Coletti bozeman camping coffee pot coffee percolator just steel

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Rating and Summary

The Coletti Bozeman Camping Coffee Percolator is a heavy gauge (specifically, 18-gauge), high quality stainless steel percolator, complete with a thick glass perk knob, a beautiful rosewood handle, nice packaging (and even included coffee filter paper).

Just bear in mind that the marketed 9-cup capacity is pretty much overstated. I could brew only a maximum of 5 cups of coffee.

Pros: High quality materials, complete package

Cons: Capacity overstated, filter basket a bit small

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Check out the Coletti Bozeman Percolator:

Product Details

Here’s what we’ll discuss here:

• Unboxing
• In the Box
• Specifications
• How to Use

Unboxing

The Coletti Bozeman Camping Coffee Percolator had awesome packaging. It came in a great looking box, which looked like this:

All the componentry was also nicely packaged inside the box. For a better understanding of the unboxing process, do check out the embedded YouTube video above.

In the Box

In the box, you get the Coletti coffee pot, a spreader, a filter basket, a stem with a base, a perking knob, filter paper, and some instructions. I like the complete package and attention to detail.

Specifications

These are my personal measurements of the Coletti Bozeman 9-Cup Camping Coffee Percolator:

• Length from top of the handle to spout, about 7.5 inches or 19 cm.
• Length from bottom of the handle to spout, about 8 inches or 20 cm.
• Diameter of lid, about 5 inches or 13 cm.
• Diameter of base, 5 inches or 13 cm.
• Height from base to perking knob, 8 inches or 20 cm.
• Weight, 738 grams or 26.1 ounces.
• Made in: China.

How to Use

For the official instructions from Coletti, check out the video above. I followed most of their instructions, except for using the filter. For more specificity, here’s how I make my own percolator coffee using the Coletti Bozeman Percolator.

For me, I use 6 ounces of water for 1 cup of coffee. I grind my medium roast coffee into a coarse grind, I use 10 or 11 grams of grounds for 1 cup of coffee, and I pour it into the filter basket without using filter paper.

Next, I place the stem, filter basket, and spreader into the coffee pot, close the lid, and place the Coletti Bozeman Percolator on the stove. My personal preference is to bring the water to a boil on medium heat, and when it starts boiling, you can see the water perking in this transparent knob on the top of the Coletti Percolator.

After, I usually lower the heat slightly to medium low heat, and wait about 7 minutes, before turning off the heat entirely.

Then, I let the percolator sit for a few extra minutes to allow the water in the filter basket to drain out and the grounds in the coffee to settle at the bottom, before pouring it out to drink. When pouring, I use my thumb to apply pressure on the attached cover hinge to keep the lid closed.

Testing and Performance

Here’s how I tested the Coletti Bozeman Camping Coffee Percolator:

• Brew Time
• Capacity
• Ease of Use
• Ease of Clean Up
• Quality

You can also find all the test results in this section.

Brew Time

For brew time, I looked at the time to first perk, which is the amount of time it takes for the water to start boiling.

At a 3-cup capacity, or 18 ounces, it took the Coletti Percolator 4 minutes and 45 seconds for the water to boil. And at a 6-cup capacity, or 36 ounces, it took 10 minutes.

These are estimates and can change depending on different factors like the temperature of your water, the surrounding temperature, the amount of heat you use, and stuff like that. I used tap water at room temperature, and brought it to a boil on medium heat.

After the water started boiling, I let the coffee percolate for about 7 minutes on medium-low heat.

Capacity

The Coletti Bozeman Camping Percolator is marketed as a 9-cup coffee percolator, but the maximum amount of water it could hold without touching the spout holes is about 36 ounces, or 6 cups. At this amount, it almost boiled over, so I would not recommend putting in more water.

As for the filter basket, when I filled it to the brim, maximum capacity is about 63 grams or 2.2 ounces of coarse ground coffee. So, when I tried putting in 64 grams, or 2.3 ounces, of grounds for 6 cups of coffee, I saw a lot of coffee grounds in the perking knob during percolation.

After brewing the coffee, I noticed that the filter basket had overflowed, and there were lots of grounds everything and also in the last cup of coffee. Because the filter basket is a bit too small, I would say maximum capacity is 5 cups of coffee.

On the other extreme, what is the minimum capacity?

When I tried brewing just 1 cup of coffee, or 6 ounces, my “brew” was just water with some grounds. This is because there wasn’t enough water to go up the stem and spread over the grounds. My 11 grams of coffee grounds were hardly used. When I tried brewing 2 cups of coffee, or 12 ounces of water, the brew tasted diluted.

So, minimum capacity for my Coletti Percolator is 3 cups, or 18 ounces. It works perfectly and brews a real tasty coffee.

Basically, the Coletti Percolator is good for brewing a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 cups of coffee. If you need a bigger percolator, the Coletti Percolator also comes in a 12-cup and 14-cup capacity, but bear in mind that the actual capacity is probably smaller than that.

Ease of Use

The Coletti Bozeman Percolator has a 5, 7, and 9-cup marking on the outside of the coffee pot, and you can see it pretty clearly from the inside as well. The 5-cup marking measures about 19.5 ounces (almost 20 ounces), the 7-cup marking measures about 30 ounces, and the 9-cup marking measures 38 ounces, and shows the water level right below the spout holes.

The rosewood handle is heat-resistant, and always remains cool to the touch. I thought that the steel rivets on the handle would be hot, but they were surprisingly not. It could be because I use only low to medium heat, and I never use high heat.

The steel plate between the wood is slightly sunken in, and doesn’t touch your hand either, so the handle is always cool to touch and very comfortable to hold. I don’t have very big hands, so the handle fit me perfectly. But if you have bigger hands, you might want to be careful of the 2 steel plates holding the handle to the pot.

There’s a small cover hinge near the handle, which does get hot, but I found that it cools very quickly. After I turn off the heat and wait a few minutes for the coffee grounds to settle at the bottom, the hinge gets cool enough to touch. I use my thumb to apply pressure upward on this hinge to keep the lid closed during pouring.

The Coletti Percolator comes with a transparent perking knob, so you can tell when the water starts boiling, and also the color of your coffee. The perking knob attaches and detaches easily from the lid. Also, the Coletti Percolator pretty stable on the stove.  

And because I used a coarse grind, only a minimal amount of grounds got into my last cup of coffee when I was brewing between 3 to 5 cups of coffee. If you find grinds in your coffee, you can either wet the filter basket or use the provided coffee filter paper to line the basket.

I know that some of the reviews say that the spreader sits on the rim of the coffee pot, and not the filter basket itself. When the inner percolator is inside the coffee pot; there’s a small gap between the filter basket and the spreader, so grounds might flow out into your coffee from this gap.

This was true for me only when I overfilled the filter basket with 64 grams of grounds for 6 cups of coffee. The filter basket overflowed, and grounds got everywhere. But for 5 cups of coffee or less, there were no grounds in my coffee, and only minimal grounds in the last cup.

Clean Up

To clean up, just toss the grounds and run water through all the components of the Coletti Bozeman Percolator. They can be taken apart easily for a good washing. I found that percolating water is more effective at getting rid of the coffee bean oils. The product information also says that it’s dishwasher safe, but I read some reviews saying that it’s best not to use the dishwasher.

Quality

The Coletti Bozeman coffee pot and the lid are made of stainless steel, which is Type 18/8, FDA-approved and food-grade. The stainless steel is also high-quality, with 18-gauge thickness.

The outside has a nice mirror finish, but the finish on the inside isn’t the best. Mine started to stain after a few uses, even though I always wash it once all the coffee has been poured out.

The stem, filter basket, and spreader are made of the same stainless steel as the pot, and they’re pretty sturdy. The spreader fits perfectly on the top of the coffee pot, so the entire percolator sits firmly inside the pot. It doesn’t move about much when I shake it gently.

The perking knob is made of fairly thick glass. As with all other glass perking knobs, if anything breaks first in a percolator, it’s probably this. Thankfully, Coletti does sell replacement glass knobs, which aren’t too expensive. Also, the glass knob will expand when it gets hot, so I find that not screwing it in too tightly and giving it a bit of wiggle room during boiling and percolation can protect it from breaking.

The handle is made of heat-resistant rosewood, which I think is high quality and is fixed firmly to the pot with no signs of being loose or anything like that. Over the past few months of using and washing this, I can tell that the finish of the handle is no longer as vibrant as it was out of the box, but at least I don’t see any obvious water damage. Still, I can see it wearing out slowly as I wash it more over time.

Coletti provides a 1-year warranty, lifetime support, and easy contact information.

Pros and Cons

For pros:

• Coletti provides a complete package, with nice packaging, useful instructions and even coffee filter paper. I love the attention to detail.
• It’s also very user-friendly and feature-rich, with the cup-level markings, rosewood handle, cover hinge and perking knob.
• Also, the materials used are very high quality, with food-safe, 18-gauge stainless steel, fairly thick glass and a beautiful rosewood handle.

As for cons:

• It’s definitely not a 9-cup capacity, and I could fit only 36 ounces or 6 cups of water. Any more and it would boil over.
• Also, the filter basket should be bigger, because I could put only enough grounds for 5 cups of coffee. Any more and the filter basket will overflow and grounds will get into my coffee.
• Lastly, the finish on the interior can be improved slightly, but it’s not a super big issue for me.

Recommendation

Would I recommend the Coletti Bozeman 9-Cup Stainless Steel Camping Percolator?

Overall, I was very impressed with the Coletti Bozeman Percolator. The materials used are very high quality, the design is well thought out, it’s extremely feature rich with the markings, rosewood handle, cover hinge and perking knob, and for the price I paid, I thought it wasn’t too expensive.

The only big issue I had with this is that the capacity is a lot smaller than marketed. It’s not a 9-cup capacity for sure, and I could brew a maximum of 5 cups of coffee with this, with 1 cup being 6 ounces. I could technically brew 6 cups, but I don’t like grinds in my coffee from the filter basket overflowing. Minimum capacity is 3 cups.

If you’re okay with this maximum and minimum capacity, I think that the Coletti Bozeman Percolator is definitely a high quality and good value camping percolator. Would I recommend it? Yeah, I definitely would.

How does the Coletti Percolator stack up against other popular camping percolators though?

Bonus: Must Read!

To find out, you can read this blog post right here: The 9 Best Camping Percolators: I Bought & Tested Them All (complete with YouTube video).

Or, check out the Coletti Bozeman Percolator: