect the coffee filter and the grounds after brewing with the 6-cup grind, I observe a portion of the coffee grounds appear dry on top, although beneath that, the coffee grounds appear wet. It's as if the hot water is going directly through the filter without soaking enough in the grounds.

Is my coffee maker broken? I tried cleaning with diluted vinegar, but this did not change things.

Is it the beans? I do switch around, but the beans I buy are in the 10-20$ range per pound. I keep the beans in the closed hopper of the grinder.

MTSan
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bernie
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  • The grounds float instead of being soaked... Thinking about a solution... – MTSan Oct 14 '16 at 11:21
  • Hmm, a hypothesis worth checking by lifting the lid of the maker while it's in operation. It's only a very small patch of the grounds that look dry (lighter color), and it's immediately wet underneath. Additionally, the center of the grounds in the filter forms a small depressed area, making me think that water is some how passing through too quickly. – bernie Oct 14 '16 at 15:37
  • Agree with the above - try lifting the lid - maybe the water is somehow "bypassing" a majority of the coffee grounds. – brendo234 Oct 14 '16 at 16:47
  • This may sound stupid but you may give it a try. Carefully considering the story I realize that heterogenous particles help water to wet the grounds easily in your case. First, in blade-grinder you got uneven grounds. Second, in the first days of your burr-grinder you may have some uneven grounds. Then, small particles fill in the spaces in the burrs and you start to have even grounds. So, my proposal: try to add just a bit of heterogeneity. Use a mortar? Put a bit of cinnamon if you're into aroma. Just try to overcome adhesive force of water. Please report back the results. – MTSan Oct 14 '16 at 21:25
  • You truly are a detective! Today, I slightly lifted the lid on my coffee maker, and I got stronger results in the coffee. But I think this is because by observing the process, I change the outcome! The lid of the coffee maker pushes down on the basket, allowing water to flow through.

    Finally, I also have some data. I weighed that the DBM-8 produces 19 g of ground coffee on the 4-cup setting. For 16 oz of water, I should really be using closer to 30 g of coffee. So in tomorrow's experiment, I will weigh how much coffee the next higher setting (6 cups) generates.

     – bernie Oct 15 '16 at 16:22
  • continued: The coffee today was stronger tasting than before, suggesting that the grounds are not soaking enough. It's hard to say on the floating, because lifting the lid interrupts the flow of water. Nonetheless, I think I should be keeping the lid of the maker slightly ajar when brewing. Thanks for your astute comments. – bernie Oct 15 '16 at 16:26
  • Are you measuring the ground coffee (either by weight or volume) or relying on the grinder to do that? I suggest measuring. Still, if it looks roughly like the right amount and it isn't getting wet, you have a different problem. Does the coffee maker have multiple outlets for the hot water? Are any of them clogged? – Jerry101 Oct 16 '16 at 00:49
  • I rely on the grinder, but I've now measured the mass of coffee grounds produced by the two relevant output settings of the grinder. the 6-cup setting generates 33 g of ground coffee (4-cup was 19 g). Since I'm making 16 oz of coffee, the 6-cup setting is more appropriate, although 33 is more than 150% of 19. Nonetheless, despite using that much coffee and using something to keep the lid slightly ajar to slow the flow of water, I still ended up with something watery. hmm i thought the problem might have been solved. – bernie Oct 16 '16 at 16:54
  • continued: I think I'll try with a more ajar lid tomorrow, and if that doesn't work, I'll need to devise something that spreads the hot water over the entire filter basket. @Jerry101, it could be that the hot water channels are clogged such that water comes out only the main outlet, drilling straight through the beans. I had cleaned with vinegar, but perhaps it wasn't sufficient. Is there a way to investigate this? – bernie Oct 16 '16 at 16:57
  • Can you push a pipe cleaner through the channels? Or replace those parts? It might be time to replace the coffee maker. Sweethome has helpful reviews, also the AeroPress makes very tasty coffee. – Jerry101 Oct 16 '16 at 22:55
  • I'm going to use my blade grinder tomorrow, and if the results are unchanged, google searches suggest that the water temperature may be wrong. It's hard for me to measure that since I don't have a thermometer. The water seems hot to me, but maybe it's not good enough. – bernie Oct 18 '16 at 19:16
  • WELP, I'm having this same problem with a newly purchased Mr. Coffee 5 cup capacity.! I use 2 filters: https://i.stack.imgur.com/wGbYh.jpg – withaC Jan 14 '18 at 17:50
  • Well have you tried any of the proposed solutions? Have you checked the water temperature, played with the grind settings etc? Once you have done all that and it still doesn't work, you could explain us what you did and we might be able to help you. – avocado1 Jan 16 '18 at 13:33

5 Answers5

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Well this is a strange problem but it seems to have to do with the new grinder you are using or the way you use it since the grind is the only variable that has changed (according to your story).

Watery coffee most often means that you don't use enough ground coffee. Try using 6g of coffee per 100ml of water for a medium roast. If the roast is very light you may use a slightly higher coffee to water ratio. If it is not the quantity of coffee it is probably the grinder setting. Try a finer grind, something between table salt and sand (probably just the medium-fine setting on your grinder, however do check with your fingers). The problem may be what was suggested in the comments. If the grind is too coarse, the water is just running through the coffee and doesn't leave the time to spread and steep. This is in line with the hole in the center of the coffee bed you are describing. Maybe try to measure the time the coffee needs to run through and see if it changes if you grind finer.

If this doesn't help then I'd suggest you properly clean the spout and make sure the water is dripping out the way it is supposed to. Maybe scale has built up which is channeling the water, forcing it through the spout in a stream that hits the coffee grounds with too much pressure.

I suggest you try all of the above which will most likely solve your problem. Additionally however you could cut up some standard paper filters and place them on the ground coffee so that it is completely covered. In theory the water should then distribute much more evenly through the grounds. I'd suggest you do this only after you have solved the general problem as a means to improve the flavor. It'd definitely be a quite "hacky" solution and I think first of all your machine should work the way it is supposed to.

avocado1
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  • thanks @avocado1. I should have made an update yesterday, but after reverting to using the blade grinder, I found that the coffee taste was still watery. My suspicion is the heating element of the coffee maker is weakening, and it happened to coincide with around the same time I bought the new grinder. Also, I can confirm that I am using ~30 g of coffee for 16 oz of water, which is exactly your ratio of 6g per 100 mL. – bernie Oct 20 '16 at 17:41
  • Water temperature is definitely a possibility, it should be around 94°C, which is something like 200 Fahrenheit I think. If your temperature is only slightly too low so you don't realize there's a difference, the coffee should taste quite sour. Only if it's a lot underneath that ideal temperature which I think you'd notice the brew would be watery. To be sure just measure the temperature right after brewing with a kitchen thermometer. – avocado1 Oct 20 '16 at 17:57
  • Fine grounds on a drip machine -> bitter taste. Yesterday, I used more beans at a normal grind setting and got a good coffee at the expense of using 40+ g of beans for 16 oz of coffee. Today, I put a small piece of paper towel on top of the middle of the grounds (back to 30 g), and the coffee tasted much better. The water was percolating too fast for some reason – bernie Oct 27 '16 at 17:04
  • Too fast percolation... This seems like your device overheats the water way too early. Then, it evaporates quickly and drips quickly. Is this a possibility? I remember we have discussed a similar idea in such a thread. You may want to see that. http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/2405/will-cold-water-result-in-cooler-coffee-with-drip-coffeemaker – MTSan Oct 27 '16 at 17:28
  • @MTSan, I'm not sure. I always use cold tap water. I didn't mention this, but I switched coffee makers as well over the weekend. It's still a drip machine. I am happy with putting a small piece of paper towel over the grounds. The paper towel did not take on much color, and it seemed to have led to more even soaking of the coffee grounds. – bernie Oct 27 '16 at 18:29
  • @avocado1 has mentioned a very nice solution here. I appreciate the hack. However, as your percolation was once working, I am trying to figure out the relevant parameter that disrupts it. Yours is a unique story, lefenzy. I'll be disappointed if we cannot find out the reason. – MTSan Oct 27 '16 at 19:57
  • @MTSan, it may be because I have become more observant of the taste of my coffee with the purchase of the grinder. But I know there definitely was a period of time (~1 week) following the new grinder purchase in which the coffee tasted good. And we can be confident the problem is related to percolation since coffee amount, water temperature, and grind setting all seem to be ok. It seems that the hot water does not spread out enough, and the paper towel piece solves that problem, but I don't know why it's necessary to have this solution. – bernie Oct 28 '16 at 18:31
  • Am I understanding this correctly that you bought a new drip machine? If that is the case and the problem (without the paper towel hack) still persists, I suggest you experiment with your grind setting. Then it would seem to me that your ground coffee is too coarse. In this case the water just rushes through and the coffee grounds won't steep long enough. – avocado1 Nov 01 '16 at 11:21
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I had the same problem. watered down, dry coffee grounds in the center of the coffee filter full of grounds. Wet around the edge. So, I took the "water filter" out, and it seems the water filter is a sandwich of some kind of hydrophobic material that doesn't pass the water through, What. Took it over to the sink, turn the water on to slow drip, and sure enough, pools on top of the filter and runs over the edges. Flipped it over, same thing. Kind of like a wet tshirt full of air in the swimming pool effect. yanked the filter. ordered replacements (not made by mr. coffee!), and hope that solves this silliness. The filter had been used about 15 days, so maybe they just don't last long. If that's the case, I'll just use water from the refrigerator, filtered, and forget about these little disks.

c davis
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(a few years later): I no longer have the Mr. Coffee, but instead use a Hamilton Beach two-way brewer, which supports K-cups (i.e. still not a high end machine). Here's what I've found works best for me. My grinder (DBM-8) dispenses around 22 grams of coffee on the 4-cup setting and around 40 grams on the 6-cup setting. I use 350 mL of water for the former and 640 mL of water for the latter. When I am brewing an amount like 22 grams, I find I get the best tasting coffee if I keep the coffee maker on its bold setting and use a cone-shaped paper filter (though the machine is meant to use basket-shaped filters). Otherwise, the coffee may be watery. When I am brewing a larger amount, like 40 grams, it doesn't matter, the coffee will taste fine either way.

There was a lot of detective work done earlier on, as covered in various comment threads. But I think the simple conclusion is that the pathway for the water to percolate through the grounds is too short when brewing a small amount of coffee with a basket-shaped filter.

I typically now use a medium grind, but I don't experiment with this that much.

As a general practice, one should try to measure coffee by weight so that the water-coffee ratio remains consistent. Note that the ratio I use is between 16:1 water:coffee to 17:1, similar to the 16.667 ratio recommended by avocado1.

bernie
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Many drip coffee makers now have a valve in the filter basket. I think the purpose is to allow pulling out the carafe during brewing to grab a cup before brewing is done (bad idea). They usually carry a warning not to leave the carafe out for more than about 30 seconds to avoid the filter basket overflowing.

If yours has that, try leaving the carafe out at the start of the cycle. Be sure to insert it well before the time limit specified. That will allow the filter basket to partially fill with water, wet the grounds, and get them more evenly distributed in the basket. It's also like a brief bloom. Once the grounds are wet and the brew starts to drain, you will get less of a hole in the center of the grounds.

That should make a big difference in the thin-tasting coffee. Even without the problem of thin-tasting coffee, this method can produce a better-tasting result from a cheap drip machine.

fixer1234
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  • I didn't find this to work; gave watery results when I put the carafe in only after the bloom phase. (Nowadays, I am using a fancier drip coffee brewer, one with a bloom phase.) I still get inconsistent brews though. I observe that the best results come from tamping down on the grounds when the grounds and filter are in the basket. Also, when I see (through the grills in the brewer basket lid) that the filter basket nearly completely fills with water, the coffee that day tastes better – bernie May 16 '22 at 13:48
  • @bernie, I suspect that your experience is some other issue. The time the grounds spend in water before you insert the carafe is immersion brewing, which should be a little stronger. The last sentence of your comment is spot on, and that's what should be happening when you delay putting in the carafe. Just a thought: if you're using very fresh coffee beans that you're grinding on the fine side, and brewing a small amount of coffee (say 1 mug), a lot of the grounds may float and then cling to the sides of the filter when the water drains, so a relatively small amount of grounds gets brewed. – fixer1234 May 16 '22 at 19:04
  • I've been brewing ~48 grams of coffee each time. 16:1 water coffee. Sometimes I use pre-ground, to isolate the effect of my grinder. I don't know if your technique works for other coffee brewers, but for mine, I get the best results by tamping the grounds lightly (with a small plastic measuring cup). I do get the immersion effect as a result, not during the bloom phase, but during the regular brewing process. The only caveat to mention is that I drink decaf nowadays. – bernie May 19 '22 at 12:23
  • @bernie, the decaf explains it. You're not awake enough to do the process reliably or to be aware of what you're tasting (it's the zombie effect). :-) The carafe trick does work for me (when I'm not too lazy to do it--I only use a drip maker now for fast utility coffee). Interesting about the tamping. – fixer1234 May 19 '22 at 15:46
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I had the same problem with my fairly new Mr Coffee machine whenever I tried to make a second pot of coffee. Tried the usual solutions. None worked. Until I discovered unplugging the machine after making the first pot. Then the second pot was perfect.

I don't know why this works, but I must be resetting the internal electronics by unplugging it. Perhaps the machine is not heating water hot enough for the second pot unless the machine's electronics are reset.

user13096
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