Making coffee is an essential task for nomads. Here are few ways to make it while living on the road.
Making coffee with propane
Like with almost all cooking in a van (and anything to do with generating heat), making coffee is much easier when using propane (or other fuel). Heating water on a stove uses no electricity, although it does require a bit more labor.
The French press is the most famous of the steeping coffeemakers. They can be challenging to clean in a van galley and many are made of glass, but if coffee is that critical to your existence Jetboil makes a French press kit that runs off of the common propane cylinders. The aeropress has many RV fans because it is small and made of plastic.
Pour-over coffee makers are cones that hold a filter and grounds. Hot water is poured over them usually in a few doses. Melitta is the most famous one. They are typically made of unbreakable plastic and are relatively easy to clean.
Making coffee over a campfire
Solar water heating
Solar water heating allows you to use the sun to heat water for showers, cooking, making coffee, and other uses. By using solar energy directly, instead of first converting it to electricity via solar panels, you can generally heat water more efficiently. This method also doesn't use any fuels like propane, but it does depend on fairly sunny weather. Make coffee with solar heat …
Making coffee with electricity
Electric coffee makers are possible, but are best used when connected to shore power. They use a lot of power[1], so you'll either need to be plugged to the grid (for example, at a campground with hookups) or have a substantial onboard electrical system with large solar panels and batteries to match. To compound the problem, coffee is usually brewed in the early morning when batteries are most deeply discharged. This early morning load is bad enough for an MPPT-charged system but it hamstrings a PWM-charged system (for reasons explained here).
If you run a generator in the morning, that is a great time to use an electric coffeemaker.
A small drip coffeemaker may draw 740 watts average. Add up to 10% for inverter losses for a little over 800 watts, or 62 Amps. For 5 minutes of brewing, about 5 Amps. A pod coffeemaker has a higher power draw, about 1200 watts or 100 Amps. Heating the absolute minimum amount of water needed is a good way to conserve usage; one option is a 12v hot water bottle.
Making coffee without heat
Cold-brewed coffee brews overnight in the cooler or on the counter. It is reported to be smoother and less acidic, but may require more grounds to achieve the same amount of flavor. To make it, you pour grounds into a quart or other jar, fill jar with water, allow to sit 8-24 hours, pour coffee through a sieve, discarding the "muddiest" grounds at the bottom of the jar, rinse the jar and sieve, and finally pour the coffee back into jar through filter sitting on the sieve.
Other considerations
Space and other constraints might work against otherwise-acceptable coffeemakers.
- will this fit in my van? On my counter?
- if electric, do I have a big enough inverter to run it?
- how easy will it be to clean without a sink and running water? Can I fit my hand into it?
- does it require special/proprietary parts that may be difficult to repair or replace?
Resources
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Some or all of the content on this page was originally sourced from this page on RVWiki