Unsenseoble Permanent Filter for your variable Senseo Fix
Written: Sep 03 '04 (Updated Dec 23 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: any Senseo fix you crave, save a bundle, senseo crema layer with any coffee
Cons: deceptive packaging, expensive, design problems, hard to use, savings are less than claimed, blocks your Senseo
The Bottom Line: deleted Dutch instructions, the truth about the crema claim, the real savings, and the all-important taste tests
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| mobiprof's Full Review: Cafe-filter for Senseo Coffee Machines |
un-senseo-tional
This is the un-Senseo Senseotional product you have heard about. This is what you have been craving ever since you bought your Philips Senseo machine: the replaceable, reusable, and washable Senseo filter. The filter that allows you to stop buying from an limited selection of expensive coffee pads and use whatever coffee you fancy.
price
The manufacturer knows you want this product. They are selling two small pieces of plastic with some gauze for the introductory street price of € 17,95.
I have not weighed it to compare the outrageous introductory price to the current gold price, but rest assured that it is much more expensive than the black gold it is designed to hold. The price is a rip-off, plain and simple, yet there are reasons to buy it anyway.
REASONS
coffee choice
One reason to buy this permanent filter is coffee choice. this filter promises to turn any kind of coffee you fancy into a senseotional cup of coffee. This includes the ability to use any coffee left over from before you bought your Senseo, the ability to use coffee not yet available in coffee pads, and the ability to use brands that are traded fairly. All of that, without giving up the Senseoxperience.
price
Another reason is the price of the coffee pads. Coffee pads are decidedly more expensive than a bag of ground coffee. If you could use ground coffee instead, you would save a bundle.
The manufacture knows this, and to help you overcome any inhibitions you might feel about letting yourself being ripped off, the café-filter packaging reassures you that you are actually about to buy an sound investment. It claims that you’ll save 66 % on the cost of coffee, noting that that could easily be € 100 a year if you drink four cups of coffee a day.
No price-conscious consumer can ignore such spectacular savings. As you walk away from the overpriced little box, you’ll feel doubts, guilt even about denying yourself these huge saving.
curiosity
If that guilt doesn’t overpower you and result in an uncontrollable urge to turn back and buy this filter anyway, perhaps curiosity will do the trick.
Does this really work? Let me tell you…
PACKAGING
deceptive packaging
The packaging is deceptive. It is a simple oblong paper box, shaped to contain two such filters – yet it contains only one. Sure, it doesn’t say ׀ filters”, but it doesn’t say ֿ filter” either, and for the price they charge you, you should get a dozen of these things. I consider the packaging to be misleading.
documentation
There is little documentation on the filter. There is a shaped and folded piece of paper inside the box, with holes in it to keep the two part of the filter in their place that serves double duty as a manual.
One side contains documentation in Dutch, the other contains documentation in German. Although, documentation is a rather big word for it, it is just a few instructions on how to use the filter.
don’t do this at home
Interesting, a part of the instructions has been stricken through with a black felt marker. That made me curious. It took some trouble, but I managed to restore the text to sufficient legibility to make out the shocking instructions underneath:
The Dutch text used to be:
“Wij adviseren u om de filter met secondenlijm vast te lijmen (laat enkele druppels lijm in de metalen rand van de houder en druk de onderzijde van de filter hierop aan).”
which translates to:
“We advise you to fasten the filter using superglue (drop a few drops of glue in the metal rim of the holder and push the bottom of the filter onto it).”
Right… it seems someone talked some senseo into them at the very last moment, and they then quickly hired a batch of home workers to correct everything that had already been printed.
manufacturer
One thing that’s conspicuously absent from both the box and the piece of paper that passes for a manual is the name or address of the manufacturer. I guess they just don’t want you to know just who is ripping you of.
All that is on the box is the URL of their web site, www.cafefilter.nl, and all that becomes clear when you visit that website is that LMTO Electronics is the Dutch distributor. They are a distributor of coffee machines and machine accessories. The website merely tells you that the café-filter is a Dutch invention. That makes senseo.
Well, I did some research. I called them up, I asked, and they told me that LMTO is not just the distributor, but they actually are the inventor and manufacturer too.
USING IT
construction
There are two parts to this permanent filter, a bottom part and a top part. The bottom part of the café-filter is a little plastic bin. The top part is a cover. The rim of the bottom part is the only part that’s all-plastic. The plastic in the top and the bottom of the filter is minimal. What little plastic you find there is only there to keep the metal gauze in place. The metal gauze is the actual filter.
using it
Using the filter is very simple. You fill the bottom part with some coffee, put on the top to close it off, insert the filled filter into a coffee pad holder and then proceed as usual.
The café-filter fits the coffee pad holder that Philips created for two coffee pads, but will only contain enough coffee for one cup. So although you’ll be using the coffee pad holder designed for two cups, you should push the button for one cup.
fit
At first sight, the café-filter has a perfect fit, but after using it, judging the results and thinking it over, I do not think it does. A coffee pad makes actual contact with the bottom of the coffee pad holder, leaving very little room for water. The café-filter leaves a space of perhaps a few millimetres between its bottom and the bottom of the coffee pad holder in which water can stream unimpeded by any coffee.
the crema claim
There have been wild stories about Douwe Egberts using some secret chemical additive in their coffee pads to produce the frothy crema layer.
The market stall coffee vendor I know wouldn’t dream of messing up the coffee he sells in any way. He was very suspicious of the crema effect and even made Dutch consumer organisations look into it. Yet he has bought his own industrial coffee pad making machine for a cool &128; 50.000. He is now selling seriously gourmet coffee in Senseosable sized coffee pads and assures me that these pads contain nothing but his best coffee.
The crema effect is not in the coffee, it’s in the machine. It's the design of the Senseo machine, in particular the pressure which with the coffee is pushed through the single tiny hole in the bottom of the coffee pad holder that produces the senseotianal crema layer.
Once you know, a claim by some manufacturer of a permanent filter that the crema layer remains makes you think that it is a claim for consumer who do not know this. After all, the effect is in the machine and the machine has not changed.
However, the claim is not entirely true! When you use the café-filter, the Senseo will still produce a cream layer, but not as rich and frothy as it gets with pads. This is probably because of the less than perfect fit.
the taste test
I made myself a cup of coffee using the café-filter and tried the results. It was just as pure as coffee from coffee pads, but too thin for my taste, too watery.
Real coffee isn’t water. It seems heavier. Senseo coffee seems lighter than regular coffee to me, but with a strong and pure taste. It is different, but I like it. Coffee from the café-filter seems different yet again, and I do not like it. It seems far to close to coloured water with a coffee taste to me, instead of coffee.
I’ve tried filling the café-filter as full as I could, but I never liked the result. I suspect that the less than perfect fit of the filter allows water to stream through the filter quite quickly to form a small pool of water at the bottom of the pad, and that this is the design flaw to blame for the watery taste.
more taste tests
Let’s not judge to hastily. Senseo coffee is in between regular coffee and espresso. This is in part because the grind is in between regular coffee and espresso. I have been told that many Americans may actually like the more watery results of the café-filter, but I don’t like it,
I decided to try and get the best results possible from the café-filter. I bought some Sulawesi beans in the local store that I bought the café-filter from, and asked them to grind these for use with that filter. I do think the results are better.
Further experimentation suggests that even regular coffee may work fine, once you figure out just how much you put into filter. Anyhow, even allowing for personal taste, some experimentation will be required to find out what the best result can be.
yet more taste tests
I’ve tried this filter with both the first-generation Philips Senseo Limited Edition HD7801 and the second-generation Raven Black Philips Senseo HD7810.
The coffee pad holders of these two generations are slightly different, but not very different, as they take the same coffee pads. The café-filter works with both. I did not immediately notice any taste difference and did not try to discover any either, as the real difference is the machine’s lid. I’ve blocked both machines with stray grains of coffee using the café-filter. Opening the first-generation Limited Edition is relatively easy, but once you’ve blocked the second-generation Senseo, you really have a problem.
Those wishing to do many senseoexperiments should get themselves a first generation machine - and make no mistake about it, you are experimenting with your Senseo when you use the café-filter.
Closing and opening
The little pool of water is not the only problem. The café-filter has more design flaws. It is difficult too close it well. It closes, but there is no satisfying snap or something like that. it closes completely, but it’s just friction that keeps the top in place.
Despite the lack of strong closure, opening the café-filter can be difficult. If you are not careful, you will spill coffee grounds all over the place, but the design leaves no room for handles to get a good grip on both the top and the bottom part.
filling it up
Filling this thing is nightmare. The real purpose of the filter is not to keep the coffee in the coffee pad holder, but to keep coffee grains out of the hole in its bottom. Once you’ve filled and closed it, you have to inspect the outside for grains of coffee. You can try brushing it, but before you know it, you will flip its top, spill the coffee and have to start over again.
emptying
Emptying this thing is worse. If you open the Senseo just after brewing a cup of coffee, you will see the café-filter practically floating in a bath of hot water.
It seems that the less than perfect fit allows water to stream through to quickly, but at the same time diminishes the effectiveness of the machine’s pressure, leaving lots of water in the coffee pad holder and the café-filter.
hot
Now, if this were a coffee pad, you would not have to touch it. You would just take the coffee pad holder out, hold it above the waste bin, and turn it around. You can still use the turn-around trick of course, just not above the waste bin, and you will still want to use that trick; as a just used café-filter is hot to the touch.
That is the first problem with emptying it. If you immediately want to make another fresh cup of coffee, you will need to get rid of the used coffee first, which means that you’ll have to handle a hot and wet container – unless you buy more than one.
dirty
Another problem is that you cannot empty the bottom side by turning it over and shaking it. Well, you can, but considerable amounts of coffee will keep sticking to the inside. You will have to get a brush or something to really empty it. Holding it in streaming water works fine too, but may speed up clogging up your sink.
wet
Yet another problem is that once you have somehow emptied it, you are still left with a wet container. That almost guarantees that some grains of coffee will stick to the outside…. which defeats the true purpose of the filter.
a better design
The design is flawed. One major reason to buy a Senseo and put up with the price of coffee pads is easy of use. The café-filter may make things cheaper, but it is also a lot messier – and you can actually buy a complete coffee machines for € 17.95.
All in all, it seems to me that making your own coffee pads is less hassle and will produce better results too.
SAVINGS
The manufacturer’s math is as flawed as the design.
One coffee pad contains 7 grams of coffee. The current Dutch price for a package of 18 coffee pads from Douwe Egberts is € 1,71. A 250 grams pack of ground coffee costs € 1,95 (current Dutch prices listed on Douwe Egbert’s on-line gift shop, www.geschenkenwinkel.nl).
That’s € 1,81 for 126 gram or € 1,95 for 250 grams. The first one works out to 10,05 Eurocent per 7-gram cup, the second to 5,46 Eurocent per 7-gram cup.
So, per amount of coffee, pads are almost twice (1,84) as expensive as ground coffee from the same and official Senseo brand. The actual saving approach 50 % (45,70), not the 66 % the café-filter manufacturer claims.
The manufacturer claims that you would pay only one third of what you pay for coffee pads, the truth is closer to half of what you pay for coffee pads. I can only guess that they used the introductory price of the coffee pads for their calculation and “forgot” to update it.
return on investment
The savings per cup of coffee are roughly 5 cents (4,59555…). So, you’d need almost 400 (390,59) cups of coffee of to make up for the € 17,95 cost of the café-filter.
To actually save € 100 per year, you’d need to drink more than two thousand (2176,02) cups of coffee per year, which, even in a leap year like 2004, is almost six (5,945) cups per day
These calculations were made for the original price of € 17,95, but I see on their website that LMTO has actually raised the price to € 18,95, while the price of pack of Douwe Egberts coffee pads has been lowered from € 1,71 to € 1,69.
CONCLUSION
it’s bad, it’s bad, it’s really really bad
The multiple design issues of the café-filter make using it such a major headache that you don’t feel like coffee anymore. Besides, the coffee the Sense produces when you use this isn’t worth the trouble. Using the café-filter is definitely more troublesome than using a percolator. I find the result too watery, but it may be just right for those who think the Senseo coffee is too strong. Making your own coffee pads seems a much better, more practical idea than the café-filter.
a better design
The whole idea of a small canister to replace a pad is wrong. What you need for a permanent Senseo filter is something that replaces the entire coffee pad holder. That design would solve all the problems the café-filter has. It allows a design with handles, a lid that closes with a reassuring snap, a gauze just above the hole in the bottom, easy filling and easy emptying.
A permanent filter for the Senseo is an appealing idea, but this filter is probably the worst possible execution of that idea.
LINKS
English Manual
used to be at http://www.cafe-filter.nl/Handleiding_EN.htm
moved to http://www.cafe-filter.nl/iFrames/Handleiding_EN.htm
A Live Link is available.
Senseous Canister
Review of another accessory, the Brabantia Canister for Senseo Coffee Pads.
The Bitter Taste of Sensual Creamy Coffee
Review of the first-generation Philips Senseo HD7801 Limited Edition.
Senseous Hot Black Gold
Review of the second-generation Philips Senseo HD7810.
Senseotianal Tips
Tips for Senseo owners, includes instructions for regulating the strength of your coffee and locating and downloading the electronic manual for your model.
How to create your own Senseo coffee pads
The Senseo Classic that explains how to create your own Senseo coffee pads at home.
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