I am new to the forum. I was prompted to register after coming across several old posts (going back as far as 2014) discussing the limited series, numbered LaColombe Dragon brewer (https://www.lacolombe.com/products/the- ... essentials) developed by Todd Carmichael. I received one as a gift in 2016 (#320), and I used it almost daily for about 5 years. Unfortunately and sadly, a mishap occurred, and the top bowl went flying off a kitchen counter and ended up in many pieces on the floor.

I contacted LaColombe customer service, and I learned that, after 500 of these were made, production was halted. In addition, replacement parts were not available. I have intermittently searched eBay, Craigslist, and other sources for a replacement top bowl; but I have had no luck finding any reference to specific parts or even the entire assembly.

If anyone on the forum has information regarding where a replacement bowl could be ordered, or if any forum member has one of these devices and is no longer using it, I would be happy to purchase and pay for shipping.

Thanks to everyone for your time and attention.

Gary

that's an interesting brewer, it's a shame only 500 were made. I had to youtube it to figure out how it even worked. then I found out how they made it both videos that show high conviction/passion put into this brewer. seems to be a vaccum steep and release hybrid of some sort that you load from the top and use a manual pump to create a suction. I can see why it failed as it seems to be an overly complex and expensive steep and release brewer albeit very cool looking (and something I want on my shelf). What I think is the most interesting is the double chamber with the inside for brewing and the outside where you can add cold water during the brew process to increase convection agressive enough to break the crust.

if you say this top bowl is the one that broke have you tried just replacing it with a regular syphon upper bowl like this one from hario. you don't get the double wall effect so it would mean you would have to manually agitate but the rest of it should still be functional as long as a seal is still made. it at least may rescue this brewer so you can still continue to use it.

It you can't find a replacement it's hard to know what it's euqal would be. It looks like it falls in the vaccum pots style of brewing but since it's more like an immersion pourover and only utilizes the suction for the draw down brewers like the Hario Switch, Clever Dripper or the Aeropress may be contenders as a replacement with perhaps the Aeropress being the closest because it has the plunger that forces the coffee throught the filter.

Dear Damian,

Thanks very much for your reply, notes and recommendation. Yes, correct that the mechanism used by the LaColombe Dragon is essentially a manual syphoning process (as opposed to a heat generated syphon). Yes, the outside cooling sleeve on the brewing chamber was definitely unique! And Yes, it definitely took some experimentation and practice to "get it right"!!!

I had not considered trying to replace the broken bowl with something like the Hario device that you shared. A Very interesting idea! As I examined the Hario, I wondered about the diameter of the rubber stopper that surrounds the glass tubing of the Hario bowl. I couldn't find dimensions for the displayed stopper, and I wonder if it would be large enough to create a tight seal with the Dragon lower bowl. The tube extending up from the Dragon lower bowl has a diameter of 28 mm. By chance, if you have a Hario syphon setup and you would measure the diameter of that stopper and send that number along, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks again for your thoughts and notes!

Gary

If the local college has a chemistry department you might see if they have a glass lab, UC Irvine in your case I believe. A lot of serious chemistry departments have people who make custom setups for experiments. Find one of those and figure out what it takes to convince the glass blower to make you one.

Ira

gflashner1 wrote:Dear Damian,

Thanks very much for your reply, notes and recommendation. Yes, correct that the mechanism used by the LaColombe Dragon is essentially a manual syphoning process (as opposed to a heat generated syphon). Yes, the outside cooling sleeve on the brewing chamber was definitely unique! And Yes, it definitely took some experimentation and practice to "get it right"!!!

I had not considered trying to replace the broken bowl with something like the Hario device that you shared. A Very interesting idea! As I examined the Hario, I wondered about the diameter of the rubber stopper that surrounds the glass tubing of the Hario bowl. I couldn't find dimensions for the displayed stopper, and I wonder if it would be large enough to create a tight seal with the Dragon lower bowl. The tube extending up from the Dragon lower bowl has a diameter of 28 mm. By chance, if you have a Hario syphon setup and you would measure the diameter of that stopper and send that number along, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks again for your thoughts and notes!

Gary

I would think it would work perfectly fine and not just the hario but any syphon. If you still had the rubber stopper you may be able to reuse that but the diameter of the tube probably is the same. I would be happy to measure mine except that I'm travelling right now and won't be home for a week or so. There's lots of syphon users here and I'm sure someone would be happy to measure it for you.

gflashner1 wrote:By chance, if you have a Hario syphon setup and you would measure the diameter of that stopper and send that number along, I would greatly appreciate it!

I finally made it home and since there have been no updates on this I took out my Hario Syphon and measured it. It's the TCA-3 model. The upper bowl long glass tube that sticks in the lower bowl has an outer diameter of 18mm and the rubber stopper has 3 tiers, the most narrow has an outer diameter 23mm, the middle 28mm and the widest tier 34mm. each tier has a slight taper to it as well for a tight fit. the lower bowl has an inner diameter of about 30mm and tapers in to about 27mm so the rubber stopper sits at about the 2nd tier snuggly. if you need any other measurements let me know, hope it works out for your dragon.