Testing:

With the bottom cover still off, elevate the appliance, fill it with water, connect to a power outlet and switch it on. Be sure to keep hands away from the underside. Carefully check underneath for any leaks. Once all the water has slowly made its way through to the coffee jug, do not switch off. This will simulate the ‘keep warm’ state, where the heated pipe gets much hotter once all the water and steam has passed through it.

It’s at this point in my repair process that acrid smoke came wafting out from under the appliance, which was definitely cause for concern. I switched it off to inspect, and discovered that it was just the volatiles evaporating out of the epoxy paste, which had turned dark brown.

A further 10 refills of the coffee maker’s water reservoir proved that the repair was sound, so I replaced the bottom cover and put it back into service.

And, once again, we can wake up to timer-initiated hot coffee (providing Eskom loadshedding hasn’t played havoc with the machine’s clock).