I've been using these for several years now and have had no issues that others have reported with it's sturdiness or stuck ground or the one about mold..
I use these constantly for my one large cup with ice, stevia syrup and creamer. Two quarts last me about a week. I buy a five pound bag of dark roast death wish coffee (a highly tasty coffee bean bred for maximum caffeine. Which lasts me about just over a month and a half.).
I use it to make my 4 64oz mason jars of Cold Brew Coffee concentrate (2 cups of pre ground to each 64oz jar, with displacement for the large amount of grounds and the filter itself makes about a total of 6-7 quarts. I fill it with the filter already in place, well pulled out several inches and secured by friction with a chop stick. I fill slowly with hot water my hot tap runs pretty hot and at around a good temp already for brewing coffee, then let it cool for a bit on the counter and before I put it in the fridge, top it off due to the grounds shifting and releasing air.), it's a lot of concentrated coffee that I only water down a bit with the ice and creamer/syrup add ins but I drink it slow over an hour or two (at least) only in the morning to combat two of my daily medications sedative effects as I'm disabled and a long suffering severe chronic pain patient (Decades at this point). I wouldn't recommend drinking this concentrate without dilution, it's way too strong for most people. I also see my doc each month and they were ok with this solution for me due to my specific health issues and situation. Otherwise, it'd take me hours to truly wake up and not be in a haze. It affords me a decent quality of life and is quite essential to my routine. So in a way, finding these filters a few years ago was a really a game changer for me as it makes it pretty easy to make my coffee for about two weeks or more with each batch. Once cooled off, I let them sit in the fridge for about two or three days minimum (or up till I need them). Admittedly, it's not the ideal way to make the best coffee brew as it's definitely and over extraction making it more bitter but the beana I use are really tasty (I'll sometimes make a proper hot brew cup and not need any of the add ins even) and I use a bit of stevia syrup and a nice flavored non dairy creamer and the end result is a great coffee drink that gets the job done that I need it to do.. I tried doing a straight cold brew skipping the initial hot water and it just didn't have a much body, so after experimenting came up with this wonderful hybrid brew method and I end up spending about 35 bucks a month buying the coffee in bulk..
So the filters work wonders are durable for me.. the only issues I've had is the yellow rubber gasket stretching over time and it's a little too thick and can make sealing the lids properly a pain once they start to stretch, but I found better replacements for the yellow gaskets that came with it (I'll tell where later I. This review). I do use a permeant filter for a drip maker inside a large funnel when I transfer from the mason jars to my usual servings jugs as I get preground coffee and a small amount of grounds do get into the final brew as preground is a fair but too fine a grind (as it's for drip filters) than then the courser grind that you'd use if home geinding for cold brew, but it's never a crazy amount at all. Those making complaints simply don't know you are supposed to use a larger grind when doing a cold brew is all. I wouldn't need to use the extra filtering if I'd used the courser grind you are supposed to use but grinding a five pound bag in a small grinder is outta the question. A 5 dollar mesh drip filter in a three dollar large funnel works just fine and there is never a truly significant amount of grounds in the external transfer filter ever anyway.. occasionally I'll have to stick a clean finger in and clear the mesh to make the flow better but that's rare and there's never more than an eighth or quarter of a teaspoon of grounds caught anyway.. I've never had a gritty cup, sure some stray grounds get through but that's because you are supposed to use a slightly courser grind on permeant mesh filters to begin with. It's simply really not an issue.
so really, the only issue I've encountered are the yellow gaskets wearing out fairly quickly (a few months). The broken ones sound like a manufacturing issue with quality assurance. I bought two filters and then two more two years later and now three years later after buying the second two, all four are still going strong with no sign of wear and tear despite being in constant use. As for the grounds and mold, never had mold, so i'd chalk those up to user error honestly.. and I'm not some A.I. bot or some paid shill at a review farm, I'm actually happy with them and giving my honest feedback.. (I know it can be hard to tell in this day and age). I'd actually meant to share the info on finding the better replacement gaskets after finding them shortly after my last purchace three years ago but I'd actually forgotten until Amazon suggested this for review after leaving a review for something I'd ordered recently.. I remember scouring the reviews hoping someone left a clue where I could find them but only finding one that said 'you can find them on Amazon' but no further details.. I remembered how much a pain it was to finally find them in my searches (as I wanted the ones that actually went on the lip, not the not so great ones you put on top..). It took me literally a few hours to find the exact ones I wanted and figured I'd help people out and pay it forward to save them the time Id just spent (and I'm pretty darn good at Google and Amazon searches, it really shouldn't of been so damn hard, lol sigh.). Apologies to anyone who went nuts looking and didn't find them.. I simply spaced at the time, hopefully better late than never..
many people forgo the gaskets at that ware out point based on the other reviews but I think a solid seal on the lid is important in keeping the grounds saturated over the couple of days I let them brew… But it also keeps those grey plastic tops leak proof too. I think they've maybe since upgraded the sealer ring judging on the pic (mine are yellow rubber ones not white plastic as in the pic) but I've found decent replacements that work (if you wanna keep using the gaskets) on a third party site and are exactly like the white ones in this products pictures and actually work and fit a lot better overall (as the yellow ones are thicker and harder to close, especially once they've stretched..)
you can find the white rings that actually fit on the upper lip (they have a slit and snuggly fit) at a brewing website where they had silicone replacement gaskets for wide mouth mason jars canning lids.. at 3 bucks a pop. these are great and fit better overall and will seem to last a whole lot longer (as they aren't as stretchy rubber as the one's that came with this filter).. I'm sure you can find them on most brewing sites but I used one called NorCal Brewing Solutions. (wide mouth is 3 1/4" in diameter). I got them via usps in about a week, no problems. you might be able to find them on Amazon but I couldn't in my initial search as i wasn't sure how they were labeled…
amazon also offers gasket inserts, which are just placed inside the plastic leak proof lids and sit on top, not actually fit around the filer. I had also gotten these but haven't tried them yet as the one's that actually fit the filter work so well.. but you can find them labelled as "10 Pack Wide Mouth Platinum Silicone Sealing Rings Gaskets for Leak Proof Mason Jar Lids" a 10 pack runs about 12 bucks… they were in the "Mason Jar lifestyle store".. I'm sure these would work just fine but I just prefer the ones that actually fit on the filter itself rather than sit on top…
hope this helps all you searching for replacement gaskets, I kept using the yellow rubber ones even after they stretched but they became such a pain I finally went on a search not too long after, lol. I have pretty good Google-fu but since you can't know what they'll end up being labeled as, it took me a few hours to find the perfect fit, lol. I hope my work helps you find what you need.
I swear by these filters, and aside from the gaskets wearing out after a few months, they've certainly were a great investment.
For those that got bad ones that came apart or had sharp edges, yeah that sucks.. I do hope it was a passing quality assurance issue with perhaps a new or bad factory and not the new norm as I didn't have any of that myself and as I said, I'm still using the same four I always have five and three years later without any other issues aside from the gasket one.. hopefully they tweaked that one as mine were different from the ones in the pic.. so, hopefully it was just more growing pains rather than an actual decline in quality to maximize profits.. as I love mine and they truly make my life easier with making my needed bulk coffee.
Cheers! Hope this helps someone some trouble!
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