Home-Barista.com

I received my kettle yesterday and tried it out last night, but heard a sharp noise when I fired it up this morning and found that it had cracked. I have to contact Adams and Chittenden now.

I spoke with Tom Adams regarding the crack in the glass, he thinks this may have occurred with the expansion of the metal disk during heating, as metal expands faster than glass. He's going to investigate this, in the mean time, I would urge caution in tightening the disk down when cold to make sure that the glass doesn't crack while heating.

One possible test would be filing the disk a little bit to create a small gap for the expansion.

So, what is the cost?

Oh what a bummer Yakster! Keep in mind these are still an early prototypes. I know when I was tightening mine down I was *super* slow at adjusting the tension. I had small leaks at first, then I slowly tightened it until there was only a slight weeping of water. As it heated there were no more leaks; I may be right on that threshold for cracking, but so far so good...Adams and Chittenden are discussing revisions to the prototype to have more angle and surface area for the kettle to seat the gasket. I think this revision may reduce the amount of pressure and therefore allow for more expansion and no cracks.

As for availability and price, I think Whale (Sylvain) is trying to organize a group buy for these. (*I would be doing this, but I am currently job hunting!) I'm just glad to meet so many awesome people willing to carry the torch! I cannot say what price the future versions will be set at as it depends on the tubing they'll be using and how many units are produced. Long live La Peppina!
-Lane

I am indeed in discussion on different design concepts with Tom at Adams and Chittenden.
I took Lane's point with the sealing issue he experienced and tried to identify alternate configurations that may help. Tom seems very interested, so there is a good chance of having a viable glass kettle soon.
I cannot comment on cost for my part as I do not know myself how much it will be.

Chris misadventure is just more reason to do our home work in defining a good configuration before a "batch production" to keep the cost down.

If the current straitgh wall design is to be kept (minimum cost of production) I would try to introduce a little rubber (food grade silicone perhaps) gasket between the metal disk and the glass to address the differential thermal expansion. Also I would recommend using some food grade lubricant on the kettle seal to minimise the pressure that is required to seal it. Of course a brand new O-ring would also help.

yakster wrote:I received my kettle yesterday and tried it out last night, but heard a sharp noise when I fired it up this morning and found that it had cracked. I have to contact Adams and Chittenden now.

That really must be disappointing!
The thermal expansion is certainly a possibility but there could have been some residual stress in the glass also. I do not know if there is a stress relieving technique possible for glass that could be used? I really do not know much about glass work so feel free to disregard these comments...

Very cool project! Dig the beaker look, but much prefer the original kettles (I know, I know). I imagine since the price wasn't mentioned that they cost in the same order of magnitude as the machine itself?

Any news on this? I want a custom kettle for my La Peppina . There's some rust in my kettle, which is kind of scary.

Right now I'm working with some revisions to the prototype design which was prone to cracking. My glass blower is backed up with other orders right now and said that they'll email me once they are done. (It shouldn't be much longer until we have access to them again!)