Fellow French press for years, but pour over just hits cleaner lol you do you though.

The hairdryer trick sounds solid, I actually read something similar in an old illustration forum about using cool air to set gouache faster. The 6 inch distance part is key too, I scorched a sketchbook page once holding a dryer too close on medium heat and it bubbled up like toast. My weird one is spraying fixative on charcoal drawings with a cheap perfume atomizer instead of the fancy cans, it gives a finer mist and doesn't frost the paper. Do you think the low heat setting really changes the ink chemistry or is it just about drying the surface quicker?

Ugh, that's brutal. I've had a glass carafe crack on me before, but never full on explode, so I feel for you and that carpet. It's scary how randomly it can happen with the hot water and all, so switching to stainless sounds like the smart move.