Bill takes apart a coffee maker to show how hot water is pumped through it using a "bubble pump." The use of this pump reflects an engineer's choice to have only one heating element to lower the cost.
Malec Hamwin could be an SNL character who shows you how things are made , but the catch is he has no clue how things are made. When he's called out on it he goes into a rage until everyone calms him down agreeing to watch another demo.
Ok, this is a stretch, but when I saw the thumbnail for this video I saw this person: i.gifer.com/RaE8.gif Lol... Not saying engineerguy actually looks like Jan Skylar... More likely I need glasses.
Just a general comment: These are really well done and your voice compliments the narration. From one engineer to another…very good job in your presentations, short, simple, some humor all keeping the attention of which for most on here, is rather short. Kudo's.
Okay students, this week's class will be 2 minutes because i spent all week making those 2 minutes entertaining. Don't @ me if you get problems with the homework, i'll be polishing next week''s whopping 3 minute class.
This is surprisingly smart and effective Not only is it cheaper, but it also lets us put in water to use later instead of near-instant action that the first Mr Coffee machines had (probably as well as other early coffee makers trying to usher in a new era of coffee making) It removed the rush of puttinng in the coffee, turning it on, puttting water in and making sure the carafe? is below the outlet within like the 15 seconds itd take for the coffee to soak up and let through Also i came here from technology connections.
The original commercial drip pots used gravity, heat water in reservoir, when light comes on pour cold water into reservoir, cold water sinks to bottom, hot water overflows into brew basket.
The principle is called "thermosiphon". At one time, it was even used in some automobiles, in lieu of a belt-driven water pump., to circulate the engine coolant.
I think this is different. What is actually moving the liquid here is heated water forming bubbles (vapour) inside the rest of the water, and as it rises it pushes the liquid water up. I don't think a thermosiphon uses a gas to move the liquid, it uses thermal convection. A bubble pump (aka gas lift pump) needs the one-way valve to function. As each bubble passes up through the liquid it pushes a little bit of that liquid up, but because it can pass through the liquid it is not capable of pushing it all out of the way, which is why the one-way valve is needed (so the little bit of water that is moved up with each bubble doesn't move back down). That's what gives this kind of pump its distinctive sound, which is created as the gas escapes.
A gas lift pump only needs a one way valve if there is the possibility that the bubble can go the wrong way. You could replace that valve with a U-bend, provided you have the space to do so. The gas bubble can't go down and around the U-bend.
These videos remind me of an "are you a nerd?" quiz that went around the company a few years ago. One of the questions was "Have you ever bought something for the express purpose of taking it apart to see how it works?" Yes. :-)
This is my 2nd Keurig coffee maker of this model. ru-vid.comUgkxBrV-RbF5Nk0Rlt9i15aao-YMzqzTG8Vf The first worked fine for more than 2 years, and I could still get a decent cup of coffee out of it if I fiddled with it when I decided to replace it. The problem I had with my first unit was this: When attempting to brew a cup of coffee, the unit would either keep brewing until the coffee was undrinkable or it would not run long enough and the coffee produced was way too strong. I cleaned the unit as best I could but it did not help. So in the end it was just too much trouble to get a good cup of coffee out of it, so I decided to replace it with a new one, which has been working great since I unpacked it.
Like with Tom Scott I had seen one of his videos before but the one that really brought me is the one where he was reading a book talking about how the air conditioner became common on houses. Then the one about how the drip coffee machine became popular got me hooked. It's one of those channels that you'll always know/recognize the host.
The bubble pump does have one moving mechanical part: the check ball. A good example of a heat pump that does not have any moving mechanical parts would be a vacuum diffusion pump. That truly has no moving mechanical parts.
I just stumbled upon your videos not two minutes ago and I'm already enamored. While I will confess that some of your explanations fly right over me, it doesn't discourage me from not being completely entranced and amazed while you explain things we pretty much take for granted every day. Keep it up!
A few minutes ago I tore apart our old coffee maker, just to replicate the lessons in this video. There's another interesting aspect to coffee makers that I hope Bill can cover someday: bimetal thermostats. The one I found in the old coffee maker was the cylindrical kind, located on one of the power input lines to the heating element. At my job we use a different type of thermal switch as a safety mechanism in case a device overheats, but the bimetal principle is the same. Thanks again for making this video. It was fun to re-watch it, this time with a torn-up coffee machine in hand.
I love ALL of your videos. So many of us have always drifted through life, especially us younger ones, seeing all of these things just work, not caring WHY they work, but simply expecting them to when we turn on something as common as a coffee maker. Recently I've especially become extremely interested in not just the fact that a common coffee maker works, but how it works, and the ingenuity and pure genius it took for the person or persons who designed it to get it to work so well. Thanks!
Another amazing video. I'm more curious about the editing - did the team add a door knock noise because you looked to the right during shooting, or was it planned?
The one way valve is also called a check valve. As a chemical engineer working on the floor, i deal with them all the time but I had never ever thought they could be used as a pump. Wow.! Also learning recently a bit about "slug flow" usage in crystallization processes, I find equally fascinating. You can actually crystallize solids in a moving gas bubble in a tube and control particle size using slug flow.
I honestly think that this is one of the best channels on RU-vid. Bill, you actually educate people on the technical aspects of everyday life in the simplest of ways and as an engineering student (hopefully one day a legitimate engineer ((: ) I want to thank you for your amazing work. Keep it up!
Woke up this morning and I finally decided to find the answer to this question. It has been at the back of my mind since I was like nine. Thanks for posting this fun short video
I just watched about half of your videos and I find I have to force myself to stop and get going on things I have to do. Your videos are wonderful and you have a great sense of humor. I've learned a lot in the past couple of hours. Thanks!
@engineerguy your coffee maker with an elevated reservoir would work without an additional heating element. You just need to route the water through the heating element and back below the reservoir, as long as the outlet is still below the reservoir the water will flow. I imagine the reasons your proposal of an elevated reservoir is not used have nothing to do with saving money on a pump or a heating element. Instead, a non elevated reservoir lowers the center of gravity of the machine. Also, the non elevated reservoir ensures that the water will not flow unless heated, an elevated reservoir coffee maker would need a valve to control when and how fast the water flows adding cost and complexity. Your video shows how the solution works but inaccurately presents the problem by implying that the water would not flow down through the heating element and back up to below the reservoir.
Is your proposal that the water after mixing with coffee beans/powder, should be sent back to the heating element at the top to keep it warm i.e the heating element performs dual functions, heating the pure water from the reservoir and also the coffee-water mix?
Your solution (based on the principle of communicating recipients) the speed with which the water runs will depend on gravity. You can vary the volume/time by selecting a differnt section to the tubing, but you can not vary the speed. So you need to have a powerfull enough heating element to heat the water very quickly. While in the solution presented in the video you can use any power for the heating element, liquid circulation will only start when the water is hot enough, only than will the pumping effect occur. So you have the guarantee the water is always hot enough to boil the coffee.
This guy got me interested in how a coffeemaker works. I mean seriously. I'm thumbs upping every video from now on before I watch it, just so I don't forget after he blows my mind.
"I'm repairing it". Haha. It wouldn't hurt to have a thermal fuse in hand when making such a comment. Funny part is, I think that's probably the only thing I've seen go bad in a coffee maker..... except for that one time I dropped mine on the floor.
Mr.bill hammak you make very good , informative videos through which even a layman like me can understand complex engineering concept very easily thanks and keep making good videos ..
jetttskiman because he doesn't ice road truck or swap log or gold rush or fly wild Alaska or any of the other bizarre jobs people seem to be interested in. learning how the world around you works? ....what's that got to do with 'the discovery channel'? ....it's sad how horrible that channel got and that was years ago. to be frank about it, I don't have a TV anymore.
AtomicRetard Wtf is a tv? Can i look up sans? Im only using my tv as a pc monitor. Can i look up "sans" on my tv? And what is a Smart "tv"? Do those have Google? Whats a "Smart tv" without coax??? Can you watch "tv" on that?
TV is dying because the stuff they put on is 90% bad. There's also lack of chocie of hwat to watch and when to watch. It's utility is also much more limited. The good thing about a TV is that it has better display capability than a monitor. Hook that up to a good computer with good graphics card and processing power, you have a very fine image. But you won't be using it as a traditional TV.
You should do a follow up on the engineering of planned obsolescence (the art of designing shit to break). Because a modern coffee pot is a really good example. In brands such as cuisinart the ball valve is intentionally placed in such as way its near impossible to access without destroying some aspect of the coffee pot, on top of lacking basic screens to prevent clogging over time.
Philip Anderson The one I've used for years omits the heating of the coffee pot (it's a thermos), but keeps the traditional piping because it also provides a smaller total height.
You look younger so this style coffee pot is probably most like that handle on the inside car door that goes around and around to move the window. Lol. I joke, I joke.
I know this is an old video, but it is people like you who made me want to study engineering. Just about to complete my Master's degree. Love your videos, they're always informative and well done. Regards, an (almost) engineer.
Better coffee machines do have two heating elements (like mocca master), because one heating element tends to heat too much and spoils the brewed coffee.
I've had some good lecturers like you in the past. The world needs more of you guys. Top tip, if you use an electric kettle for making tea, boil a full kettle, pour it into the empty coffee maker, and the coffee produced will be of a significantly higher quality. I've done it for years. Much better than those sad little heating elements. You'll taste a difference.
No, pour the kettle's contents into the resovir. Boiling water is bad for ground coffee. Too hot. Pour the hot contents of the kettle into the resovir to go through the standard path for the hot water.
I wonder what Moccamaster does to prevent that horrible slopping noise. Every coffee maker I've yet seen except that one is horribly loud at the end of each run.
RealationGames Well, without actually looking it up, the answer may be in this video.... This bubble pump function is designed to allow 1 heating element to do 2 jobs, to be more efficient and presumably cheaper to manufacture.. But if you didn't care about that you could just use 2 heating elements.. That should be much quieter, I would think.
Technically: yes it does move. However, when things are described as "little-to-no moving parts" they're referring to not having things like electro-mechanical pumps that push the fluid through instead of letting physics do the work with a simple check valve.
cakeman58 Yep so does the on/off button and thinking of it even the coffee pot moves. But that is not what engineers mean with moving parts. Technically 0.9999 is not 1 but for an engineer....
Electrons move in wire which we call electricity - literally, electricity is the energy in the movement of electronics Everything has moving parts or it doesn't do anything
MinecraftEpicPlayer An electron isn't a 'part' anymore than an atom is. Sure it's a "part of the process," but that is not what the word 'part' means in this context- or the phrase "no moving parts" would be utterly meaningless. The abstract definition of 'part' shares the same word in English but is actually a completely different concept. A valve is a moving 'part' in your coffee maker; an electron is not. The title is technically a lie.
They're nice machines if you don't consider coffee quality. Italian engineers made their machines with taste in mind. This only cares about price and convenience
I've always wondered how my coffee maker works. In fact, every time I hear it percolate despite any noise from mechanical bits I knew there was some basic physics principle at work that I was ignorant of. Thanks for clarifying this!
I just gave this video a well-deserved 4000th "like". As usual for this channel, an impeccable job: well written and well spoken presentation - thanks!
I was going to comment that the title is misleading, but your statement at 1:17 "This simple device creates a pump with ALMOST no moving parts." corrects the record. The presence of the check valve is in fact a moving part. If the check valve ball was to get stuck on the seat, or stick in the open position, it would render the system inoperative.
Bill, I love you. You're the David Attenborough of everyday machines. And you look like Luke Skywalker. So far your channel is my favorite discovery of 2018.
Thanks for the video, I was never quite sure of the mechanism involved to make the water move with just one element. Another minor mystery solved due to the power of engineering!
it's funny because I was recently pondering how coffee makers worked. I had a feeling it had something to do with the expansion of hot water but didn't know about the mechanism. cool beans