West Bend 13500 Coffee Maker Logo
Posted on Oct 21, 2008
Answered by a Fixya Expert

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Won't perk properly

Hi. My 4 cup coffee maker suddenly won't perk properly. The coffee comes out very weak and not hot enough. I have the other 2 sizes and use the same cord, and they work fine. Can you help? Thanks! M. Schalick

  • 1 more comment 
  • cathcamheldt Oct 23, 2008

    My Percolator is not yet 4 years old. It percs a short time and the coffee comes out weak. My pot is an 8-cup pot.

  • jimmitchell1 Oct 25, 2008

    I have a 4-12 cup Farberware stainless steel pot fairly new and the water does not perculate far enough up the center pipe for the water to reach the coffee basket, causing very weak coffee if coffee at all.

  • preston331 May 11, 2010

    Church has a West Bend Model 13500 coffee pot that gets WARM, but not HOT.

    The sump area has been cleaned using CLR, so a build-up in this area is NOT the problem.

    Possibly a thermostat is involved.

    Wanting to correct the problem with a Replacement Part vs.purchasing a new coffee pot.

    Any suggestions on which PART may be needing replaced.

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1 Answer

Ginko

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  • West Bend Master 19,396 Answers
  • Posted on May 22, 2009
Ginko
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Joined: Feb 13, 2008
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Basing on personal experience (you can find more on Google probably), solutions are:

On percolated (filter) coffee machines:

Check water temp, if water temp is insufficient , most common is scale heating element , faulty element, faulty thermostat.
Check if water is dripping right at the center of the filter, if it is dripping on one side because the orifice is clogged, that can result in weak coffee.
Coffee blend not well distributed on filter basket.

On Espresso machines:

Check water temp, same as filter coffee machines (thermostat element, scale on heating chamber).
Ensure that coffee is filled correctly in the filter cup (fill at level), and well pressed.
Ensure that the coffee mixture that you are using is not too coarse, buy the apposite one for espresso.
Ensure that you are not leaving the machine brewing for a time that is too long, and Italian coffee cup is very small, approximately one regular shot.

On the hob moka pots (espresso, Moka and Bialetti type):

This are the trickiest ones, you need art and practice to get a good espresso with a Moka, but when you learn, the result is better than what you may get with an home electrical espresso maker.
The frame on the hob must be not too strong, and the mixture coarse but well pressed, with water at level tag, or you will get a weak coffee.
On Mokas a good strategy is keeping hob at minimum, and turning up the flame at top when coffee starts coming out.

French and turkish cafetieres:

Ensure that you put enough coffee, water hot enough, and that you left the infusion enough time to get a strong coffee.

Note: insufficient pressure and clogged lines on electric machines never give you a weak coffee, exactly the opposite.
Not pressed mixture always gives weak coffee, but too much pressed mixture may give you coffee with bad taste.

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Related Questions:

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Coffee to water

The Instruction Manual for the West Bend Coffeemaker can be found here:

http://www.westbend.com/supportdata/L5590A_Coffeemakers_ALL.pdf

See page 4 for amount of coffee to use.

Water Level Amount of Ground Coffee

Water Level Amount of Ground Coffee

42 Cups 2 ½ Cups

36 Cups 2 Cups

30 Cups 1 ¾ Cups

28 Cups 1 2/3 Cups

24 Cups 1 ½ Cups

22 Cups 1 ½ Cups

18 Cups 1 ¼ Cups

12 Cups 1 Cup



Use electric perk grind coffeeror coofee ground for all coffeemakers. Do not use drip or finely ground coffee.

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How to measure coffee for 45 cups. Also is a filter needed.

The Instruction Manual for your coffee maker can be found here:

http://www.westbend.com/supportdata/L5613B_LargeCapacityUrns-All.pdf


100-CUP MODEL #33600

Water Level Measure of Ground Coffee

100 cups 6 ¼ cups

80 cups 5 cups

60 cups 4 cups

40 cups 2½ cups


Do not make less than 40 or more than 100 cups of coffee at one time. Use electric perk or regular grind coffee; a filter liner is not necessary.

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When perking coffee in the Keurig, only 1/2 a cup perks and the remaining water goes back into the reservoir. What's wrong.

Hi,

Here is a tip that I wrote that will give you some things to try that will help you get your Keurig coffee brewer working again.

Keurig Coffee Brewer not making a full cup of Coffee


heatman101

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The first problem we noticed is the coffee is not as hot as it used to be, but it was still strong enough. Now the unit perks for about 10 min for a full pot, the light comes on....but the coffe is weak...

Hi, The problem is the keep warm element. The reason, your pot perc's and it gets hot near the thermo, the thermo turns off the main element. The keep warm element is not on so after a small amount of time the water cools and the thermo turns the main element back on again, thus making the water hot. The K W element is supposed to be on all the time the pot is plugged in, it is instrumental in perking the first brew making it really hot, the thermo turns off the main element and the K W element keeps the water hot. The K M element is very a easy fix. Thanks and please ask if you need more help. Ron For the part go to repairshack.com
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Our coffee maker makes weak coffee suddenly it is only a year old.

Hi. You have a 4 cup pot made in China.

The problem is the keep warm element. The reason, your pot perc's and it gets hot near the thermo, the thermo turns off the main element. The keep warm element is not on so after a small amount of time the water cools and the thermo turns the main element back on again, thus making the water hot. The K W element is supposed to be on all the time the pot is plugged in, it is instrumental in perking the first brew making it really hot, the thermo turns off the main element and the K W element keeps the water hot. The K M element is very a easy fix, it is the small looking white rope that runs around the bottom of the pot. You have 1-nut and 1- screw to remove. When removing the screw from the main element you must hold the (leg) that the K M element is screwed to so it does not bend and brake off. Take your time and be firm with the pressure you apply to the screw, while holding it with a pliers, good luck. bobbyone
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Farberware 4 and 12 cup percolators stopped making good coffee

I thoroughly cleaned my 4-cup percolator by brewing a couple of pots of plain white vinegar and scrubbing the build-up from the bottom of the pot (and running a couple of plain water brews through the pot after all the cleaning). The percolator now brews hot, strong coffee again!
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Coffeepots not operating by not getting hot enough

Hi. Sue, Problem is you're buying China pot's. One of 2 things can cause that problem. The Thermostat or the keepwarm element. 9 out of 10 it is the thermo. The parts are not available in the USA. I have a eBay auction site. I have to make the thermo's out of USA ones. They are 8.00 plus 2.00 S/H. My eBay name is ron622c. If you want to stay with Farberware you can buy a used one or if you are lucky a new one. But don't buy a China one, Good luck. Ron
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