Cost of airplane coffee makers
 

The NYTimes had an article this morning about various reason planes are delayed that may seem stupid to us. The featured example was a broken coffee pot and it turns out that they need to get it fixed or totally disabled before take off out of fear it might signal a larger problem.

But, why I'm writing this was that the article contained the tidbit that an airplane coffee maker costs between $7,000 and $20,000.

Now, I get why you can't just plug in a Mr. Coffee, but it seems to be essentially the same thing, it draws in and heats water and pushes that water through ground coffee and a filter and into a serving container that's kept warm. It also has a latch to keep the container in place when not in use. And, it needs a circuit breaker to intervene if something goes askew.

That's all fine, but does that really increase the cost to a minimum of 7 grand?? Sort of sounds like the legendary toilet seat to me. We're not talking about one of those Swiss wonders that grinds the beans on demand, pushes the used grounds into a little container and includes a very small elf to do the work. They certainly pretty much resemble your basic coffee brewing machine.

Because they can. Propitiatory connections and dimensions, certified safety ratings on all the used materials, operations and the assembly - not to forget a very heavy duty (try to imagine how many gallons of coffee each machine will brew just on one day).

7k to 20k are not a big deal for an airliner spare part. (and of course they get repaired...)

Have a look at the price of industrial coffee machines for large catering companies and then add the "needs to fit into an airplane and be allowed to be operated at 39k feet" into the mix.

You can get serviceable coffee makers (provided they are compatible with your galley setup) for as low as $300 on the secondary market. I bought one a couple years ago for our B727 with an SV tag.

OH tags with an FAA 8130 are a little more expensive. NE would cost you an arm and a leg (plus $7000-$20000).

Everything in aviation is expensive. Markets are relatively small, and the cost of gaining, maintaining, and complying with regulation is enormous.

The risk that a malfunctioning coffee maker will cause a plane crash is very low. It costs a lot to keep it that way. Remember that coffee makers contain potentially flammable materials and a potentially dangerous heat source.

I'm looking at an optional equipment list for a large cabin business jet as I'm typing this. An additional coffee maker runs $29,800 on this particular airplane.

A few other points of comparison:

Exchanging two TIA coffeemakers for one Iacobucci coffemaker and one espresso machine costs $59,000 on another bizjet.

Exchanging one coffeemaker for one espresso maker costs $11,000 on a different plane.

At least you'd expect the thing to make good tasting coffee considering the price...

This is more egregious to me than the cost

This is no machine in the world that can make good coffee out of crappy water and stale low quality grounds.

BE Aerospace and Aerolux make one for Nespresso and if I remember correctly I had it on Swiss the last time I flew. Other airlines with this machine are British Airways, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways.

And that was certainly the best in flight brew I ever had.

No indication on pricing though.

I recall, back in the C-5 days, there was considerable angst over the "$7600 coffee pot." In fact, the cost was for the entire beverage unit that fit into the airplane's galley, similar to the banks of coffee makers and beverage warmers you see in any typical airliner galley. If I also recall correctly, they had to operate on 400Hz power. (I know this was the case for the airliner galley unit used in the Ground Launch Cruise Missile Launch Control Centers.) I recall that the GAO ultimately determined that the USAF was actually buying the units for a lower cost than the vendors were selling the same units to commercial airlines.

Very true, just look at Starbucks:p

quality coffee makers are expensive

cheap coffee makers do not have quality control, nor they they last

with airlines and commercial in general, its about volume and life

They also aren't selling hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of coffee makers as they do with consumer models. Fixed costs have few units across which to be spread.

total commercial sales are huge

but small vs cheap consumer (which includes bulk) which is high margin