Coffee maker

Abstract: An electric automatic-drip coffee maker has a valve 16 at a bottom of a water reservoir 10. In use, at turn ON, the valve 23 remains initially closed so that a heater 14 can heat up in a dry condition. When the valve is opened, steam (see the Figure) is initially supplied to a brew basket 11 and thereafter hot water is dripped into the brew basket in conventional fashion. The heater 14 also supplies steam separately and continuously to a top of a carafe 18 during brewing. A water supply for supplying this steam is drawn from the reservoir 10 through a restricted outlet 17. The steam initially heats up the carafe and thereafter keeps the carafe warm.

Description: The present invention relates to a coffee maker. In a conventional electric automatic-drip coffee maker, water is stored in a reservoir. When the coffee maker is turned ON, a heater is supplied with water from the reservoir and heats the water so that the water is fed up (effectively "pumped up") to drip into coffee grounds in a filter basket. The filter basket is mounted above a carafe that collects the coffee. With this type of conventional heater for pumping the water, some water is stored in the system beyond the heater which is supplied initially to the filter basket and is not heated. Also, the overall temperature of coffee collected in the carafe is often not hot enough or does not remain hot enough for best results. In some cases, a thermal (more expensive) carafe is used to reduce this problem. It is supposed at present, a coffee maker should be able to brew hot coffee at at least 84deg.C. DE-A-19909183 describes a coffee maker according to the preamble of claim 1 in which the hot water supply line has at least one valve. The brewing method involves two stages. In the first stage, water is cycled through the heater back to the reservoir to preheated the supply line. In the second stage the valve position is changed and hot water is supplied through the preheated supply line to the brew basket. However, this does not fully overcome the problems mentioned above. It is an object of the invention to overcome or at least reduce these problems. According to the invention there is provided an electric automatic drip coffee maker including: a water reservoir, an in-line electric water heater, a valve, an electrically operable controller, a brew basket, and a carafe, the in-line electric water heater has a first and a second heating chamber, a first water passage leads from the valve through the first heating chamber to a position over the brew basket, a second water passage leads from the valve through the second heating chamber to a position over the carafe, the electric controller is arranged to open the water passages a predetermined time after the water heater is turned ON at the beginning of a coffee making cycle, and the flow rate in the second passage is controlled to be at a slow rate so that the water is converted into steam in the heater for supply to the carafe. The valve is preferably arranged to simultaneously open the first and second passages. An electric automatic-drip coffee maker according to the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the coffee maker before it is switched ON; Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of the coffee maker soon after it is first switched ON; Figure 3 is a sectional elevation of the coffee maker after it has switched on for a few minutes; and Figure 4 is a schematic circuit diagram of the coffee maker. Referring to the drawings, the coffee maker is of a generally known conventional form having a water reservoir 10, a brew basket 11 for retaining coffee grounds 12, a carafe 13, an electric heater 14 and a carafe support plate 15. In use, when the coffee maker is turned ON, water is supplied from the reservoir 10 to the heater 14 and heated so as to be pumped up a tube 16 and drip onto the coffee grounds. Coffee is collected in the carafe 13. This represents the operation of widely used coffee makers currently available in the market place. Embodiments of the present invention differ from the prior art by having a controllable valve 23 at a base of the reservoir 10. In the described embodiment a single valve has twin outlets 17 and 18 for supplying water to separate passages or tubes 19 and 20. The heater 14 also has twin (separate) heating chambers 14 A and 14 B. The chamber 14 A is connected to the tube 16 and the chamber 14 B is connected to a steam tube 21. An electrically operated solenoid 22 is provided for operating the valve 23. In use in embodiments of the invention, using the time delay as depicted in Figure 4, when the coffee maker is initially turned ON, the valve 23 remains closed. This allows the heater 23 to heat up. Normally, because the valve 14 is closed before switch ON, there is no water in the tube 16 so the heater 14 heats up rapidly "in a dry condition". (The contrasts with prior art coffee makers where water filled into the reservoir 10 would normally flow to and fill up the heater as well as fill partially up the tube 16.) After a short time interval, the valve 23 is opened so that water can flow to the heater 14. As a result, steam is immediately generated initially and supplied to the brew basket 11, see Figure 2. Thereafter, a drip supply of hot water flows up the tube 16 and drips into the basket 11, as illustrated in Figure 3, and as happens in prior art arrangements. The arrangement provides a first advantage over the prior art where cold water and not very hot water is initially supplied to the brew basket 11. This is believed to detrimentally affect the brewing and clearly reduces the overall coffee temperature that can be attained. The outlet 17 is a restricted outlet arranged so that water flows into the tube 19 at a slow rate. The rate is sufficiently slow such that water reaching the chamber 14B is immediately converted into steam and a continuous supply of steam is fed to a top of the carafe 13. Supplying steam to the top of the carafe minimises any contact of hot coffee with cold air throughout the whole of the brewing cycle. The supply of steam starts immediately after the valve 23 is opened, see Figure 2, and continues, as shown in Figure 3, to heat up the carafe initially or retain its temperature throughout the brewing cycle. This arrangement provides a second advantage; not only is the carafe pre-heated by the steam from the tube 21 but the coffee in the carafe is kept warm during the whole brewing cycle without the need of using, for example, a relatively expensive thermal carafe.

Claims: An electric automatic drip coffee maker including: a water reservoir (10), an in-line electric water heater (14), a valve (23), an electrically operable controller, a brew basket (11), and a carafe (13), characterised in that : the in-line electric water heater (14) has a first and a second heating chamber (14A & 14B), a first water passage (20 & 16) leads from the valve (23) through the first heating chamber (14A) to a position over the brew basket (11), a second water passage (19 & 21) leads from the valve (23) through the second heating chamber (14B) to a position over the carafe (13), the electric controller is arranged to open the water passages a predetermined time after the water heater (14) is turned ON at the beginning of a coffee making cycle, and the flow rate in the second passage (19) is controlled to be at a slow rate so that the water is converted into steam in the heater for supply to the carafe (13). A coffee maker according to Claim 1, in which the valve is arranged to simultaneously open the first and second passages.

Inventors: LEUNG CHI WAH, LEUNG, CHI WAH
Applicants: SIMATELEX MANUF CO, SIMATELEX MANUFACTORY COMPANY LIMITED
Application year: 2001
Main classification: A47J31
IPC codes: A47J31