Patent ID: 7506576

Claim:
In a beverage brewer having a water tank and a brew basket for holding brew ingredient and a brew valve for passing water from the water tank to the brew basket and into contact with the ingredient, the improvement being a controller, comprising: means for measuring a total amount of time that the brew valve is open; means for storing the measured total amount of time that the brew valve is open; means for storing a preselected stored amount of permitted amount of total time of opening of the brew valve; means for selectively changing at least one of the stored preselected total amount of time of opening of the brew valve and the stored measured total amount of time that the brew valve is open; means for disabling the brewer in response to the measured amount of opening of the brew valve becoming equal to the stored preselected amount of permitted amount of opening of the brew valve until at least one of the stored amount of permitted total time of opening of the brew valve and the stored measured total amount of time that the brew valve is open is changed by the selectively changing means such that the stored measured amount of permitted amount of total time of opening of the brew valve is greater than the stored measured total amount of time that the brew valve is open.