Patent ID: 8511220

Claim:
A beverage maker, comprising: a brew system comprising a reservoir to receive a liquid; a heater to heat the liquid; an expendable filter structured to filter impurities from the liquid for at least a predetermined number of brew cycles; a container for receiving a beverage brewed from the filtered liquid; an indicator to indicate at least one of a cleaning and a maintenance need of the beverage maker; a control circuit comprising a processor, wherein the control circuit is configured to: receive a signal from at least one sensor indicative of an end of a brew cycle; increment a brew cycle counter by one count at the end of each brew cycle; and activate the indicator when a value of the brew cycle counter is equal to the predetermined number of brew cycles; and a clean switch in communication with the control circuit, wherein the clean switch is integrally formed with the indicator and actuatable to initiate an automatic cleaning process.