Learning

"Waffle" covers two quite different things, and buying the wrong maker for the waffle you actually want is an easy and slightly annoying mistake. A Belgian waffle and a Norwegian waffle share a name and almost nothing else.

Boiling water is the right temperature for exactly one thing on this list, and it's the only temperature most kitchens can produce. Which is why a lot of green tea tastes bitter and a lot of pour over tastes harsh, and why people assume the leaves or the beans are at fault.

A ProBaker that stops during kneading has triggered its overload protection — a safety cut-out designed to protect the motor. Turn the speed control to 0, reduce the amount in the bowl, unplug the machine and let it cool for at least 30 minutes. It will start again. Nothing has broken.

Twenty speed settings and no guidance on which is which. Most ProBaker owners settle on three of them and never touch the rest, which is a shame, because the gaps in between are where the difference between a decent cake and a very good one usually lives.

It's the least interesting purchase in the whole set-up and the one most likely to go wrong. Filter papers come in sizes that aren't obviously numbered, half the packs on the shelf are for a different shape of basket, and nobody reads the manual for something that costs seven pounds.

A glass jug slips in the sink. A lid goes missing in a house move. The water tank gets scratched. None of these is a reason to throw away a working coffee maker, and yet it's what usually happens — because most people don't know the part exists.

Coffee clinging to the container and dust on the worktop is static electricity, not a fault. Coffee particles rub together as they're ground and pick up a charge. Four things reduce it: add a few drops of water to the beans before grinding, wait a minute before removing the container, tap it on the worktop, and use a metal container rather than plastic.

The Wilfa Zense has 30 grind settings running from fine to coarse. There's no single correct number — the right setting depends on your brew method, your beans and your taste. Start in the middle for filter coffee, brew a pot, and move two or three steps at a time: finer if it tastes sour and thin, coarser if it tastes bitter and heavy.

The Uniform Evo gives you more control than almost any grinder at its price, which is exactly why a new one can feel intimidating. Forty-one settings, ten micro-adjustments between each of them, and a scale built into the lid. Here's how to use all of it without spending a week on it.

The Wilfa grinder range changed this year. Svart and Uniform are on their way out, Zense and Uniform Evo are in, and there's a £200 spread between the ends of the range. Here's what that money actually buys.

If your grinder has stopped performing, clean it before you do anything else. Coffee oils and compacted fine particles build up around the burrs and change how the grinder cuts. Unplug it, empty the bean container, brush out the burr chamber, wash the containers in lukewarm soapy water and dry them completely. Do this monthly.

A thermal carafe keeps coffee hot for around three and a half hours with no heat applied. A glass jug sits on a warming plate that switches itself off after 40 minutes by law. If you drink a pot within the hour, glass is fine and cheaper. If your pot lasts all morning, a thermal carafe is the only one that works.