Why do thermal carafes for keeping coffee warm...


	> Why do thermal carafes for keeping coffee warm...

16-Mar-10

Why do thermal carafes for keeping coffee warm...
tend to be tall, skinny and hard to carry steadily on a smooth serving tray, when serving breakfast in bed, or outside on a patio?

Some short, squatty caraffes that are stable on a tray are made and work quite well, when carried on a serving tray; this I understand.

But why are the vast majority of free-standing thermal carafes tall and skinny? They don't seem to be significantly easier to carry by themselves. They take up a bit less counter space, and a bit less space on a carrying trey, but the smaller footprint seems hardly worth the tippy-ness on the trey, and a slightly bigger carrying trey seems a lot more sensible solution to issues of carrying space on the trey.

Is it a shipping advantage to have taller skinnier cylinders?

Curious about carafes.

posted by dcwilson (USA)
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16-Mar-10

Presupposes facts not in evidence
DC:

Carafes without handles -- Thermos bottles and the like -- must of course be skinny enough to be held in one hand.

A Google image search for "thermal carafe", though, shows that the vast majority of carafes with handles are short and squatty; only the high-style Stelton, etc., carafes are tall and skinny:
http://images.google.com/images?&q=thermal%20carafe

posted by fastfwd
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16-Mar-10

favorite thermal carafe
My favorite thermal carafe is the Ole Palsby, MC No.1 vacuum jug for Alfi® Colours. Good design and excellent function.

As far as shipping is concerned I believe that given a tall carafe was the same volume as a short carafe (Pi x radius squared x height) the the shipping dimensions would be the same and yield no net savings.

posted by Ark of Decorative Arts
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16-Mar-10

So
They fit in cup holders.

posted by woodywood (USA)
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19-Mar-10

fastfwd...
One must never type anything without Googling first.

Thanks for the heads up.

posted by dcwilson (USA)
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20-Mar-10

Start with:
a) A small almost stadardized opening resulting from two considerations: the heat loss when opened and the size of the lid.
b) For many years most glass liners were and are still made in India and China (in that order) so transportation has always beeb a concern. The opening diameter being a given, no matter how you shape the liners, when the contents is the same, the ones that have wider bodies will take more room.
c) Thightness on the rim is always achieved by pushing up the bottom with a blade or other spring mechanism. The more cylindrical ones resist better this kind of pressure.
That's the abc of thermal carafe liners...in my experience

posted by koen (CA)
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