Trickster wrote:Why bother when Amazon sells complete filtration kits for ~30-40 USD (0.5 L to 2 L)? A water aspirator will cost you another 15 bucks. They even sell a filtration kit with hand vacuum pump for 65 USD. All important parts (the funnel and the flask) are made from porcelain and glass.
Good call. The aeropress is really only worthwhile if needed for other purposes. Even then, I bet a lab filtration kit could easily be rigged for culinary purposes. It's been mentioned (probably by you, Trickster) that vacuum filtration would work well in combination with THP, and though I have no experience with this, I'd be inclined to agree.
Also, if needed, it's apparently fairly simple to customize different funnel designs. For example, a screen can be heated and dropped into the neck of HDPE funnel, and the edges should melt into the plastic slightly, securing it in place. I imagine this would work well with THP, though SWIM hasn't had cause to try it in the past. This trick may be handy or, to some extent, necessary if using vacuum filtration.