My new coffee perculator compared to espresso stove top makers

Got my  lovely looking retro percolator from amazon yesterday.  Was worried I was wasting money on something that wouldn't make good strong coffee, but I am very happy with it.  Was £25 - can get it here:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004AMQXQE/ref=fb_lfb_prodpg_0.    Comparable in price to large 12 cup/600ml espresso makers (£20-30)  but holds almost twice the  liquid - 1000ml.

I bought it because although I love my espresso makers - (they make great very hot coffee and my coffee has to be boiling hot which is why I don't like cafetieres) -  they do not hold enough coffee when I have visitors.   The internal parts of the perculator look a bit flimsy - lightweight aluminum so I will find out from the seller if there replacement parts - (will update review then).  In the meantime I am careful with them when washing.   In case you wonder -  the handle doesn't get too hold to hold.

Size comparison
Thought this would be useful to people considering buying coffee makers as the different sizes in espresso makers have always confused me:

• The Percolator holds  litre of liquid (3/4 way up to beginning of spout) - that's just over 3 of my 300ml coffee mugs. It didn't work well with just 300 ml/1 mug as it wasn't enough liquid to get up the spout but good with 600mls -1 litre.  That's fine with me as i bought it for larger amounts of coffee.  When i made the larger amount I used the remaining amount the next morning and it tasted good (sacrilege to some  of you coffee lovers who don't like reheated coffee) as I wanted to see if I could use it to make coffee once a day and use it throughout the day.
• The espresso coffee makers are measured in terms of tiny espresso cups - approx 50ml depending on brand:
•           my large one - so called  9 cup one holds about 450ml or 1 1/2 300ml  mugs,  
•           the medium one which i use when i just want a cup for myself - the so called 6 cups one,
            holds one 300ml mug 
•           the tiny one is more show than anything, but you can get a cup of coffee out of it if you
            add more boiling water
•           the largest ones you can buy - so called 12 cups hold about 600ml

Amount of ground coffee to use: 
I usually use a 1 heaped desertspoon per mug/300ml water -I like it strong - in my espresso makers.  With the perculator I added another 1/2 spoon per 300ml.  I need to experiment more to make sure this is correct but I think the pressure in the espresso makers get more flavour out of the coffee.   So, if you add a litre of water and nearly fill up the basket of the perculator you will get good strong coffee.

I used Ikea espresso ground coffee equavalent to strength 6 on supermarket shelf ratings - best value for flavour ground coffee you can get - approx £1.70 compared to £2-4 for supermarket equivalent size and strength.

Here are 2 pics showing the size difference of my coffee makers:

Internals very light weight aluminium but ok.  Though it looks messy, I didn't end up with any coffee granules in my mug.   I think this only happens when you use the last dregs and you can always use fine sieve at this point: