The Coffeemaker

Our church runs on coffee. Good, strong coffee. Oh, sure, we have great pastors, a fantastic worship team, heart stopping sermons, and a children’s program without peer. But without coffee, our halls would be empty (except for a few die-heard teetotalers). Jesus said it best: “Man does not live on bread alone.” To this end, Norm and Lynn Morris donated an old, trustworthy Bunn coffeemaker that was probably manufactured in the 1950’s. It worked faithfully for years. It was stainless steel, built like a tank and seemed indestructible.

A little over a month ago, it started making loud noises inside and stopped working.  It reminded me of the scene from the movie “Airplane” where the poor flight attendant announced that both pilots were unconscious from food poisoning and there was no one flying the plane.  The passengers shrugged it off.  Then, as an afterthought, she commented, “And, oh, we’re out of coffee.”  The passengers immediately rioted, complaining loudly, jumping out of their seats, throwing pillows and throttling other passengers.  Creekside was no less concerned.  Mobilization began immediately.  First, we tried to fix it.  Failed.  Then, dozens of members offered percolators as a temporary transition.  (Percolators.  How quaint.)  The hospitality team stepped up to coordinate the change in procedure.  Our Facilities Team immediately started looking for a replacement.

We found a used Curtis coffeemaker on eBay at about a third the price of a new one.  Free shipping.  30 day return.  This is great!  What could possibly go wrong?  Shipping took longer than expected and I wanted to install it before leaving town.  So I agreed to pick it up at the terminal in South Seattle.  The following day, Saturday, I delivered it to Creekside.  I couldn’t unload it by myself.  I struggle with asking for help.  My first thought is, “how can I do this (without help)?”  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one…If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.”  So I asked Dave Hjelm to help me, and so glad I did.  Together we got the “new” coffeemaker into the kitchen and mounted on the counter.  It was beautiful! 

We still had to connect the water and electricity.  Dave was curious about the insides so I pulled off some of the panels.  To my surprise, I saw a disconnected wire.  It must have come loose in shipping.  If Dave hadn’t been curious, I wouldn’t have noticed the wire, and the coffeemaker wouldn’t have worked at all.  Good thing he was there.

There was still much to do: replace the electrical cord cap, connect the water, connect the time-clock.  While running it through the coffee making sequence, I noticed one of the water solenoids was buzzing.  I tapped it and it stopped.  I felt good about our “new” coffeemaker.  It was faster and seemed easy to use.  The next day was Sunday, coffee day.  I came in early to make sure it would work.  The solenoid started buzzing again.  Very annoying.  And the amounts of coffee filling the pots was off. 

After we had finished making coffee, I thought I would look at the solenoid and see if I could fix the buzzing (alone).  It was about a half hour before the service.  What was I thinking?  I’ve never been able to repair or rebuilt a solenoid before.  I’ve always had to replace them.  And sure enough, in trying to remove the solenoid to work on it, water went all over.  While the buzzing went away, weeks later it started to leak.  Fortunately, JD Watson was there to bail me out.  He showed me what he had seen, and how I could replace the solenoid without getting water all over the place.  I thought about Ecclesiastes again.  Two are better than one.  The solenoid replacement went quickly and without a mess.  Now church and our wonderful programs can resume.