Saga of the Coffee Maker

What a day! We went in to Costco for wine and other things, most of which we did not find. One of the big items on Barb’s priority list is a thermal caraf coffee maker. There was only one choice at Costco. We decided to go to the Galleria (mall), especially at Liverpool and Sears, 2 department stores across the street. What she really wants is a Cuisinart, but none seem to be available. After running all around the mall (going to Liverpool and Sears twice each), our best choice seemed to be a Krups model at Second Cup for 1,430 pesos (i.e., over $145). After going back to Costco a 2nd time and then returning to the Galleria, we bought it and brought it home. Total time in the various stores shopping, almost 5 hours although that included about half an hour getting a Sub for lunch. However, when we tried to use it at home, instead of the hot water going into the caraf, it spilled out over the counter. We finally figured out what is wrong. Krups makes 2 kinds of coffee maker--an insulated thermal caraf and a glass caraf. It is exactly the same machine except that the one for the glass caraf has a small hot plate at the bottom and the other, I think, just has a plastic plate. Ours has the hot plate! This means that it does not push the thermal caraf up enough to open the valve at the top of the caraf to allow the hot water/coffee to go into the caraf. Barb was thinking that we could just put something on the hot plate to raise the caraf about 1/4 inch; I called it a duct tape solution. Her first solution didn’t work; however, the hamburger flipper seems to be working. We were not sure if we could take it back. That was the only one the Second Cup store had so we can’t exchange it. In Mexico, retailers are not accustomed to taking things back or giving refunds on credit cards. Earlier, we lost over $40 when the credit never arrived on our credit card account. I guess that we’ll be keeping it, although the instruction booklet says explicitly not to use a glass caraf with the thermal machine or the thermal caraf with the glass machine! As long as the hot coffee goes into the caraf, it should be ok and we just shut off the machine once the coffee is brewed in order to shut off the hot plate. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the old expression says.