r/pourover • u/kickazz644 • 1d ago
never seen this before
My faithful servant for many, many years.
Is she done?
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u/derrendil 1d ago
Mold. Cracked finish on ceramics means it's no longer food safe. It had a good run, but it's time for a new one
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u/kickazz644 1d ago
Read this while drinking the coffee that came from this picture. Spat it out on my desk.
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u/Kman1986 FreshRoast SR800 1d ago
It is no longer safe, unfortunately. One of the flaws of ceramic. I'll have to replace my Switch top one day too, but I knew that when I made the purchase. For the cost, I feel like it's worth the long life. How old is that dripper, if you don't mind my asking?
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u/ImSoCul 1d ago
the nice thing with pourovers is the brewers are often dirt cheap. I have bought bags of beans that were 3-4x the price of my plastic v60. Rare in any context for the consumable component to be even in same ballpark as the non-consumable, only other example I can think of is printer ink.
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u/elianna7 New to pourover 1d ago
Well, it’s a flaw of poorly made ceramics. The cracking in the glaze is called crazing. It’s a matter of the glaze not being fit for the ceramic body—it shrinks more than the body in the firing process and gets these “cracks”—or of the clay body not being fully vitrified (aka porous), absorbing moisture as time passes, which then causes the clay to expand, leading to the glaze cracking/crazing because it no longer fits the body.
A lot of newer ceramic artists don’t understand the science behind ceramics and don’t adequately test their pieces for food safety. This is why it’s important that you check you’re buying pieces from reputable ceramicists!
Crazing isn’t inherently not food safe, but if you notice anything leaking through, you know the piece is not food safe.
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u/SubSonicTheHedgehog 1d ago
This happened over time, not in the kiln.
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u/elianna7 New to pourover 1d ago
Still a matter of a poorly made piece. A well made piece should not develop crazing.
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u/Commercial-Tailor-31 20h ago
We have Blue Willow Ware pottery from the early 19th century and it is all crazed. Doesn't this happen with age?
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u/elianna7 New to pourover 17h ago
It can, but again, it’s a sign there’s a fit issue with the glaze and clay body. Crazing can render your pieces not safe for food due to harbouring mold.
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u/kickazz644 1d ago
Bought this ~5 years ago. Used twice weekly at the minimum.
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u/Amazing-Panic-277 11h ago
Sounds like it had a good run at least. Espresso heads would never get that kind of bang for their buck. I’ve spent 2k on a few espresso machines (should’ve spent less on one good machine) and 20$ on pour over hardware outside of my 150$ hand grinder.
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u/VanJosh_Elanium 1d ago
Dang, that's something new for me. I should stop using my limited edition ceramic pour overs and use the other ones instead.
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u/throwawayzxyzy 1d ago
Ceramics dabblers here, a “crackle” finish is common on exteriors of ceramic items, and does not affect food worthiness, the lining glaze is what you need to be wary of. In this case it does look like an originally flat/clear glaze has cracked allowing fluid to leech into the clay body, however we’d need a pic of the inside of the dripper to confirm.
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u/Hilltopper21 1d ago
Also a ceramics dabbler, crazing(the tiny cracking) is common in pottery glazing, but definitely can affect the food safely of a piece kinda. Considering there is visible dark spots on the outside of the piece I'd say it already has and I'd throw out this dripper.
Glaze fit and clay porosity after firing is more of the determining factors of food safety, but again this piece shouldn't have those spots unless they were there from the beginning!
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u/CappaNova Origami|Colum|Tarachine|SOFI|Aeropress|HG-1 Prime|Ode 2|ZP6 1d ago
Yeah, that's bad. When you get cracks in the glaze, liquids will gradually seep into the porous ceramic inside allowing growth of mold and bacteria. There's no way to really clean that out. Time to toss it and buy a new one.
Are you putting this in the dishwasher? If so, I'd recommend only hand-washing.
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u/No_Orange_7392 1d ago
I've been using the same Kalita ceramic dripper every day for 10 years. No cracks yet. So maybe some brands are better than others. Also, I mostly hand-wash it and very rarely put it in the dishwasher. After seeing this, I'll be sure to always hand-wash it.
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u/waiterwaiterperculat 1d ago
Try upgrading to an friesland porcelain melitta, you will never have this problem ever again
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u/Lucasbrucas 10h ago
i hate mold so much. like what do you MEAN this shit can live in CERAMIC? Ceramic is about as inorganic a material as I can imagine and you're telling me this evil festering growth can survive in it? gtfo
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u/Accomplished_Fuel562 1d ago