12-Cup Stainless Steel Stovetop Coffee Percolator

We bought this for camping but have been experimenting with it at home and are very happy with it. As it comes with no directions whatsoever, here’s what we’ve been doing, in case it’s helpful to anyone else: 1. Fill the pot up with cold water to the welding line at the bottom of the pour spout, below the holes. I don’t know how many 8-oz. cups this is, but my best guess is around 8 or so. 2. Fill the basket with 3/4 c. ground coffee (2 oz. by weight). 3. Set the basket on the tower inside the coffee pot. 3. Set the lid into place with the little lip facing toward the handle (this is so the lid doesn’t fall off when you’re pouring; if you hold the top while you’re pouring, the placement doesn’t matter). 4. Make sure the glass knob is on securely but just a little loose–maybe a quarter turn looser than tightly closed. 5. Set the pot over high heat just until you see some wisps of steam coming out of the pot and the coffee beginning to “perk” up into the glass top. Turn the heat down to maintain the perking but keep it away from a hard boil. On our electric stove, I turn the burner down to “3,” but every stove is different so this may take some experimentation. 6. Percolate the coffee for 20-25 mins and then take it off the heat and let stand for 5 minutes before pouring–this lets it finish brewing and also lets any loose grounds settle to the bottom of the pot. When I open the pot to clean it, some grounds have always escaped, but these are not finding their way into our coffee mugs–I imagine this is a bigger problem if you pour all the way down to the bottom of the pot, which we have not done yet. Makes a really good, hot, strong-but-not-too-strong cup of coffee! Someone else said to use half as much coffee as you think you need and percolate for twice as long, and I think that’s good advice. Even when it’s fully brewed, I’ve noticed that percolated coffee looks paler than regular drip coffee does.

I looked at several stovetop percolators during my search before I decided on this one. The price was not unreasonable and it looked to be sturdily made. Which is a good thing since I can be rather clumsy and half blind when I first wake up. My 17 year old daughter and I tried it out the same day it was delivered. While there might not be any measurements inside nor outside of it (it would be nice if it did), after reading the reviews which verified common sense I just fill it to the bottom welded line of the spout or just between there and the first hole from the bottom of the spout. We set the gas burner on medium and just waited for the music/perking to begin. We turned the heat down and after a few minutes of it perking we turned it off. We then let it sit for a minute to let the water drain back down to the bottom of the pot. While we used an espresso roast (that’s all that we had), the flavor wasn’t too strong. Now, this morning I used a coffee & chicory coffee and the taste was phenomenal. Yes, the temperature is rather hotter than a drip coffee maker or a Keurig, but that’s just fine with me since it means that even after I use my homemade cinnamon coffee creamer it was just hot enough to drink without burning my mouth. All in all the Coleman stovetop percolator was easy to assemble and easy to use. I personally love the design of the percolator. Just remember when using something with a metal handle on the stovetop make sure to use a pot holder. Oh! If you’re worried about coffee grounds just use a coffee filter. Since all I have are ones made for a drip coffee maker I just folded it in half and then kept folding it until it was a triangle and just snipped the end to make a hole for the stem. Easy peasy! I’m thinking of trying to make my own out of unbleached cotton muslin. We shall see! Have a great 😃 day! It’s time for a second cup of coffee ☕!

I have been using this for several months and really like the quality and functionality of this coffee pot with no leaking when pouring a cup of coffee. Another plus is that stainless steel is very durable and easy to clean. It has a decent brewing speed, from start to finish a pot of coffee brews in around 35 minutes. There is nothing like the smell of coffee brewing in the morning. It makes a very nice tasting pot of coffee. I gave it only four stars due to the fact that the basket lid allows some grounds to get into your coffee due to the lid being a little small in relation to the basket. Other than that this is a great coffee pot.