Vacuum coffee maker

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Illustration of a vacuum pot coffee brewer and the process which makes the water go from the bottom to the upper chamber.

A vacuum coffee maker uses vapor pressure and vacuum force to brew coffee which is usually regarded as a clean, crisp, rich, and smooth coffee compared to other methods of cofee brewing. Alternatively, this is also known as a vac pot, siphon or asyphon coffee maker.

The device was invented by Loeff of Berlin during the 1830s and it has since been long used and manufactured in many parts of the world.[1]

The Napier Vacuum Machine, invented in 1840, was an early example of this method of brewing coffee.[2] While generally excessively complex for everyday use, these vacuum devices were prized for producing a clear brew, and were actually quite popular until the middle of the twentieth century.

The principle of a vacuum coffee maker is to heat water in the lower vessel of the brewer until expansion forced the contents through a narrow tube into an upper vessel containing coffee grounds. When the lower vessel becomes empty, brewing time has elapsed and the heat is removed, the resulting vacuum on the lower chamber would draw the brewed coffee back through a strainer into the lower chamber from which it could be decanted.

The apparatus is usually disassembled to pour the coffee into cups.

The Bauhaus interpretation of this device can be seen in Gerhard Marcks’ Sintrax coffee maker of 1925.[3][4]

An early variant technique, called a balance siphon, was to have the two chambers arranged side-by-side on a sort of weighing-scale-like device with a counterweight attached on the opposite initial (or heating) chamber.^{[citation needed]} Once the near-boiling water is forced from the heating chamber into the brewing one, the counterweight activates, causing a spring-loaded snuffer to come down over the flame, thus turning off the heat. Moreover, this allows the cool water to return to the original chamber.

Design and composition of the vacuum cofee maker varies. The two connected chambers are made of either pyrex, metal, or plastic. The filter can be a glass rod, cloth, paper or nylon screen.